BEHAVIOUR AT WORK
self-directed workforces. However, when at-risk behaviours occur without consistent or immediate feedback, the effectiveness of the process is greatly reduced.
FEELINGS AND EMOTIONS There is now a growing body of research, reinforced by recent advances in neuroscience, which sheds new light on human behaviour. Feelings and emotions as a primary source of motivation appear to be of increasing importance; a revelation that could offer new insight into why we don’t always follow the rules and may act irrationally. Applied to the workplace, this notion suggests how employees “feel” about a situation may be more representative of subsequent behaviours than what they actually “think”.
The notion of a two-track mind – one part logical and rational, the other intuitive and automatic – is not new. Its systematic application to the practice of safety, however, is new and could hold the answer to some of our biggest challenges. The basis of most defined safety practices is logic-oriented. The basis of most human behaviour, on the other hand, is not. Most behaviours are intuitive, occurring automatically, and are the result of our “gut feeling” about a situation.
To better understand how feelings associated with a set of circumstances can dictate the most likely course of actions let’s look at several important factors. As humans, we live in an environment that is forever changing. We constantly process information and monitor situations for potential risks or rewards, experienced intuitively as feelings and even emotions. By our very nature, we are extremely efficient at managing this enormous amount of information. So how do we determine what remains below the threshold of our awareness and what gets flagged for further attention and processing? It’s a filtration-process, largely influenced by past experience.
EXPERIENCE-BASED RISKY
BEHAVIOUR The role of experience is key to understanding why many at-risk behaviours occur and what can be done about them. Consider for a moment the typical behaviour of a
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driver on a motorway. Many will set cruise-control speeds slightly above posted speed limits. The balance between travelling at a faster speed for an anticipated benefit and the possible cost of going too fast and getting a ticket is heavily influenced by past experience.
“THE BASIS OF MOST DEFINED SAFETY PRACTICES IS LOGIC-ORIENTED. THE BASIS OF MOST HUMAN BEHAVIOUR, ON THE OTHER HAND, IS NOT.”
This process occurs intuitively and automatically and doesn’t involve analytical risk assessments supported by data. Each time the benefit is realised without a negative consequence, the behaviour becomes more habitual and more automatic. Experience-based at-risk behaviours driven by anticipated gains that outweigh any perceived costs are not limited to the motorways or to drivers. They occur all too often in the workplace too.
A study conducted by T. Dell and J. Berkhout found that injuries were 88% more likely to occur in a perceived “safe” job, compared to those regarded as the most dangerous. This data is supported by a number of organisations; perceived low risk tasks typically involve the highest frequency of injury. Secondly, when people make repeated choices that involve at-risk behaviour and experience first-hand benefits aligned with anticipated outcomes, they tend to underestimate the actual risks. Finally, if there is a conflict between intuition and our rational system, our experience-based intuitive response appears to have the strongest influence on decisions and subsequent actions.
This explains in part why words and data may have very little influence on someone’s behaviour. Labelling
behaviour as “unsafe” when it has been performed hundreds or even thousands of times before without negative consequence is more than a challenge. If the behaviour was associated with a forecast benefit that was realised, you are now at odds with actual experience; a hurdle which logic and reason alone will have limited success at overcoming.
INFLUENCING RISKY
BEHAVIOUR While experience may be the driving factor behind most at-risk behaviours, it is also the key to overcoming them. Although logic and reason are influenced by words, data, and analytical comparisons, our intuitive system is not. To effectively influence behaviours, you must employ images, emotions, personal stories and experience-based techniques that connect with your workforce, and subsequently move them.
An industry that has embraced experience-based techniques to improve on-the-job safety performance is commercial aviation. In spite of numerous efforts to improve pilot performance, crashes due to pilot error remained at 65% for more than 50 years. That changed in 1990 when the industry introduced flight simulators, a tool designed to provide experience-based learning in a safe and controlled setting. Since then, crashes due to pilot error have declined by more than 54%. The field stands alone with six sigma operational performance, demonstrating fewer than 3.4 defects per 1 million opportunities.
The next frontier for the practice of safety, and an area of emerging interest for DuPont Sustainable Solutions (DSS), involves the practical application of affective-based research to address some of the biggest challenges related to safety. Within this research is a wealth of information regarding more effective communication, using techniques that inspire and influence and not just inform; characterised by, but not limited to, a foundation in sound management practices and driven by leaders who rely on influence, and not just edict, to reduce risky behaviour.
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