{"id":1024,"date":"2024-06-14T13:05:30","date_gmt":"2024-06-14T13:05:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/getthegrit-uk.qbd2.co.uk\/?p=1024"},"modified":"2024-06-14T13:43:31","modified_gmt":"2024-06-14T13:43:31","slug":"serious-injuries-and-fatalities-sif-viewpoint","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.getthegrit.com\/en_us\/serious-injuries-and-fatalities-sif-viewpoint\/","title":{"rendered":"Serious Injuries and Fatalities (SIF) : Viewpoint"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Teresa Swinton, CEO at GRIT shares her viewpoint on S.I.F\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>

Recently the term S.I.F. (Serious Injuries and Fatalities), has crept into our \u2018safety\u2019 vocabulary and many of our clients are talking about it, particularly those based in the USA.<\/p>

S.I.F Programs – What We Know<\/h3>

To those of us who have been around the block a few times, this isn\u2019t something new, In the UK and across Europe we have been talking about \u2018High Potential\u2019 events for many years, but like all sexy acronyms S.I.F. is gaining some focus and attention and we are being asked a lot about our \u201cS.I.F. Program\u201d \u2013 Do we have one? What does it cost? and my particular favourite \u2013 how long does it take?<\/p>

As you will probably know, I am usually dismissive of giving old things new names (see my recent article on Learning Teams for example), but I have to say I am not totally dismayed by this one. As someone who advocates that \u2018Nobody should die for a wage packet\u2019, I\u2019ve made it my life\u2019s work through the companies I own, the clients I work with and the events I speak at, to shine a light on the employers\u2019 absolute moral and legal obligation to protect it\u2019s people from injury, ill health and death and so S.I.F. is a buzz phrase I can live with!<\/p>

Asking the Questions No-one Likes to Ask<\/h3>

What I like about S.I.F. is that it specifically draws attention to the people who are at risk of injury and death in our workplaces and if we truly look at S.I.F. Prevention we have to have the conversation that nobody likes to have \u2013 how will people be seriously injured or die in our business? How many could be seriously injured or die from our most hazardous activities and if push came to shove how could we reduce those consequences, perhaps even if the best we could hope for is more minor injuries or less fatalities?<\/p>

I often ask my clients \u201cHow much is a life worth in your organisation?\u201d Once they get over the indignity of my question, most of them either don\u2019t know or have never even thought about it; if that is the case, how can they ever know what \u2018tolerable risk\u2019 looks like when it comes to developing safe working arrangements for their people? In my experience, even organisations who still bang on about \u2018zero harm\u2019 have no idea how much a death or serious injury will cost them but ask them to spend a few grand on \u2018safety improvements\u2019 and the answer is usually something along the lines of \u201cHell No!\u201d How can any organisation refuse to spend money on \u2018safety improvements\u2019 when their mantra is \u2018zero harm\u2019? Perhaps they should add the strap line \u2018as long as it doesn\u2019t cost more than a fiver\u2019?<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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Why I don’t agree with Zero Harm targets<\/h3>

Because they have no concept of the cost of a life, until of course they lose one, and let\u2019s be honest those of us who have experienced that devastation know that there is so much more than financial loss involved. When it happens, a fiver or even a few hundred thousand seems insignificant in comparison.
I have never supported a \u2018Zero Harm\u2019 target, and during my time at companies I have been fortunate enough to work for I always coated my discomfort with platitudes like \u201cHow could we have any other target?\u201d but make no mistake, my discomfort was real because I know first-hand what it really takes to achieve zero harm and most CEO\u2019s don\u2019t want to hear it and nor should they \u2013 so stop kidding yourselves with this bullsh*t. If you truly want zero harm, send your people home and stop doing business.<\/p>

Why we Should be Focussing on a Healthy Tension Model\u00a0<\/h3>

I believe there has to be a \u2018healthy tension\u2019 in any successful organisation and profitability has to be at the centre of it, otherwise why would we be in business? Even \u2018Not for Profit\u2019 organisations have to make a profit \u2013 otherwise how do they provide the amazing support and services to their benefactors?
My \u2018Healthy Tension\u2019 model looks like this, although yours might look different:<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Healthy Tension Model by Teresa Swinton<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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In my model it is crucial to understand what \u2018healthy\u2019 looks like in each of the sectors because an increase in costs (an expansion) in any one of them either contracts one or more of the other sectors or eats straight into the profitability. Most organisations can readily tell me what productivity costs them, what customer loyalty costs them and what attracting and recruiting the right people costs them but sadly not many can tell me what \u2018safe\u2019 costs them, not safety but \u2018safe\u2019.<\/p>

I often hear things like \u2018I only have 25k in my \u2018safety\u2019 budget this year\u2019 and I always feel like saying \u201cJeez, I hope you\u2019ve got a big \u2018unsafety\u2019 budget then!\u201d in response. Right now, there are obvious increases in the cost of every other sector in my model and so sadly \u2018Safe\u2019 is getting squeezed. Unbefrigginlievable for those out there still flying the flag for \u2018Zero Harm\u2019!
The bottom line is the CEO needs to understand the cost of \u2018safe\u2019 and I think S.I.F. just might be a vehicle for exploring this very thing.
Identifying our potential \u2018People Killers\u2019 is the first step on this journey and it is good to see some papers and organisations espousing the use of the \u2018Energy Wheel\u2019 to do this. It helps to focus our attention and order our thoughts and you can find a version of it with a quick google search. It\u2019s a great starting point for any organisation but don\u2019t forget to consider other hazards or hazardous activities unique to your operation. Sadly that\u2019s just about where google\u2019s help (currently) ends.<\/p>

