Members of the Health and Safety panels of the ICE, RIBA and Construction Industry Council (CIC) are exploring a concept called “CDM Differently”, based on the thinking behind Safety Differently, a book by Australian academic Sidney Dekker.
“CDM Differently” is described by CIC health and safety panel vice-chair Tony Putsman as a “project-led approach, with team-based risk management in a collaborative team”, and a reduced emphasis on bureacracy “which gets in the way of risk management”.
Published in 2014, Dekker’s book argues that safety management has become over-focused on the need to “fix” people’s behaviour, and has therefore developed ineffective interventions – while simultaneously losing out on the benefits of team-work. The book also says that individuals’ ethical responsibility has taken a back seat to bureaucratic control.
Dekker’s theories have already been applied to a new safety approach now being trialled at some Laing O’Rourke sites. The contractor’s director of health, safety and environment for the Europe Hub, John Green, first used them in its Australia division.
A second book, Safety can’t be measured, by former Esso executive Andrew Townsend, is also cited as an inspiration.
