Behavior based safety
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This document discusses behavior-based safety (BBS) and why traditional safety programs often do not work. It explains that BBS focuses on observing and providing feedback on worker behaviors, rather than just training or rules. BBS is most effective when it involves workers in developing the process and focuses on positively reinforcing safe behaviors. For BBS to be successful, a company must establish a strong safety culture with management commitment and accountability. The document also outlines the key components of applying BBS, including defining important safety behaviors, observing behaviors, and using data to reinforce safe practices.
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Behavior based safety
- 1. Behavior Based Safety Safety Professional’s View
- 3. Objectives Today: • Identify differences between traditional vs BBS • Know “when and when not” to implement BBS • Explain why most traditional safety programs don’t work! • Understand why positive reinforcement is much more powerful than negative reinforcement
- 4. Why Safety Programs Do Not Work: • Safety is a priority, not a value! • Safety is not managed in the same manner as production, quality, and cost issues! • Safety is not driven through continuous improvement!
- 5. “Fallacies or Realities” in Safety Fables? • Conditions cause accidents! • Enforcing rules improves safety! • Safety professionals can keep workers safe! • Low accident rates indicate safety programs are working well! • Investigating to find the root cause of accidents will improve safety! • Awareness training improves safety! • Rewards improve safety!
- 6. Core Elements in Successful Safety Programs • A culture that says “safety” is important around here! • A tight accountability system!
- 7. Safety Intervention Strategies (By NSC) Approach # of Studies # of Subjects Reduction % Behavior Based 7 2,444 59.6% Ergonomics 3 n/a 51.6% Engineering Change 4 n/a 29.0% Problem Solving 1 76 20.0% Gov’t Action 2 2 18.3% Mgt. Audits 4 n/a 17.0% Stress Management 2 1,300 15.0% Poster Campaign 2 6,100 14.0% Personnel Selection 26 19,177 3.7% Near-miss Reports 2 n/a 0%
- 8. An excellent tool for collecting data on the quality of a company’s safety management system • A scientific way to understand why people behave the way they do when it comes to safety • Properly applied, an effective next step towards creating a truly pro-active safety culture where loss prevention is a core value • Conceptually easy to understand but often hard to implement and sustain Behavior Based Safety: What Is It?
- 9. • Only about observation and feedback • Concerned only about the behaviors of line employees • A substitution for traditional risk management techniques • About cheating & manipulating people & aversive control • A focus on incident rates without a focus on behavior • A process that does not need employee involvement Behavior Based Safety:What It Is Not!
- 10. Interventions: Always Consider These 3 Components Safety Management System Engineering Controls Behaviors
- 11. • Attempts to eliminate the hazard • Having employees work around the hazard • Guarding or warning employees about the hazard • Training employees to deal safely with the hazard Traditional Hierarchy of Safety Interventions Included:
- 12. • Management leadership • vision, values, commitment • safety goals & objectives • costs of safety performance • Responsibility & accountability • defined for management & employees • accountable for performance • Safety organization • safety committees • safety staff resource • safety budget Safety Management System Interventions 7 components
- 13. Safety Management System Interventions 7 components (continued) •Safe work practices & procedures •general & job specific •housekeeping •contractors •emergency •Safety review & improvement •a Plan / Do / Check / Act process •accident investigation process •safety audit / inspection process
- 14. • Safety training • Based on needs assessments • Designed & presented effectively • For both management & employees • Results in observable changes in behavior on the job • Safety communications • Internal & external • Appropriate for audience • Effectiveness of communication methods Safety Management System Interventions 7 components (continued)
- 15. • % of safe behaviors increasing and the % at-risk behaviors decreasing • Reporting of near misses / hits increasing • Both the number of observations and level of participation increasing • Frequency & severity of injuries decreasing • Increasing acceptance of responsibility and accountability for personal behavior If Safety Interventions are Effective You Will See:
- 16. “Business is Behavior”* A business succeeds or fails through the performance of all of its employees Success = “Good” performance Failure = “Bad” performance Performance = the combined results of a series of behaviors * Aubrey Daniels, author and behavioral psychologist
- 17. Traditional Safety FewerFewer AccidentsAccidents SafetySafety TrainingTraining PoliciesPolicies SlogansSlogans SafetySafety MeetingsMeetings ContestsContests && AwardsAwards CommitteesCommittees & Councils& Councils RR ee pp rr ii mm aa nn dd ss RR ee gg uu ll aa tt ii oo nn ss
