Book
Safety Leadership
Differently, doable and directed approach
We generally find improving safety and avoiding incidents worthwhile. It is a priority for many of us, alongside making money, creating value for shareholders, saving the planet and achieving a good work-life balance.
This book is written for those who are ultimately responsible for the performance of organisations, divisions or departments. No doubt, your responsibilities will include safety, and it is your duty to prevent incidents. Most likely, you are not a safety specialist: perhaps you have delegated the management of safety to a specialised department, or asked external professionals for help. Your security staff seem well-trained and competent. Nevertheless, you will occasionally be unpleasantly surprised by incidents, perhaps even due to human error.
For whom?
This book aims to help you prevent incidents, or at least understand them if they do occur, with a method of managing and addressing them differently. This approach represents uses a new safety paradigm that focuses on how to integrate the natural variability of human performance – and our ability to compensate for unpredictability elsewhere – into organisational systems, ensuring successful outcomes. Incidents are a natural consequence of system complexity, and we can reduce the impact of incidents if we know what is going on and are able to respond appropriately. The approach described in this book is particularly suitable for organisations with a low frequency of incidents where the cause of adverse events is not a single, easily identifiable fault or failure.
With a foreword by Prof Dr Sidney Dekker
First edition, February 2021
ISBN: 9780367652753
Reviews
“An excellent concise and practical introduction to newer approaches to security.”
Carsten Busch
“So, the notes this way, the extra storytelling and bits of sense-making do work! Very nicely set up! I can work with this and as far as I’m concerned, you have succeeded to put flesh on the bones of safety leadership.”
Bob van Asselt
“The first practical ‘how to’ book for managers.”
Martijn Flinterman
“Have read your book twice and loved it. I think it will help many companies struggling with the practical application of the systems thinking approach.”
Diane Chadwick-Jones
“It is, in my experience, the first book that seriously put flesh to the bones to the ‘hard to grasp’ theories and master classes on ‘New View Safety’ or ‘Safety II’.”
Bob van Asselt
“The book fills a gap within the current literature on safety. There are many high-level management strategies, there are books covering the theoretical underpinnings of safety, there are books on safety in specific domains, and there are books on specific methods. This book fits into none of these, and instead fills an important gap.”
Jop Havinga
“This is a must-read, and the solution to your problems – and describes what has been so successful at BP.”
