Are your leaders sufficiently Risk Intelligent to support safety?

1. Are your leaders sufficiently Risk Intelligent to support safety? Understanding and measuring the critical leadership characteristics to support safety Arthur D. Little LimitedUnited Kingdomwww.adlittle.co.uk • Presentation to IRSC 2013

2. Risk Intelligence of Leaders ‘Risk Intelligence’ is a measure of the mindfulness of leaders and is necessary to successfully deliver safety strategy • The importance of effective safety management systems supported by effective safety culture is well understood by railway organisations internationally • Leaders play a critical role in enabling, supporting and actively leading safety • International research on both organisations involved in accidents and High Reliability Organisations (HROs) has highlighted the importance of mindful leadership • This involves being conscious of the risk issues within the organisation Leaders can, and must, influence the culture of safety through their attitudes and behaviours

3. Risk Intelligence of Leaders Collectively, the leaders actions and focus cast a ‘leadership shadow’ on the organisation which influences safety culture • Behaviours • Symbols used/displayed • Visible relationships What we say How we act • Framing issues • Context setting • Repeating • Emphasis What we measure What we prioritise Leadership Shadow • Defined and implemented accountability • Rewards • Recognition • Standing meetings • Interactions • Regular disciplines and routines

4. Risk Intelligence of Leaders • HRO definition from Professor Andrew Hopkins, Learning from High Reliability Organisations Examining HROs can help other organisations develop their safety culture and approach to management What is a HRO? What can they teach us? • A High Reliability Organisation (HRO) is defined as “an organisation where a single error, if not contained, could cause not one fatality but hundreds” • Examples researched include air traffic control organisations and United States Navy aircraft carriers • High Reliability Organisation is a concept which organisations can aim to achieve, but it is difficult to define in terms of an accident or incident rate • HROs provide an example to help organisations in other sectors improve and develop their own safety culture and management approaches • This is particularly valuable to world class organisations who find it difficult to identify others in their sector that they can learn from • Research has identified five common key characteristics of HROs and a number of methods which organisations can use to implement these

5. Risk Intelligence of Leaders HROs have five common key characteristics that can be implemented in other organisations Preoccupation with failures rather than success Sensitivity to operations Reluctance to simplify interpretations Commitment to resilience Deference to expertise HROs tend to be more situational and less strategic than other organisations and can be thought of as ‘mindful’ organisations

6. Risk Intelligence of Leaders ‘Risk Intelligence’ is an element of mindfulness, and a ‘risk intelligent’ leader commonly has nine key attributes Ensures appropriate action is taken to eliminate risk Understands and revisits the risk profile as it evolves and changes Sets the agenda for risk for his/her organisation Connects with and influence other to encourage ‘risk intelligence’ in them Remains open-minded and sceptical about good news Reinforces the agenda through systematic attention Has the right people around them who are willing and able to raise concerns Is concerned by the rare, high consequence events Listens, watches and probes to ensure that all concerns are out in the open

7. Risk Intelligence of Leaders The ‘Risk Intelligence of Leaders’ tool examines a leadership teams ‘risk intelligence’ through their attitudes and behaviours The tool engages a leadership team through a set of searching questions around the nine key attributes using a five step process: 1 Select leadership team 2 Briefing/communication 3 Develop and issue questionnaires 4 Completion of questionnaires 5 Analysis and reporting The results provide guidance on how leaders can improve safety in their organisation by changing their behaviour and focus

8. Risk Intelligence of Leaders The outputs of the tool are presented visually – for any team we are interested in both average and minimum scores Maximum, average and minimum scores achieved in a leadership group Comparison between a selected leadership team and ‘best in class’ scores

9. Risk Intelligence of Leaders Recommendations not only cover leader development but identify safety risk areas to target for improvement Example Recommendations cover - how the leadership team can increase their risk intelligence - key areas of safety risks for improvement 2 1 Working at height Electricity Focus areas 4 Onsite management 3 Subcontractors

10. Risk Intelligence of Leaders Our experience shows that the process itself and the results create real impact on leaders and their organisations • The process of completing the tool makes leaders engage with safety and think about how it applies to their role • The response rate, and the quality of the returned questionnaires are themselves indicators of the culture of safety and leadership commitment • Some leadership teams said that the results “told us what we already knew” which prompted the question “Why hasn’t something been done about it?” • By involving the leaders the tool acts as an effective prompt for action and our previous experience is that the issues identified quickly become part of the next Annual Safety Plan with little additional work needed The tool gets leaders talking openly with their peers and direct reports about their ‘risk intelligence’ and their real impact on their organisation