As safety and health leaders, we must help steer our organizations, operational leaders and workforce toward preventing the most serious incidents and fatalities. Over the past several columns, we’ve explored a new view of SIF metrics: the importance of identifying high-hazard activities, conditions and events; the role of prioritizing critical safeguards and layers of protection; and the value of building a learning culture through engagement.
Now it’s time to shift focus to how leaders can influence and activate SIF prevention across their organization. SIF prevention demands visible, committed leadership that engages every level of the workforce.
SIF risks require special focus and will persist until someone recognizes them, speaks up and takes action. Although systems, metrics and procedures are important, it’s leadership behaviors and expectations that ensure critical safeguards are understood, prioritized and remain effective. Even the most advanced safety systems fall short without leaders who make SIF prevention personal, visible and systemic.
To support this type of leadership, the NSC SIF Prevention Model is being updated to reflect the latest thinking around risk, engagement and performance. The revised framework follows a plan-do-check-act cycle to help leaders drive consistent action and learning.
PLAN: Lead with commitment and clarity
- Secure and sustain leadership commitment for SIF prevention
- Assess SIF-related readiness and engagement levels across your organization
- Identify and prioritize SIF risks across all operations, functions and sites
DO: Prioritize and act on what matters most
- Evaluate potential SIF risks from high-hazard activities, conditions and events
- Engage the workforce to verify safeguards and layers of protection
- Implement additional safeguards where gaps exist
CHECK: Monitor and learn from performance
- Ensure safeguards are functioning as designed
- Use leading indicators such as pSIF (potential) learning, SIF risk reduction and corrective-action tracking
- Involve frontline teams in reviewing and learning from real-world risk exposure
ACT: Drive continuous learning and improvement
- Adjust systems and allocate resources based on insights
- Reinforce learning through timely action, recognition and accountability
- Embed SIF prevention into daily operations, not only periodic incident reviews
How leaders can make a difference
Effective leaders embed SIF prevention into daily conversations, operational decisions and cultural expectations. Here are five actions you can take right now:
- Strengthen processes for reporting and learning. Incident reporting processes need to include pSIFs, SIF risks and concerns to promote a learning-focused culture.
- Model curiosity and learning. Leaders should ask, “If you could change one thing about this job to make it safer, what would it be and why?” and “Are we relying on just one safeguard or do we have layers of protection?”
- Verify what matters. Spend time in the field. Observe high-hazard work or conditions, verify safeguards, and discuss what’s working and where risks remain.
- Create space for real conversations. Encourage supervisors to ask better questions, listen actively and reduce risk collaboratively.
- Recognize and respond to engagement. Celebrate when someone identifies a SIF hazard or strengthens a safeguard. Follow through to ensure improvement.
SIF prevention succeeds when it reaches every level and your leadership is the catalyst. It’s about building trust, removing barriers, and creating a culture where people feel safe to speak up and act on risk. The updated NSC model provides the structure. Your leadership brings it to life. Let’s move beyond compliance. Let’s lead with purpose. Let’s get to work.
