Book Review
McSween, T. P. (1995). The Values-Based Safety Process: Improving Your Safety Culture With A Behavioral Approach.

Take a moment to consider these questions: Why are values an integral component of behavioral safety? What are managers supposed to do when it comes to behavioral safety? How can a safety professional accomplish meaningful behavioral-safety implementation and sustain it? How does a safety professional move a company's safety experience to a higher level? Can you honestly answer these questions yourself? If not, I highly recommend The Values-Based Safety Process. This practical, easy-to-comprehend book leads the reader through a clearly defined learning process; it includes excellent case studies, implementation timelines, a partial list of experienced behavioral safety consultants and a selected bibliography.

The book begins with the recognition that values demonstrated by management activities are key. It stresses the importance of being open with values and paying attention to working relationships instead of getting tangled in the verbiage of program verses process. Just as stated values are important, the leader's actions that communicate those values are equally critical. The text explains how to clarify values that shape an organization's behavior, and provides an outline of how to shape a company's vision and its resulting work environment. McSween states, "In safety, we concern ourselves not just with the tasks that people do but with how they do them." His focus on the how is stated in a cooperative, positive spirit that allows for meaningful change within an organization

The author furnishes a useful overview of safety basics and their inherent limitations. He identifies the operative components of proven safety processes and provides a flowchart that illustrates the behavioral safety process, which focuses on a team approach and the initial design phase. The book's common-sense style compares the purpose and output of a traditional safety audit verses the benefits of an employee-led assessment that goes deeper into how an orgaruzation really operates. An excellent, employee-based method to assess safety within any organization is offered; consistent with each part of the book, McSween explains how to incorporate management into the process. The book concludes with seven practical suggestions that clearly reflect wisdom from the author's experiences.

The detailed ideas outlined are critical to success. This book is brilliant in its practical approach – it belongs on every safety professional's desk.

This review was written by Wayne Hartz, CSP, CIH , Freeport, ME in Professional Safety, July, 2001, p. 6. It is reprinted here with permission of the author and publisher.