Applications of Behavioral Technology Before BBS: Part 2

Behavior-based safety (BBS) processes, borrow heavily from the science of behavior analysis, using behavioral tools to decrease at-risk behavior and increase the frequency of safe behavior. Many behavioral tools, included in but also in addition to those used in BBS, enable organizations to influence the behaviors that drive overall business success. Part 2 offers suggestions about how to capitalize on the skills, time, and investment you've made in Behavioral Technology through the implementation of BBS.

Why Were Many Behavioral Processes Not Sustained?

Why were processes with such profound effects on performance data not institutionalized and integrated into the policies, practices and values of these organizations? Why did most of these applications last no longer than a year? Although this is a subject of debate, the short answer is that the processes began as separate initiatives that ran parallel to the processes of the organization and that were mainly management driven.

The longevity of non-integrated, stand-alone initiatives driven solely by management depends on stability in the management ranks. Replacement of the management champion (usually the plant manager) created uncertainty and the initiatives lost focus and energy. The fate of the process was sealed when the new manager replaced any pre-existing management system, no matter how effective it appeared to be, with his/her own approach.

What Was Missing?

Those who have concerns about the sustainability and vigor of a current behavior-based safety initiative, might ask, “What was missing from the processes that fizzled?” The answer is that, first of all, these early initiatives ignored two important elements – employee involvement and continuous improvement.

One of the mistakes made in early attempts to apply behavioral technology to business issues was an emphasis on teaching managers and supervisors the intricate details of behavior analytic science. This created some educated and effective performance managers, but it did nothing to ensure the institutionalization of the concepts and principles throughout the organization’s systems and processes.

These applications often failed to include workers in problem-solving sessions; behavioral tools were seldom integrated into management systems; they existed as a parallel process with special action plans and, deadliest of all, they required more paperwork! Systems issues causing performance problems were not typically identified and resolved using the process and behavioral technology applications were structured as programs, becoming what its practitioners had striven to avoid…flavor-of-the-month status.

Sustaining Behavior-Based Safety: Borrowed and Integrated Tools

For processes to endure, they must become integrated into the systems and practices of the organization. They must be interwoven into the core of the culture. They must become part of the way things are done, indistinguishable and interdependent. Any stand-alone or parallel, performance improvement initiatives, including BBS, sooner or later will be abandoned.

So, how do you avoid the program du jour dilemma?

· Transform your behavior-based safety initiative into an integrated process that extends the use of its existing tools and structures to a broader range of performance objectives.

· Go back to the tool chest. There are several powerful behavioral tools that will deepen and enrich your current process by solving a wider range of problems. The more problems a process can resolve, the higher the probability it will be institutionalized and sustained.

· Don’t weigh your systems (and personnel) down with additional forms and reports that could be seamlessly joined with existing data and feedback mechanisms.

New Applications

The behavior-based safety processes you have been using and refining can be extended to new opportunities with results as significant as those you have obtained in safety:

·

Business drivers

o Customer satisfaction

o Cycle time reduction

o Defect reduction

o Systems improvement

Using employee involvement and continuous improvement processes, upstream analysis can be applied to business performance variables. Behaviors related to problems and solutions are identified and the performance environment (systems, design, conditions, etc.) is changed to support behavior that will improve performance.

·

Observational skills

o Identify new behaviors for performance improvement

o Identify significant behavioral variations

Observer skills in evaluating the overall work environment and identifying specific behaviors encouraged or discouraged by environmental factors can be applied to discovering better ways to do things. Behavior that leads to improvement can be added to processes and tasks.

Advances in BBS Observational Tactics

A common complaint among companies that have been implementing behavior-based safety is that, over time, there is a distinguishable loss of interest – among all employees – leaders, managers, supervisors, and frontline employees. The robust energy exhibited in the first few months has deteriorated; the observations, meetings, and interest have devolved into a monotonous routine.