- 18. Employee Learning Model ExperienceExperience OutcomesOutcomes BeliefBelief BehaviorBehavior - Result- Result ++ HabitHabit
- 19. How Does This Take Shape? Introduction Implementation Assess/Train Train Management / Steering Committee Develop Critical Behavior Inventory Communicate with Workforce Train Observers Kickoff Ongoing observation & Feedback Data Based Action Plan Process Improvement
- 20. Suggested BBS Process: • Discovery - Determine Behaviors That Have Greatest Loss Impact • Design - Identify Team Who Will Define & Design BBS Process • System Up - Implement BBS Observation Process & Collect Data • System Check - Ensure BBS Process Has Been Effectively Implemented
- 21. • Use a design team of hourly workers, supervisors and managers, to design the process - forms, training, data collection and ID roles & responsibilities • Clearly define critical behaviors that will be observed - what is “safe” vs “at-risk”? • Give feedback on safe & at-risk behavior observed • Determine who will act on data collected through observations Observations, Feedback & Data Collection
- 22. • Loss runs from insurance carrier or broker • OSHA logs • First aid logs • Near miss / hit reports • Absenteeism / turnover reports Use Prior Experience Data to Target Jobs for Observation
- 23. • Focus on relevant behaviors that will have a direct impact on losses • Many behaviors that are directly related to the losses are unconscious behaviors that occur quickly • Select critical behaviors to focus on through actual observation of people at work - not just through discussion & brainstorming Define Critical Behaviors - What is “Safe” & What is “At-risk”?
- 24. Obstacles To Success: • Poorly Maintained Facilities • Top-down Management Practices • Poor Planning/Execution • Inadequate Training
- 25. Keys to Success: • Meaningful Employee Empowerment • Designing a Well Planned and Supported BBS Process • Managing BBS Process with Integrity
- 26. Activators (what needs to be done) Competencies (how it needs to be done) Consequences (what happens if it is done) Human Behavior is a function of :
- 27. Human behavior is both: Observable Measurable therefore Behavior can be managed !
- 28. Attitudes are inside a person’s head -therefore they are not observable or measurable Attitudes can be changed by changing behaviors however
- 29. ABC Model Antecedents (trigger behavior) Behavior (human performance) Consequences (either reinforce or punish behavior)
- 30. Definitions: Activators: A person, place, thing or event that happens before a behavior takes place that encourages you to perform that behavior. Activators only set the stage for behavior or performance - they don’t control it.
- 31. Some examples of activators
- 32. Behavior: Any directly measurable thing that a person does, including speaking, acting, and performing physical functions. Definitions:
- 33. Some examples of behavior:
- 34. Definitions: Consequences: Events that follow behaviors. Consequences increase or decrease the probability that the behaviors will occur again in the future. Oh please let it be Bob! If you don’t send in that payment we’ll take you to court
- 35. Some example of Consequences:
- 36. Consequences - How would you view them? Sunbathing Aggressive Drivers
- 37. •Positive Reinforcement (R+) ("Do this & you'll be rewarded") •Negative Reinforcement (R-) ("Do this or else you'll be penalized") •Punishment (P) ("If you do this, you'll be penalized") •Extinction (E) ("Ignore it and it'll go away") Only 4 Types of Consequences: Behavior
- 38. Consequences Influence Behaviors Based Upon Individual Perceptions of: Timing - immediate or future Consistency - certain or uncertain Significance - positive or negative { Magnitude - large or small Impact - personal or other
- 39. Both Positive (R+) & Negative (R-) Reinforcement Can Increase Behavior R+ : any consequence that follows a behavior and increases the probability that the behavior will occur more often in the future - You get something you want R- : a consequence that strengthens any behavior that reduces or terminates the consequence - You escape or avoid something you don’t want
- 40. Good safety suggestion Joe! Keep bringing ‘em up!R+ R- One more report like this and you’re outa here!!
- 41. P e r f o r m a n c e Time R+ The effects of positive reinforcement
- 42. Both Punishment & Extinction Decrease Behavior P: a procedure in which a punisher (consequence that decreases the frequency of the behavior it follows) is presented - You may get something you don’t want E: withholding or non-delivery of positive reinforcement for previously reinforced behavior - You don’t get what you want
- 43. You bonehead!! You can kiss that bonus for this year good-bye.... and take a few days off without pay!!! P E Let him cry honey. If we get up every night when he cries he’ll never learn to go to sleep peacefully.
- 44. P e r f o r m a n c e Time P The effects of punishment
- 45. P e r f o r m a n c e Time E The effects of extinction
- 46. P e r f o r m a n c e Time If you see this type of performance curve, you can bet management by negative reinforcement is the predominant management style
- 47. What Employees Want: • A Safe Workplace • A Positive Workplace • To Take Care of One Another • To Stop the Hurt!
