• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Safety Risk .net

Humanising Safety and Embracing Real Risk

  • Home
    • About
      • Privacy Policy
      • Contact
  • FREE
    • FREE SAFETY eBOOKS
    • Free Hotel and Resort Risk Management Checklist
    • FREE DOWNLOADS
    • TOP 50
    • FREE RISK ASSESSMENT FORMS
    • Find a Safety Consultant
    • Free Safety Program Documents
    • Psychology Of Safety
    • Safety Ideas That Work
    • HEALTH and SAFETY MANUALS
    • FREE SAFE WORK METHOD STATEMENT RESOURCES
    • Whats New In Safety
    • FUN SAFETY STUFF
    • Health and Safety Training
    • SAFETY COURSES
    • Safety Training Needs Analysis and Matrix
    • Top 20 Safety Books
    • This Toaster Is Hot
    • Free Covid-19 Toolbox Talks
    • Download Page – Please Be Patient With Larger Files…….
    • SAFETY IMAGES, Photos, Unsafe Pictures and Funny Fails
    • How to Calculate TRIFR, LTIFR and Other Health and Safety Indicators
    • Download Safety Moments from Human Resources Secretariat
  • PSYCH. OF SAFETY & RISK
    • What is Psychological Safety at Work?
    • Safety Psychology Terminology
    • Some Basics on Social Psychology & Risk
    • Understanding The Social Psychology of Risk – Prof Karl E. Weick
    • The Psychology of Leadership in Risk
    • Conducting a Psychology and Culture Safety Walk
    • The Psychology of Conversion – 20 Tips to get Started
    • Understanding The Social Psychology of Risk And Safety
    • Psychology and safety
    • The Psychology of Safety
    • Hot Toaster
    • TALKING RISK VIDEOS
    • WHAT IS SAFETY
    • THE HOT TOASTER
    • THE ZERO HARM DEBATE
    • SEMIOTICS
    • LEADERSHIP
  • Robert Long
    • ALL POSTS
    • Learning Styles Matter
    • There is no HIERARCHY of Controls
    • Scaffolding, Readiness and ZPD in Learning
    • What Can Safety Learn From Playschool?
    • Presentation Tips for Safety People
    • Dialogue Do’s and Don’ts
    • It’s Only a Symbol
    • Ten Cautions About Safety Checklists
    • Zero is Unethical
    • First Report on Zero Survey
    • There is No Objectivity, Deal With it!
  • Slogans
    • Researchers Reveal the Top 10 Most Effective Safety Slogans Of All Time
    • When Slogans Don’t Work
    • CLASSIC, FAMOUS and INFAMOUS SAFETY QUOTES
    • BEST WORKPLACE HEALTH and SAFETY SLOGANS 2022
    • CATCHY and FUNNY SAFETY SLOGANS FOR THE WORKPLACE
    • COVID-19 (Coronavirus, Omicron) Health and Safety Slogans and Quotes for the Workplace
    • Safety Acronyms
    • You know Where You Can Stick Your Safety Slogans
    • Sayings, Slogans, Aphorisms and the Discourse of Simple
    • Spanish Safety Slogans – Consignas de seguridad
    • Safety Slogans List
    • Road Safety Slogans 2022
    • How to write your own safety slogans
    • Why Are Safety Slogans Important
    • Safety Slogans Don’t Save Lives
    • 40 Free Safety Slogans For the Workplace
    • Safety Slogans for Work
  • Safety Culture
    • Safety Culture Silences
  • Psychological Safety
You are here: Home / George Robotham / What Makes a Safety Management System Fly

What Makes a Safety Management System Fly

October 16, 2014 by George Robotham 3 Comments

What Makes a Safety Management System Fly

clip_image001Had quite a bit of interest recently in this article – one of the most popular articles written by the late, great George Robotham – download his free E-Books HERE

Original published by the American Society of Safety Engineers, International Safety Best-Practice Specialty Newsletter, Spring 2002,Vol.1, No.3, incorporated in a subject of a OHS course at the University of New Brunswick, Canada – republished here by popular demand

Download the paper here: WHAT MAKES A SAFETY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM FLY

Basic Principles from the paper:

  1. Use real world approaches – not theory
  2. All paperwork must be succinct
  3. Whatever is done in OHS must be based on a needs analysis
  4. Need to get some runs on the board quickly
  5. Concentrate on the things that give you the best bang for your buck
  6. Aim for simplicity not complexity
  7. Minimise the bureaucracy and bull-shit
  8. Face to face communications should be used wherever possible
  9. Be guided in what you do by taxonomies of Class 1 damage in your industry
  10. As the facilitator of the process I will use the skills of appropriate self-disclosure and reflective listening

