The Checklist That Tells You What You're Actually Measuring
Rustom Sutaria 
A free checklist to find out what your safety metrics are really measuring and what they are missing.
A free checklist to find out what your safety metrics are really measuring and what they are missing.
Last week, we asked a question that keeps a lot of Safety Managers awake at 2am: what if you are measuring the wrong thing?
A quiet dashboard feels like proof that everything works. Low incident counts. Clean audits. No open reports. But a quiet dashboard only tells you what has not gone wrong yet. It does not tell you whether your Engineers & Technicians feel able to speak up before something does.
That gap between what gets counted and what actually matters will not close by itself. It needs a proper look, not a guess.
A checklist, not another system
We built the SIGHT Safety System Checklist for exactly this. It is not a new audit or extra paperwork. It is 5 direct questions that help you and your team look honestly at what your safety system is really measuring, and what it might be missing.
Each letter stands for one question: See what truly affects outcomes. Identify KPIs/SPIs that don't drive change. Gauge future risk, not just past events. Harvest and analyse your data properly. Trace historical records for gaps.
How to use it
Gather a small group: your Safety team, your Operational leads, and a few of your Engineers & Technicians who do the work every day. Go through the questions together and mark each one Yes or No. Where the answer is not clear, write that down too. That uncertainty is often the most useful line on the page.
Some questions will feel familiar. Others will not be comfortable to answer honestly:
- 1. Are we measuring what truly affects safety outcomes?
- 2. Do our safety metrics show future risk, not just past events?
- 3. Have we added KPIs that don't drive meaningful change?
These are not trick questions. They are the ones most safety systems avoid asking out loud.
What you will find
You will likely find items you already do well. Note down why, because that is worth keeping too. You will also probably find a few gaps you already suspected but never wrote down. Seeing them on paper, next to your team's honest answers, turns a feeling into a fact your organisation can act on.
Download the checklist
The SIGHT Safety System Checklist is free. It takes about an hour with the right people in the room, and it asks nothing of you, beyond honesty.
Get the SIGHT Safety System Checklist
If the answers raise more questions
If your team lands on different answers to the same item, or the checklist surfaces something you were not expecting, that disagreement is worth talking through properly.
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.
You already have a safety system. This checklist will not replace it. It will tell you, honestly, what it is actually measuring.
Rustom Sutaria, Avia Intelligence
contact.us@aviaintelligence.com | aviaintelligence.com
Categories: : Connection, Human Factors, KPIs, Leadership, Reporting Culture, Safety Culture, Safety Metrics, SPIs, Transport Safety