- 48. What Management Wants: • An Accident Free Workplace • Empowered Employees • Pro-active Rather Than Re-active Work Process • To Minimize Direct and Indirect Costs and Threat of Liability From Accidents
- 49. Why is one sign often ignored, the other one often followed?
- 50. If you want to know what people find to be reinforcing.... observe what they do when they have the freedom to choose.
- 51. To create conditions that encourage people to collaborate because they want to not because they have to Let’s do it!! The Behavior Based Safety Challenge:
- 52. “Focus on the process….not results……they will come later!” A Values-Based Process
- 53. Avoid The Following Headline: “Behavior Based Safety Scores Show Significant Improvement - while injury rate climbs!”
- 54. Why Do We Need to Change? “If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you always got!” W. Edwards Deming
Notas del editor
- In summary then, what is Behavior-Based Safety? It is…… (discuss each of these bullet points) Emphasize the last bullet point about being easy to understand but difficult to do. Aubrey Daniels has often said “If you think performance management (or behavior-based safety) is easy, you’re doing it all wrong!”
- What Behavior-Based Safety is not…… elaborate on each point
- When you look at the at-risk data and are deciding what types of solutions or interventions to make, always consider each of these three components. Safety management system - how does the current system that is being used to manage safety in the workplace need to be changed to increase the amount of “safe behavior”? What engineering controls can be implemented to reduce or eliminate some of the causes of the at-risk behavior that is being observed. If deviated wrists are considered to be “at-risk” posture, what engineering changes need to be made in the job? Redesign of the work zone? Changes in tools and equipment? Elevation of working surfaces or change in their physical orientation? Having a machine perform the tasks that were previously done by hand? Behavioral interventions - you may provide all the proper tools, training, and adequate supervision but people may still be working in postures or positions that occasionally puts themselves at risk. This may be conscious behavior or unconscious behavior. Look at other job aids that may increase safe behavior awareness. What sort of self monitoring techniques can be employed? How can the necessary behavior changes be shaped and reinforced? Effective solutions may often require a combination of all 3 approaches.
- Let’s look at each of the three components in a little more detail. Your first consideration when you are analyzing at-risk data is to ask yourself if the hazard can be eliminated altogether. Several examples might help illustrate this. Suppose the at-risk behavior that is of concern is people not using proper lifting techniques for handling tote pans of parts. The first thing you should ask yourself is “How can we eliminate the need to handle tote pans at all?” Can material handling devices be used? If you can’t eliminate the need to handle tote pans, can you change the way they are stored? If they are stored on the floor and the at-risk behavior occurs during the lifting from the floor to the work surface, could you have the tote pans delivered to a raised platform that would reduce the bending required? Could you make the tote pans smaller so they are lighter and more easy to handle? Behavior based safety doesn’t eliminate the need to look at traditional methods of safely engineering work.
- The 7 components an effective Safety Management Systems are: Management leadership Line responsibility and accountability An organization for safety Safe work practices and procedures Safety review and improvement Safety training Safety communications Under each of these components should be identified specific best practices and success factors that could objectively be evaluated. Not surprisingly, when you look at the best practices and success factors many of them are really behavioral definitions of what people should be doing to work towards that ideal of an injury free work environment. * * Elaborate on some of the bullet points above * *
- Elaborate on some of the bullet points above
- If the interventions that you choose - whether they are engineering and administrative control changes, safety management system changes, or behavioral interventions - are truly successful there should be an observable, measurable change in behavior - for the better! % of safe behavior should be increasing for a particular job or department % of at-risk behavior should be decreasing people should become more comfortable with reporting near misses or “near hits” as they learn that these occurred because of at-risk behavior and that they represent significant opportunities for improvement the number of observations should be increasing - the more observations you make, the more data you collect, and if it is good solid data, the greater the confidence you have in your overall assessment of the state of safety in the workplace people should become more comfortable with making observations and more people should be willing to make them - either formally or informally. Ultimately the culture you want to create is one in which anyone feels comfortable identifying at-risk behavior and bringing it to the forefront so that it can be dealt with in a non-judgmental, proactive manner. Accident frequency and severity rates should be decreasing as % safe increases people should become increasingly more responsible and accountable for their own safety related behaviors, accepting feedback openly and honestly with the understanding that it is being offered to improve the overall safety system and not to place fault or blame
- Although technology has allowed American business to automate many jobs that formerly were performed by people, business still has to rely on people to use or run the technology. Businesses succeed or fail largely through the success or failure of the efforts of the people who work for them. Therefore we can say as noted psychologist Aubrey Daniels has said: “Business is behavior!” When we talk about a person’s job performance we are talking about a series of behaviors that combine to create an overall level of performance. When an employee is given a “performance appraisal” their supervisor is really making an assessment of how well their daily behaviors helped the organization, department or work unit achieve its business goals. An athletes “performance” is dependent on how well he or she executes critical behaviors of the sport. Did the pitcher throw the ball in the strike zone? Did he throw the right type of pitches for a given batter to minimize the batter’s chance of hitting them? Did he demonstrate the windup and delivery techniques that the pitching coach had been working with him on? Did he catch that line drive that came to him from home plate? On the job performance is therefore no different than sports performance. We could define performance then as A series of behaviors directed toward some goal.