  • Bio
  • Latest Posts
  • More about George
George Robotham

George Robotham

George was a Legend in the Safety World who passed away in Sept 2013 but left us with a great legacy
George Robotham

Latest posts by George Robotham (see all)

  • Safety Communications - May 29, 2022
  • How To Write a Safety Report - May 9, 2022
  • Risk assessment tips - April 27, 2022
  • How to Write Safety Procedures - June 30, 2021
  • How to Give an Unforgettable Safety Presentation - June 3, 2019
George Robotham
I have worked in OHS for most of my working life, many years in the mining industry including over 10 years in a corporate OHS role with BHP. Since leaving the mining industry I have worked in a variety of safety roles with a variety of employers, large & small, in a variety of industries. I was associated with my first workplace fatality at age 21, the girl involved was young, intelligent, vivacious and friendly. Such a waste! I was the first on the scene and tried to comfort her and tend to her injuries. She said to me “George, please do not let me die” We put her on the aerial ambulance to Rockhampton base hospital where she died the next day. I do not mind telling you that knocked me around for awhile. Since then I have helped my employers cope with the aftermath of 12 fatalities and 2 other life-altering events. The section "Why do Occupational Health & Safety" provides further detail but in summary, poor safety is simply very expensive and also has a massive humanitarian cost. My qualifications include a certificate I.V. in Workplace Training and Assessment, a Diploma in Frontline Management, a Diploma in Training & Assessment Systems, a Bachelor of Education (Adult & Workplace Education) , a Grad. Cert. in Management of Organisational Change and a Graduate Diploma in Occupational Hazard Management. I am currently studying towards a Masters in Business Leadership. Up until recently I had been a Chartered Fellow of the Safety Institute of Australia for 10 years and a member for about 30 years. My interest is in non-traditional methods of driving organisational change in OHS and I have what I believe is a healthy dis-respect for many common approaches to OHS Management and OHS Training. I hold what I believe is a well-founded perception that many of the things safety people and management do in safety are “displacement activities” (Displacement activities are things we do, things we put a lot of energy into, but which when we examine them closely there is no valid reason for doing them). My managerial and leadership roles in OHS have exposed me to a range of management techniques that are relevant to Business Improvement. In particular I am a strong supporter of continuous improvement and quality management approaches to business. I believe leadership is the often forgotten key to excellence in most aspects of life. I hold the Australian Defence Medal and am a J.P.(Qualified). I have many fond memories of my time playing Rugby Union when I was a young bloke.

Please share our posts

  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)

Related

Filed Under: George Robotham, Safety Management Plan, Safety systems Tagged With: safety management system, safety management systems

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Search and Discover More on this Site

Never miss a post - Subscribe via Email

Enter your email address and join other discerning risk and safety people who receive notifications of new posts by email

Join 7,461 other subscribers

VIRAL POST!!! HOW TO QUIT THE SAFETY INDUSTRY

NEW! Free Download

Please take our 2 minute zero survey

Recent Comments

  • Jayesh Patel on How to Calculate TRIFR, LTIFR and Other Health and Safety Indicators
  • Rob Long on How to be a Safety Extremist
  • Admin on How to be a Safety Extremist
  • Rob Long on How to be a Safety Extremist
  • Rob Long on How to be a Safety Extremist
  • Andrew Floyd on How to be a Safety Extremist
  • grumpy on How to be a Safety Extremist
  • Rob Long on How to be a Safety Extremist
  • Ray on How to be a Safety Extremist
  • Rob Long on How to Leave the Safety Industry
  • Wynand on How to Leave the Safety Industry
  • Brian Edwin Darlington on How to Leave the Safety Industry
  • Brian Edwin Darlington on Culture Silences in Safety – What Culture Isn’t
  • Rob Long on How to Leave the Safety Industry
  • Rob Long on How to Leave the Safety Industry
  • Brent Charlton on How to Leave the Safety Industry
  • Richard Brookes on How to Leave the Safety Industry
  • Rob Long on The Rhizome as a Learning Model for Risk
  • Ooker on The Rhizome as a Learning Model for Risk
  • Rob Long on Safety Doesn’t Need Military Language

FREE eBOOK DOWNLOADS

Footer

Top Posts & Pages. Sad that most are so dumb but this is what safety luves

  • Free Safety Moments and Toolbox Talk Examples, Tips and Resources
  • BEST WORKPLACE HEALTH and SAFETY SLOGANS 2022
  • Road Safety Slogans 2022
  • CATCHY and FUNNY SAFETY SLOGANS FOR THE WORKPLACE
  • Download Safety Moments from Human Resources Secretariat
  • 15 Safety Precautions When Working With Electricity
  • FREE RISK ASSESSMENT FORMS, CHECKISTS, REGISTERS, TEMPLATES and APPS
  • What Is Safety?
  • IDEAS FOR SAFETY TOOL BOX TALKS, HARD HAT CHATS and SAFETY MOMENTS
  • Free Risk Assessment Template in Excel Format

