Safety Knights

Interesting read. I agree that psychological safety is likely to continue to receive more attention and they there will be many attempts of various levels of success to implement effective programs.

Psychological safety is the idea that it is okay to take professional risks, to express ideas and concerns, to speak up with questions, and to admit mistakes — all without fear of negative consequences.

It is the solution to organizations where bad things happen because people are afraid to challenge the status quo for fear of consequences. In healthcare it's something that we try to be keenly aware of. If a mistake is made, or it looks like a mistake might be about to be made, it's important to be able to speak up without fear.

This isn't something that can be solved with deep breaths or exercises, it's an organizational change that has to occur.

Not every organization has to be as highly reliable as healthcare or aviation, but even where the consequences are smaller, we still try to follow the hierarchy of controls in safety. In your article you use the term ergonomics. Ergonomics is the science of fitting a task to the person performing it. By definition, it means changing the environment, not changing the person. Changing the person, either by asking them to physically perform stretches or mentally perform stretches, is the last resort, the bottom of the hierarchy of controls. The first, and largest, efforts must be to change the systems that create the hazards in the first place.

Great read. Is this not what we try to do everyday and get our people engaged and working smarter ?