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Thome Group News

Attitude performance

By Capt. Michael Elwert, Director Group HR, Strategy and Support, Thome Group

A high performing organisation is an organisation which, despite operating in an environment
where hazards are numerous and the consequences of failure catastrophic, manages its operations

in such a way that its error rate is consistently very low.

Leadership

Attitude

Culture

Let us look at the make decisions which are safe ATTITUDE: attitude to of communication and sharing
Characteristics we believe in.
in the short-term, but profitable safety is characterised as being of information between

in the long-term.
preoccupied with failure; a operations and management, High performing and reliable
high performing person sees and a commitment to learning organisations have a number of Thome Leaders are

incidents and near-misses as from experiences and errors.
defining characteristics of recognised by the resources
the indicators of the health and which the following are they invest in terms of staff and CULTURE: is described as

reliability of the organisation examples.
time not only to ensure having norms of behaviour
and view such errors as failings operational safety, but also to which represent a just culture. LEADERSHIP:

of the system rather than as respond to unexpected events. Within such cultures, exceptionally high performing
failings of an individual or They encourage and are individuals can openly report leaders are visible leaders who

department. In terms of attitude receptive to bottom up incidents and near-misses engage with our frontline staff
towards authority, HROs are communications of ‘bad news’ without fear of punishment, but through vessel visits, and who

often organised hierarchically from frontline staff; employees not all behaviour is tolerated. A walk the talk so they have a
with clearly defined roles and are not afraid to say when line is drawn between much more realistic picture of
responsibilities, but when things go wrong. Finally, their necessary violations due to operations. They are also

emergencies occur, deference leadership style is described as inadequacies in equipment or proactive in commissioning
is switched to those with the management by exception; the design of the working audits on the basis of events in

expertise rather than to those leaders focus on the strategic environment that make other companies, not just events
with status in the organisation. direction of the company and do compliance with procedures in their own, and they are

Lastly, their attitude to learning not interfere in operational difficult, and those behaviours characterised by an ability to
is demonstrated by the decisions except to intervene that are unacceptable or balance commercial and safety

continuous technical training when there is an unplanned negligent where disciplinary imperatives. They achieve this
that staff receive, the openness
deviation.
action is warranted.
by empowering employees to

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Issue 36: March 2014