Recent Posts

  • How to be a Safety Extremist
  • No Safety in Numbers
  • The Safety Spoilsport
  • The Safety Worldview and the Worldview of Safety, Testing Due Diligence
  • The Enemy of Safety – Humans
  • The Sacred Bra Tree
  • Understanding Psychological Terminology
  • Beware False Profits and Messiahs in Safety
  • Risk Boldly
  • Poetics of the Self
  • Culture Silences in Safety – What Culture Isn’t
  • There is No Objectivity, Deal With it!
  • When Only More Guilt Will Do
  • How to Leave the Safety Industry
  • Keep Counting Every Time You Don’t Achieve Your Goal, That’s Professional
  • Safety and Non-Neuroscience
  • Paperwork and Usability in Tackling Risk
  • Safety as a Masculinist Activity
  • You Don’t Want a Compliance Culture
  • The Soul of Mental Health
  • Identity and Safety
  • Psychosocial Controls and Measures for Who?
  • Linguistics and Safety
  • Not a Profession’s Bootlace
  • Cultural Silences in Safety – Power and Politics
  • History and Safety
  • What is Psychosocial Safety
  • It’s the –ism That Matters
  • A Guide to Psychosocial Safety Skills
  • Doing Away With Health and Safety–Language and People
  • The New Enemy of Safety – The Unconscious
  • Tape Down Those Leads
  • More Safety Code to Disguise Behaviourism
  • Why Safety is Attracted to Behaviourism
  • Safety Culture–Hudson’s Model
  • Understanding Safety as an Archetype
  • The Purpose of Safety
  • Learning Styles Matter
  • Due Diligence and Holistic Ergonomics Workshops
  • Having FUN in Safety FUNdamentalism
  • 80% of Safety Practitioners Are Idiots
  • Risk Homeostasis Theory–Why Safety Initiatives Go Wrong
  • Culture Silences in Safety – Semiotics
  • Flooding is Dangerous, and I don’t Mean the Water….
  • Cultural Silences in Safety – Aesthetics
  • Impacts of Cognitive Dissonance in the Workplace
  • What Can Safety Learn From Playschool?
  • Risky Conversations, The Law, Social Psychology and Risk
  • Due Diligence Videos – 10000 downloads
  • Release the Safety Monster and Wreck a Good TV Show

FEATURED POSTS

SOCD – Safety Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

When ‘Hearts and Minds’ are not ‘Hearts and Minds’

Making Sense of Semiotics and Safety

A Critique of Pure Reason

OnLine Learning Modules with CLLR

The Illusion Of Hazard Identification

Anchoring Safety to Objects

The Mythic Symbology of Safety

No Moral Compass in Zero

The Social Psychology of Risk Handbook, i-thou

Balance in Risk and Safety

Understanding Conscience and Safety

Incrementalism, Catastrophism and All That’s In-between

Safety Isn’t Sexy, and it Shouldn’t Be!

Models From Social Sensemaking

What Does SPoR Do?

Even Safety Is Fallible

Unthinkable

King of the World – Why is Sociopathy and Psychopathy so prevalent ‘at the top’?

Please Don’t Try to Fix Me – I’m Not a Machine

Europe – International Workshop Social Psychology of Risk Introduction

Safety Giveaways–Free Stuff!

Safety Can’t Control Nature (or People)

Sergeant Safety

Desensitization, Statistics and the Psychic Numbing of Numerics

Zero Suicide and the Discourse of Denial

You Don’t Want a Compliance Culture

Human Factors is Never About Humans

People are not Rats–Moving Beyond Behaviour Based Safety

Brain-Centredness and Occular-Centredness in Risk

Human Dymensions Newsletter–Feb 14

Sexual Stereotyping Can Be Deadly

non-Leadership in Risk

The Tyranny of Absolutes

Psychology and safety

An Ethical Psychology of Risk

How Workers Really Make Decisions

Checklist Seduction and The Delusion of Data

Holistic Ergonomics

Snap, Crackle, Pop. That’s the Sound we Love to Hear

More Posts from this Category

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address and join other discerning risk and safety people who receive notifications of new posts by email

Join 7,461 other subscribers

How we pay for the high cost of running of this site – try it for free on your site

What is Psychological Safety at Work?