ABSTRACT
Improvement findings will benefit from a careful discussion of how a select few changes will be easier, faster, and less disruptive to the overall facility. Defenses change and adapt, just like work changes and adapts. Changing safety professionals' defenses completely is a bad idea. Changing safety professionals' defenses completely will most often create more failures at their facility. The problem is that defenses and safeguards in a perfect world and without plant variability are seductively unambiguous; they make a complex work environment less complex. Safeguards and Defenses are important, incredibly important. The problem is that defenses bring a completely new set of problems to be addressed by the organization. This is only a caution; defenses make an enormous difference to safety professionals' success as an organization. Knowing what works helps safety professionals' organization avoid quick removals of defenses by allowing the possibility to recognize the value of the old defenses before these defenses are tossed aside.
