Hi, everybody, and welcome to the Pre-Accident Investigation Safety Moment, Operational Excellence Moment. I'm your host, Todd Conklin. How are you today? I hope you're good.
Today's episode focuses on a simple yet powerful message about safety and storytelling. Todd discusses how the way we collect and distribute data can sometimes lead us to focus too much on negative safety stories. These stories often highlight what went wrong, with the hope that others will learn from these mistakes and avoid similar pitfalls.
However, Todd suggests that this approach may not be as effective as we think. Instead, he advocates for sharing success stories—stories that illustrate what went right. By focusing on successful outcomes, we can better understand the conditions that lead to success and teach others to manage these conditions effectively.
This shift in narrative can help us move away from managing unexpected failures to creating environments where success is more likely. It's a simple idea, but its time has come. By sharing what works, we can all learn to be safer and more effective in our practices.
That's your safety moment for today. I hope you learned something new. Have as much fun as you possibly can and, for goodness' sake, be safe.
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1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:16,080 Music. 2 00:00:15,928 --> 00:00:18,748 Hi, everybody, and welcome to the Pre-Accident Investigation Safety Moment, 3 00:00:18,908 --> 00:00:20,148 Operational Excellence Moment. 4 00:00:20,268 --> 00:00:23,588 I'm your host, Todd Conklin. How are you today?
I hope you're good. 5 00:00:24,048 --> 00:00:28,028 Today's really a simple message, but it's pretty powerful. So I've been thinking 6 00:00:28,028 --> 00:00:31,948 a lot about safety and how we tell stories and how we do lessons to be learned 7 00:00:31,948 --> 00:00:33,708 and how we manage information. 8 00:00:34,028 --> 00:00:38,628 And I think we've done something kind of crazy, and that is we've allowed the 9 00:00:38,628 --> 00:00:42,608 distribution method to color the way we collect the data.
10 00:00:42,928 --> 00:00:46,488 And it's a pretty simple mistake. Things that we can measure, 11 00:00:46,568 --> 00:00:48,288 we measure because they're easy to measure. 12 00:00:48,388 --> 00:00:51,748 Things we can't measure, we tend to not measure because we can't measure them. Make sense?
13 00:00:52,168 --> 00:00:56,028 A lot going on there in that sentence. Here's what I'm going to suggest to you. 14 00:00:56,288 --> 00:01:01,128 One of the big problems we have is that the safety stories we tell are almost 15 00:01:01,128 --> 00:01:04,068 safe, almost always safety stories that are sort of negative, 16 00:01:04,168 --> 00:01:06,928 that talk about something bad that had happened. 17 00:01:07,128 --> 00:01:10,948 And I think our belief is that when we talk about the bad thing that happens.
18 00:01:11,528 --> 00:01:14,428 What will happen is you'll learn a lesson from that bad thing, 19 00:01:14,508 --> 00:01:16,808 and you personally won't do that bad thing. 20 00:01:17,008 --> 00:01:20,528 Therefore, you're smarter, wiser, safer, braver, more stable. 21 00:01:20,788 --> 00:01:22,928 When in reality, we know that's not true. 22 00:01:23,248 --> 00:01:27,108 In fact, when I hear a bad story, my initial thought is, wow, 23 00:01:27,248 --> 00:01:30,348 that's a bad story, but that could not happen to me.
24 00:01:30,788 --> 00:01:33,548 I would not do X. I would not do Y. 25 00:01:33,708 --> 00:01:38,228 I would not do Z. And I sort of, because of the probability of small numbers, 26 00:01:38,348 --> 00:01:43,688 I sort of justify why that poor sucker had that happen and why me, 27 00:01:43,808 --> 00:01:46,088 the other poor sucker, would not have that happen.
28 00:01:46,528 --> 00:01:52,168 One way to combat that is by understanding that when we tell success stories, 29 00:01:52,308 --> 00:01:55,248 success stories are much, much, much more powerful. 30 00:01:56,087 --> 00:01:59,187 Because success is always best when it's shared. 31 00:01:59,487 --> 00:02:03,207 Now, that premise is really simple, but it's really important. 32 00:02:03,467 --> 00:02:09,967 When we talk about what goes right, then we're telling people not to manage the unexpected.
33 00:02:10,267 --> 00:02:14,547 We're actually telling people what conditions to manage in order to create success. 34 00:02:15,327 --> 00:02:20,147 It's a simple idea, but it's a powerful idea. And it's an idea that probably 35 00:02:20,147 --> 00:02:22,667 probably, that idea's time has come. 36 00:02:23,267 --> 00:02:28,907 Not to be a Pollyanna, not to be overly optimistic, not to be naive, 37 00:02:29,287 --> 00:02:33,427 although all three of those things I could certainly do, but in fact to tell 38 00:02:33,427 --> 00:02:38,367 stories of success so that we learn what we manage in order to be successful.
39 00:02:38,547 --> 00:02:39,627 We're not managing outcomes. 40 00:02:40,207 --> 00:02:44,327 We're managing all the conditions that create the outcome. And the The way we 41 00:02:44,327 --> 00:02:49,307 can do that is not by talking about what bad things happen, but by, 42 00:02:49,367 --> 00:02:52,307 in fact, sharing what good things happen. 43 00:02:52,567 --> 00:02:56,467 What does success look like?
How did they manage that success? 44 00:02:56,767 --> 00:02:59,647 How can we learn those lessons before they fail? 45 00:03:00,127 --> 00:03:05,107 That's going to be a tough one because we're sort of hardwired to talk about the bad things. 46 00:03:05,187 --> 00:03:09,047 But it's time now to start talking about the good things.
47 00:03:09,187 --> 00:03:12,007 That's what it's all about. That's your safety moment for today. 48 00:03:12,007 --> 00:03:15,367 I hope you learned something new today. Have as much fun as you possibly can 49 00:03:15,367 --> 00:03:17,067 and for goodness sakes be safe.
50 00:03:17,360 --> 00:03:27,784 Music.
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