The Role of Safety Myths in the Prevention of Incidents
There are many definitions of safety, but most of them are variations on the theme that safety can be measured by the number of adverse outcomes and must be enforced by using more of the same safety measures (e.g. more procedures). What the industry thinks safety is, and how safe performance can be achieved are both questionable. IPLOCA’s HSE Committee has scheduled a one day workshop to engage HSE managers in this discussion.
Erik Hollnagel, Professor at the University of Southern Denmark, Chief Consultant at the Centre for Quality Improvement, Region of Southern Denmark, and Professor Emeritus at the Department of Computer and Information Science (IDA) at Linköping University (LIU), Sweden made a presentation on the topic and act as the facilitator of the workshop. Erik is an internationally recognised specialist in the fields of resilience engineering, system safety, human reliability analysis, cognitive systems engineering, and intelligent man-machine systems. For further information visit www.erikhollnagel.com
https://www.iploca.com/app/uploads/2021/02/MichaelDBiglerc.txt40 attendees representing 30 IPLOCA members and clients listened to a presentation on safety-related assumptions or safety myths from an industry practitioner perspective made by Michael Bigler, SHE/Regulatory Manager, ExxonMobil Development. They then had the opportunity to look at five safety myths, which can be found across most industry practices, before discussing how to reassess them in order to improve the efficiency of the prevention of incidents in the pipeline industry.
The agenda included:
- A short introduction on IPLOCA HSE initiatives
- A presentation on the IPLOCA Health & Safety Award sponsored by Chevron
- A presentation from Michael Bigler “Safety Myths – Perspectives from an Industry Practitioner”
- A presentation from Erik Hollnagel “Some myths about industrial safety”
- Group work
- Reports from groups
Feedback from participants included:
“The workshop exceeded my expectations and broadened my understanding of safety management”
“I was pleasantly surprised by the level of engagement and openness of participants, and the knowledge and sharing of experiences”
“I really got a different view on certain aspects considered during incident investigation”
“The experience of being able to listen to speakers of the caliber of Mike and Erik is invaluable”
“The workshop was very useful in highlighting the role of safety myths. I now consider these to be error precursors which can be used in incident prevention”