- Once you have defined in observable terms - remember we can “see” behavior - you next need to look at the design of a process for collecting data on how frequently “at-risk” or “safe” behavior is occurring. Design of the process should be done in a team approach. Involve selected representatives of the hourly work force, union, management and safety staff. Everyone needs to feel comfortable with the process that is designed and what their various roles and responsibilities will be. Labor needs to feel comfortable that is not a “gotcha” process. The process will be a dynamic, not static, process. The initial design may not look anything like the working model several months down the road. Design needs to consider how the process will be rolled out, what type of training will be needed, who will collect the data, who will act on the collected data, how data will be displayed, etc. Part of this process should also consider how to give correcting and rewarding feedback and will require training of observers. Don’t make the only hourly employees the only observers. Supervisors and managers should be required to collect this data as well. Acting on the data that is collected is a critical component. If data is collected but nothing changes employees will quickly recognize that the process may be just another program of the month.
- Use past loss experience to identify initial improvement targets. This information should be readily available from loss runs from your insurance carrier, OSHA logs or other internal logs that you may keep (such as first aid logs, near miss reports, etc.) Concentrate your initial efforts in most cases on those that will have the greatest payback in terms of loss cost reduction. Some of the losses, once you carefully look into them, may be considered “low hanging fruit”. Go after those. Management will be looking at what the cost benefit of this “behavioral approach” is. In some cases it may take a while to see the cost benefit in terms of lowered loss costs. In others the impact may be more immediate. The important thing is to work on those loss cost drivers if you want to continue to get management support and involvement.
- Looking at the loss data and the actual job, define in observable terms what the “critical” behaviors are that are causing people to be injured. We call these “at-risk” rather than “unsafe” behaviors. Also at the same time you should be prepared to define in observable terms what you would see if you saw someone working completely “safe” at that job. How would they be sitting or standing in relation to their work? Where would their hands and arms be placed? Where would tooling and supplies be placed. How would they move when they performed the work? What types of PPE would they be wearing? People sometimes go after easy behaviors to observe which may not have much impact on losses. For example, it is easy to see if a person is wearing safety glasses or not, or running in the workplace. However, loss data may show that the frequency of eye injuries or accidents that result from running are few and far between. Collecting data that shows a high percentage of people wearing safety glasses and low percentage of people running is a waste of time. You already know that is not a problem. Many behaviors that get people in trouble occur very quickly - they are almost unnoticeable and people may not know they are doing it. For example, a machine operator may stand in the “line of fire” should something break apart or eject from a machine for only a split second as they move from one position to another. It may take a while to recognize these types of subtle behaviors - but once you start your observations you will be surprised how many you see. When defining critical behaviors, do so by going to the actual workplace and observing the actual job. This is where you can see what is actually happening. Defining critical behaviors by committee or discussion without actually observing the job will not work.
- Implementing change in organizations requires that management tap into the vast, underutilized talents of the people within the organization. In order to do that, management needs to understand the forces that drive human behavior. The three forces are: activators, competencies, and consequences. Activators precede behavior. If activators are effective then they get the right behaviors started. Competencies are the skills and abilities that people possess now or will need to posses in order to perform the desired functions. Competencies are demonstrated on the job in the form of behaviors. Consequences are the most powerful force. The consequences of a person’s actions determine whether he or she will continue or increase the desired behavior or discontinue or decrease it. The challenge is to use consequences in a strategic and honest way in order to create a win/win situation for everyone, not a win/win for some and a win/lose situation for others.
