A Definitive Guide to Behavioural Safety

This book makes the case that far too much work undertaken under the banner ‘behavioural safety’ is overly person-focused. ‘If you can walk on hot coals you can do anything – so be safe’ needs to be dismissed out of hand, but also more advanced techniques based on coaching and empowerment fail to reflect the fact that, as ‘Just Culture’ models show, the great majority of causes of unsafe behaviour are environmental. Our methodologies mustn’t focus on the person with an open mind that there may be an underlying root cause; they must start from the statistically proven assumption that there is an underlying cause. This shift in mindset has a profound impact on the type of methodologies we must lead with, how they are used, how they are perceived, and last, but certainly not least, their efficacy.

A Definitive Guide to Behavioural Safety is a one-stop guide to all of the core theories and principles that underpin behaviour-based safety. All front-line behaviours that lead to incidents and injury are covered by the term behavioural safety, and getting to grips with the behaviours that might lead people to engage in unsafe or risky behaviour is crucial to prevention. In this book, internationally acclaimed behavioural safety expert Tim Marsh leads the reader through the three main strands:

• The awareness approach.
• The walk-and-talk approach.
• The Six Sigma safety or the Deming-inspired ‘full’ approach.

Going through the very latest innovations in the field, the book covers the systemic approach to safety observation, measurement, intervention and analysis, but also incorporates emotional intelligence training aimed at enhancing supervisor–worker trust and communication more generally. A Definite Guide to Behavioural Safety is a perfect guide for any professional, whether you’re aiming to set up an ambitious and wide-ranging behavioural safety programme from scratch or you’re looking to refresh or extend an existing approach.

Tim Marsh was one of the team leaders of the original UK research into behavioural safety in the early 1990s, and is a Chartered Psychologist and a Chartered Fellow of IOSH. He ran the open courses on Behavioural Safety and Safety Culture for IOSH for many years. He has worked with hundreds of companies around the world, including the BBC, the National Theatre and the European Space Agency, as well as the usual list of blue-chip organizations from manufacturing, utilities, food and drink, oil and gas, and pharmaceutics. He was awarded a President’s Commendation by the Institute of Risk and Safety Management in 2008 and was selected as their first ever ‘Specialist Fellow’ in 2010. The author of several bestselling books, Tim has contributed dozens of articles to magazines such as the Safety and Health Practitioner and Health and Safety at Work, as well as international magazines such as India Safe. Tim has a reputation as an interactive and engaging communicator and as a keynote speaker at major safety events all around the world, including the inaugural Campbell Institute International Thought Leadership event in 2013.