SafetyII

Safety II, also known as new safety or resilient safety, represents a paradigm shift in understanding and managing safety within organizations. Traditional safety approaches, often referred to as Safety I, primarily focused on preventing what goes wrong by identifying hazards and reducing risks. Safety II, in contrast, acknowledges that everyday operations involve a great deal of successful performance despite variability and uncertainty. It shifts the focus from what fails to what goes right and how to make those successful outcomes more consistent and robust.

The core principle of Safety II is that safety is not just the absence of failures, but rather the ability of a system to adapt and succeed under varying conditions. This involves understanding the factors that contribute to successful performance, such as communication, collaboration, resourcefulness, and learning. Rather than solely concentrating on incidents and near misses, Safety II emphasizes studying everyday work and identifying the conditions that enable people to achieve desired outcomes.

Key concepts within Safety II include the recognition of systemic resilience, where systems can absorb disturbances and continue to function effectively. It also highlights the importance of appreciating human judgment and adaptability, recognizing that people often make necessary adjustments to cope with unexpected situations. By studying successful performance, organizations can learn how to enhance their resilience and proactively build safer systems that are better equipped to handle the inherent complexities and uncertainties of real-world operations. This approach seeks to create a more positive and proactive safety culture.