Goals

 "Goals"

By OffRoadPilots

Goals are to be tied to special cause variations as they are causing occurrences and

anticipated, or predictive to appear in future processes.

Below is an example of a special cause variation causing an occurrence at an

airport, which also can be applied to a predictive special cause variations in future

operations.

An airport operator is

upgrading their runway

markings. Since last time

markings were painted, the

standard had changed with

additional requirements.

When marking the runway,

the airport operator

excluded the turnaround

bay marking. This non-

compliance was discovered

during a regulatory

inspection of the airport. The airport operator had operated in noncompliance

with the standard for a year or more without noticing the non-compliance.

The special cause variation for this noncompliance, or the root cause is ignorance.

When analysing human factors, organizational factors, supervision factors, and

environmental factors as a primary factor allowing the special cause variation to

occur, organizational factors was assigned as the primary factor.

The special cause variation and root cause is ignorance since it is foreign to the

process, and it does not belong in the process for the process to function.Ignorance is when an organizational culture is aware of the new standards but

choose to ignore them due or a lack of understanding of their importance.

The reasoning for assigning ignorance as the root cause, and special cause

variation is that the new marking standards were known to the airport operator,

they intended to maintain compliance with the new standard, but they ignored

pre-markings consultations for their plan of construction operations and decided

to proceed without an airside operations plan for runway markings.

Ignorance refers to a lack of knowledge, information, or awareness about a

particular subject or topic. It is a state in which an individual or a group of people

do not possess or have not been exposed to accurate or complete information

about a specific area of knowledge. Ignorance can manifest in various ways,

including not knowing about facts, concepts, events, or principles that are relevant

to a given situation or not understanding the implications of certain actions or

decisions.

It is important to note that ignorance is not necessarily a negative trait in and of

itself, as everyone has areas of knowledge in which they are less informed or

experienced. However, when ignorance leads to uninformed beliefs, decisions, or

actions that can have harmful consequences or hinder progress, it becomes a

concern.

Overcoming ignorance often involves seeking education, seeking out reliable

sources of information, and being open to learning and expanding one's

knowledge in various areas of life. Education, curiosity, critical thinking, and a

willingness to listen and learn from others are key tools in addressing and

mitigating ignorance.

Reducing organizational ignorance is a noble and valuable goal, as it can lead to a

more informed, and enlightened organizational values. Some specific goals and

steps that can contribute to reducing ignorance are:Promote Education: Ensure that quality education is accessible to all, regardless of

socio-economic background, age, or location. This includes formal education in

schools and universities as prerequisites for employment opportunities, as well as

ongoing internal learning opportunities.

Critical Thinking: Encourage critical thinking skills that help individuals assess

information, question assumptions, and make informed decisions. Critical thinking

enables people to recognize and address their own ignorance.

Information Literacy: Teach

people how to evaluate

sources of information for

credibility and accuracy. This

includes understanding the

difference between reliable

sources and misinformation

or propaganda. Common

sources for misinformation

and propaganda in airport

operations is to continue with

established processes

because this is how it was done for the last 50 years, and that airside maintainers

are experts at the accountable executive level.

Cultural Awareness: Promote cultural awareness and diversity education to reduce

ignorance related to different cultures, and backgrounds. Encourage a just-culture

and non-punitive processes.

Scientific Literacy: Promote scientific literacy by teaching the scientific method and

helping people understand the basics of scientific principles. This can combat

ignorance related to scientific topics.Media Literacy: Teach media literacy skills so that individuals can critically assess

opinions and facts when researching the safety management system.

Open Dialogue: Encourage open and dialogue and consultation among individuals

and internal departments. This can help people learn from each other and

challenge their own preconceptions. However, media literacy becomes the

governing factor to recognize bias and opinions and base decisions on facts and

data.

Information Sharing: Encourage third-party information sharing to learn about

other perspectives. Exposure to other operational environments can broaden

one's horizons and reduce ignorance.

Promote Reading: Encourage reading as a habit. Books, articles, and literature can

provide valuable insights and knowledge about SMS and on a wide range of topics.

Reading other than technical, or SMS articles, is an invaluable assess for individual

to perform with reliability at acceptable levels.

Community Engagement: Engage with local communities and organizations to

create awareness and educational programs that address specific areas of

ignorance within a given community. Such engagements are open houses at

airports and airlines, partnerships with aviation museums to create a sustainable,

operating and flight-ready living museum that stimulates and inspires to aviation

safety while also entertaining visitors by providing aviation experiences.

Support Lifelong Learning: Promote the idea that learning is a lifelong journey.

