Overview

In this episode, we explore how organizations gradually drift away from their own standards, not officially, but operationally. We examine why successful outcomes can sometimes hide emerging risks and what effective leaders do to recognize drift before incidents expose it.

Keywords

organizational drift, safety culture, leadership, risk management, operational standards

Key Topics

• Organizational drift and its signs
• The role of leadership in safety culture
• How temporary fixes become permanent
• The importance of questioning routine practices
• Small signals of system weakening
• The psychology of normalization of deviance
  

Key Takeaways

• Organizational drift occurs gradually through repeated compromises.
• Success can mask underlying risks until a failure occurs.
• Leaders should pay attention to small signals like routine shortcuts.
• Creating a culture where questioning normal practices is safe is crucial.
• Major incidents are often preceded by many small, overlooked signals.

Sound bites

• "It started small, a temporary walk around."
• "Success can create blindness to risk."
• "Success can mask underlying risks."

Chapters

00:00 Understanding Organizational Drift

07:51 The Hidden Dangers of Success

11:51 Effective Leadership Against Drift

17:00 Coaching Insights and Key Takeaways

#TheSafetyEdgePodcast #SafetyLeadership #Safety #Speakup #Coaching #OrganizationalDrift #SafetyCulture #HumanFactors #OperationalExcellence #BeyondCompliance #HSE #RiskManagement #LearningCulture #CoachingConversations #LeadershipDevelopment

When Procedures Don’t Match Reality | Work as Imagined vs. Work as Done

Why do experienced workers sometimes adapt procedures or create unofficial ways of getting the job done?

In this episode, we explore the gap between Work as Imagined and Work as Done — one of the most important concepts in modern safety and operational leadership.

Procedures are designed to create consistency and control. But when operational realities change and systems fail to adapt, frontline workers often develop hidden adaptations just to keep work moving.

The danger is not always the adaptation itself.
The real risk begins when organizations stop learning from those adaptations.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Why procedures lose credibility when they ignore operational reality
• How organizational drift becomes normalized
• Why hidden adaptations are signals, not just rule violations
• The danger of blaming workers instead of understanding the system
• How psychologically safe conversations improve learning
• The role of frontline supervisors in identifying weak signals before incidents occur
• How proactive organizations strengthen what is working before failure happens

Key Takeaways

• Gap between work as imagined and work as done
• Adaptations create invisible risk

Chapters

• 00:00 The Gap Between Procedure and Reality
• 06:10 Normalized Deviance and System Design
• 12:10 Normalization and Organizational Drift

This episode is valuable for:
✔ Frontline Supervisors
✔ Safety Professionals
✔ Operations Leaders
✔ HSE Managers
✔ Industrial Workers
✔ Leadership Teams focused on operational excellence

If this episode resonated with you, share it with your team, and start the conversation about where work as imagined may no longer match work as done. Because sometimes, the conversations that prevent the next incident begin with a simple moment of reflection.

#SafetyCulture #IndustrialSafety #Leadership #FrontlineLeadership #HSE #OperationalExcellence #HumanFactors #WorkAsDone #SafetyLeadership #ProcessSafety #WorkplaceSafety #LearningCulture #RiskManagement #OilAndGas #Manufacturing

The conversation explores the gap between how work is imagined and how work is actually done, highlighting the unexamined risks in safety leadership. Charles Ebger, the safety leadership coach, introduces the concept of the safety edge and its importance in safety leadership.

Takeaways

• Gap between imagined work and actual work
• Importance of the safety edge in safety leadership

Chapters

• 00:00 The Illusion of Control