Has Your SPI Outgrown Your Operation?

We measured our SPIs for years and thought they worked. Here is what changed when we asked the right questions.

When we first set our safety performance indicators (SPIs), they were right. They matched our operation, the risks we faced and the maturity of our system. Nobody chose a bad measure. We chose a good one for the operation we had then.

At 2am, this is easy to forget. The question is not always, "Did we measure the wrong thing?" Sometimes the question is quieter. Did the right measure stop being right, and nobody noticed?

If you manage people, you may know this. The dashboard shows the same indicator, green as always. But the operation has moved on, and the SPI has not moved with it.

Operations change. SPIs do not, unless someone changes them.

A fleet gets older or newer. A safety management programme moves from reactive to predictive. New equipment arrives. A new contractor takes over a task that your own people did before. Rules become stricter. Staffing changes. Each change moves the risk picture. Each change can turn a good SPI into a stale one. The system still reports green, but it measures less and less of what really happens.

The SIGHT checklist we shared with you last time can help you find this. You may have used it already. If so, you may have found an SPI that used to mean something. Now it only confirms what you already believe. Ask yourself: does it tell you anything new?

A stale SPI is more dangerous than a missing one.

A missing measure is honest about its limits. It tells you plainly that you do not know something. A stale measure is worse. It looks like knowledge, but it is only a habit of reporting. It keeps showing green, and you stop asking questions. The risk has not gone away. The indicator has not changed with the operation over the last two or three years.

This is how a well-run safety system drifts out of date. It is not negligence. Nobody looked at the SPI again after it was put in place.

What this looked like in practice

We went back through our own SPIs. We asked one question of each: "What has changed in the operation since we set this? Does the indicator still show it?"

For some SPIs, the answer was clear. The measure still tracked something real and current. For others, the answer was less comfortable. One indicator was built around a task that had moved to a contractor. We still reported on it each month. It was always green, because it had almost nothing to capture.

Once we saw this, the fix was not complicated. We removed indicators that had lost their relevance and their safety value. We changed others to match the operation as it is now. In one or two areas, we built new measures where none existed, because the risk itself was new.

Why this matters for you now

Your SPIs do not need to be wrong for you to review them. Time and change affect every operation. A green dashboard tells you that your indicators have not flagged a problem. It does not tell you that your indicators can still see one.

Ask this question: is the thing we measure still the thing that matters? A lot has changed since we chose it.

Join us for Reviewing Your SPIs, a Free 45-Minute Workshop. We will look at how to review and refresh your indicators against your current operation. We use real examples from operators who found the same drift. Reserve your seat.

Prefer to talk it through first? Book a Free 20-Minute One-to-One Discussion. It is optional, with no obligation.

Want to talk about this with other people in aviation, rail, road and sea transport? Join the free Safety Rebels Club. Share what you have learned in general terms. Do not name people or companies. Do not share confidential information.

Categories: : Aviation Safety, KPI, Nurture, Safety Culture, Safety Leadership, Safety Metrics, SIGHT Checklist, SPI, SPI Review, Stale SPI, Transport Safety