The sad thing is, when I look around there doesn\u2019t actually seem to be an awful lot out there on \u2018Prevention\u2019. There are lots of articles and papers saying how to grade an accident when it has happened from LSIF to HSIF but we all know that when we are proactively assessing risk before the HSIF has hit the fan it is much more difficult to do. Why? Because in today\u2019s era of instant gratification we all want quick and easy and I\u2019m sorry to say, preventing serious injuries and fatalities isn\u2019t anywhere near as quick and easy as creating them.<\/p>

Who’s Responsible for S.I.F Prevention in the Organisation?<\/h3>

S.I.F. Prevention is not the job of the Safety department \u2013 let\u2019s just get that out of the way! It requires continuous management and relentless commitment from everyone but as with most things, it starts with Senior Leadership. Once we have identified our \u2018People Killers\u2019 (I call them this for the very reason that it makes you feel uncomfortable when you say it) the next and most difficult part is to agree what we need to do to prevent their potential being realised and yes, there is inevitably cost involved which, if we haven\u2019t allowed for it or don\u2019t plan it appropriately, might contract one or more of our sectors.
Let\u2019s take a moment to speak about the unspeakable \u2013 this is when it becomes important for us to understand the cost of a life or a serious, life-changing injury. Knowing this helps us to make sensible decisions based on your own \u2018Healthy Tension\u2019 model. Fortunately, for most of us we don\u2019t make a habit of killing or seriously injuring our people and so we have to be able to assess the likelihood and potential frequency of the worst happening.<\/p>

E.g. do you want to invest 4m in new equipment or technology if the likelihood of a S.I.F. is one life in a 1000 every 60 years and will \u2018only\u2019 cost you 350k? Maybe not, however, if you have to spend 4m on rescue vessels to extract 300 people from an oil rig in an emergency and each life costs you 1m and the frequency could be every 10 years, well you might just be writing that cheque pretty quickly.<\/p>

Obviously, the examples here are straight out of my head so don\u2019t bother fact-checking them and commenting about how stupid I am!
Actually what I have found really interesting, and quite a relief for the clients we have worked on this with, is how little it actually does cost to prevent S.I.F.s in financial terms.
Ensuring that our people are well trained, competent and capable, tightening our hazard controls and monitoring their application studiously, understanding organisational drift, preventing error-likely situations from accumulating, proceduralising the use of error reduction tools where practicable, paying attention to weak signals in our operations and ensuring that our procedures are detailed, accurate and regularly reviewed and amended, all go a long way to preventing the worst from happening and, if you have done a good enough job of truly narrowing down your \u2018People Killers\u2019 none of this should be \u2018too onerous or difficult\u2019 to do.<\/p>

If you think you are facing a monumental task to achieve this, you need a clear plan so start with one team or department at a time and facilitate a workshop, start by exploring the Energy Wheel together and discussing the work done by this team or department; then move on to the next. Finally, when you have identified the P.S.I.F.s from every department you can start to look across the board to decide where to start from an Organisational perspective, knowing that each team or department will already be starting to work on their own individual ones.<\/p>

If you would like help you can of course reach out to us here at G.R.I.T and we would be more than happy to support you.<\/p>

I would love you to share your \u2018Healthy Tension\u2019 models with us and to hear how you are managing P.S.I.F.s or High Potential Events in your organisation. I am absolutely passionate about the work myself and my colleagues at GRIT do with our clients around the World because it truly does save lives and organisations. If you would like to hear more about our work please reach out to me at teresa@getthegrit.com\u00a0<\/p>

Teresa Swinton CEO G.R.I.T<\/strong><\/p>

About Teresa<\/strong><\/p>

Teresa is regular speaker and podcast guest discussing her views on S.I.F and how Leadership styles impact organisation behaviours and outcomes (leaders creates the values and organisation).\u00a0<\/p>

She is the the driving force behind G.R.I.T in the U.K, and brings a deep understanding of high-risk industries to her role. Her commitment to instigating meaningful workplace change and her expertise in human performance and leadership development make her a respected and passionate speaker.\u00a0<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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Teresa Swinton, CEO at GRIT shares her viewpoint on S.I.F\u00a0 Recently the term S.I.F. (Serious Injuries and Fatalities), has crept into our \u2018safety\u2019 vocabulary and many of our clients are talking about it, particularly those based in the USA. S.I.F Programs – What We Know To those of us who have been around the block […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1022,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.getthegrit.com\/en_us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.getthegrit.com\/en_us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.getthegrit.com\/en_us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.getthegrit.com\/en_us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.getthegrit.com\/en_us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1024"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/www.getthegrit.com\/en_us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1024\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2675,"href":"https:\/\/www.getthegrit.com\/en_us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1024\/revisions\/2675"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.getthegrit.com\/en_us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.getthegrit.com\/en_us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.getthegrit.com\/en_us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.getthegrit.com\/en_us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}