Get to know Steve:
Profile https://www.linkedin.com/in/experiential
Email: steve@outdoorrisk.com
Books:
Safety Science for Outdoor & Experiential Education
Beneficial Risks
Website: https://www.outdoorrisk.com/
In his appearance on the Counter Errorism podcast, Steve Smith shared practical strategies for improving organizational learning, focusing heavily on how we view, report, and learn from risks. Here is a short synopsis of his key lessons:
- Defining "Normal": To effectively identify and learn from incidents and near misses, organizations must first clearly define what "normal" looks like. What is considered a normal occurrence for an experienced team might be a serious near miss for a novice group.
- Removing Barriers to Reporting: Smith successfully increased near-miss reporting tenfold by reframing them as "Threshold Zero" events to remove the fear of punishment. He also learned that reporting systems must be as simple and barrier-free as possible, asking just the basics (who, what happened, what did we learn) rather than forcing workers through cumbersome databases.
- Categorizing Event Data: He advocates for tracking four specific categories of events: Incidents, Near Misses, Safety Success Stories (times when interventions or systems worked perfectly), and Learning from Everyday Work (system improvements drawn from repeated daily challenges).
- Asking "Were we lucky or were we good?": Instead of waiting for a tragedy to trigger an investigation, teams should proactively debrief successful tasks by asking if they succeeded due to skill or mere luck. This helps uncover hidden hazards that might be lurking within everyday successes.
- Risk Optimization over Risk Avoidance: Finally, Smith points out that our goal shouldn't always be the complete avoidance of risk. By shifting the focus to "risk optimization," organizations can embrace beneficial risks that help workers grow, adapt, and build capacity.
Note an error in conversation: James says "Yosemite" but meant "Mount Diablo" in California
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