Moving up the Culture Ladder

The paper discusses the novel understanding of the difference between the steps in the IOGP HSSE culture ladder and the methods used in a high hazard operation to effect the change required to move up those steps. The organisation involved has been de-identified.

In the expert report to the U.S. 5th Federal Court Deepwater Horizon case (Hudson 2011), the transitions ascending the cultural steps are described by the sequence “In place – In operation – Effective – Permanent”. The authors applied this understanding in a high hazard aircraft engineering operation and discuss the challenges, roadblocks and adaptations required to effect the desired organisational changes. It includes the methods used to gain senior management involvement for the process and the general processes developed to create the understanding within the organisation.

A frequently stated organisational goal is the development of the organisational culture using the HSSE Culture ladder. While the ladder can provide a road map that allows for realistic incremental improvements of the safety culture the actual detailed definition of the measures to be taken can still be challenging. Using the cultural sequence as set out in the report to the court a more understandable path can be forged that allows improvements to be mapped onto current operations, by identifying processes and activities associated with higher steps on the ladder. This enables a clearer definition of the desired goals and assessment of whether those goals have been achieved leading to cultural change. This includes changing or moving on from performance indicators as and when they are fulfilled.

In this case study the organisation achieved advanced cultural behaviours through application of standard management techniques. This includes topics that distinguish more from less advanced cultures such as: Managing Non-compliance, Operational Discipline, Using Standards and Best practises. Improvements in the major lagging Process Safety indicators were gained through the application of this method, demonstrating a marked reduction of major incidents, as would be predicted by a more advanced safety culture. 

This paper introduces a number of measures that can be used to effect lasting cultural change within organisations. Use of these methods allows more granular control over the cultural development, which allows more effective and efficient change programs.