Aesop’s fable “The Tortoise and the Hare” can educate us lots about safety, particularly these days. The ethical of this specific story is: “sluggish however regular wins the race”. Or, to take a look at it one other method, take into account how dictionary.com defines “sluggish however regular wins the race”: “Constant, efficient effort results in success.”
I very a lot agree with this. Additional, I believe that internalizing this message may also help each enterprise safety groups and safety distributors mature and behave in a extra grounded, strategic, and efficient method. What do I imply by this? Enable me to elaborate.
In safety, evidently we’re always confronted by the following shiny object, merchandise du jour, and/or overhyped matter. Together with this appears to come back an limitless provide of “consultants” able to instill concern in us across the “revolutionized risk panorama” and the “new actuality” we apparently now discover ourselves in and should come to phrases with. Certainly, there’s definitely no scarcity of distractions in our discipline.
A few of us are seemingly conscious of and aware of the near-constant tendency for distraction in our discipline. So how can we keep away from falling into the entice of succumbing to the temptation and working after each distraction that comes alongside? Or, to pose it one other method, how can we appropriately make investments our time and assets in areas the place we’re prone to see worth and return on that funding?
As a primary step, I might suggest asking a number of questions:
So what?: What does this new factor I’ve been requested to care about imply for me virtually talking? What are the true penalties of it by way of negatively affecting the safety posture of my group?
Will this introduce danger into my group?: If this new factor will virtually definitely introduce further danger into my group, then that’s in all probability a clue that it deserves some mindshare. The important thing right here is to measure that danger and its implications objectively, relatively than permitting the hype to drive the danger evaluation. As soon as the danger evaluation is completed, the staff ought to use that knowledge to strategize relating to what must be executed.
Will this be one thing that will get included into my general workflow?: If this new factor is an actual factor that can introduce danger, then it’s seemingly that it’ll finally be included into safety business-as-usual. We’ll have to plan to include mitigating danger, guaranteeing compliance, and day-to-day safety duties associated to this new factor. It’s going to finally develop into a part of our general safety technique and planning as so many different official new issues have over time.
With the solutions to those questions in hand, it’s time to return to the basics of safety. Specifically danger, technique, targets, workflow, course of, compliance, and operations.
Threat: There’s a lot happening on this planet, however till one thing begins to affect danger to the enterprise, it’s exhausting to commit any important cycles to it. If, nonetheless, the affect on danger from one thing could be objectively quantified, then it shortly turns into time to both settle for that danger or plan to mitigate it.
Technique: All profitable safety groups are ruled by a strong safety technique. Whereas the technique could be adjusted every so often as dangers and threats evolve, it shouldn’t drift wildly and definitely not straight away. If the most recent factor calls for radically altering the safety technique, it’s an indicator that it could be overblown. The excellent news is {that a} well-formed safety technique could be tailored to take care of absolutely anything new that arises in a gradual and systematic method, offered that new factor is actual.
Targets: Executing on a strong safety technique includes setting and reaching attainable targets. A clue that the newest factor could also be overhyped is that if it requires a direct resetting and reshaping of a lot of targets. An actual factor gained’t require that the world be turned the other way up. Slightly, it could require adjusting targets in a really smart method.
Workflow: The safety workflow is one thing that safety groups refine over time to extend productiveness, take away bottlenecks, and higher defend the enterprise. The workflow might have to be modified every so often as new environments come on line, new logging sources current themselves, regulatory necessities change, strategic priorities evolve, and different causes. However the workflow shouldn’t be upended fully straight away. Whether it is, it might be an indication that hype is taking priority over substance.
Course of and Process: Course of and process not solely information the actions of the safety staff, additionally they assist to doc and prioritize the gadgets which are an important strategically for the enterprise. If, rapidly, a safety staff finds itself deviating wildly from processes and procedures, it might imply that the newest fad is a tad oversold.
Compliance: Compliance might not be attractive, however it is vital, for apparent causes. When the newest factor is actual, it’ll most probably have some compliance implications. These will have to be addressed, after all. However, if there’s quite a lot of buzz round a subject that appears to far exceed any actual compliance implications, that could be a fairly good indication that the thrill is overdone.
Operations: Safety operations is the day-to-day pulse beating on the heart of the safety program. I’ve by no means met a safety staff that’s overstaffed in safety operations, and thus, it is very important be sure that the staff members are targeted on essential, value-added actions which are a great use of their time. If the most well liked new factor diverts valuable assets from these essential actions to different actions that present little or no worth and don’t enhance the group’s safety posture, that may be a really harmful factor for the enterprise. It is a very harmful consequence of hype for an enterprise.
There are seemingly some ways to guage how related totally different gadgets are as they come up. By taking a step again, asking a number of questions, and staying targeted on core safety rules, safety groups can keep away from working after one thing that seems to be overhyped. I’ll depart it to the reader to contemplate which headline-grabbing matters are price devoting important cycles to versus which of them can safely be monitored from afar or ignored fully.
