Institutional accountability, personal responsibility are crucial safety elements Published May 27, 2009 By Cliff Tebbe Air Force Space Command Inspector General PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. -- Seven-hundred and eighty two - the number of Airmen killed in mishaps over the last ten years. While the good news here is that the annual numbers are way down from their fiscal year 2004 high, the decline is no consolation to the families that suffer loss. Are these losses preventable? If so, what is being done to prevent them? Equally important, who is responsible for safety? It is appropriate that safety is a topic during the Air Force's Year of Leadership. One of the principles underpinning the United States Air Force Mishap Prevention Program is that safety is a commander' s program. So the commander is responsible for safety, right? Well yes, but they could never succeed alone. A second principle is that supervisors are the key to a strong safety program. So commanders and supervisors are responsible for safety? True. But again, even with the commander' s support, supervisors cannot succeed without total buy-in from the single-most critical member of this partnership - you. So you could say this article is about: safety, leadership and you. Like any subject, this can be looked at from many angles but I will pare it down to two: institutional accountability and personal responsibility. We'll start with the foundation, institutional accountability. Since our discussion is about safety, think of it in terms of the Air Force's safety infrastructure; things such as systems safety and engineering, policy, procedures, training, materials, equipment and the less tangible--but critically important--leadership and supervision. Since the Air Force is institutionally accountable for mishap prevention, let's evaluate how we go about meeting this responsibility. Following a mishap (on or off-duty) we have a clearly defined and well honed process of investigation which measures the successes - and detects failures - within our safety infrastructure. Furthermore, we have established processes to identify, track and implement corrective actions to address systemic failures and shortcomings. During an investigation the key questions that probe for systemic failures can be summed up something like: "Did we have the right equipment, procedures, policies, training, etc in place to prevent this mishap?" and "Was leadership and supervision active and engaged?" Clearly then, leadership in its broadest sense is responsible for ensuring our safety policies, procedures and practices are embedded across the institution, are clear and fully understood, and ultimately--that they are employed. The most challenging aspect is this last one--especially in the off-duty arena. Which leads us to our next, and most important aspect of the Air Force's mishap prevention program--personal responsibility. Clearly the Air Force has a legal obligation, (and I believe a moral obligation) to provide for a safe and healthy workplace. However, every element of the program unravels without individual or, better said, without personal application of the principles, policies and procedures outlined in the program. Simply put, without personal application, policies are relegated to useless paper. This takes us full circle back to the investigative process following a mishap. As stated, during this process the investigators determine if sufficient policies, procedures and programs were in place to prevent the mishap. The next logical questions is, "Did the member fully and correctly employ these?" During this phase, the investigative process evaluates personal application of our safety infrastructure. Questions such as: "Did the individual(s) use all equipment correctly; did they follow the established procedures, correctly apply their training, education and experience?" Personal responsibility extends beyond just the victim of the mishap; it extends to those in close proximity. Consider: Was there a wingman? Was he/she engaged? What about co-workers? Did they intervene or did they look the other way? Commanders, supervisors and leadership in general must actively fulfill their duties - they too have personal responsibility for their role in mishap prevention. Seven-hundred and eighty two fatal mishaps - the results of these investigations (and tens of thousands of non-fatal mishaps) generally lead to a similar conclusion; our safety infrastructure, with notable exceptions, is sound. The break down too often occurs with implementation. In safety terms this falls into the broad category of human factors--but that is a whole topic by itself. Accident prevention is the culmination of sound policies and procedures enacted by a network of people fulfilling their personal responsibilities. Safety & leadership...whose job jar does it go in? Who is responsible? Everyone - especially you! (Editor's note -- Mr. Tebbe recently served as the AFSPC Safety functional manager)