My new boss (American) uses this term increasingly, eg in context such as 'we need to develop a robust Near-Miss process to include forcing mechanisms for corrective and preventative action closure' or 'what forcing mechanisms are in place in a particular work instruction...

I think I know what he means but does anyone else use this term or have a good definition or examples of what it means please?

Thanks!

You could ask him to explain the American terminology.

SOunds like it means 'the action necessary to determine the required corrective action or to close out the issue'

I agree with bjc in that some mechanism must be present to make sure that CAs etc are fully completed and closed out. It is about placing responsibility on those allocated actions to complete.

Bob

Hang on ... let's open this egg up and see what's inside...

Maybe have some blue sky thinking on the possible horizons with regard to wrapping the whole with the vision to a solution.

So run it up the flagpole and see who salutes?

Forcing Mechanism is a well used phrase in science. Its about balance in a system.
In this case it relates to ensuring their is an effective system for closing out the near misses so that you are not overloaded with actions.
Your lucky that you have someone who recognises that it's not the number of near misses reported but how you handle them.

No, but the fundamental point here seems to be that the relevant people DON'T understand it. Assuming that the word means the same as another word that you can get to by adding a few letters seems a dubious method to me. 'Forcing' something and 'enforcing' something are not at all the same thing.

With respect to the OP question, I'd have thought that the fact that the manager in question is foreign makes this a much easier situation to deal with - you can safely say 'that terminology is not common in the UK, what does it mean?', which you couldn't say if he wasn't from elsewhere. Everyone gets to save face - if he can explain it. Of course, if he doesn't know what he means then it gets sticky.

A google search of the term relates this expression to climate change. It seems to refer to the factors (individual processes) that affect the overall process of climate change. So one could extrapolate that he means processes to ensure whatever he is referring to are fully controlled. Despite his language choice, his heart seems to be in the right place.

Best of luck telling your new boss that you don’t understand him and he should use British terms, I will look out for your postings on the careers section of the IOSH web site.

Just because someone is a ‘boss’ does not confer papal infallibility on them. I regularly challenge my directors when they go off using ‘management jargon’. They don’t mind explaining what they are talking about.
In fact they much prefer to be challenged rather than face a sea of nodding heads.
They also pull me up when I use ‘elf and safety ‘jargon.
So it cuts both ways.

I concur with the suggestions made since my earlier posting that it would be very worthwhile asking for a diplomatic chat with the new American boss - face to face if feasible. He might even respect you for taking the trouble and perhaps prove a useful ally about issues in the future.

As an aside to this thread, differences in the meanings and interpretations of words and phrases within English as a basic language provide a rich source of humour. For example, some months ago numerous news stories appeared on the internet with the common heading "Very rare whale spied in New Zealand". My initial reaction on first seeing a page which listed the stories was that it was downright stupid for any espionage organisation to engage a very rare whale to spy for it. Wouldn't it have been prudent to use a common and thus less obtrusive type of whale?!!! It seems that the news was spread internationally by American and/or Australian sources and that other news organisations simply copied and perpetuated the heading. Though the word 'spied' might have been okay for the original writer/s and their readers, better alternative words in UK English for 'spied' include seen, spotted and espied.

Even within the UK some misunderstandings and/or humour can arise from words and phrases used in different areas. For example, many years ago a mountaineering friend of mine from England was in hospital in Northern Scotland. He later described how a nurse approached him with a thermometer and said she was going to put it in his oxter. He said the nurse realised from the sudden and worried expression on his face that he didn't know what the word 'oxter' meant, and therefore explained to him that oxter was a good Scottish word for armpit! :-)

..........of course he might just have been promoted above the level of his incompetence and is trying to blind you with waffle. hehehe.

Safety Smurf - Though I realise that you were jesting in regard to my closing comment at #10 about using a hammer, it's possible that some forum users might not. Therefore, it's appropriate to point out that my comment was about using a hammer to hit INANIMATE items i.e. neither persons nor other living entities.

The topic of obstinate inanimate objects prompts me to mention that during the recent festive period I've wanted to attack my laptop because its broadband connection was frustratingly slow and even intermittent at times. However, I didn't because the satisfaction gained from doing so would have been extremely short-lived and left me with a badly damaged and probably irreparable machine! Goodness knows why the connection was poor - perhaps it was because too many people were using the internet while bored at home and on holiday. If other forum users experienced similar problems this might explain the low number of postings over the festive period. Anyhow, my broadband connection now seems better again so my laptop is safe from whatever type of rage I wanted to inflict on it! :-)

Back to the main theme of this thread: Among other aspects the American boss could be told, tactfully, that misinterpretation by British people of some of the American words or phrases he uses could unwittingly impair his credibility. Therefore, it would help if he were to check words and phrases with trusted people and/or to be open about the matter when talking to people. Surely most people would afford him some respect if he asked them to let him know if what he said either didn't make sense or seemed incongruous.

Well there seems to be a number of xenophobic responses based on total ignorance of the term

Please digest what John says at #9

This chap sounds like someone I'd be happy to work with

Working for a Japanese owned American Company I'm quite used to the different terminology. Added to that the company has its origins in the Ministry of Supply and has a very technical base 'jargon' is well used but perfectly acceptable. It may take a short time for new starters to grasp it but it soon becomes second nature.
I took a course a while ago given by the plain English society. In one part they took lines from the classics and converted them into 'plain' language. It took all the magic out of them and reduced them to boring statements.
Our vocabulary is constantly developing and new words and phrases come and go. Lets run this one up the flag pole and see if anyone salutes it.

Slightly off tangent, but we still have confusion over what certain phrases mean in this country!

I still remember investigating a burns injury where the IP was certain that inflammable was the opposite to flammable...how wrong he was!