American Oil and Gas Reporter - December 2024 - 68

SpecialReport: Industry Safety Strategies
steps to minimize them even when nothing
bad has happened.
To identify the inputs they should
monitor, companies should begin with a
broad question: What is critical to the
success of our company? In other words,
what tasks do we need to complete, what
risks or challenges do those tasks present,
and what steps can we take to minimize
such obstacles?
The inputs a company, division or
team cares about will vary based on the
work it does. For a drilling rig, inputs
may include time spent in the Red Zone,
how often objects get dropped, whether
preventative maintenance for safety-critical
components occurs on schedule,
and the frequency of severity of excursions
from the norm, such as pressure
or temperature spikes, kicks and hydrogen
sulfide alarms.
Most companies should also watch
inputs associated with supporting activities,
such as driving. Many safety-conscious
companies have begun to monitor behaviors
that increase the potential for an
accident or often occur during close calls,
such as speeding and hard braking. If
these risk indicators seem high, coaches
can step in to help drivers improve.
Whatever inputs they focus on, companies
should periodically reflect on their
safety programs, asking:
· Are the barriers we have put in place
to protect workers achieving that goal?
· Have our safety programs and policies
made a difference?
· Do our incident investigations lead
to sustained changes in how teams manage
risk?
· Do employees know the hazards
associated with their job and how to manage
them?
If the answer to these questions is
yes, companies will have far fewer incidents.
However, it still is vital to learn
from the ones that occur.
Incident Response
An ounce of prevention may be worth
a pound of cure, but even the best companies
occasionally make mistakes.
When that happens, the response will
have a dramatic effect on employees'
willingness to bring up future issues.
Ideally, leaders should focus not on
punishing individuals, but on understanding
the circumstances that led to
the event and what the organization can
do to minimize the chance of recurrence.
This approach is embodied in the principles
of Human and Organizational
Performance (HOP):
· People make mistakes,
· Blame fixes nothing,
· Context drives behavior,
· Learning is vital,
· Your response matters.
Humans make errors (slips and lapses)
at somewhat predictable rates. How leadership
responds to those errors will either
improve or undermine safety culture. If
organizations play the blame game, workers
will learn to hide incidents. But if organizations
respond with curiosity, employees
will feel comfortable reporting
incidents and providing the information
companies need to identify the causes,
learn from the event and implement more
effective controls.
Those causes often come from the environment
or context in which people
work. Where there is a potential for a
slip or lapse, such as during valve alignment
or setting kickout parameters, a
checklist or verification can help reduce
the chances of an incident. During drilling,
an employee may miss a precursor to a
kick if the interface for monitoring operations
presents an overwhelming amount
of information rather than highlighting
what truly matters.
The curious, blame-free mindset that
HOP advocates will prove beneficial
whether a company is investigating a
safety issue or an operational one, such
as downtime associated with equipment
failures. In either case, leaders who focus
on understanding contributing factors will
get the insight they need to know what is
working and where changes can improve
performance.
Technological Controls
In many contexts, the right technology
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can significantly reduce the likelihood of
injury. When companies try to mitigate
risks, they should always investigate
whether technological solutions exist.
Those solutions will never eliminate the
need to develop a strong safety culture
and effective policies and procedures,
but they can free employees to focus on
other risks.
When technological solutions exist
but prove too expensive for individual
companies to implement, it's worth asking
whether companies can work together to
either lower the price or to help contractors
acquire the necessary equipment.
It's also worth participating in industry
organizations, such as the SPE and
IADC, that try to identify and promote
good practices and conduct benchmarking
studies to help everyone advance safety.
These groups frequently bring in a variety

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American Oil and Gas Reporter - December 2024

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