BBD Safety Standdown Promotes 'Intentionally Safe'

Bombardier’s 21st annual Safety Standdown opened in late October with 500 registered attendees on site in Wichita and drew well over 1,000 visitors online as top safety experts focused on this year’s theme of “intentionally safe.”

Entering its third decade, the Safety Standdown has trained more than 9,000 professionals, Bombardier Business Aircraft vice president and general manager of customer experience Jean-Christophe Gallagher told the audience, adding that attendees come from nearly every sector of the industry.

The 2017 edition had nearly three dozen speakers lined up to discuss topics ranging from safety management systems and culture to runway excursions, winter operations and emergency firefighting and live firefighting training. In addition, 10 of the sessions fell under the conference theme.

The keynote speakers—ranging from the chairman of the NTSB and a senior FAA official to a former leader of the Blue Angels, an FBI official and an expert in aerospace medicine, among many others—also all provided insights on different aspects of intentionally safe. They delved into organizational values, change management, safety leadership and following a safety map.

Underscoring the importance of "intentionally safe"—that safety is a choice and must filter into every level of a flight department—Gallagher encouraged attendees not only to consider the safety information at Safety Standdown, but also to share that information with their organizations.

Noting the effort Bombardier has put into designing its new aircraft to maximize safety, Gallagher emphasized, “A safe aircraft is only one part of the operation. The other part involves human beings. As aviation professionals we play a key role in making our skies safer. Each of us manages the interplay between airmanship and technology, procedures and diligence, knowledge and mindset. True safety involves lifelong learning and continuous improvement… we must continue to ask ourselves how can we make our operations safer still.”

Keynote speaker Ali Bahrami, the FAA associate administrator for aviation safety, called Safety Standdown a “vital part of our industry” because it stops the clock and forces self-examination. “It is a time to talk about lessons learned and share information,” he said. “I firmly believe that information sharing is the only way we are going to advance safety together. It is crucial to share hard lessons.”

He praised the industry’s acceptance of safety management systems, calling incorporation of such programs a smart business move for all organizations. “We maximize collective capabilities [with SMS],” he said.

Bahrami also updated progress of the agency's shift toward compliance philosophy, which encourages organizations to share unintentional noncompliance issues to enable the FAA and the organization to correct the issue rather than face enforcement. In the past two years, he said, “We have cut enforcement actions by 70 percent” and at the same time corrected thousands of issues using non-enforcement compliance action. “We are seeing a focus on education works,” he said, “Hopefully, you are seeing the same thing. The goal is to identify, mitigate and eliminate inappropriate behavior....The feedback we are getting is helping to drive change.”

Aristotle and Excellence

An Aristotle philosophy that “you are what you repeatedly do” and “excellence ought to be a habit,” was a driving point of Al Gorthy, a retired U.S. Naval commander and former FAA official in the FAA’s Office of Runway Safety.

“If we are going to be intentionally safe, we have got be addicted to safety with compulsive repetition of excellence. We have to normalize excellence in our everyday routine.” Intentionally safe requires hard work, perseverance and “stick-to-it-ness,” he added.

Gorthy also urged Safety Standdown attendees to focus on actions rather than intentions. “We judge ourselves by our intentions. Others judge us by our actions and our efforts,” he said, adding, “It’s our actions and efforts that count.” To that point Gorthy highlighted a road accident involving six vehicles in Kansas City accident that killed five people. “Everyone in the event was being intentionally safe, except one,” he said, adding everyone obeyed the speed limit and signs, the lane closures, reduction in speeds—except for one. The truck driver was driving too fast, did not slow down or see cars stopped in the traffic. The result was a collision described by observers as something that could be seen in a movie. “We’re free to choose our own behavior, but we are not free to choose the consequences of our behavior.”

“Are you safe? Or are you just lucky?” he asked, and added, “Safety is found on the same side of the bridge as action and effort, not intent. Intentionally safe is difficult because it is all about values, it is about our normal compass. It is about knowing the rules."

Living Values

NTSB chairman Robert Sumwalt stressed the importance of implementing a strong safety culture, living the company’s core values and providing strong safety leadership as flight operations strive to meet their customers’ expectations.

