Development of New Approaches to Leadership and Safety Culture

Evolution of Approaches: From Strict Standards to Human Psychology

The development of industrial safety culture in large corporations naturally goes through several stages: from implementing basic rules to deep behavioral work. In her presentation, Tatiana Bobrovitskaya details the transformation journey of Shell's approaches. Starting in the 1990s, the implementation of unified standards (Control Framework) and Life-Saving Rules radically reduced injury rates, achieving zero incidents by 2014. However, the incidents of 2019 triggered a review of established practices and the realization that instructions and leadership programs alone are not enough to prevent tragedies.

The Safety Refresh Concept: Three New Priorities

Using a global strategy as an example, the speaker shows how the focus is shifting from administrative control to employee support. The new philosophy is based on three elements:

• Human Performance — acknowledging the fact that people make mistakes regardless of how strict the rules are. The system's task is to identify potential errors before they occur and create barriers that mitigate their consequences.
• Learning Mindset — fostering an atmosphere where employees openly discuss their own and others' mistakes, learning from them without fear of punishment.
• Psychological Safety — creating conditions under which an employee feels protected, which directly affects their ability to prevent incidents and report risks.

Abandoning the Classic Incident Pyramid and Changing Metrics

One of the least obvious but most important steps was the revision of key performance indicators (KPIs). The presentation details the shift away from tracking all minor recordable incidents in favor of focusing exclusively on serious incidents, fatalities, and High Potential Incidents (HPI). This decision was driven by the fact that the classic injury pyramid is not always accurate: a large number of minor injuries does not necessarily correlate with the probability of a major accident. Shifting the focus allows the company to direct resources toward deep investigations of truly critical risks, such as dropped objects, and high-quality lesson learning.

Fair Response Instead of Automatic Dismissals

The transformation also affected the attitude towards violations of Life-Saving Rules. While the strict "break a rule, get fired" principle used to apply, a Fair Event Handling approach has now been implemented. The speaker emphasizes that the main goal of an investigation is no longer to punish the employee, but to identify the systemic factors that provoked the violation. This allows the system itself to be "fixed" and root causes to be eliminated while maintaining staff trust.

What you will learn from this webinar:

• Why the classic incident pyramid is no longer considered a reliable tool for predicting major accidents?
• How shifting the focus from minor injuries to High Potential Incidents (HPI) helps prevent real tragedies?
• What the Fair Event Handling principle is and how it works when Life-Saving Rules are violated?
• How the Human Performance concept changes the attitude towards human errors in production?
• What requirements are set for fatigue and stress management under the new employee well-being standards?