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Capacity Model

We are changing the way we do safety.

We are in the people business and we know that people are fallible. We always choose prevention, but we realize that mistakes will happen. The question becomes do we have the capacity to absorb failure without causing harm. To be ready, we will plan and execute work assuming that failure could happen at any moment. We will learn from each job, each mistake and success – to continue getting better in every aspect. Safety is not the complete absence of injuries – it is the presence of capacity. Safety is not just a policy – safety is the core of who we are and always at the forefront of our focus.

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Quanta Human Performance Principles

People Make Mistakes

Error is normal. Even the best people make mistakes.

Failure Can Occur Safely

We will always plan and execute our work as if failure is going to happen today. It’s not if, it’s when.

Context Influences Behavior

Workers do what they do for a reason, and the reason makes sense to the workers given the context of the situation.

Violations are rarely, if ever, malicious

Blame fixes nothing.

Incidents can stem from normal deviations

How we imagine work takes place is different from how work actually takes place.

Management's response to failure matters

Managers shape how the organization learns by the their reaction to failure.

Learning is a deliberate Improvement Strategy

Learning is a strategic and operational choice towards improvement

The Capacity Model

The Capacity Model creates a work environment that focuses on preventing  an incident while also building the capacity for failure by always planning and executing our work as if failure is going to happen today.

Establishing a learning-based philosophy allows the organization to adapt and mature, building upon lessons learned and operational efficiences  identified through collaboration.

The SHEQ Shift

Foundational Assumption

Significant events are a result of a release or transfer of energy that can’t be absorbed safely.

Define The Problem (why)

Fatal, life-threatening, and life-changing events still occur in our industries.

Define Success (what)

Fatal, life-threatening, and life-changing events are eliminated.

Guiding Principle (how)

When high energy exposure exists we must have capacity to fail safely.

The Energy Wheel

The Energy Wheel concept will be used to equip the worker to recognize sources of energy, discuss and determine controls needed, ultimately ensuring the Job Briefing process focuses on significant potential hazards unique to each activity and job.

STKY Discussions

It’s important for crews to start focusing on STKY scenarios that could occur on their jobsite. Significant events are a result of a release or transfer of energy that can’t be absorbed safely. When high-energy exposure exists, we must have capacity to fail safely.

STKY discussions are informal chats with crews about the stuff that can kill them on the jobsite. These discussions focus on identifying STKY discussions, determining what controls are in place that build capacity within the work, allowing them to fail safely, then asking, “Is that enough?”. STKY discussions highlight the hazards within our industry that have a history of killing individuals (electric contact, driving, struck by/line of fire, etc).  Compliance-based safety talk is not part of these discussions. Rather, they are focused on high-energy hazards that are present on the jobsite.

STKYa – An actual STKY injury that results in one of the following three outcomes:

1. Life Threatening

A state where death is imminent or probable if not immediately addressed by trained medical personnel, often with the aid of life-sustaining support.

2. Life-Altering

A state of permanent or long-term impairment or loss of the use of an internal organ, bodily function, or body part.

3. Fatal

An injury that results in the death of an employee.

We are changing the way
we do safety

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