Sumwalt highlighted numerous accidents—such as the May 2014 Gulfstream IV-SP crash in Bedford, Massachusetts, in which the flight operation was IS-BAO 2 registered, but the experienced crew did not complete checklists, and the November 2015 Hawker 700A crash in Akron, Ohio, in which procedures were not followed and crew not properly vetted—and asked if operators were providing what customers truly deserved.

Pointing to the underlying causes, he argued that sometimes a disconnect exists between the customers' safety expectations and what they are actually getting.

Sumwalt urged the Safety Standdown audience to ask themselves if they have implemented a strong safety culture and challenged them to continually strive for such a culture rather than believe they have attained it. “We must never get too comfortable,” he said.

In addition, Sumwalt questioned whether organizations are really living their values. Most will espouse priorities, placing safety on top, he said. But priorities change—core values shouldn’t. Safety needs to be a value, not a priority, he said. Sumwalt places such an importance on values that, after stepping in as chairman, he immediately assembled a team to develop values for the NTSB.

He pointed to CVS as an example of an organization living its values. A few years ago, CVS quit selling cigarettes, saying it was incongruous with the company’s mission of wellness. That raised Wall Street predictions that the organization would incur a $2 billion loss as a result. But in the intervening time, profits have increased 10 percent and stock value soared 40 percent.

As for safety leadership, Sumwalt stressed the need for an alignment between employees and management. Management often will emphasize safety, but might not practice it. This will filter down throughout the organization, he said. Sumwalt pointed to NTSB’s investigations of five accidents at the Metro-North railroad during a 10-month period. NTSB surveys revealed that management there believed more strongly that the railroad had an appropriate safety culture than labor believed, Sumwalt said. The agency further found that train drivers were frequently speeding to keep up with time pressures placed on them.

Surprising Reasons

John DeLisi, director of the NTSB’s Office of Aviation Safety, emphasized that flying safely and preventing accidents might be two different things. But flying safely will not always prevent accidents, DeLisis contended, saying accidents are happening for “surprising reasons” such as skipping a preflight control check or allowing a second-in-command who is not authorized to fly a revenue flight.

DeLisi also encouraged data sharing and flight data monitoring (FDM). He pointed to a company that, after a year of FDM, discovered bank angles of 45, 50 and even 60 degrees happening on repositioning flights. After sharing that with the organization’s pilots, those angles returned to a more normal range. This is the value of understanding and sharing data, he said. “Just the knowledge that someone could be paying attention to how the airplane is being flown may be the best deterrent to prevent accidents,” he said.

The Blue Angels Debrief

Former Blue Angels leader Greg “Boss” Wooldridge underscored the importance of a debrief to foster a culture of excellence whether in a business aviation flight department or on a Blue Angels tour. Wooldridge, the only commander to lead the Blue Angels three times, provided insight on his time with the U.S. Navy flight demonstration squadron in his discussion on “Soaring To Peak Performance.”

He called a debrief—in which the Blue Angels could discuss issues that came up during a show in an open, non-punitive manner—a “game-changer” in elevating performance. The debrief often took as long as, if not longer than, the briefing session that occurred before every show. “Too often, debrief has a bad name,” he said, noting that many people wince at it because it brings up what went wrong. But with the Blue Angels, it is an opportunity for reflection, commitment to fix issues and a time for either mentoring others or being mentored. Each discussion ended with the same theme: “Glad to be here.”

Wooldridge noted he introduced a debriefing program during his time at FedEx. It was a different program than with the Blue Angels, but yielded results, he said. “We got better. The debrief is about opening yourself up.”

This was particularly important following Blue Angels missions where a squadron would fly in formation as close as 18 inches apart. This kind of operation also required absolute trust, which involved a contract to perform the mission as promised, and substantial planning, he said. He also highlighted the need for belief to reach the upper echelons of performance.

Small Details

Shifting expectations of clients was a central theme of Bob Hobbi, the founder, president and CEO of ServiceElements International. The industry is changing rapidly, he said, and so have the users of business aviation. He has found that operators often believe they have delivered more value than the customer perceived. “How do you know you met their expectations?” he asked, stressing that not all dissatisfied customers complain.

