The Questioning attitudes - Question or not question?
What is a culture? According to Professor Edgar Schein (http://www.scheinocli.org) it is “A pattern of shared basic assumptions learned by a group as it solved its problems of external adaptation and internal integration” and he said in the “The Humble Leadership Series” : “You do want colleagues feeling safe and empowered to share what they know so that collectively your teams can make better decisions”
More specifically for safety culture, it can:
“Refer to a set of practices and actions that are shared within an organization, and which enable the company to manage its most significant risks ( ICSI- https://www.icsi-eu.org/en/publication/essentials-safety-culture)
“Be assembly of characteristics, attitudes and behaviors in individuals, organizations and institutions which establishes that, as an overriding priority, protection and safety issues receive the attention warranted by their significance.” (The International Atomic Energy Agency – IAEA https://www.iaea.org/topics/safety-and-security-culture
“Be the core values and behaviors resulting from a collective commitment by leaders and individuals to emphasize safety over competing goals, to ensure protection of people and the environment.” (The World Association of Nuclear Operators – WANO- https://www.wano.info/getmedia/49f169b0-a385-4cd2-a7d8-2f64b64cd8d2/WANO-PL-2013-1-Pocketbook-English.pdf.aspx
For the questioning attitude, the WANO defines a “Questioning Attitude” as: “…when individuals avoid complacency and continuously challenge existing conditions and activities in order to identify discrepancies that might result in error or inappropriate action.”
We know that basic assumptions determine behaviors and employees gain from their past experiences and start practicing it every day thus forming the culture of the workplace.
But what are basic assumptions and how to improve?
You should identify the assumptions that support safety culture and one of the best ways is the develop of questioning attitude.
Firstly, the questioning attitude depends on Just and fair culture, where the doubt is allowed, where stopping activities (Stop, think, act) is developed, peer to peer culture (taking care of your colleagues and practicing shared vigilance). As usual, it is matter of management and organization to develop a questioning attitude. However, if questioning attitude results in blame, you are not ready. It is so easy to discipline employees, they are not scapegoat.
Questioning Attitude must be a state of mind of the whole organization. You must assist, support, help, alert the workers to maintain an accurate understanding of the working conditions.
Keep in mind and develop questioning attitude for the management
- Do workers have the authority to STOP work?
- I see something, I say something
- Stop, think, act
- Take time out for questions
Be ready to manage such situation:
- Does the procedure, standard applicable?
- Employees do not respect the standard; management is aware and without reaction. One day, one employee is injured, what is your reaction?
- If the standard defines a way to do the task, employee does it accordingly and a failure occurs; what is your reaction? (Root causes analyze or Blame)
- How do you encourage employees to report?
And not:
- It’s ok because we do always this way mainly for routine or simple tasks
- Management doesn’t like to hear problem
- We have not any accident or any event
- Accident never happens here
- Proceeding with a task when questions exist
- Being unaware of critical parameters or margins
- Believing nothing can go wrong
- I assume,” “probably,” “I think,” “maybe,” “should be,” “not sure,” “might,” “we’ve always,” and so forth
The questioning Attitude does not come from a lack of trust for others, but it comes from a confidence that there may be a safer way of doing the task.
