Goals

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 the collection 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 this requirement 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