September 06 2021
By: Shawn M. Galloway
Is 'how well risk is managed' in your organization a leading indicator on your scorecard? If not, here is an idea. We should always begin with effort to engineer risk out. We also know that not all risk can be completely eliminated, so in the 1950s the Hierarchy of Controls was created. It has evolved to six levels, more commonly known by five (NIOSH). But to capture everything, I'll use the six levels (NFPA70E): Elimination, Substitution, Awareness, Engineering Controls, Administrative Controls and PPE.
If you were to run a Pareto analysis on the safety actions taken, corrective (after an event) or proactively against the Hierarchy of Controls, what percent would fall where? This is the action a client took several years ago. I teach that safety excellence is the ability to get and repeat great results, knowing precisely what is leading to those results, with a cultural mindset further improvement will always be possible.
Hearing this, with a concern EHS leadership had that they weren't as good as executive leadership thought they were, they ran this Pareto. They did not find that 80-90 percent of the effort was elimination or substitution efforts. 
Rather, now with data, they could show senior leadership the effort was largely more paperwork and PPE to control the risks, leaving significant opportunities for human error. This yielded several things - better insight into how lucky they were, a business case to free up more capital for safety engineering, and a new leading indicator to drive performance and risk-reduction throughout the organization. Don't just measure results. Also measure the drivers of your results and better investigate your success for an increased confidence in sustainability.
"One accurate measurement is worth a thousand expert opinions" — Grace Murray Hopper
Shawn Galloway, CEO of ProAct Safety, is an expert in safety excellence. With almost thirty years of experience, he is a highly sought-after advisor, keynote speaker, and expert witness. Shawn has become a trusted partner to leading organizations across various industries worldwide. He ranks in the top 1% of the most prolific writers in his field, having authored over 500 articles and several bestselling books. He also launched the world's first safety podcast, Safety Culture Excellence©. As a recognized authority in safety, Shawn has received awards such as being named among the Top 50 People Who Most Influence EHS and a Top 10 Speaker, among others.
He is a regular guest on Bloomberg, Fox News, The Daily Mail, Dubai One, U.S. News & World Report, Sirius Business Radio, Wharton Business Daily, and leading safety magazines and podcasts. Shawn also serves as a member of the Harvard Business Review Advisory Council, Forbes Business Council, and Fast Company Executive Board, enabling his influence to shape safety thinking and strategy at the executive level.
