If you want to practice reactive, proactive, and predictive risk management in aviation safety management systems (SMS), you first and foremost need to understand the difference between these types of risk management in modern aviation operations.
Understanding what each type of risk management is does not involve just understanding the “conceptual” difference, but how each practice differs in the actual operational environment.
The most common misnomers around the types of aviation risk management are:
Here is a table that very broadly defines the difference between each type of risk management:
|
|
Reactive Risk Mgmt |
Proactive Risk Mgmt |
Predictive Risk Mgmt |
|
Definition |
Actions in response to hazard/risk occurrence |
Actions that address perceived hazard/risk occurrence before it actually occurs |
Actions that attempt to forecast future, potential hazard/risk occurrence |
|
Primary Management Activity
|
After hazard/risk occurrence, taking measures (i.e., corrective actions) to prevent re-occurrence |
Before hazard/risk occurrence, creating control measures to prevent initial occurrence |
Analyzing current operations to identify areas of potential concern in the future, hypothetical situation |
|
Primary Front-Line Employee Activity
|
Once hazard occurs, take action to prevent risk occurrence, or if the risk occurs, actions to mitigate damages |
Hazard mechanisms and threats are identified before hazard occurrence (and hazard occurrence is mitigated) |
N/A
|
The important distinction above in practicing reactive, proactive, and prediction risk management happens on a bureaucratic/management level, as well as an issue-by-issue operational environment level.
Reactive risk management is the first type of risk management that an aviation SMS will practice. We might call this “baseline” risk management because it’s the type of risk management process that will be built first in safety programs. Here are the basic elements of practicing reactive risk management.
Resources you need to practice reactive risk management:
Top activities of reactive risk management:
Outcomes and goals of reactive risk management:
Proactive risk management is a risk management practice that will begin to grow after aviation safety programs have:
In short, proactive risk management will be more relevant as an SMS implementation matures and employees embrace the concepts of just culture.
Here are the basic elements of practicing proactive risk management.
Resources you need to practice proactive risk management:
Top activities of proactive risk management:
Outcomes and goals of proactive risk management:
Predicative risk management involves attempting to foresee safety concerns that have not occurred in the operational environment by reviewing and analyzing historical data. Trend analysis is perhaps the most well-known predictive risk management tool in a safety manager's toolkit.
Predictive risk management involves looking at operational processes and attempting to understand how those processes might fail in a given situation. You might call predictive risk management “hypothetical stress testing for SMS.”
Resources you need to effectively practice predictive risk management:
Top activities of predictive risk management:
Outcomes and goals of predictive risk management:
The important takeaway when understanding all three types of risk management are:
To increase your ability to sustainably practice risk management in your aviation SMS, you will find that an SMS database is the required technology to acquire, store, and retrieve safety data.
One of your ultimate objectives as a safety manager is to successfully engage in predictive risk management activities year after year. The SMS database is critical to saving time and energy for the safety team. You will also increase your level of safety, reduce risk, and reap the real benefits of having an SMS database software program that can be used for all aviation SMS activities, including:
If you want to have a real SMS and not a paper SMS, we can help you achieve your goals. Ask us to be your SMS partner.
Last updated July 2024.