Introduction

Organizational safety culture is the foundation of effective safety management systems. However, building a resilient safety culture goes beyond just compliance with safety regulations. It involves developing a proactive and adaptive mindset, ensuring the organization can manage and recover from disruptions, and maintaining safe operations even in times of crisis. The 5-day Building Resilience in Organizational Safety Culture Training Course focuses on equipping participants with the tools and strategies necessary to enhance safety culture, build resilience in the face of challenges, and drive sustainable improvements in safety performance. This course integrates the latest research on organizational resilience, safety management, and change management to help organizations navigate complex safety challenges in a dynamic and evolving work environment.

Course Objectives

By the end of the course, participants will:

1. Understand the principles and importance of resilience in the context of organizational safety culture.
2. Learn how to identify and assess weaknesses in safety culture and organizational resilience.
3. Develop strategies for creating a resilient safety culture that adapts to change and crisis.
4. Learn to align leadership, communication, and team dynamics with safety and resilience goals.
5. Acquire tools for embedding resilience into daily operations, including decision-making and risk management.
6. Gain insights on measuring resilience in safety culture and sustaining improvements over time.
7. Develop a comprehensive action plan to build and sustain resilience in their organization’s safety culture.

Who Should Attend?

This course is ideal for:

• Safety managers and officers
• EHS (Environmental, Health, and Safety) professionals
• Senior leaders and executives responsible for safety management
• Change management professionals
• Risk managers and business continuity planners
• Human resources and organizational development professionals
• Managers and supervisors overseeing operations and safety performance
• Anyone interested in improving their organization’s safety culture and building resilience in the face of challenges

Day-by-Day Outline

Day 1: Introduction to Organizational Safety Culture and Resilience

• Understanding Safety Culture
  • What is safety culture? Key elements and characteristics of a strong safety culture
  • The relationship between safety culture and overall organizational performance
  • Identifying levels of safety culture maturity: From reactive to proactive to resilient
• The Concept of Organizational Resilience
  • Defining organizational resilience in safety: Ability to anticipate, prepare for, respond to, and recover from safety-related incidents
  • Differences between resilience, risk management, and crisis management
  • The role of resilience in adapting to change and handling unforeseen challenges
  • Resilience in high-risk industries: Lessons learned from aviation, healthcare, and manufacturing
• Assessing the Current Safety Culture and Resilience
  • Tools and techniques for assessing safety culture maturity (e.g., surveys, interviews, observations)
  • Identifying barriers to a resilient safety culture
  • Analyzing organizational vulnerabilities and existing resilience gaps
• Interactive Discussion:
  • Review of case studies from organizations that have successfully built resilience in their safety culture
  • Group activity: Self-assessment of organizational safety culture and resilience

Day 2: The Foundations of Building Resilience in Safety Culture

• Leadership’s Role in Safety Culture and Resilience
  • The critical role of leadership in shaping and sustaining a resilient safety culture
  • Leadership behaviors that foster trust, open communication, and accountability
  • The importance of leadership commitment in overcoming safety challenges and building resilience
  • Developing leadership competency for fostering resilience in safety practices
• Building Psychological Safety
  • Understanding psychological safety and its impact on safety culture
  • Creating an environment where employees feel safe to report hazards, mistakes, and near-misses without fear of blame or retaliation
  • Encouraging open dialogue, feedback, and continuous learning
• Resilience in Decision-Making and Risk Management
  • Incorporating resilience into risk assessments and decision-making processes
  • Balancing risk management with adaptive decision-making in uncertain environments
  • Tools for managing risks while maintaining safety performance during crises
• Workshop:
  • Group discussions on leadership strategies for enhancing resilience in the safety culture
  • Case studies: Identifying leadership behaviors that have positively or negatively impacted organizational resilience

Day 3: Strategies for Embedding Resilience in Daily Operations

• Embedding Resilience in Operational Safety Practices
  • Integrating resilience into everyday safety protocols and procedures
  • How resilience-focused safety programs differ from traditional safety programs
  • Developing systems that are flexible, adaptable, and continuously improve
  • Creating feedback loops that help teams learn from safety incidents and near-misses
• Developing Resilient Teams
  • The role of team dynamics in building a resilient safety culture
  • Training teams to handle adversity and learn from challenges
  • How to build and maintain strong safety teams that communicate effectively and collaborate in high-pressure situations
• Implementing Resilience Through Training and Awareness
  • Designing training programs that instill resilience and promote proactive safety behaviors
  • Training employees in adaptive thinking, risk awareness, and incident reporting
  • Using simulations and real-life scenarios to teach resilience in safety decision-making
• Group Activity:
  • Developing an operational plan to integrate resilience into current safety practices, including team roles, responsibilities, and training

Day 4: Measuring Resilience and Overcoming Barriers to Safety Culture Change

• Measuring Organizational Resilience in Safety Culture
  • Identifying key performance indicators (KPIs) for resilience in safety culture
  • Quantitative and qualitative methods for measuring safety culture and resilience improvements
  • Using surveys, incident reports, and employee feedback to track changes in resilience
  • How to measure the effectiveness of resilience interventions
• Overcoming Barriers to Building a Resilient Safety Culture
  • Common barriers to cultural change in safety: Resistance to change, complacency, and misalignment of values
  • Strategies for overcoming resistance and gaining buy-in from employees at all levels
  • Addressing challenges such as resource limitations, organizational silos, and lack of leadership engagement
  • Techniques for maintaining momentum and ensuring continuous improvement in safety culture
• The Role of Communication in Building Resilience
  • Communication strategies for reinforcing safety messages and resilience principles
  • Developing a crisis communication plan to ensure effective communication during safety incidents
  • Using both formal and informal communication channels to foster resilience and trust
• Case Study Analysis:
  • Reviewing organizations that faced setbacks and successfully overcame them by focusing on resilience
  • Identifying communication breakdowns and learning from them

Day 5: Developing a Resilience Action Plan and Sustaining Safety Culture Improvement

• Developing a Resilience Action Plan
  • Creating a comprehensive action plan to build and sustain resilience in the organization’s safety culture
  • Key elements of the plan: Leadership commitment, training programs, incident reporting, and resilience strategies
  • Integrating resilience initiatives with overall organizational objectives and values
• Sustaining a Resilient Safety Culture
  • Continuous improvement strategies for long-term success
  • Leveraging lessons learned from incidents to continually evolve safety practices
  • How to maintain employee engagement and leadership commitment over time
  • Using audits, reviews, and feedback to keep the focus on resilience
• Course Review and Integration
  • Recap of the key strategies and techniques learned during the course
  • Integrating lessons from the course into practical solutions for participants’ organizations
  • Finalizing action plans and identifying next steps for building resilience in safety culture
• Assessment and Certification:
  • Knowledge check and practical assessment of resilience strategies in safety culture
  • Certification of completion for Building Resilience in Organizational Safety Culture

Conclusion and Certification

• Recap of the course’s key takeaways and strategies for embedding resilience into organizational safety culture
• Open Q&A session to address remaining questions and challenges
• Certification ceremony and closing remarks