PreAccident Investigation Podcast

Safety Moment - Should I ask you to "be safe?" (replay by request)

As the podcast grows in interest and listeners, some questions keep popping up.  One of those questions is, "Why do you say, "be safe" at the end of every episode?"That is a great question.  Saying be "be safe" certainly doesn't make anybody become any safer.  This is a discussion from several months ago on this very topic.Keep listening and giving my your comments...I will keep reading and responding.Thanks for helping to make the world a safer place.   Tell you more as more develops.

PAPod 32 - Fatalities and Serious Events: A New View - Jim Howe

"When a fatality or serious event happens - it is not a safety problem...it is an operation's failure.  We have the wrong people trying to prevent the most serious events and it is no wonder that we struggle so hard with these problems..."Meet Jim Howe.  If you don't know Jim you probably haven't been to a major safety meeting in a long time. Jim is the Founder of Safety Solutions.  Safety Solutions is a consulting firm that specializes in management systems and the application of systems thinking to Safety and Health.  Jim travels the world working with companies to solve very difficult problems...and he is good at it, real good.But what Jim does best is provide thoughtful discussions about how we do our work.  Jim knows reliability, Human Performance, Human Factors, and safety.  He shares some of the knowledge with us in this episode. Jim talks about the difference between big events and small events, but he does this in a way that will make you think twice about some very basic assumptions that exist in the world of management and leadership.Enjoy this podcast.  It is great!

Safety Moment - Safety Redefined - Again

I have noticed a big discussion happening on line to define safety.  Any discussion is probably a good discussion, but this discussion gives me a bit of caution.When we define safety as an outcome, we tend to use the wrong type of thinking about how we define safety.Safety is not an outcome to achieve.   Safety is a process to be constantly managed.This episode is a reminder to everybody that how we define a problem - colors how we try to solve the problem.   Wrong definition will surely give us the wrong path forward.

PAPod 31 - John Sauer - Toilet Talk -Another world talks about Systems Thinking

Greetings Fellow Podcast Listeners.   Today is going to be a great journey in to a new problem set.  Today we are going to talk about toilets and poop.  If that leading statement does not catch your eye, I am not sure what would catch your attention.   Water and Sanitation is a complex problem around the world - Just as safety and reliability is a complex, albeit different, problem.  This podcast is about what our two professions have in common.  Believe it or not, the creation of safe work environments is very similar to the creation of sanitation and water security.Both worlds know that the system matters, the system is important, and the system is what we can help guid towards greater capacity.Listen to this podcast with two goals:  What can I learn from this discussion of sanitation to help my thinking and my organization?  What can I share to help this organization move forward in its goal of providing sanitation and water to the world?Thanks for listening.  You make the podcast go!

Safety Moment - The Iron Law of Bureaucracy

Holy Cow!  What more do I have to say to get you interested in Safety, Human Performance, Complexity, Systems Thinking, and Life?

PAPod 30 - Lessons Learned Centers, Incident Management, and Dave Christenson

Fasten your seat belts, you are about to go on a ride.  I begged Dave to talk with us on the podcast because I am one of Dave's biggest fans.  A nicer guy - you will never find.  A more experience guy as it relates to safety learning, new media, and lessons learned distribution does not exist.Dave ran the Wild Land Fire Lessons Learned Center for the North America - it is a big inter-agency place where operational learnings about firs were stored, categorized, and shared - and it is great.  Now Dave is on his own, helping other organizations get a handle on HRO and learning.Listen carefully to this podcast.  There is much hidden in this little gem.

Safety Moment - Try Harder! Care More!

I have been looking forward to this Safety Moment since I recorded it!  I ask the question, "does the workplace get safer if we ask workers to care more?"  The answer is included in this episode...but you know the answer already.  Asking workers to try harder feels good, but is not worth the breath it took to say the words.  This should make managers angry.  I know that most of the encounters I have with managers the belief is that the problem belongs to the workers and we stood down operations to get all the "cowboys and butt-heads" to pay more attention and fail less often.Good luck playing this one for your leaders...They need to hear this message...but are they ready.Thanks for listening.  You make the podcasts a success!

PAPod 29 - Tim Autrey talks about Hu

Tim Autrey is one of the co-founders of the Practicing Perfection Institute and spends some time talking to Todd about this philosophies around Human Performance and safety.Tim has a long career working in the Nuclear Power industry in Human Performance and Safety.  Enjoy this conversation and the chance to get to know Tim a bit better.  

Safety Moment - Post-Job Briefing

Probably the most important time to talk about safety is after the successful completion of work.  You will never prevent an accident by studying an accident.  You must understand how successful work was done - and you should use this time to learn, learn, learn.This Safety Moment talks about this very topic.   I am interested in how you do post-job learning.Listen to this safety moment.  You will like this one.

PAPod 28 - Ivan Comes Again - A new view of accident investigations.

This is part two of the conversation with Ivan Pupulidy.  This time we talk about Ivan's work with understanding operational failures.  Todd and Ivan talk like old friends - because they are old teaching buddies.  In this conversation Ivan Pupulidy, Director of the Office of Learning at the US Forest Service, talks about the new view, learning, and the journey we are all taking to see the world in a new light.  Ivan's has an extensive background in Aviation Safety, Fire Fighting, Operational Safety, and Accident Investigation and Learning.