Vision Zero (English)

the new yellow road in health and safety

As always, today April 28 international, day of Safety and Health at Work, I write something interesting and beyond the usual canned stuff that you can read on this date, the last few years I have been critical of many bad and some good campaigns, today I want to share a new vision that really promises a lot …

Remember the Wizard of OZ and his yellow path that takes you to meet the great wizard? The VISION ZERO Strategy of the INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF SOCIAL SECURITY (ISSA) is something like a map to take that yellow road and differs from the fantasy called zero accidents that many preventionists try unsuccessfully to implement today. Vision Zero is an integration guide that for me ,takes us away from the vision of the health and safety of the last century and takes us into the 21st century by integrating ourselves into organizations as agents of change and making health and safety a strategic issue for ALL the members of the organizations and not only of the preventionists. It also takes us away from the expired theorems that many people follow and sell today as that of complying with the law at all costs without implying that prevention be done with and for people.

The ISSA establishes what are called the 7 golden Zero rules:

• Take leadership – demonstrate commitment.
• Identify the hazards – assess the risks.
• Define goals – develop programs.
• Ensure a safe and healthy system – be well organized.
• Ensure safety and health in machines, equipment and workplaces.
• Improve qualifications – develop competencies.
• Invest in people – motivate through participation.

The documents that ISSA shares are good and in several languages ​​and FREE, but my friends from PRL INNOVACION & I + 3 Consultores (Spain) prepared an excellent guide in Spanish and very well explained how to implement what is Zero Vision in an organization in a Practical way, of which I found out thanks to my friends Joaquin Ruiz and Salvador Carmona in their podcast that is also called VISION ZERO, in which they explain very well what is this strategy and how to use it and with many practical cases that are being applied today without fantasies or canned smoke, tangible facts real companies and people behind them, ALL with the same VISION.

I have taken some main ideas from the PRL INNOVACION guide that summarize a good part of what VISION ZERO is:

VISION ZERO is not a health and safety management system but a philosophical approach based on three fundamental pillars:

The life and health of people are not negotiable.

People make mistakes, but the organization and the system must cushion them to avoid causing harm.

An organizational culture of health is the best guarantee to avoid harm to people.

I think these three pillars say it all, there is not much to explain and what to digest besides the guide gives very good comparisons in pictures of what is VISION ZERO and what is the old Health and safety, without counting other good ways to put it into practice.

I will soon be explaining it my way and in more detail and with examples as I would apply VISION ZERO and I am already looking for my guinea pigs (companies that want to apply this new vision). Ahh also wait for the review of the APP of ISSA 7 GOLDEN RULES that is supposed to apply the VISION ZERO.

«When you start trying to solve a problem, the first solutions that come to your mind are very complex and that’s why most people stop when they reach this point. But if you continue, you live with the problem and peel more layers of the onion, you often arrive at very elegant and very simple solutions ».

Steve Jobs