The 7 C’s To A
Successful SMS
By Catalina9It’s impossible for a Safety Management System (SMS) to fail since it’s painting a picture or your organization and composing the music to be played. Your SMS is a true reflection of your enterprise. Wolfgang Beethoven was a composer and Leonardo da Vinci was a painter. Beethoven couldn’t paint and da Vinci couldn’t compose. Both artists could not fail since their results were a true reflection of their skills and talents. No one would expect anything else. However, today we are expecting a Safety Management System to produce results which it’s not skilled or talented for. Beginning with the Accountable Executive, it only takes an organizational title for a person to have full authority of any and all safety decisions in both small or large organizations. When unskilled personnel are accepting organizational positions beyond their capabilities, they are asking Beethoven to paint and da Vinci to compose.
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Skills and talent
impact the outcome.
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An SMS in itself cannot fail, but unskilled
decisions makers have profound impact of producing outcomes which they later don’t
appreciate. It goes like this: If you drive down a highway at high speed on an
icy road, for a skilled and trained person you are expected to end up in the
ditch sooner or later. For a person without talents or skills to drive in these
conditions, the fact, or outcome, is not known until after the incident. I
know, I’ve been there, on a remote road and in the ditch 200 Km to the nearest
community.
achievement plan. One goal could be to have zero
runway incursions. When the goal is established, they sit down and wait…, and
wait… and wait for their goal to come true without a goal achievement plan.
Then one day there is an incursion and the SMS is being blamed and ridiculed.
All the SMS did was to paint a true picture of the organization. How could
anyone expect a goal to come true without a plan of how to make it happen?
Except, when the only requirement to make an SMS decision is a title, there is
no commitment to safety in operations. Their goals are only empty wishes and
fantasies of virtual results. A commitment is a fact, and after it’s written
down the mind takes ownership and initiates actions to move in a direction to
achieve a result. When you turn the focus away from the commitment your mind
moves in a direction away from where you want to go. When you move away from
the commitment you have arrived at the fork in the road on a path to an
undesirable outcome. It’s vital for success to recognize the fork in the road.
The second C of a successful SMS is Clarity. Clarity
also has a magic and positive impact on human behavior. Clarity is the
foundation of leadership motivation. In an SMS world there is no difference
between management and employees. Everyone is a person with roles and
responsibilities within the SMS. However, there is still an organizational
hierarchy where the tasks within these positions falls into a timeline of
tasks. A task of the CEO or AE is to accept the Safety Policy before any other
tasks in the process are initiated. The hierarchy is not an authoritarian
hierarchy, but a hierarchy of prioritized tasks delegated to the different
positions. Roles and responsibilities are delegated and not assigned since all
results links back to the Safety Policy. It is vital for success that the
Accountable Executive recognizes that tasks are clearly defined and delegated
with a superior leadership motivation skill. It’s vital for success to
recognize leadership motivation.
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| Competence is hard work |
The third C of a successful SMS is Competence. Competence
also has a magic and positive impact on human behavior. Competence is the
foundation of success. People love to perform job-tasks they are competent to perform
and produce these tasks with an exceptional outcome. Competence builds
organizations of supreme qualities and personnel who comprehend their roles and
responsibilities. Competence is gained by incremental learning and
improvements. It’s a fiction to believe that a task learned once is all it
takes to be competent in that task. After a task is learned for the first time,
any variables within that task must be included in future training activities.
In addition, reviews of learned tasks are crucial to produce the expected
outputs. Competence leads to comprehension, which again leads to
accountability. It’s vital for success to recognize comprehension of
systems.
The fourth C of a successful SMS is Concentration,
which also has a magic and positive impact on human behavior. Concentration is
the foundation of effectiveness. We all know the saying that if you want a job
done, ask a busy person. The reason that a busy person gets the job done is
their ability to concentrate and focus on what they are doing. If a focus needs
to be diverted from one job to another, the first job wasn’t that important in
the first place. The Pareto Principle for success is to work on the vital few
rather than the trivial many. Human nature is to take the path of least
resistance and it’s much more comfortable to work on several easy tasks with
low priority, rather than the difficult task of high priority. When applying
the Pareto Principle to SMS and safety, 20% of tasks completed generates 80% of
safety. It’s vital for success to recognize the 20% of tasks that generate
safety, or desired outcome.
The fifth C of a
successful SMS is Constraint. Knowing and understanding the effects of
constraints has a magic and positive impact on human behavior. Constraint is
the foundation of improvements. In organizations where constraints are
disregarded, avoided or ignored human performance becomes apathetic. There are
always constraints, or hurdles in the road ahead. When constraints are avoided
there is no path for a person, or organization to move forward to the next
task. The hurtle in the path is there if you like it or nor, or if it is
disregarded or not. Constraints and hurtles often come disguised as hazards,
excuses, explanations, not-my-job or as location or time-constraints. In a
competitive market, the best approach is to learn and comprehend about your
competitors. Constraints are competition to your safety activities. It’s vital
for success to recognize constraints and hurdles.
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Never give up.
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The sixth C of a successful SMS is Continue. In an
organization where a continued approach is applied there is a magic and
positive impact on human behavior. Continue is the foundation of a just
culture. In a just culture there is trust, learning, accountability and
information sharing. A just culture is built on data collected. Analyzed data
is turned into information. Information is turned into knowledge, which again
is turned into comprehension. Continuous learning is to build on current
knowledge and comprehension derived from data collected. Continuous
improvements is to turn ineffective processes into effective processes.
Continual improvements might be another avenue to take, where an outdated
process is replaced with an up to date process. As an example of continual
improvements could be to move from a paper-based SMS to a fully automated SMS
electronic software. When improvements are made, the past processes are not
eliminated or discarded, but serve as a foundation for the next step. It’s
vital for success to recognize a continuous approach as opposed to a reactive
approach.
The seventh C of a successful SMS is Courage. Courage
has a magic and positive effect on human behavior. Courage is the foundation of
visions. Without courage there is no vision for the future. Human nature is
complacency and continue today what we did yesterday. Courage is to take on
tasks and activities that the SMS society, aviation industry in general, public
opinions or organizational expectations have deemed inappropriate and
ineffective. As an example, it was not appropriate to install safety equipment
in vehicles as Preston Tucker did in his Tucker 48 vehicle. It was not until
the society accepted safety and spearheaded by Volvo that safety improvements
were allowed. This same concept applies to the aviation industry. It takes
courage for a CEO to delegate roles and responsibilities that directly affects
the CEO. The path of least resistance for the CEO to make their own safety
decision, even if the decision leads to disasters. Courage is not to change for
the sake of the change itself, but it’s to make appropriate implementations
based on data, information, knowledge and comprehension of the systems. It’s
vital for success to recognize when courage is no longer an option but a
requirement.
The 7 C’s are the foundation of a successful SMS.
1) A commitment is accountability which conforms to
regulatory requirements and the safe operations of an airport or aircraft.
2) Clarity as leadership motivation leads down a path where
available options are comprehended.
3) Competence equals success where individuals accept
personal achievements as a victory.
4) Concentration is to build safety cases for
effectiveness in operations.
5) Constraints is to know your competition to improve
above the safety risk level bar.
6) Continue is an organizational operational concept
and forward-looking safety policy of continuous improvements.
7) Courage are visions to be enacted on when options
becomes requirements.
Implementation of the 7 C’s to a successful SMS will
open your doors to a whole new world of effectiveness in safety.
Catalina9