- Behavior, in its simplest definition, is anything that you see a person do. Typing at a computer terminal is behavior. Driving a car is behavior. Playing a piano is behavior. Taking out the trash is behavior. Brushing your teeth is behavior. If you can see it, you are seeing BEHAVIOR. Because we can easily see most people’s behavior we can therefore count or measure behavior if we want to. If you are driving in a car with someone you can easily count how many times they went over the posted speed limit. You can count how many times they actually came to a complete stop for a stop sign. At work you can count how many people in a shop area are wearing safety glasses. You can count how many times a person performs a repetitious job in accordance with the recommended steps listed on a safe job procedure. You can count how many times forklift operators enter a semi-trailer without bothering to check if the trailer wheels are chocked or the trailer is restrained. Because behavior is both observable and measurable, we can therefore manage behavior. For example, if you were a truck driver’s supervisor and you were riding with him/her you could observe if they were driving at or below the posted speed limit. You could manage the at risk behavior of exceeding the speed limit through the use of warnings such as “Slow down, you are exceeding the speed limit”, or “If I see you exceed the speed limit again I’ll give you a written warning” (negative reinforcement), or “If you don’t go over the speed limit any more on this trip today, when we return to the terminal I will let you go clock out early” (positive reinforcement).
- We often hear managers talk about an employee having a “bad attitude towards safety” or a “bad attitude about work in general” or that an employee “has a good attitude towards his/her job.” These statements reflect an overall perception that has been formed by observing a series of behaviors over time. Unfortunately they are not precise enough statements to allow us to pinpoint the specific behaviors that were being observed over time that led to this perception. You cannot see a person’s attitude. You can see his/her behaviors and form an opinion on what is causing that “attitude” but you can never be 100% certain that you are right. If our perception of a person’s attitude is based on our observation of his/her behaviors, remember that we just said that we can manage behaviors. If we can manage behaviors effectively enough we can get people to perform differently. If they perform differently long enough and are provided with positive reinforcement for their behavior changes, their attitude towards a particular work task will begin to change. How we manage behaviors will determine if that attitude change takes place quickly or slowly. If we use the technique of positive reinforcement we are likely to see the most rapid change. If we use mostly negative reinforcement and punishment we will probably see a slow change in attitude or perhaps very little change at all.
- The ABC model of behavior change has 3 components that lend it it’s name: Antecedents (also frequently referred to as activators) are objects, people, sensory perceptions, or environmental stimuli that serve as the trigger for a particular behavior. For example, seeing a stop sign is a trigger for a driver to slow down and cover the brake before coming to a stop. Behavior, as we have already said, is anything that you are able to observe a person do - walk, sit, stand, grasp, lift, read, sleep, etc.. Consequences are what the person who performs the behavior perceives or actually receives when he/she demonstrates a particular behavior. Consequences can either reinforce behavior (leading to an increase in performance) or punish or work to make the behavior extinct (leading to a decrease in performance). We will cover these three components in more detail now.
- Let’s look at the formal definition of activator. Can you give me some examples of activators? After you have given me the activator, tell me what behavior it triggers in you. I stress “in you” because what is an activator for you may not be an activator for another person. Examples of activators include: Stop sign Speedometer Car horn Alarm clock Signs: No Parking, Smile You Are on Radar, Caution, Danger Thin Ice Any training event A flat tire Ringing telephone Policy/procedure manual Suggestion box At a Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies forum on Executive Leadership it was estimated that executives spend 80% of their time working on activators such as policy, strategy, planning, budgets, etc. If activators only set the stage for performance but don’t control it is this a good use of their time?
- What does seeing the road sign on the top left cause you to do when you are driving? Does your behavior change when this activator is combined with another activator such as whether it is daylight or in the night time? When the roads are dry or icy? When you see dead deer by the side of the road in the area where these signs are placed? How about the sign on the top right? What does this cause you to do? Does it make a difference in your behavior if it is night or day? If you are driving in an area that you are familiar with and have passed this sign many times before or in a new, unfamiliar area? What about the speed checked by radar sign? Does this cause you to slow down? Turn up the volume on your radar detector? Trigger a memory of a recent speeding ticket that you got? Become more vigilant to scan the horizon for signs of unmarked or hidden police cruisers? And what about that Caution sign? Would that cause you to change your behavior? Become more aware of where you are walking? As we said earlier, activators only the set the stage for behavior - they don’t control it. The influence that an activator has on a person’s behavior is heavily dependent on the consequences that occurred in the presence of that activator in the past.
- Let’s now look at the formal definition of BEHAVIOR. When we say ‘pinpoint’ what do you think we mean? A pinpoint is a specific description of a person’s behavior. For example, if you say you observed “someone working” that would not be a pinpoint. A pinpoint description of someone working might be “sitting at a computer terminal and typing data from paper copies into a software data spreadsheet”. A better pinpoint description might be “sitting at a computer terminal with proper workstation setup including 5 caster, adjustable chair with lumbar support, arms at about a 90 degree angle to the keyboard, feet flat on the floor, monitor placed between 37” and 43” high, and typing data from a properly positioned document holder into a software data spreadsheet.”