Encourage people to continue seeking knowledge and expanding their horizons

throughout their lives.

Digital Literacy: In today's digital age, promote digital literacy skills, including online

research, cybersecurity, and responsible use of technology.Public Policy: Implement policies that support education, information access, and communication. Remember that eliminating ignorance is an ongoing process that involves both individual and collective efforts. It requires a commitment to continuous learning, open-mindedness, and a willingness to engage with others to share knowledge and promote understanding.

A goal is not just established

because something went

wrong, and to avoid the same

occurrence again. Goals also

need to be linked to what

goes right every day. When

focusing on what goes wrong,

the focus is taken away from

what goes right every day,

and a review of future

operational goals and

processes becomes to avoid

negativity and not how to improve on positive results. SMS, as a businesslike approach to safety needs to focus on generating revenue, or positive outputs, by

increased marketing (SMS training), and cut expenses (outdated SMS processes).

Just as a business focus on first impression and the positive when promoting their

goods or services, an SMS enterprise needs to focus on the positive and first

impression of their operations and safety management system.

Airports perform daily inspections of their airport for compliance with the SMS

regulations, and with airport standards. Depending on size and complexity of an

airport, a daily inspection may be performed hourly, every 8 hours, or daily. Airport

size and complexity also is a determining factors of which items to include in a

daily inspection.A daily inspection includes items such as airfield lighting, markings, markers, safety areas, signage, foreign object debris, fuel spills or leaks, vegetation, terrain,

obstacle limitation surfaces, slopes on runways, surface of runway, runway strips,

stopways, turn pads, taxiways, taxiway lighting, markings and markers, runway

holding positions, and road holding positions.

Airport operators perform inspections of approach surfaces, takeoff surfaces, inner

transitional surfaces, transitional surfaces, obstacle restrictions and removal,

precision obstacle free zones, approach obstacle identification surfaces, outer

obstacle identification surfaces, and compliance with obstacle requirements.

Daily inspections include inspection of wind direction indicators, runway

designation markings, threshold markings, demarcation bars, arrows, chevron

markings, runway centerline markings, aiming point markings, touchdown zone

markings, runway side stripe markings, taxiway centerline markings, taxi side stripe

markings, taxiway safety area markings, runway holding positions markings,

intermediate holding position markings, road holding position markings,

geographic position fix markings, manoeuvring area delimitation markings, painted

sign pavement markings, information messages markings, ancillary services

markings, and unserviceable and closed markings.

A daily inspection is a part of daily operational quality control and includes

aerodrome beacon, aerodrome flight and manoeuvring area hazard lights,

approach lighting systems, approach threshold lights, runway threshold and wing

bar lights, runway end lights, stopway lights, runway threshold identification lights,

visual alignment guidance system, runway edge lights, runway centerline lights,

runway touchdown lights, PAPI and APAPI systems, runway status lights, runway

lead-in lighting system, rapid exit taxiway indicator lights, taxiway centerline lights,

taxiway edge lights, stop bars, no-entry bars, intermediate holding position lights,

runway guard lights, apron flooding lights, visual docking guidance system, aircraft

stand manoeuvring guidance lights, road holding position lights, unserviceability

and closed lights, and lighted “X” closed area marker.An SMS enterprise also needs to include in their daily inspection maneuvering area markers, retroreflective markers, taxiway edge markers, taxiway centerline markers, and unserviceability and closed markers.

In addition to specific items, an airport with an airport zoning regulation is required

to operate with a system for preventing lands adjacent to or in the vicinity of an

airport from being used or developed in a manner that is incompatible with the

safe operation of an airport or aircraft.

An SMS enterprise must

design and develop airside

ops plans and identify in the

plans common cause

variations. When common

cause variations are known,

special cause variations are

known by exclusion. Airside

ops plan are not regulatory

specific requirements, but

they are required by the SMS

regulations for airport operators to operate with a process for setting goals for the improvement of aviation safety and for measuring the attainment of those goals.

Airport operators need to focus on what goes right every day in their safety management system. They need to focus on daily compliance with the safety policy, roles and responsibilities of personnel, performance goals and a means of measuring attainment of those goals, their policy for the internal reporting of

hazards, incidents, and accidents, including the conditions under which immunity

from disciplinary action will be granted, and a process for reviewing the safety

management system to determine its effectiveness.

