Where Birds Don't Fly

There are many effective ways to run a Safety Management System (SMS) and selecting the 21 goal that works for your enterprise is in itself a humongous task. When building your SMS, the first task is to decide on your expected outcome of the Safety Management System. A goal achievement task is a prerequisite for developing your SMS policy and is a written plan of action. SMS guidance material is accompanied by 95 expectations. These are expectations for the SMS to conform to both regulatory compliance and for safety in operations. Regulatory requirements are to develop a safety policy, safety management plan, documents and recordkeeping, safety oversight, training, emergency response and quality assurance with a vision of an outcome. In operations the outcome is an action where we don’t manage risks, but lead personnel, manage equipment and validate operational design for improved performance above the safety risk level bar. Pick your goal achievement door and run with it. Operations i...

It’s impossible for a Safety Management System (SMS) to fail since it’s painting a picture of your organization and composing the music to be played. Your SMS is a true reflection of your enterprise. Ludwig van Beethoven was a composer and Leonardo da Vinci was a painter. Beethoven couldn’t paint and da Vinci couldn’t compose. Both artists could not fail since their results were a true reflection of their skills and talents. No one would expect anything else. However, today we are expecting a Safety Management System to produce results which it’s not skilled or talented for. Beginning with the Accountable Executive, it only takes an organizational title for a person to have full authority of any and all safety decisions in both small or large organizations. When unskilled personnel are accepting organizational positions beyond their capabilities, they are asking Beethoven to paint and da Vinci to compose.  Skills and talent impact the outcome. An SMS in itself cannot fail, but unsk...