- Here are some other examples of behavior - writing, going for a layup, checking cartons for proper contents, and reading. You could observe and measure these behaviors. Can anyone tell me what is going in the people’s minds? Can you tell me what their ‘attitude’ is?
- A consequence always follows any given behavior. The consequence may not be obvious to the observer of the behavior but it is very much present for the person performing a behavior. Because consequences happen so many times a day and are so common, we have learned in many situations to ignore them. They have become automatic, natural consequences. What are some examples of typical consequences that follow specific behaviors? Behavior - coin in soda machine / Consequence - can of soda comes out Behavior - turn on the water faucet / Consequence - water comes out Behavior - pick up ringing phone / Consequence - you talk to other person Behavior - sit on the toilet / Consequence - you feel relieved Behavior - eat a 9 course meal / Consequence - you feel full Consequences can either increase or decrease the likelihood of that behavior occurring in the future. Can you give me some examples of consequences that increase the likelihood of future behavior? Decrease the likelihood?
- Man on scale. The consequences of his getting on the scale may be that he is bummed out the rest of the day over how much weight he is putting on. On the other hand he may get on the scale and see that he’s lost a few pounds so he knows that he can go out for burgers and beers with the boys tonight! Crying child. Children quickly learn how to shape the behaviors of their parents. By crying the child’s consequences may be that Mom and Dad come running to soothe them, or try to bribe the child by saying they can stay up late and watch TV or that if they stop crying they will buy her a new toy tomorrow. These are all positive consequences for the child. What might be some negative consequences? Traffic cop. Usually we associate cops with negative consequences or punishment. The consequence for parking in a No Parking zone or for failing to feed the parking meter or for speeding may be a ticket. On the other hand for the police officer the consequences of this behavior may be highly reinforcing - a feeling of authority, power, got another bad guy. As you can see it is not easy to try and guess what the consequences of a particular behavior are for the person receiving those consequences. You generally have to ask.
- Note: this overhead and the following one should be used by the instructor to develop a list of positive and negative consequences (as seen through the eyes of the sunbather, aggressive driver, battery handler, and errant parker). From this list the instructor will then use some of the consequences to perform an ABC analysis to gain a better understanding of why the behaviors may be occurring and how easy or hard it may be to change the behavior. Sunbathing: what are some of the consequences of this behavior? Let’s list them on the board under the headings of Positive and Negative. Some might be: PositiveNegative RelaxingHot sun Good tan says “healthy”Sand flies, sand and oils Perceived more beautifulSkin cancer potential increased Socializing with other sunbathersTraffic driving to beach Watch the hunks & babesEmbarassed by my naked body Aggressive Driver: PositiveNegative Feeling of powerMay get ticket or accident Forcing poor drivers off the roadMay get shoot by another motorist Teaching others how to driveHard on car - brakes, gas, shocks
- Key Concepts There are 4 types of consequences: 2 (positive and negative reinforcement) tend to increase behavior; 2 (extinction and punishment) tend to decrease behavior. Extinction (essentially there’s no consequence). Seldom used in business to decrease undesired safety behaviors, but commonly (unknowingly) used to decrease desired safety behaviors. Punishment: Very effective & essential -- there always will be behaviors which cannot be tolerated. We need to understand how the punishment affects the person being punished. WHEN WOULD YOU USE PUNISHMENT? Positive and Negative Reinforcement can both increase behavior, but Positive gives the benefit of discretionary effort. Positive Reinforcement is not necessarily always beneficial: it can increase undesired behavior as well (ex: peer support for violating safety rules) Consequences are negative or positive based upon receiver’s perception, not sender’s intent
- Consequences influence behavior based upon three factors: timing, consistency, and significance. Significance is dependent on magnitude and impact. The different combinations of these factors will determine the likelihood of behavior increasing or decreasing in the future. Timing: Is the consequence immediate or does it happen in the future? For example, the consequence of putting your hand on a red hot burner on the stove is immediate - pain!! The consequence of not exercising for most of your adult life is not so immediate. Poor health in old age may come years down the road from now. Consistency: Is the consequence certain to happen or is there uncertainty? For example, if everyone who smoked cigarettes was guaranteed that by the time they had smoked their third cigarette they would have developed lung cancer, you’d have a lot less smokers. Because of the high degree of uncertainty of contracting lung cancer due to smoking, many people still smoke. Significance refers to whether the consequence is viewed as positive or negative by the person who receives the consequence. If I find that a friendly pat on the back by my boss is a positive stroke, another female co-worker may see that hand on her shoulder as a sign of sexual harassment - very negative. Significance means is the consequence of large or small magnitude and what impact does it have on the person receiving it.
