Non-Punitive Is Not To Accept Honest Mistakes

Non-Punitive Is Not To Accept Honest Mistakes

NOTE: This post is from one of our frequent contributors to this blog, "Birdseye59604.

Some organizations believe that a non-punitive reporting policy is to accept honest mistakes. This is as far from the fact as it could be. A non-punitive reporting policy is to discover deficiencies within an organization. Any time a non-punitive report addresses an excuse for the process, it reflects a non-accountable safety management.

No matter what is regulatory, safety still rests with the operator.

There are no honest mistakes. Mistakes are due to rush, fatigue, inattentiveness, lack of skill, lack of knowledge, anything else, or just laziness. Mistakes are many things, but one thing they are not; is honest. If mistakes were honest, the operator, or contributor to the mistakes would know in advance that the processes or procedures applied intentionally would cause errors.

"Mistakes are many things, but one thing they are not; is honest."

Mistakes reflect on organizational management and not on individual errors. In an organization with none or few mistakes, the leadership have conveyed their message clearly, ensured appropriate training and checking results. In an organization with many or frequent mistakes, excuses are applied to the processes and management do not approach, or accept mistakes with accountability.

Parking next to an airstrip is not an honest mistake but calculated accountability.

Recognizing organizations which do not apply the non-punitive accountability is simple. Without accountability, organizational errors are removed from management and transferred to an item, a person, a word, a sentence or simply ignored. Non-accountable organizations or organizations that apply non-punitive reporting as honest mistakes are recognized by their self-defense, and opinion of lack of regulatory requirements. These types of organizations don`t acknowledge that safety is operational.

BirdsEye59604