Manufacture AL – Behavior Based Safety

James Ward

• Corporate EHS Director for Birmingham Fastener’s Family of Companies (16 Divisions)
• Birmingham Division - injury rate reduction from 5.08 in 2022 to 0.0 in 2024 year-to-date
• Hanceville division - injury rate reduction from 4.55 in 2023 to 0.0 in 2024 year-to-date
• Previously Safety Director for Nucor Steel Indiana Sheet Mill
• Using similar methods, the Nucor Team saw improvements in recordable rates from 1.33 in 2017 to 0.30 in 2021.
• Crown Equipment 600 teammates enjoyed 2 years without a recordable injury prior to James moving on to Nucor

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• Bachelor of Sciences degree in Psychology from Indiana State University
• Master of Sciences degree in Environmental Health and Safety from Columbia Southern University.

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Strategic Plan to Injury Free

1. Leadership Development – Dr Ken Chapman, Leaders Code
1. Challenge Coin
2. Birmingham Fastener Way
2. Safety Strategy
• Safety for our families
• Behavior Based Safety
• Hazard Recognition and Resolution
• OPEN MEASUREMENT WITH SCOREBOARDS
3. Extreme Ownership – Jocko Willink
4. EHS Ownership Teams – Strategy to Execution
• Begins with leadership
• Ownership driven through leadership to Teammates

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Culture

• What is Culture?
• What are your thoughts?

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Consider this definition

“Culture is a population or

group’s set of acceptable behaviors”

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• How do we begin to change our population’s/group’s set of acceptable behaviors to prevent injuries??
• How long does it take to change culture?? Titanic??
• What if we got everyone pulling on the rope in the same direction??
• Expectations 🡺 Tools Training 🡺 FEEDBACK 🡺 Coaching 🡺 Discipline
• STRONG CULTURES MANAGE THEMSELVES VERY WELL

Injury prevention strategy

Safety is about FAMILY

Injury prevention is all about providing for our families

There is absolutely nothing more important that our TMs going home to their families healthy and safe every day

Injury Prevention Strategy – Beyond 0

Can you think of an injury where there weren't 2 root causes?

• Condition
• Behavior

Behavior

Injuries

Hazards

Injuries happen when unsafe behaviors and unsafe conditions come together

Safe behavior

Unsafe Behavior

Low Hazard level

High Hazard level

Injury prevention strategy

Behavior

Hazards

Safe behavior

Unsafe Behavior

Low Hazard level

High Hazard level

SMS

SWS

SWS

SMS

SMS

SWS

Build a culture focused on POSITIVE BBS, a relentless pursuit of Hazard Recognition & Resolution supported and measured by an effective Safety Management System.

What influences behavior?

Examples of Antecedents

1. Directives 2. Policies 3. Safety Training Programs
4. Meetings 5. Signs 6. This training

According to E. Scott Geller, behavior refers to acts or actions by individuals that can be observed by others

• Behavior is what a person does or says
• Behavior is not what a person thinks, feels, or believes

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• Must be observable, measurable
• Any time, any where, any body
• Not interpretations of behavior

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What is Behavior?

What is a Consequence in terms of BBS?

• Is the word CONSEQUENCE a positive or negative term?

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• Consequences (feedback) - What occurs after a behavior and influences the likelihood of that behavior repeating in the future

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• Reinforcers (positive feedback) increase the behavior

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• Punishers (constructive feedback) decrease the behavior

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Feedback as the Consequence

Practical aspects of Consequences (FEEDBACK)…

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1. Designed to improve performance

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• Should be primarily positive

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• Designed to increase safe behaviors

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• Designed to decrease unsafe behaviors

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• MUST BE IMPACTFUL EVERY TIME

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• 5-10 X POSITIVE TO 1 TIME CONSTRUCTIVE

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Power of Positive Reinforcement

What influences Behavior most effectively?

What do you think the % effectiveness is for each

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1. Antecedents/Activators

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• Consequences

Focus on Feedback

Antecedents/Activators are 15% effective at changing behavior

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Feedback in the moment (the consequence) is 85% effective at changing behavior

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“The science of behavior, reveals that human behavior is a function of its consequences: People do what they do because of what happens to them when they do it. Understanding the impact of consequences allows leaders to predict and positively influence behavior to accelerate performance. People will do, as a matter of habit, what brings them a positive experience.

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People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.

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People care much less about what you say than they do about how you make them feel.

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Focus on Feedback

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Why Behavior Based Safety

Observations and feedback can positively affect all levels of this model

300,000

30,000

3,000

300

3

30

Types of Feedback

Positive Feedback

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Punishment

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No Feedback

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REMEMBER

Antecedents/Activators (Programs, Policies, Training, Education, Focus meetings, Directives, Suggestions, emails etc.) are only as effective as the consequences that support the desired behavior

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How would it feel ….

How big is the change

The change is easy to understand….. BUT hard to do

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Cross your arms

Big Change Does NOT Require BIG Steps

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How big is the change

Sustainability

To be effective BBS needs

• 100% leadership support & accountability
• Set goals and meet them
• Visible leadership engagement
• Sincere support - fragile if the program is mocked
• Can’t be “pencil whipped” or “faked”
• Kept fresh
• Transparently measured (Scoreboard)
1. IF YOU DON’T MEASURE IT, IT DOESN’T HAPPEN..
2. Leadership participation is public knowledge
3. Compare expectations vs actual performance
• Very Frequent IMPACTFUL Participation
• MUST BE AN INTERACTION NOT JUST OBSERVATION

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Sustainability >28,000 interactions since 5/2023

Scoreboard Example - Trending

5 years, NSIN saw the number of BBS Interactions trend up as the number of Injuries (Non-Recordable, Recordable and Lost Work) trend down

Behavior Based Safety Summary

We know it….

1. Increases Safe Behaviors
2. Decreases Unsafe Behaviors
3. Can Stop and Unsafe Behavior as it happens

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Behavior Based Safety Summary

What leaders are saying about BBS:

1. BBS creates team collaboration in the name of Safety – BUILDS POSITIVE RELATIONSHIPS
2. The system provides metrics that show behavior is making an impact
3. It is a vehicle for leaders to provide feedback in a positive, concise, simple, effective way
4. The heavy focus on interactions about safe behaviors creates a positive culture where teammates feel appreciated and don’t mind the constructive feedback when it happens
5. Drives leaders to engage with TMs in positive way – BUILDS POSITIVE RELATIONSHIPS
6. Opens dialog, makes it easier to talk about other topics – BUILDS RELATIONSHIPS
7. Develops Open Honest and Direct communication between leadership and teammates
8. Proactive DAILY exercise that will make safety “Who We Are”
9. Like CONTINUOUS focus on injury prevention, not weekly/monthly or scheduled event
10. Positive feedback is contagious
11. TRANSLATES EXPECTATIONS TO BEHAVIOR CHANGE WHICH CAN BE MEASURED
12. TRANSFORM YOUR ENVIRONMENT INTO A PLACE THAT TALKS ABOUT SAFETY AS MUCH AS IT DOES PRODUCTION AND QUALITY – What do TMs find important….
13. Positive feedback is contagious

Unsafe Behaviors Decreasing, Safe Behaviors Increasing

Simple Intention of BBS

To REDUCE INJURIES …

by providing primarily POSITIVE FEEDBACK…

to reinforce SAFE BEHAVIORS…

and discourage UNSAFE BEHAVIORS…

through everyone’s PARTICIPATION…

initiating INTERACTIONS …

designed to strengthen our SAFETY CULTURE …

and achieve an INJURY FREE WORKPLACE …

Questions

Behavior Based Safety