A False Sense of Confidence Is Everywhere
Shawn M. Galloway
CEO of ProAct Safety, Inc., Trusted Advisor, Best-Selling Author, Keynote Speaker & Expert Witness
"How long do you have to be here until you truly understand the plant, processes, and risks?" I asked this of employees I was interviewing at a power plant. People who had been there for about a year told me a year. People employed in the organization for two to three years told me, "About three years." Management told me, "Easily five years."
This organization has a certification process where an employee could become certified as a Level One Operator after completing training and at least a year of employment. More training and two years qualified for Level Two Operator. With three years of employment, you can qualify for advanced training. You can qualify as a Level Three Operator with three years of employment. It stopped there. These all came with increasing responsibility and compensation. Due to significant turnover, there were only two level-three operators. This approach was unintentionally creating a false sense of confidence.
During a recent conversation with leaders, while supporting a new client to investigate and recover from a tragic fatality, the discussion led to examples of deviations from expected outcomes occurring that involved experienced first-line leaders and people known for taking safety seriously. This unexpected turn of events surprised everyone involved. While facilitating a learning teams discussion, several employees shared their shocking revelations, "I thought they knew all there was to know and trusted them and their guidance. If it could happen to them, it could happen to anyone!"
During a recent hotel stay, as I walked past the front desk, the door behind the employee opened to a room with a big sign, 247 days since the last injury. The previous record was 326 days. If you are still tracking and broadcasting the time since the last injury, the longer you go, the greater confidence that it won't happen to us, and in a less mature culture, it might prompt people not to report an injury so the numbers are not affected.
The three recent examples highlight how easy it is for organizational systems and experiences to create a false sense of confidence and create potential error opportunities. In complex environments, we must never forget that mistakes are normal. We must be unwaveringly vigilant in our efforts to determine the influences that might contribute to errors and deviations from expected outcomes.
What systems or experiences within your company might create a false sense of confidence? What are you doing about them?
"When one feels the risk is minimal, overconfidence may prevail and basic precautions begin to fade." — Ian MacFarlane
"Overconfidence is a powerful source of illusion, determined primarily by the quality and consistency of the story you can build, not its accuracy." — Daniel Kahneman
"There is a long history of research showing that people are overconfident about their abilities. But it turns out that people in general are not overconfident about their abilities; people with a fixed mindset are overconfident." — Carol S. Dweck
Oct '24 EHS Today Magazine
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Shawn M. Galloway is the CEO of the global consultancy ProAct Safety. With over twenty years of experience in safety systems, strategy, culture, leadership, and employee engagement, he is a trusted advisor, keynote speaker, and expert witness. He is the author of several bestselling books and has multiple regular columns in leading magazines, with over 400 articles and 100 videos to his credit. He also created the first safety podcast, Safety Culture Excellence, with over 800 episodes.
As a leading and globally recognized expert on safety excellence, he has helped hundreds of organizations within every primary industry achieve and sustain excellence in performance and culture.
He has been interviewed and a guest on Fox News, Sirius Business Radio, Wharton Business Daily, EHS Network Radio, Safety and Health Magazine, EHS Today Magazine, ISHN Magazine, Safety Decisions Magazine, EHS Daily Advisor, Faces of EHS, and almost every safety-related podcast.
Shawn's passion, dedication, and significant contributions to the safety field have been widely recognized. He has received numerous awards and accolades, including Global Safety Excellence Expert, Power 101 Leaders of the EHS World, Top 50 People Who Most Influenced EHS, Top 40 Rising Stars, and Top 11 Health and Safety Influencers. His influence is felt globally, and his status as an esteemed Avetta Distinguished Fellow and Advisor to Harvard Business Review further underscores his expertise and makes his perspectives highly sought after.
Senior Operations Executive...Retired and dedicating my time to serving my community through volunteer work.
3 周Normalization of deviance is a major issue. "I've done it this way for years and never gotten hurt" is a red flag. Ask the Challenger astronauts....except you can't, as they perished due to this very issue.