Distinguished Merit Award: Focus on Four

Alison Gareau, Jody Luckasavitch and Katie Primeau

For the development and implementation of the Focus on Four within the Stewardship Renewal Group.

It had been identified (through recent events, observations and general staff feedback) that CNL’s work planning and execution-related management systems currently lack an emphasis on the importance of the use of worker-centric tools such as human performance tools. Although documentation exists in our management system, observation and feedback suggests that Event-Free Tools (EFT) or human performance tools in general are not discussed, reinforced or trained on consistently. Therefore, a Focus on Four Training Initiative was initiated by the Stewardship Renewal Group (SRG) – led by the Process Improvement team within Decommissioning & Environmental Remediation’s Focus on Four training CNL’s Learning management system.

Four key human performance tools were chosen for the focus of this initiative. These tools were identified as particularly important to SRG missions. These include: Stop / Pause When Unsure, Self-Check, Verification, and Procedure Use & Adherence.

The Focus on Four concept was created to ensure that human performance tools, a key component of our work planning and execution management system, are promoted and used by workers (in conjunction with good work packages, quality pre-job briefs, qualified workers, etc.) as a final defense in preventing an error.

Although training is an important element of this initiative, the goal is not solely to perform a training blitz and increase knowledge and awareness of key human performance tools. Rather, it is to cultivate a series of behaviors to produce repeatable outcomes and promote a culture that supports situational awareness and a questioning attitude.