Learning From Mistakes

The maritime industry historically has increased the safety of all seafarers by learning from previous near-misses and/or accidents. It is a cornerstone of safety and one of the best ways to improve a company's safety management system. This is because they involve real problems and when incorporated into the daily work onboard, they can reduce the likelihood of these accidents from ever happening again. Many companies have a no-blame culture and promote the reporting of near-misses to improve the safety of the company and protect the crew who work on their vessels.

Whenever an accident occurs, investigators can usually give positive input on how to avoid the re-occurrence of the accident after a thorough analysis has been carried out. Once again, a strong safety culture of accident investigation and more importantly, near-accidents are reported without fear of embarrassment or retribution. Once reported, they are analysed and improvements are made.

Human Error

Studies show that approximately 60% to 80% of all accidents happen due to human error. All human error accidents and incidents can be prevented. One way to prevent accidents is to analyse the risks involved before performing a task. In most critical operations on board, we have procedures to follow, these procedures have been developed by risk assessment and management.

For all tasks that you perform onboard, you should follow the outlined procedures, but you shall also do a formal risk assessment before performing any task on board that is not already covered by a risk assessment.

A study from 2020 that explores maturity and adaptability when learning from mistakes and looking at Global Challenges into the future allows you to explore this concept further. 

Risky Behaviour and Mindsets

When dealing with people, one has to keep in mind that some mindsets are potential risks. In this video, you are going to learn more about which mindsets to look out for and also some tips on how to deal with them.