Organizational silence is the best enemy of safety

When information no longer circulates in a company or an industrial facility, organizational silence sets in. This is a real scourge for safety: information from the field stays in the field and, therefore, cannot be taken into account in strategic decisions.

Numerous mechanisms can generate organizational silence, including psychological aspects, how occupational groups work together, or organizational mechanisms such as:

• managerial illusions
• lack of knowledge about the reality on the ground
• the normalization of deviance
• the discrepancy between prescribed work and actual work
• the organization’s response to errors
• lack of follow-up to reports.

 In his Thoughts on Safety Culture, François Daniellou makes the fight against organizational silence a safety priority. He points out multiple issues to be aware of, and suggests a few ways to make progress.