Hobbi encouraged the audience to be proactive and manage expectations, rather than working to meet them. Operators must impress upon their customers that the top services are safety and security, he said. “You can’t have service and safety colliding. We need them to work together.”

As for service, he emphasized the importance of watching the smallest details, relaying an anecdote of a top executive who hesitated to ask for catsup as part of the catering. He had previously asked for it, but realized he would need to repeat the request to have it consistently. The executive, Hobbi said, didn’t want to be the imposing customer with that constant request. But Hobbi warned to the audience at Safety Standdown, that from a customer’s mind, if a detail such as catsup is overlooked, "What else might be overlooked?"

Given the cost-per-hour of business aviation, he said, “expect mass customization.” But that doesn’t mean the operator has to comply with every request. It comes down to managing those requests.

Mapping Professionalism

Tony Kern, founding partner and CEO of Convergent Performance and among the regulars in Safety Standdown presenters, emphasized the importance of having a safety direction. “We have to provide a map to understand when we are most vulnerable,” he said. “If you don’t know where you are, then you are lost.”

This includes understanding what level of professionalism an operator has settled for or strives to reach. “Professionalism is an idea we have thrown around a lot.” People who believe themselves to be professional might not be as professional as they think.

Kern broke professionalism into four levels from the base level of just having a job, to actively following the rules—a full complier—to striving to become an expert. And the fourth, reaching a top level. Full compliance is rare, he said. True experts strive to be all they can, the best they can, “just because.” The pinnacle is becoming an expert and then giving back, sharing that expertise.

He called those levels an important roadmap to striving for improvement of safety. He noted that many people boast of following the rules by proclaiming “We maintain proficiency to standards.” But all that means, he contends, is they meet minimum regulatory standards. “Why do we brag about maintaining proficiency to standards? It doesn’t make any sense to me,” he said. “There are times out there when Mother Nature and the situation can throw you demands that are beyond minimum standards.” Research shows that in stressful environments people will perform at they’re standard level or slightly below. “You are not going to pull a rabbit out of your hat.”

Eliminating Vuca    

Amy Grubb, a senior industrial/organizational psychologist with the FBI, provided guidance on handling change in an organization. Grubb noted the rudimentary resistance people have toward change, using the military term “Vuca” (volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity).

She advised patience and understanding to that resistance, but also the importance of preparing for the transition. “You don’t change instantly. Change is going to be hard. Make it less bad for less long,” she said. Grubb called fairness the key. Change in an organization needs to include procedural fairness with consistency and transparency; interpersonal fairness, with an understanding of how the change affects personnel; and informational fairness, with the communication of accurate and valuable information that is timely.

Grubb also praised the Safety Standdown, noting the lessons learned from the annual three-day event that she has been able to take back to her own organization.

Decisions, Risks and Health

Scott Shappell, professor and chair of the Department of Human Factors and Systems at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, provided an overview of all the factors involved in decision-making. “We are not in charge of our own decisions,” he said, adding that decisions are based on information and a series of “biases,” such as a salience bias (a person’s tendency to focus on things that attract them: loud, bright, recent and or/centrally focused), heuristic bias (a tendency to fill in gaps in information with expectations) or confirmation bias (a tendency to seek out information that confirms what a person believes to be true). These biases are entrenched in most people, but Shappell said it helps to be aware of them in decision-making.

Other speakers included Dr. Allen Parmet, who impressed upon the audience the importance of healthy lifestyles, BMI and factors playing into conditions such as diabetes and sleep apnea. Mark Briggs, a lead adviser for Safety Management Resources, stressed that risk cannot be eliminated, but can be managed.

Sharing Safety Standdown

NBAA president and CEO Ed Bolen emphasized that safety is one of the pillars necessary for business aviation to thrive, and the Bombardier Safety Standdown is an important event to forward that cause, he said. NBAA, celebrating its 70th anniversary, has focused on fostering business aviation, and a key to that is bringing together experts to discuss important issues, turning data into information, sharing that information and learning from the expertise, he said. “The Safety Standdown is part of that culture,” he said, and reiterated Gallagher’s challenge for attendees to “take the lessons learned and share them exponentially.”