What is Culture to You?
What Does Your Culture Look Like?
How Do You Know?
An Organization’s values and behaviors modeled by its leaders
and internalized by its members, which serve to make safe
performance of work the overriding priority to protect the
workers, public, and the environment.
HRO Practice
#1
Manage the
System, Not
the Parts
HRO Practice
#4
Learn &
Adapt as an
Organization
HRO Practice
#2
Reduce
Variability in
HRO System
HRO Practice #3
Foster a Strong Culture
of Reliability
To Sustain an HRO
HRO Practice #3: Foster Strong Culture of Reliability
HRO Goal: Align, tighten,
and sustain spectrum of
performance.
Work-as-Imagined
Work-as-Planned
Work-as-Done
Where you want to be
The Work Environment
I get docked for every mistake.
I have more work than can be
done in a day and they keep
piling on more.
The Culture
I don’t report my
mistakes.
I cut corners.
I want to get home to see my
kids soccer games once in a
while.
I take the easiest path to
every assignment.
The procedures don’t work
and no one will help get them
changed.
I don’t follow procedures.
If I followed the system,
nothing would get done. If I
don’t produce, I get yelled at.
Besides, nothing bad ever
happens here.
I work around the system
when ever and where
ever I can.
The culture is not the problem, it is a
symptom of the problem. Fix the problem.
Address the organizational set-up factors.
PERSPECTIVES FROM SCHEIN’S LEVELS OF CULTURE
What You Do
Behaviors
What You
Say You’re
Going To Do
What You
Really Feel You
Should Do
Values and Beliefs
Underlying Assumptions
Weak safety culture when misaligned
Schein, Organizational Culture and Leadership, 2004
PERSPECTIVES FROM SCHEIN’S LEVELS OF CULTURE
What You Do
What You
Say You’re
Going To Do
What You
Really Feel You
Should Do
Behaviors
Values and Beliefs
Underlying Assumptions
Strong and Healthy safety culture when aligned
Schein, Organizational Culture and Leadership, 2004
HRO Practice
#1
Manage the
System, Not
the Parts
HRO Practice #4
Learn & Adapt as an
Organization
HRO Practice
#2
Reduce
Variability in
HRO System
HRO Practice
#3
Foster a Strong
Culture of
Reliability
Background on “Why”
A Safety Conscious Work Environment
is being Implemented
December 5, 2011 Memorandum
signed by:
– Secretary
Steven Chu
– Deputy Secretary
Daniel B. Poneman
Elements of Culture
Organizational Culture
Organizational Culture
Safety Culture
SCWE
Safety
Conscious
Work
Environment
• A set of commonly shared beliefs,
expectations, and values that influence and
guide the thinking and behavior of
organization members, and are reflected in
how work is carried out.
Safety Culture
• Safety culture is an organization’s values and
behaviors modeled by its leaders and
internalized by its members, which serve to
make safe performance of work the
overriding priority to protect the workers,
public, and the environment.
Safety Conscious Work Environment
• A Safety Conscious Work Environment
(SCWE) is a work environment in which
employees feel free to raise safety concerns
to management (and/or regulator) without
fear of retaliation.
DOE G 450.4 -1C, Attachment 10
Attachment 10 identifies:
Three Safety Culture Focus
Areas and Associated Attributes
that promote a shift from
compliance towards excellence.
They are covered on the next
few slides.
1. Leadership
2. Employee/ Worker Engagement
3. Organizational Learning

The intent of SCWE is to develop a “WILLING” and “ABLE”
Environment in which employees can raise safety concerns.
 “ABLE” is established by having processes for people to communicate
concerns, for management to receive them, review and then
prioritize them, ensure problems resolved and the results
communicated back to employees.
 “WILLING” is established by management behavior to receiving the
feedback and learn from it.
How do Leaders establish trust, questioning attitude and
“willingness” for employees to raise concerns?
16
Why do People Not Report Safety Concerns?
Chilled Effect – An environment in which employees
are UNWILLING or UNABLE to raise safety concerns
because the fear of retaliation.
Leaders create and
change culture
Managers act
within culture
21
Communication of
Clear Behavioral
Expectations
Understand
Expectations
Training,
Modeling,
Support
Practice
New Behaviors
Reinforcement,
Consistency,
Alignment
Perform
New Behaviors
Form Habits of
New Behaviors
Desired
Safety Culture
Three Manageable Behaviors:
“When we examine culture and leadership closely,
we see that they are two sides of the same coin;
neither can really be understood by itself . . . . .
it can be argued that the only thing of real
importance that leaders do is to create and
manage culture; that the unique talent of leaders is
their ability to understand and work culture; and
that it is an ultimate act of leadership to destroy
culture when it is viewed as dysfunctional.”
Schein, Organizational Culture and Leadership, 2004


Identify 3-5 Specific Indicators/Trouble Signs that
would indicate a potential weak Safety Culture
Describe how you would address the issues within
the DOE Environment.
Chernobyl – 1986
Davis-Besse – 2002
Columbia – 2003
BP - 2010
Fukushima – 2011
• Unlock the power of differing opinions
– Is someone assigned the task of challenging group
assumptions and decisions?
– Ask, “Why is this safe?” not “Why is this unsafe?”
• Be respectful of people who raise well-intentioned objections
– Even (especially) if they are later proven wrong
• Choose to learn from minor events to avoid major events
• Manage and model behaviors to change fundamentals
• The Next Big Event is coming, but it will probably not
look like the last one.
• Nevertheless, if we want to achieve/sustain highly
reliable operations, we need to use the current world
events as an opportunity to refocus and reenergize
our efforts to continuously improve safety.
Multiple, overlapping, and mutually redundant safety
management systems, grounded in ISM, High
Reliability Attributes, and a Strong Safety Culture are
a key to our continued success..

Record Daily Key Learnings:
 Group Consensus – Key Points Learned
 List on Flip Chart & Discuss

Homework:
 Individual Action Plan
 Deliverable for Course Completion