Accountability
Post by CatalinaNJB
Accountability is without
supervision, to comply with regulatory requirements, standards, policies,
recommendations, job descriptions, expectations or intent of job performance
and for personnel to be actively and independently involved. Accountability is
an element of a just culture, which is an organizational culture where there is
Trust, Learning, Accountability and Information Sharing.
Accountability is a process in
motion and not a static state of virtual events. Accountability is different
than responsibility since it is the behavior to trigger events in a form that
produces the most positive result. When a person gets the drivers license they
have a responsibility to stay on the correct side of the yellow line that is
dividing oncoming traffic. This personal responsibility does not leave the
person even if the person is not driving a vehicle. It’s a responsibility of
the license itself. This is the same for a pilot license or aircraft mechanic
where the responsibility follows their licenses. On the highway it doesn’t make
safety-sense to divide oncoming traffic with a 6-inch yellow line. However, it
is accountability that makes this possible. A driver of a vehicle is not
accountable to all and everyone on the road, but only to the first approaching
vehicle, then accountable to the next vehicle and then accountable to the next
vehicle and so on. Accountability is action in motion. Everyone expects that
the other driver comprehends the responsibility and is accountable to safety.
When driving down a two-lane highway there must be Trust involved.
Trust is the first element of a just
culture. Without trust there is nothing. A pilot is trusted to become a part of
the operations, trusted with a single engine bush-plane or a multi-million
dollars airplane and carrying one or several hundred passengers onboard who
trust the pilot and the flight crew. Without trust there are no flights.
Learning is voluntarily.
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Learning is the second element of a just
culture. Trust has given a person an opportunity to apply their skills and
knowledge, but they are continuing to learn and excel in performance. At times
this learning curve levels off, while at other times the learning curve is
steep. A steep learning curve may come from new challenges, but also by
learning from indents. Incidents are not a requirement for learning and every
effort is made to ensure that every flight goes right, in the sense that
everyday work achieves its objectives.
The third element of a just culture
is Accountability. Accountability is applied to trust and learning.
Accountability is to be accountable to safety by staying of the correct side of
the yellow line painted on a highway. If it was not learned what the yellow
line communicates, a driver could be zigzagging across the line and if there
were no trust the opposing traffic could not maintain safe separation.
The
fourth element is Information Sharing. After trust is established learning is
ongoing and accountability
Information Sharing
applicable to the process.
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Accountability is applied to trust
and learning. Accountability is to be accountable to safety by staying of the
correct side of the yellow line painted on a highway. If it was not learned
what the yellow line communicates, a driver could be zigzagging across the line
and if there were no trust the opposing traffic could not maintain safe
separation.
The fourth element is Information
Sharing. After trust is established learning is ongoing and accountability has
a track record then Information Sharing is implemented. This information
sharing, being internal, with stakeholders or with customers as advertising or
operational safety is an operational tool for continuous or continual safety
improvements. One fabulous way to improve safety is to share ideas across the
board and then implement the best ideas in your own operations. One reason that
ideas or demands from a regulatory authority does not work in operations is that
a regulatory body is implementing ideas in the concept of reactive
accountability and outside a just culture.
Accountability is the backbone of a
successful SMS. It is not to be held accountable in a traditional reactive
concept, but it is to be held accountable in a proactive concept. When there is
proactive accountability there is the ability to succeed under varying
conditions, so that the number of intended and acceptable outcomes are as high
as possible. Accountability is to harness human factors and human resilience.
CatalinaNJB
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