XTRATA Mine

Xtrata Mine have approached me in doing a assessment on their Behaviour Based Safety programme. During the audit I have used small focus groups as well as using a systems thinking, Theory of Constraints, Appreciate Inquiry methodology and investigating different worldviews on safety. What a project!

Establishing a safe and accident free working environment is one of the most demanding challenges facing management today.

Maintaining the desired standard, once it has been achieved, calls for an even greater degree of focus and commitment. Within this context, one of the most perplexing issues facing safety management is why after weeks and months of accident free operations, a string of accidents, sometimes with increasing frequency, will suddenly occur.

A thorough scrutiny and analysis of the situation often showed that approximately 90% of the accidents could be attributed to human behaviour, attitude or incorrect decisions... This makes sense and refers to the statement of Stephen Covey who said the following:


“I’m convinced that 90% of failures in life are character failures, not ability failures.”