- Positive reinforcement increases the likelihood of future behavior because the person who receives the consequences gets something they want. Positive reinforcement maximizes performance. It is important to note that if you are the person who is delivering the consequence for another person’s actions (behavior) and what you are delivering would be positive if it were given to you, it may not be positive for the receiver. For example, you are the supervisor of an employee who has put in tremendous extra effort to get a project completed ahead of schedule and under budget. You want to provide some positive reinforcement to that person so you give him two tickets to the opera (which you love to attend). Unbeknownst to you the person hates the opera and would have preferred 2 tickets to the monster truck show. The 2 opera tickets may actually now be viewed as punishment. Negative reinforcement increases behavior because a person is trying to avoid or escape something they don’t want. For example as a supervisor you have a deadline to meet and it doesn’t look like the project will make it. You tell everyone on the project team that they will be expected to devote 2 nights a week and every Saturday for the next month to working more hours. Suddenly work gets caught up and the project is back on schedule. Negative reinforcement only gets you compliance!
- Points to remember on positive reinforcement: 1. it is determined to be positive by the person receiving it 2. it must be delivered contingent on the desired behavior 3. it is the only way to maximize performance 4. anything is reinforcing to somebody, somewhere in the world nothing is reinforcing to everybody in the world Points to remember about negative reinforcement: 1. it gets you only enough improvement in performance to escape or avoid punishment 2. use of R- has negative side effects, such as escape and avoidance 3. R- never maximizes performance 4. it is only effective when it is followed by positive reinforcement One way to tell if you are using positive or negative reinforcement to drive performance is to remove the requirement for the performance and see if performance drops. If it does then you were using negative reinforcement. For example, you have a requirement to conduct weekly safety inspections by each supervisor in his/her department and you are currently getting 80% compliance. If you then say the weekly inspections are no longer required, although still a good idea, does the compliance rate drop off?
- This chart is a graphical representation of the effects of positive reinforcement on performance improvement - rather dramatic. Planning and delivery of positive reinforcement is not a natural act for most people. Therefore we need to plan our use of R+ as well as provide R+ to those who use it. Everybody gets thousands of R+ everyday. Remember that R+ follows behavior and increases its frequency. Common errors in the use of R+: Forgetting that what is reinforcing to one person may not be reinforcing to another. You can’t reinforce a team - you can only reinforce the members. Vince Lombardi said “Nothing is more unequal than the equal treatment of unequals.” Not understanding the relationship between a behavior and a reinforcer. You may be trying to reinforce one thing but actually reinforcing another. See Dilbert comic about $10 paid for every software bug found and fixed. Forgetting that all reinforcement is immediate. Delayed reinforcement is called a reward. When there is a delay between behavior and its consequences you may get behavior that you don’t want to reward. The best supervisors spend significantly more time out on the floor. Supervision needs to be where the performers are. Not understanding that you need a high number of R+ to change a single behavior and make sure that change becomes truly embedded. Figuring that one R+ will do it!
- Punishment decreases behavior by providing a consequence that the person did not want. For example, you see someone working without their safety glasses in an area where there have been a number of serious eye injuries. You approach the person and tell them to take tomorrow off (without pay) so they can think about why they must obey the safety glass rule. You have likely decreased the frequency of that behavior of not wearing safety glasses in the future in that person (and possibly others in the area for whom one person’s punishment becomes the antecedent for them to start wearing safety glasses again.) Extinction decreases behavior by not providing any positive reinforcement for behavior that was previously being reinforced. For example, when a young child cries in the toy aisle of the grocery store because they want a toy, the parent may buy a toy to shut the child up. This is positive reinforcement to the child’s act of crying in the store. If the parent ignores the crying in the future and doesn’t buy any toys, eventually the child will realize that crying to get toys no longer works. The behavior of crying for attention (and toys) will become ‘extinct’ due to lack of parental response.
- Here are two examples of punishment and extinction. What are some other examples that you could relate to either in the workplace or at home?
