Real Causes of Human Error and Adverse Events

Logical risk management calls attention to the right side of the pie chart where 90% of true causes exist—organizational and systemic weakness. And, that is where improvement strategies are applied. High-reliability organizations embrace this strategy proactively and identify these systemic breakdowns before events occur.

Far, Far Beyond BBS

Exposing the Behavior-Based Safety Nostrum

Behavior-based safety (BBS) is the most common misguided approach to safety that we see, and we are far from alone in this belief. Success in safety is not easy, and BBS is not the panacea hoped for. Worse, this over-dependence on BBS creates other problems by distracting focus away from high-risk weak defense systems onto micro-managing adult behavior, a negative employee morale influence. But there is a better way to a safer future…

ASA provides a transitional bridge from BBS to Human and Organizational Performance (HOP). As safety-minded leaders learn more about HOP, there is the temptation to conflate HOP and BBS because they don’t understand the vast differences, but oil and water don’t mix. HOP is much more comprehensive and holistic. ASA goes far deeper by aligning with human nature to positively affect human behavior by making weak organizational systems strong. We will help organization develop transitional growth strategies from BBS to HOP in a way that maintains commitment and focus, but quickly advances the ASA HOP strategy. But make no mistake, safety excellence takes hard work and smart work, using the right strategies.

We all can embrace the challenge of enlightening the masses that it is harder to “fix people” and make them “just do the right thing” than it is to improve weak systems. And the essential truth is that by strengthening organizational systems, human assets are optimized for success, and averse to failure.

From a business standpoint, the HOP value proposition delivers benefits that are widespread and synergistic across all organizational disciplines. BBS cannot touch these benefits because the intensive time, money, and labor required deliver an unacceptably low ROI.

BBS and HOP are distinctly different, and ASA is not a BBS company.