Leadership and HRO
Becoming the Culture We Want
Effective Fire Operations and Safety
 Learning Organizations
 Effective Safety Culture
 Highly Reliable Performance
LCES
Human Factors
Leadership Development
Movement
A Group of People with a Common
Ideology Who Try Together to
Achieve Certain General Goals
Leadership and HRO
Becoming the Culture We Want
 HRO
 Organizational Culture
 Leadership
Challenges
 Extremely Dynamic Environment
 Lots of Decisions to Make
 Simplified Decisions
 Complex, Variable, Nearly Unknowable
 Dysfunctional Momentum
Reliability
Depends on Consistent Performance
Avoids the:
 Unwanted
 Unanticipated
 Unexplainable
What’s HRO Look Like in Real Life?
HRO Principles
Build Capacity
More Than They Solve Problems
Five Lessons Learned
1. Watch for Weak Signals of Failure
2. Suspicious of Simple Interpretations
3. Focus on Ongoing Operations
4. Locate and Defer To Expertise
5. Capacity to Flex and Bounce Back
Effective Fire Operations and Safety
 Learning Organizations
 Effective Safety Culture
 Highly Reliable Performance
Culture
A Pattern of Shared Basic Assumptions a
Group Learned as it Solved Problems of
External Adaptation and Internal Integration
(Schein, 1993; 373-374)
Culture
 Worked Well
 Considered Valid
 Taught to New Members as Correct Way to
Perceive, Think, and Feel
(Schein , 1993; 373-374)
HRO as Part of Safety Culture
A Set of Established Attitudes, Values, Beliefs,
Norms, and Practices Where Safety is Revered,
Promoted and Treated as an Overriding Priority
Core Values and Behaviors Resulting from a
Collective Commitment by Leaders and
Individuals to Emphasize Safety Over
Competing Goals
Source: US Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Characteristics
Informed Culture
Reporting Culture
Just Culture
Learning Culture
Flexible Culture
Adapted from James Reason, “Managing Risks of Organizational Accidents”
Leadership
An Influence Relationship Among People
Who Intend Real Change that that
Reflects Their Mutual Purposes
Four Components
Leadership is Influence
Leadership is a Relationship
Leadership is About Change
Pursuing Mutual Interest
How a Movement is Made and…
How a Lone Nut Becomes a Leader
Role Modeling
Be the Change You Want to See in the World
Leadership and HRO
 Keep Simple - Make Easy to Follow
 Nurture Early Followers
 Be Public – Followers See Followers
Leadership and HRO
 Be Strategic – Pursue Tipping Point
 If Not Lone Nut, be the 1st Follower
 Courageously Follow/Show Others How
Changing Culture
 More than Formal, Punctuated Events
 Change Hearts & Minds of Majority
 HRO a Conscious Set of Values
The Role of Leadership
 Leaders Create Culture
 Culture Creation - Essence of Leadership
 Culture Mgt - Essence of Leadership
(Schein, 1997)
The Role of Leadership
A Leader Wanting to Start Evolutionary
Change Must First Understand the
Dynamics of Culture
(Schein, 1997)
Cultural Facilitators
 Highly Applicable
 Directly Related to Other Concepts
 “Already Doing”
Cultural Barriers
 Academic Skepticism
 Bias for Action/Can-do
 Organizational ADHD
We Lead Others By
 Treating Them Individually
 Stimulating Them Intellectually
 Inspiring and Motivating Them
 Building Trust and Commitment
Characteristics
Informed Culture
Reporting Culture
Just Culture
Learning Culture
Flexible Culture
Adopted from James Reason, “Managing Risks of Organizational Accidents”
Informed Culture
Understand Variables Affecting Whole
System
 Human
Reluctance to Simplify
 Technical
Sensitivity to Operations
 Organizational
 Environmental
(Hopkins, 2002)
In Reporting Culture: Employees
 Encouraged to Report
 Assured Information Will be Acted On
Preoccupation with (Preventing) Failure
(Hopkins, 2002)
Learning Culture
In Short, The Organization is Able
to Learn and Change From its Prior Mistakes
Commitment to Resilience
(Hopkins, 2002)
Just Culture
“An atmosphere of trust in which people are
encouraged (even rewarded) for providing safetyrelated information, but in which they are also clear
about where the line must be drawn between
acceptable and unacceptable behavior”
Sensitivity to Operations
Commitment to Resilience
(Hopkins, 2002)
Flexible Culture
• Adapt to Changing Demands
• Reconfigure in Face of High Tempo Ops
• Shift Authority Structure
Commitment to Resilience
Deference to Expertise
Toward a New Philosophy
 Accept That Error And
Failure Are Expected And
Will Happen
Contact Information
Michael T. DeGrosky
www.GuidanceGroup.org