A rather simple description of culture is: That’s just the way we do things around here. From a safety & health perspective, the way things are done stays the same until someone or some group, with the competency and power to make change, becomes dissatisfied with the S&H status quo.

Sleeping on the job was once considered taboo, but today, more companies are encouraging employees to take a mid-shift snooze. And it’s a wise practice: 29 percent of workers report falling asleep or becoming very sleepy at work, and a lack of sleep costs the United States $63 billion each year in lost productivity.

Yes, this is a story about errors - plural - made by one person, me. I’m not going to beat myself up here. James Reason, professor emeritus at the University of Manchester (UK), and one of the seminal authorities on human error, reminds us that most errors are caused by good, competent people who are trying to do the right thing.

According to OSHA, businesses spend almost $1 billion per week on costs related to occupational injuries and illnesses. “In today's business environment,” according to OSHA, “these costs can be the difference between operating in the black and running in the red.”

The focus on human performance has quickly become no more than human error of yesteryear. I’m amazed at how many “neuroscience solutions” there suddenly are that can fix human (safety) performance.

An unplanned event that did not result in injury, illness, or damage, but had the potential to do so — are common but generally underreported. Knowledge is power, and information provided by near-misses is a tool to evaluate and improve safety.