“Safety has to be everyone’s responsibility… everyone needs to know that they are empowered to speak up if there’s an issue.” – Captain Scott Kelly.
The region of Africa undoubtedly has its unique challenges, geopolitical, socioeconomic, and environmental, to name but a few. All contribute to a challenging aviation landscape; however, this does not mean that change and improvement cannot be delivered. It is critical that to make long-term, effective changes, the status quo must not be accepted and must be continually challenged. This requires leadership at all levels.
The SIRM discussed safety leadership with conversation generated through the delivery of a number of presentations on Safety Leadership and Just Culture. There is a sense that change is taking place, but it is slow. The forum identified that the greatest challenge of all, is the change to mindset, or in broader terms safety culture. Whilst we will not go into detail on leadership, just culture, and organizational change in this post, it must be highlighted that these changes cannot be effected without sound, just, pragmatic, and driven leadership. Of course, there are organizations in Africa who are leading the way in terms of walking the walk, however, to be truly effective, this needs to be seen system-wide.
Just Culture is a key component of a positive safety culture, and it would be beneficial for this to be prioritised across the region, globally this is an area for improvement, and it must continually be fostered and nurtured to be the natural way in which we act. The implementation of a just culture must start with the engagement, encouragement, and direction from the safety leadership elements of an organization. Just culture promotes a change from a reactive to a proactive state and will naturally lead to greater benefits in the SMS.
A documented safety culture is not enough in terms of effectiveness, and the desired culture must be enacted by all those who are part of the Organization. The discussion highlighted that Organizations must be proactive in continually measuring the effectiveness of just culture principles through employee engagement and cultural measuring activity. It was recognized that transition will take considerable time, however leadership should be cognizant of reinforcing the principles of a positive safety culture at regular intervals.
