Culture analytics and safety: a systems approach that works
- John R Childress
- Mar 26, 2021
- 3 min read
Safety performance rarely fails because people don’t care.
It fails when organisations treat culture as attitudes and training, rather than as the conditions shaping work and risk.
This insight piece explains why most safety culture programmes underdeliver and how a systems-based, analytics-led model can uncover hidden risks and prioritise the right changes.
Why safety culture change often fails
Safety culture is referenced in most serious incident reviews, but many improvement efforts still struggle to deliver sustained results.
A common reason is that culture is treated as something to “encourage” through messaging and training, rather than something leaders can diagnose and govern.
Culture is practical. It is the set of conditions that shape how decisions are made under pressure, how rules are interpreted in real work, and whether people speak up when something feels unsafe.
The limits of traditional safety culture assessments
Many assessments focus on what people say or do: surveys, observed behaviours, compliance rates.
These can be useful, but they largely measure outputs rather than the system that creates them.
A more powerful approach is to identify the drivers and root causes that shape safe practice. That means looking at how organisational factors interact, including leadership signals, supervision quality, work pressure, procedure design, and local norms.
Culture as a business system
The PDF describes a systems approach referred to as Culture-as-a-Business-System™.
The principle is simple: culture is not an abstract concept. It is a network of organisational elements and social factors that influence outcomes.
This systems lens makes it easier to see why “more training” doesn’t always lead to safer work. It also helps identify the less obvious drivers that can create risk, including peer pressure, onboarding, recognition systems and hiring profiles.
Making hidden risks visible with ecosystem mapping
The article describes building an ecosystem view of safety culture using analytics and company data to reveal:
How key drivers interact
Where hotspots are forming
Which drivers influence safety outcomes most strongly
This type of mapping enables leaders to move beyond broad programmes and focus on what will actually reduce exposure. It is also designed to support evidence-led prioritisation, rather than relying on instinct or what feels most familiar.
Prioritising change and proving improvement
Once you can see how drivers interact, you can compare interventions and prioritise the changes likely to have the greatest impact.
This is where What-If analysis becomes practical as a decision tool, helping leaders focus effort where it will move the numbers.
Over time, progress becomes measurable through leading indicators and KPIs, giving leaders and boards clearer oversight than lagging metrics alone.
What leaders should take from this
Safety improves when organisations treat culture as a system they can govern:
Focus on drivers and root causes, not just behaviours
Map the organisational ecosystem that shapes real work
Prioritise interventions based on impact, not activity
Track leading indicators so improvement is visible early
Learn more about strengthening safety culture, and how the same approach applies to cyber security and conduct and compliance.
Key topics covered in this article
Why safety culture programmes often underdeliver
The limits of attitudes-and-training approaches
Culture-as-a-Business-System™ and a systems view of culture
Hidden drivers of safety risk that traditional models miss
Ecosystem mapping to reveal hotspots and root causes
Using What-If analysis to prioritise high-impact change
Measuring progress using leading indicators and KPIs
About PYXIS Culture Technologies
PYXIS Culture Technologies helps organizations understand and improve the cultural drivers of performance, safety, and cyber resilience.
By combining deep research, operational experience, and advanced culture analytics, we help organizations close the gap between strategy and everyday behaviour.
Our approach is effective:
We treat culture as a systemic business issue, not an HR initiative.
We identify key internal business practices that create safety risks and provide effective solutions you can immediately implement.
We link your safety culture to operational and business metrics, showing a clear ROI for strengthening safety performance.
Learn more about PYXIS on our About us page.
Connecting the dots
See how PYXIS models What-If scenarios to prioritise the fixes that move your numbers.