- This graph represents the effects of punishment for decreasing performance. With some safety problems the use of punishment is appropriate because you don’t have time to wait to begin applying positive or negative reinforcement. You need an immediate change in poor performance for the safety of the employee and others. What are some examples of punishment that have been used for dealing with safety problems? Some points to remember about punishment: P weakens or stops behavior P may cause undesired behaviors to increase P never solves the root cause of the problem P has many negative side effects, including hostility, fear, avoidance, escape, sabotage The person receiving the consequence is the one who determines if it is P, not the consequence itself
- This graph represents the effects of extinction on decreasing behavior. Performance may increase after you begin applying extinction as the performer tries harder to get your attention, before realizing that it is not going to work and starts decreasing performance. This increase in undesired behavior is called an “extinction burst.” A good example for anyone who has kids is the way a child responds when you are trying to extinguish an undesirable behavior by ignoring it. A child crying in their room will cry for a period of time and then stop when there is no response. Then, in case you didn’t hear it the first time, another salvo of crying - louder and longer - with toys being thrown against the wall will follow. This second salvo is the extinction burst at work. When they realize that this new effort still hasn’t produced results then the undesired behavior will start to decrease. Some points to remember about extinction: E weakens or stops behavior - we often mistakenly extinguish desired behaviors too! E occurs when nothing happens E may also weaken desired and undesired behaviors It is most effectively used when new behaviors that you do want to see are positively reinforced while the old behavior is being extinguished. If you are not actively using R+ then you it becomes E that is then driven to R-
- This graph displays the effects of the use of negative reinforcement. The dotted lines represent goals that management has established. When managed through the use of negative reinforcement people will likely wait until the last minute before ramping up their performance to meet the goal. Once they have met the goal then they coast along slowly until the next goal is set. Then they ramp up performance again at the last minute - go into idle and wait again. What are some examples of this type of “J curve” performance that you have experienced in your careers? Other ways to tell if there is management by use of negative reinforcement: “Negative talk” in the workplace - “Got too much to do and not enough time to do it” “I need a break” “I’m getting burned out” “They (workers) ought to want to do this and be glad they have jobs” “That’s what they’re paid to do”. R+ generates talk like “Could I help?” “When are we going to get started?” “The day just flies by” If a company is into stretch goals then they are usually into R-. Most managers are more likely to reinforce unrealistic goals than realistic goals. If performance goes flat at reaching the goal then you’ve got R- at work (unless you’re at the point of maximum performance improvement - and not many companies are!) If there is no planned R+ then it is R- by default.
- Think sign - this type of sign is often ignored because people naturally assume that they are always thinking that way. In the absence of any systematic job safety training they may not have been told the safe way so they improvise what they feel is the safe way. Lack of reinforcement from supervisors and co-workers about taking a few seconds to think things through - what are the hazards, how can I protect myself - before acting then becomes another example of extinction. While management may want employees to Think About Safety, lack of feedback and reinforcement causes that thinking habit to extinguish. The stop sign on the other hand is frequently obeyed because the consequences if you don’t stop are likely to be negative, immediate, and almost certain, particularly if you are in downtown Manhattan during the morning rush hour. If you are out in the back roads of North Dakota at 10 AM the benefits of driving right through without stopping may outweigh the remote possibility of another car being at the intersection and running into you. Past consequences - accidents, near misses, tickets - may be powerful. Lack of these three things - associated with stop signs - is more common. How many of us come to a complete stop - behind the stop sign at every intersection? How many of us come to a “rolling stop” where we slow down to 5 miles an hour, cover the brake and then blast on through?
- What is reinforcing for one person is often not reinforcing for another person, particularly in the workplace. When you are talking about hobbies you frequently find people with similar interests socializing together and enjoying activities that they find mutually reinforcing. Community sports teams are a perfect example. What do people do for enjoyment when they leave work? What types of hobbies do they have? How do they spend their time on vacation? If you won the Powerball lottery tonight and received $50 million, what would you do with your time? Would you come back to work? Most of us would not!
- Our challenge then is go from a negative reinforcement environment to a positive reinforcement environment. I am sure we would all like to see everyone at our workplace showing up for work because they want to, not because they have to just to receive a paycheck. The more we can increase the amount of discretionary effort expended by employees, the more rapidly we can tap into the reservoir of human potential that often lies dormant in most companies.
- This quote by Lester Thurow is quite appropriate when we talk about behavior-based safety. Accidents, near misses, injuries and illnesses in the workplace and at-home do not have to be an accepted norm. Companies that want to be competitive have to become better at eliminating waste. There is no greater waste that the waste of human capabilities, talents and lives because of unsafe working environments. Human capital is truly the most important resource in most organizations today. Companies that want to become competitive or remain competitive are those that will be the best at managing safety in the workplace. That will require change in how we approach safety. Behavior based safety techniques offer another important tool for doing this. Or as Mr. Thurow states, “You can lose”. Which do you want to do?