When focusing on what goes right, they need to focus on procedures for reporting

hazards, incidents and accidents to the appropriate manager, procedures for thecollection of data relating to hazards, incidents and accidents, procedures for the

exchange of information in respect of hazards, incidents and accidents among the

operators of aircraft and the provider of air traffic services at the airport and the

airport operator, procedures for analysing data and data obtained during an audit

conducted under a quality assurance program, and for taking corrective actions.

Corrective action plans are simplified when operating with airport operations

plans.

An SMS enterprise needs to focus on training and training requirements for the

person managing the safety management system and for personnel assigned

duties under the safety management system. They need to focus on procedures

for making progress reports to the accountable executive at intervals determined

by the accountable executive and other reports as needed in urgent cases, and

procedures for involving personnel in the implementation and ongoing

development of the safety management system.

Airport operators need to focus on what goes right every day as their support to

the SMS manager to monitor the concerns of the civil aviation industry in respect

of safety and their perceived effect on the holder of the airport certificate.

Common cause variations are deteriorating airport markings, airport markers, and

airport lighting. Runway markings will fade over time, and they will be covered in

rubber from aircraft tires. When this common cause variation is known, new

striping can be planned well in advance. Generally speaking, when airport markings

are reduced to 50% of markings required by the standard, they need to be

repainted. Paint that flakes, or scraped off by snowplowing, or other airside

activities are special cause variation, and a root cause analysis is required.

Regulatory and standard compliance are not in themselves a goal. A goal cannot be

a goal to maintain compliance with regulations or specifications but needs to be a

goal focusing on the process. As an example, a goal to maintain a runway

centerline marking to the 50%, or greater specification did not trigger any action

by airport operators. Airport operators were required to comply with thisrequirement for half a century, but this did not trigger any action until SMS regulations came into force. What triggers an action is when a goal focuses on the daily inspection process itself to include images and descriptions (or other useful tools) of the paint at the time of inspection. If the focus is to focus on the standard itself, any daily inspection without a failed standard becomes a failed daily

inspection.

Setting positive goals and what goes right every day is a tool for SMS enterprises to

focus on what they want to achieve and to maintain a positive mindset among

personnel. Goals are not the end result, but the beginning of what ongoing results

are desired to achieve. Ongoing achievement are continuous improvements.

When establishing goals aligned with the SMS policy, reflect on values and what

matters most to the organization, and what is expected to be achieved in different

departments of the organization.

Clearly define operational goals. Vague goals are not goals but are wishful thinking.

Make goals measurable and establish concrete criteria for measuring progress.

Goals must be challenging but attainable. Consider your current circumstances,

resources, and limitations. Unrealistic goals can lead to frustration and

disappointment. Any goal focusing on what goes right every day are realistic goals.

Define a timeframe for achieving the goals. This creates a sense of urgency and

helps personnel stay motivated. When goals focus on what goes right every day,

personnel stay motivated by doing their regular tasks.

If a goal is significant and long-term, break it down into smaller, manageable steps

or milestones. This makes the process less overwhelming and allows personnel to

celebrate small victories every day they complete their tasks.Focus on what the organization want, and not what they don’t want. Frame goals

in a positive way.

Write the goals down. Putting goals on paper makes them more tangible,

reinforces commitment to them, and the accountable executive and other

personnel takes ownership of the goals and their daily job tasks.

Visualize success and create

a mental image of achieving

goals as a part of the daily

job tasks. Visualization

boosts motivation and belief

in their ability to succeed,

and satisfaction after a day’s

work.

Remain flexible since

operations unpredictable,

and special cause variations

could occur. Be open to adjusting goals to correct for special cause variations while

staying focused on the overall vision. Track progress by regular reviews. This helps personnel stay motivated and allows for the accountable executive to make necessary adjustments.

Celebrate achievements! After a day’s work, celebrate a job well done. When

operators reach a milestone or achieve a goal, take time to celebrate this success.

Acknowledging of accomplishments reinforces your positive attitude and provides

motivation for future goals. Celebrating success is as simple as to say thank you for

job well done today.Learn from setbacks. When personnel encounter obstacles or setbacks, view them as opportunities to learn and grow. Adjust the approach if necessary to eliminate

special cause variations and keep moving forward.

Remain positive and committed to the goals. Maintain a positive attitude and

believe in personnel ability to achieve goals. Consistent effort and commitment are

key to success.

Remember that setting positive goals is an ongoing process. As operators achieve

their goals, they can set new goals that align with evolving values and aspirations.

Keep refining your goals to ensure they continue to inspire and motivate personnel

on their journey toward their own personal growth and success.

Successful and confident personnel are crucial traits to maintain a successful safety

management system, and successful operation.

OffRoadPilots