At every conference I hear BBS champions and Safety Managers voicing the same request: “Do you have any ideas about how we can give our BBS process a ‘shot in the arm?’” BBS processes in which observers are enlisted voluntarily suffer more conspicuously than companies that have institutionalized their BBS process as a job requirement and a “condition of employment.”

As an aside, I believe that BBS processes should be voluntary until employees are familiar with the process and have refined and customized tactics to functional efficiency. At some point you have to ask the question, “If BBS is essential to ensuring our employees work more safely, then we need to make it mandatory.”

Safety training, job safety analysis, incident analysis, accident investigation, hazard identification, safety audits, safety policy, permits, emergency response – all these practice and many more are not considered options; they are institutionalized and mandatory components of safety management. Similarly, observations – work sampling for safety – should be an essential and obligatory part of safety management.

Getting back to the issue of how you can reenergize your BBS process, in previous blogs I have suggested some alternatives:

• Performance Observations – use observer skills to identify behaviors that add value to quality, productivity, teamwork, reduce waste and more.
• Employee Initiated Observations – allow employees to spontaneously initiate an observation of a coworker and record those data
• Emergency/Critical Task Observations – identify situations, tasks, conditions that are rare but possible. Allow observers to watch employees doing drills for their particular circumstances
• Workgroup/Team Observations – use observers to watch teams working together routinely or during intermittently scheduled non-routine events like plant shutdowns for major maintenance

I have just added the last observational practice, and I am aware that some companies are already doing observations of work group “results” as well as behavior. For the most part, BBS observations are based on predetermined checklists that are developed based on data review of incidents and injuries.

The variations I am suggesting are within the skill sets of properly trained observers – that is, observers who have been trained to discriminate, define, and identify specific, observable behaviors and provide a written description of that behavior in a way that allows others to make an observation using that description. If your observer group thinks that “has a good attitude about safety,” is a behavior you are on a slippery slope.

A well trained observer group should be able to watch an individual or team task being performed and identify value-added behaviors, list them, and communicate that list to other employees. If one employee does one thing that saves time or product waste, a trained observer should be able to discriminate that behavior and pass it on to other employees – thereby saving the company time and money.

Many companies do not know enough about Behavioral Technology to ensure that their observers are more than “list-checkers.” If your observer training class does not include a strong section on how to identify behaviors from non-behaviors, then your observers are not going to be able to add value to the observational process by identifying behaviors that will create a safer working environment.

You should be able to provide the following assignment to your trained observers with the confidence that they will be able to do it effectively:

“Warren, would you and Mary do an observation of the shift-change in Head Stack Assembly. I want to see if we can identify any behaviors that can be changed or added or deleted to decrease wasted time and improve the hand off. We’ve been having some operations problems that seem to be related to communications, but I want you two to observe what they are doing and saying and let’s see if we can smooth out the process.”

If properly trained, Mary and Warren should be able to handle this assignment without any problem. They should be able to come back with a list of specific behaviors that employees can say or do to make things run more smoothly, cut out waste, and improve efficiency. Once the list is developed, then it can be used as a checklist by everyone involved in the shift change or it can be used by the observers in a formal way – to do observations.

Safety observations of individuals working together – looking for coordination, cooperation, task alignment, proper sequencing, and peer support are logical applications of observer skill sets. The use of observational checklist on individual workers performing task sequences is important, but only one application of the observational process; limiting your observers to this application creates boredom, disinterest, and is a waste of the resources and investment you’ve made in observer training.

If your BBS process was properly implemented, then your steering committee can meet with a selection of observers and organize the proper tactics for implementing any one of the 4 suggestions bulleted above. Behavioral Technology is about understanding how to identify value-added from wasteful behavior in an organization.

Six Sigma, Lean, and many other initiatives seek to eliminate waste and increase quality and service levels. BBS is based on the application of Behavioral Technology to safety and the identification of a safe from an unsafe behavior is one use of its principles. Challenging your observers to apply their learning to other organizational performance opportunities is a key to maintaining their interest and enthusiasm and ensuring that your company receives the highest return on their investment.