Why Don t People Just Follow the Rules?

Transcription

1 Why Don t People Just Follow the Rules? TFZ Offshore Safety Conference Esbjerg, Denmark April Dr Rod Gutierrez Global Leader Culture and Change Management DuPont Sustainable Solutions Copyright 2013 E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company. All rights reserved. The DuPont Oval Logo, DuPont and The miracles of science are registered trademarks or trademarks of E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company or its affiliates. 1

2 Agenda About Behaviour Based Safety The role of cognition (does behaviour drive your thinking or does thinking drive your behaviour) Behaving safely or unsafely is not always a decision we are aware of Workplaces as social institutions (the social context) Safety improvement as a change process Integrated whole Going beyond Zero 2

3 So why don t people follow the rules? A simple question right? Wrong! 3

4 About behaviour based safety (BBS) High incidence of injuries and incidents has been the major driver for the improvement of safety management systems. BBS: the mainstay over last 25 years. First BBS program published in 1978 by Komaki, Barwick & Scott. They demonstrated that applied behavioural analysis methods could be effectively applied to safety improvement. BBS has become a non-specific term used to denote any number of workplace interventions that use observation and feedback. A behaviour change occurs through a gradual shaping process. The mechanism of change is conditioning through administration of consequences over time. Your behaviour drives your thinking! 4

5 Reinforcement is the key Positive Reinforcement: behaviour more likely to occur when paired with a positive consequence Negative Reinforcement: behaviour more likely to occur to remove negative consequences Punishment: behaviour less likely to occur to avoid negative consequences Positive reinforcement leads to the highest rates of learning over time 5

6 Limitations of BBS BBS programs drive behaviour change (uptake of safe behaviour) through an externalised mechanism - fear of consequence. BBS largely bypasses both personal choice and cognitive processing. The results of most BBS programs will eventually plateau due to the inherent nature of the behavioural change process: Extinction: decreasing the likelihood of behavior occurring by the absence (or diminution) of reinforcement. Habituation: decrease in psychological behavioural response after iterative exposure to stimulus. 6

7 Traditional Approach Vs Positive Psychology ZERO is only the beginning and has always been - Prevention of Injuries Injuries Disease Incidents Hazards 0 Promotion of Wellbeing Health Optimum performance Fulfilment Happiness + 7

8 Crossing the cultural bridge Cultural maturity curve It is a journey. Who crosses first? How many times? By invitation The Cultural Bridge 8

9 Safe or unsafe: do we always decide? Depends on how our brains interpret incoming information from the external world. Our level of awareness plays a huge part. Attention is limited 9

10 Neural networks and attention Control over focus and attention is so important that the brain has a whole neural network devoted to it: the Reticular Activating System (RAS). Complex pattern of neurons forming a connection between sensory modalities (vision, hearing, touch etc.) and arousal, emotional motivational and thinking centres of the brain. Controls habituation system Controls arousal (sleep/awake cycle) Filters information according to 3 main questions: 1. Is it novel? 2. Is it important to me? 3. Does it fit a pattern I m familiar with? Colour exercise New car 10

11 Habituation Decrease in psychological and or behavioural response after repetitive exposure to stimulus. Fundamental adaptive mechanism to assist the brain deal with large amounts of irrelevant information. We take in 11 million bits of information per second, but the brain can only process bits per second. Noise Light Clothes Safety signs! 11

12 The social side of safety (The social context) Workplaces are human institutions with their own set of informal, unwritten social norms which operate in parallel to formal rules. How do you behave in a lift with other people? Do you communicate with your friends the same way you speak to your boss? How do you know what is appropriate? 12

13 The social side of safety Understanding the kinds of social norms that regulate safety behaviour in your organisation is essential to achieving further gains in safety performance. Organisational cultures are sets of shared attitudes, beliefs and social norms. How cultures develop over time and how they can be influenced are a key to safety. Motivation is the art of getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it Dwight Eisenhower 13

14 A culture develops one individual at a time 14

15 Safety improvement requires change Safety improvement is a people change process. Organisational level Structural Climatic Cultural Individual level Behavioural Cognitive Social 15

16 A Holistic Approach to Safety 16

17 Summary BBS safety should form an integral part of a safety improvement program. Must conform to the principles of applied behavior analysis (the ABC model) Safety is not just about what people do, but also about what they think, believe and choose in the social context of the workplace. What individuals think, believe an choose is mediated by neural processes that need to be well understood. Psychology, particularly in the application of positive principles still has much more to offer safety management in our continued drive for improved performance. 17

18 Dr Rod Gutierrez Global Leader Culture and Change Management Sydney, Australia Copyright 2013 E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company. All rights reserved. The DuPont Oval Logo, DuPont and The miracles of science are registered trademarks or trademarks of E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company or its affiliates.