This feedback from a recent course sums up what we aim to achieve

E mail from a delegate's Manager to other company Managers

"I thought you would be interested to see some feedback following last week's first Safety in Mind course. Peter's feedback is representative of what all are saying to me. His views are particularly interesting as he is often sceptical about safety initiatives (NOT I hasten to add, because he is uncommitted, but rather because he often finds it difficult to see how things are going to be delivered, practically). If we are getting such a response from Peter, we have certainly got something right."

Copy of feedback from participant "Reactions to the Safety in Mind" course.

My considered response to your earlier question.

Overall a hugely refreshing look at safety. Less to do with system and mechanics and more with challenging attitudes, cerebral procedures and rigid unoriginal thinking. A study of how the biggest yet probably least addressed variable in the safety process can bugger us up - the human animal.

I think there were some challenging concepts, some of which I think can only be fully utilised if we can stop looking outside from within and try to forget what we already know about ourselves and look again with stranger's eyes.

When we ask our contractor to comply with this rule, that rule, not before and only if... he yawns, because he's heard it all before in a different format, and we wonder if he's buying into the vision or just playing the game. Perhaps we should re-state (as Rule 1 did) our human message... 'the primary objective of your work here today is to see your children tonight' (forgive that I'm not very good at motivational phrases.) - buy into the vision.

One point that was asked by Rick during the course, if we are interrupted during our more critical procedures (the example used was HV switching) do we re-trace our actions from the beginning to ensure we do not miss a step (think of the making a cup of tea analogy - Skill based error). It's a fair point but the vastly more interesting point was the reaction from the crowd: The answer was obviously 'no' and almost everybody in the room knew that. However, there was a deafening silence and I truly believe initial emotion was the same as my own, indignation. We are XXX, this is what we do, we're good at it, how dare you? Then start to think freely, look from the outside in... they'd just shown us numerous instances where experts in their field had made just those mistakes.

Many of the tools the course provided not only give us the ability to account for the behaviour of our contractors and employees but more importantly to know where our personal weaknesses and attributes lie and how to recognise them. If we can just free our thinking and challenge our own attitudes I think this course could reap huge benefits. My personal opinion is that as many people as possible should complete the course in as short a time as possible so that the value is not lost."