A Definitive Guide to Behavioural Safety

Book excerpt: ‘Behavioural safety’ or behaviour-based safety (BBS) has been around as a concept for several decades and is commonly held to mean directly tackling the frontline behaviours that lead to incidents and injury. Unfortunately, virulent criticism of some approaches of BBS frequently generalises to all others, so that commentators don’t know if they are arguing or agreeing. This book aims to cut through the waffle to be the one-stop guide to all the core theories and principles that underpin behaviour-based safety. In this second edition, internationally acclaimed behavioural safety expert Tim Marsh leads the reader through the three main strands: The awareness approach, the ‘walk-and-talk’ approach, and the Six-Sigma safety or the Deming-inspired ‘full’ approach that 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. Updated to reflect systemic changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic and featuring a brand-new chapter on well-being that discusses the massive changes in thinking about the interaction of culture and personal safety that have occurred since the previous edition was published. This book allows the reader to set up an ambitious and wide-ranging behavioural safety programme from scratch or refresh their current approach. Written by one of the world’s leading BBS experts, including leading the first major research project on the applied use of BBS outside of the US, based on the author’s experiences with more than 400 organisations Delivered in an accessible and popular writing style that simplifies complex theory and arguments in a user-friendly way, plus features end-of-chapter checklists to underpin learning Possesses a post-COVID focus, bringing behavioural safety into the 2020s, and covers the growing concept of well-being in a brand-new chapter. The title features end-of-chapter checklists to confirm understanding of the concepts. A Definitive Guide to Behavioural Safety is the go-to book for any practicing occupational health and safety professional.