Safety Differently®
Enabling safety
We know when we engage people and unlock their potential, we improve efficiency, reduce risk and build integrity.
Derived from the research and work of Prof. Sidney Dekker and Prof. Erik Holnaggel, Safety Differently® flips traditional assumptions, redefining workplace thinking and safety practices. Whether you’re a small business or a global enterprise, we tailor our products and services to your needs to set you up for success.
We start by asking:
What is happening now?
What could be happening instead?
How might we heighten performance?
We believe people are a solution to harness.
Organisations that practice Safety Differently® principles routinely engage with their people, tapping into their collective intelligence and ideas.
Frontline employees have the experience and expertise to know where sensitivities, dependencies and good practices can be found.
Safety Differently® invites six shifts in thinking and practices. While we value historical methods of driving safety improvements, we’ve witnessed the transformational growth, resilience and success that occurs when people work with a greater sense of purpose and ownership.
Enabling Safety invites six shifts in thinking and practices, while at the same time valuing what has historically driven safety performance improvements.
Conventional Safety Principles
The system is complete and error-free
Deviations from the plan cause unwanted events
Variability is a threat
People are a liability
Procedural compliance is mandatory
How can people be controlled?
6 Enabling Safety Principles
The system is not error-free in itself
Unwanted events occur when more resources are needed
Variability is inevitable
People can adapt, accommodate, absorb and respond to emerging threats
People at all levels create success through practice
How can people be supported to adapt successfully?
We improve efficiency and reduce the compliance of work.
To overcome these constraining performance practices, Art of Work applies its enabling safety program.
Instead of addressing operational weakness by only applying additional constraints, strengths are built through human factors boosting capability, harnessing the potential of people to contribute and, in setting people and teams up for success, demonstrating genuine ethical care and responsibility.
Improving safety by aligning organisational strengths requires a shift from constraint to enabling as many things as possible to go right despite varying circumstances. This goal not only changes the definition of Safety but also how safety is understood, assessed, communicated and practiced.
It’s not about the absence of failure. It’s about the presence of success.
Transitioning from a constraint-based approach to one that is about supporting, facilitating and enabling safety at work is a major transformation.
Conventional safety is based on the assumption that unwanted deviations can be avoided by constraining people and processes. While safety by constraint may produce some improvements, it also produces a range of problematic side effects, such as:
Reactive management
Performance drag from ever-increasing compliance demands
Increased disengagement of frontline expertise
Increased bureaucratisation of decision-making processes
Safety is an ethical responsibility
for all.
Rather than addressing operational weaknesses by applying additional constraints, we build strength with human factors – by boosting capability, harnessing the potential of people to contribute, and demonstrating genuine ethical care and responsibility by setting people up for success.
We’re changing the definition of safety.
At its heart, safety is about caring for people. It’s about enabling practices that ensure people’s safety.
But safety has become something that employees owe to an organisation. Filling out hazard cards and completing checklists – it’s something people do to look good to regulators. Put differently, safety has become bureaucratic accountability that is managed upwards.
At Art of Work, we’re restoring the origins of safety. It’s a service that an organisation and its leaders provide to employees and clients. It’s an ethical responsibility expressed downwards.
Rather than controlling what happens, Safety Differently® is about supporting people to be safe and successful in tackling the risks they face in their workplace.
Let’s rewrite how safety is understood, assessed, communicated and practised, together.
