Mindset

20 May 2022

"Defining and living by the values that create the trust needed to support positive safety conversations"

Everything starts with mindset. Whether as an individual, team or a whole organisation, it is a key part of safety. There was a lot of debate about whether this element should be called “culture”, but it can be harder to get your head around that word in a practical sense.

Ultimately, the goal is to ensure that you are open about safety, discuss your challenges, report occurrences, learn from them, and ensure that you really understand the difference between what you think is going on in your organisation (work as imagined) and what is happening in reality (work as done).

There are different things that make up your mindset. These shown in the illustration, below: 

Cogs

As an organisation, you might need to ask yourself some pretty fundamental questions. Be honest and strive continually to get the right mindset that really helps to drive safety.

There is also a close link between your mindset and the values of your organisation.

Do you have clear values and, most importantly, are they lived every day throughout your organisation and how do they translate into clear actions for everyone at every level?