Hi all, I'm looking for some advice on behavioural safety books. I want to read up on the subject and hopefully learn different techniques/ skills. Can someone suggest any good books?

An entertaining read as well as a useful guide to BBS is "The Emperor Has No Hard Hat" by Alan D Quilley. ISBN 0-9737485-0-8.

I'd agree this is a good site - if you dig deep enough in the resources, there is a 250 page "text book" that can be downloaded for free called "Improving Safety Culture".

B Bruce As you wrote that you are 'looking for some advice on behavioural safety books', it's important to consider reliable valid evidence about the matter. In particular, check reliable valid evidence on a. to what extent the assumptions that behavioural safety relies on are valid in your organisation b. how well behavioural safety methods have worked in the UK other than in projects funded by taxpayers (through the HSE) rather than the beneficiaries c. why the TUC has so strongly and publicly opposed the adoption of behavioural safety (even if their reasoning lacks validity in some important respects) d. alternative forms of intervention to behavioural safety that may more cost-effectively i. achieve safety goals of motivation and leadership to create value consistently by delivering value ii. support your own continuous professional development.

NIlevesy is right about the value of 'effective communiation....(that is) open and honest' and about 'ethical' behaviours. The challenge is often to deal with these matters in ways that can be validly measured so their contributions to delivering value are clear to anyone who is not prejudiced. In relation to B Bruce's explicit request about 'techniques', behavioural safety entails a host of techniques. A relatively straightforward technique that can further the adoption of behavioural safety at the same time as meeting the criteria enumerated by Nilesey is to conduct a well-designed survey inviting feedback about the role of the safety/health function and about the style of safety/health leadership. Using this feedback to generate open, honest conversations and action plans can be done very cost effectively and relatively swiftly, provided that reliable, valid measures are used.

Damelcfc's observation 'A good starting point is finding out the culture of your organisation right now, this will indicate if your ready or if it will fall on its backside'. is an interesting one - depending on what is meant by 'culture' - yet often high risk. For if the outcome is, in his image, 'falling on its backside', the net payoff may well be negative. By contrast, using a survey to establish the scale of readiness amongst managers to accept leadership from the safety/health function is a less risky way of determining the state of readiness. Discovering whether they're looking for a leader of cultural change or a traffic warden provides a set of benchmarks which can in turn be used as a basis for negotiating action plans at paces within the states of readiness of managers. The costs of falling on backsides can be avoided, with due thought and care.

The models I have been involved with require a commitment from all of the senior managers to 'never walk past an unsafe act' and sign a charter to this effect and then commit to 'doing' x amount of behavioural based discussions per month. This is the 'top down' approach. I personally prefer peer to peer discussions - brothers keeper type relationship, not management lead - this however can be extremely alien to a culture that does not embrace peer to peer discussion 'who are you to tell me? Your not my manager' type reactions. Sometimes the top down approach is just to kick it off with the ultimate aim being to eventually get to peer to peer. Like Risk Assessment and again I have to say the models I have used (as there are others) are not owned and Led by the safety manager so I fail to see why you single out the safety managers personality as an issue KD - the Head of the Organisation certainly. Slightly at a tangent but one certain failing of the above type system is Managers who are targeted with completing x per month (and certainly when appraised on this as a KPI) actually getting on the shop floor and doing them / completing falsely as a desktop exercise. Some type of audit may be appropriate. Do remember that some Managers/supervisors (like it or not) really struggle to actually 'talk' to their staff and no matter how much you train them their conversation management skills in this type of process is awful and they can do more harm than good. As I say pluses and minuses for BS in my opinion but be prepared to be in for the long haul and it doesn't rock everyones world - and I do insist if you are in a blame culture with high absence, lots of RIDDORS, lots of R/A actions open, safety number 5 on an agenda, no investment etc etc etc etc - then you are not ready!

A lot of people out there trying to sell the fuzzy science of BBS, watch out! Anyone interested in this area should first look at the work of Martin Fishbein and Icek Ajzen, the greats on whom most of the other recent authors have leaned heavily. Their most recent book "Predicting and Changing Behaviour" was published in 2010 and having recently finished it would have to say its a bit of a read unless you had some experience in this field. That said Ajzens web site is simply brilliant and outlines in simple terms the "theory of planned behaviour", link below: http://people.umass.edu/aizen/index.html If you get your head around TPB you have it cracked BUT the techniques/programmes/models etc that you might want to use in your own workplace will be solely determined by your organisation and attitude/disposition and support for action in area. Hope this helps what is a very interesting thread! Jonty