Where Birds Don't Fly

Roles are often associated with movies. A role where the sheriff is a newcomer to town and becomes a hero with overwhelming local support, the deputy is friends with all, the law-breaking are robbing banks and everyone else are law-abiding bystanders. These are all roles that are played to impress an audience. In an SMS world everyone has a role to play to make the system effective, attractive, sustainable and supported by the public. A specific role in SMS is often associated with a specific SMS responsibility. A CEO of a corporation,  or an small-business owner, may have identical responsibilities in other similar structured organizations.  Being unsure of the role is ineffective performance. An SMS-world could have an objective of:  Roles and responsibilities of personnel assigned duties under the safety management system. This objective identifies who, or what positions, are assigned these roles and associated responsibilities. An objective is accomplished by successf...

The intent of a non-punitive reporting policy is to improve job-performance and organizational effectiveness. A non-punitive reporting policy is either established as a “feel good – do the right thing” policy, or as a regulatory requirement, or as a policy for operational effectiveness. A non-punitive reporting policy is an organizational statement, and commitment, that a person reporting does not have to fear repercussion, threats or punitive actions from management or from their peer group when reporting a hazard, incident or accident.  If a policy is to be considered only when the lake floods the runway, then any action cannot proceed until the runway is flooded.   A non-punitive policy could include a statement under what conditions punitive disciplinary actions would be considered. Some of these conditions could be illegal activity, negligence or willful misconduct. By introducing this statement, illegal activity becomes the line drawn for punitive-action and not as repre...