BBS—Still Worth Your While

The following is an excerpt from a new book by Bart Sevin and Judy Agnew —Safe Habits: A Systems Approach to BBS.

Human behavior is central to safety. This proposition originated almost a hundred years ago and is so integrated into how organizations talk and think about safety that disentangling behavior from safety is virtually impossible. It is now widely accepted in industrial safety that at some point, organizations will not only need to consider human behavior as part of a comprehensive approach to safety, but also implement targeted activities designed to improve safety-critical behaviors at all levels. Unfortunately, addressing the behavioral element of safety in any systematic way tends to be one of the later pieces companies add to their overall safety management systems (SMS). Regardless of when an organization decides to act (and at some point, every organization will need to act), the conversation is no longer about why or whether companies should focus on behavior when working toward safety improvements. The real question is: What are the critical elements of an effective and current behavioral approach?

The recognition of the need for a systematic approach to behavior led to the rise of BBS, beginning over 30 years ago. Unfortunately, BBS has been a victim of its own success. The proliferation of BBS and other practices designed primarily to influence the behavior of frontline workers, many of which have been incorrectly referred to as BBS, has resulted in criticism of BBS and its effectiveness. To be fair, BBS isn’t a perfect system. Few systems are. For example, some early models overemphasized social praise and recognition as a primary behavior-change strategy while deemphasizing or ignoring the role of systems or workplace factors as contributing to patterns of at-risk behavior. Similarly, some early BBS attempts devolved into blaming frontline employees for their at-risk behavior rather than offering a deeper understanding of the relationship between at-risk behavior and the context in which that behavior takes place.

BBS, like any system, needs to evolve and continuously improve over time—and it has. For example, introducing a focus on serious injuries and fatalities or SIFs (Martin & Black 2015), the pivotal role of leadership in the success of BBS (Agnew & Daniels, 2010), and understanding and adopting a true systems approach (Agnew & Uhl, 2021) when understanding the influences of at-risk behavior all represent advancements in BBS systems over time. Updated BBS systems, founded in the science of behavior are more effective than ever, while avoiding the pitfalls of earlier systems. BBS provides the much-needed tools and strategies to ensure consistency in safety-related behaviors, and as such it continues to be a highly effective element (Hagge et al., 2017) of an organization’s SMS. The bottom line: BBS is still worth your while. The key is understanding the critical features of effective systems, which is the focus of this book.

Creating and sustaining a safe and healthy workplace is one of the biggest challenges organizations face. The key to overcoming this challenge is a systematic approach to managing human performance. Working from the boardroom to the front line, no one helps you do this better than ADI.

Want to learn more? You might be interested in our ADI Book Club, a free event.

See also: Safe Habits and how to build safe work habits for life.