Essential Practices for Developing, Strengthening and Implementing Process Safety Culture

Supplemental Material Available on the Web XIII

Acronyms and Abbreviations XV

Glossary XVII

Acknowledgements XIX

Preface XXIII

Nomenclature XXVII

Executive Summary XXIX

1 Introduction 1

1.1 Importance of Process Safety Culture 1

1.2 Definition of Process Safety Culture 2

1.3 Warning Signs of Poor Process Safety Culture 11

1.4 Leadership and Management Roles and Responsibilities 13

1.5 Organizational Culture, Process Safety Culture, and Business Success 15

1.6 Corporate Climate and Chemistry 17

1.7 Summary 17

1.8 References 20

2 Process Safety Culture Core Principles 23

2.1 Establish an Imperative for Process Safety 25

2.2 Provide Strong Leadership 29

2.3 Foster Mutual Trust 32

2.4 Ensure Open and Frank Communications 35

2.5 Maintain a Sense of Vulnerability 42

2.6 Understand and Act Upon Hazards/Risks 49

2.7 Empower Individuals to Successfully Fulfill their Process Safety Responsibilities 54

2.8 Defer to Expertise 57

2.9 Combat the Normalization of Deviance 59

2.10 Learn to Assess and Advance the Culture 67

2.11 Summary 72

2.12 References 73

3 Leadership for Process Safety Culture within the Organizational Structure 77

3.1 Definition of Process Safety Leadership 77

3.2 Characteristics of Leadership and Management in Process Safety Culture 83

3.3 Leadership Vs. Management 96

3.4 Consistency of Process Safety Messages 97

3.5 Turnover of Leadership, Succession Planning, and Organizational Management of Change 98

3.6 Summary 103

3.7 References 104

4 Applying the Core Principles of Process Safety Culture 107

4.1 Human Behavior and Process Safety Culture 107

4.2 Process Safety Culture and Compensation 109

4.3 Process Safety Culture and Ethics 113

4.4 External Influences on Culture 124

4.6 Summary 153

4.7 References 154

5 Aligning Culture with PSMS Elements 157

5.1 Senior Leader Element Grouping 160

5.2 Risk Management-Related Element Grouping 170

5.3 Process-Related Element Grouping 181

5.4 Worker-Related Element Grouping 190

5.5 References 201

6 Where Do You Start? 203

6.1 Introduction 203

6.2 Assess the Organization's Process Safety Culture 204

6.3 Improving the Process Safety Culture of the Organization 225

6.4 Summary 236

6.5 References 237

7 Sustaining Process Safety Culture 239

7.2 Sustainability of Process Safety Culture 241

7.3 Process Safety Culture and Operational Excellence 248

7.4 Summary 251

7.5 References 253

Appendices 255

Appendix A: Echo Strategies White Paper 257

Appendix B: Other Safety & Process Safety Culture Frameworks 259

B.1 The Seven Basic Rules of the USA. Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program 259

B.2 Advancing Safety in the Oil and Gas Industry -Statement on Safety Culture (Canadian National Energy Board) 261

B.3 References 271

Appendix C: As Low as Reasonably Practicable 273

C.1 ALARP Principle 273

C.2 References 275

Appendix D High Reliability Organizations 277

D.1 The HRO Concept 277

D.2 References 286

Appendix E: Process Safety Culture Case Histories 287

E.1 Minimalist PSMS 287

E.2 - Peer Pressure to Startup 288

E.3 Taking a Minimalist Approach to Regulatory Applicability 290

E.4 Not Taking a Minimalist Approach to Process Safety Applicability 291

E.5 What Gets Measured Can Get Corrupted 291

E.6 KPIs That Always Satisfy 293

E.7 Abusing ITPM Extensions/Deferrals 295

E.8 The VPP Defense 296

E.9 Double Jeopardy 297

E.10 Best Case Consequences 298

E.11 New Kid in Town 299

E.12 The Blame Game 299

E.13 Conflicts of Interest 300

E.14 No Incidents? Not Always Good News 301

E.15 Check-the-Box Process Safety Management Systems 302

E.16 There's No Energy for That Here 302

E.17 Not Invented Here 303

E.18 PHA Silos 304

E.19 Knowing What You Don't Know 305

E.20 Bad News is Bad 306

E.21 The Co-Employment Trap 306

E.22 Stop Work Authority/Initiating an Emergency Shutdown 307

E.23 SWPs by the Numbers 308

E.24 Incomplete MOC 309

E.25 Post-MOCs 310

E.26 Mergers & Acquisitions 310

E.27 Poor Understanding of Hazard/Risk Leads to an Even Worse Normalization of Deviance 311

E.28 How Many Explosions Does It Take to Create a Sense of Vulnerability? 313

E.29 Disempowered to Perform Safety Responsibilities by "Omniscient" Software 315

E.30 What We Have Here is a Failure to Communicate 316

E.31 Becoming the Best 317

E.32 High Sense of Vulnerability to One Dangerous Material Overwhelms the Sense of Vulnerability to Others 319

E.33 Not Empowered to Fulfill Safety Responsibilities? Maybe You Were All Along 321

E.34 Normalization of Ignorance 323

E.35 - Spark and Air Will Find Fuel 324

E.36 Operating Blind 325

E.37 Playing Jenga (R) with Process Safety Culture 327

E.38 Failure of Imagination? 328

E.39 Playing the Odds 329

E.40 Shutdown and Unsafe 331

E.41 Who, me? Yeah, you. Couldn't be. Then who? 332

E.42 Blindness to Chemical Reactive Hazards Outside the Chemical Industry 334

E.43 Dominos, Downed-Man "Nos" 336

E.44 Mr. Potato Head Has Landed 337

E.45 Sabotage, Perhaps. But of the Plant or the Culture? 338

E.46 This is the Last Place I Thought We'd Have an Incident 339

E.47 References 341

Appendix F: Process Safety Culture Assessment Protocol 343

F.1 Introduction 343

F.2 Culture Assessment Protocol 343

F.3 References 380

Appendix G: Process Safety Culture & Human Behavior 381