Risk Tolerance and Safety Culture: Minimizing the Risk of Catastrophe by Bringing the Lessons of Space Home

David T. Loyd, Assistant Director, Safety & Mission Assurance at NASA Johnson Space Center, opened the second day of the OHS Leaders Summit USA with a presentation around “Risk Tolerance and Safety Culture: Minimizing the Risk of Catastrophe by Bringing the Lessons of Space Home”

Safety and health excellence isn’t just about preventing mishaps and optimizing performance, it is about anticipating failure and accepting a reasonable potential for error. What is common across all industry is human error. NASA has learned from our experiences how the human condition paired with flawed organizational factors can lead to catastrophe. Learning hard lessons have contributed to evolving NASA’s risk appetite and creating an environment permeated with risk-based thinking. Ultimately this helps us in pursuing an effective safety culture that minimizes risk and encourages mission success.

ABOUT DAVID T. LOYD
David has a broad background in aerospace management, operations, and testing, specifically directing occupational safety and quality assurance functions. He has focused much of his career on management system implementation and measurement, having assessed several NASA Centers and government installations for both occupational safety and quality assurance program effectiveness. David also has successful experience sharing training programs with management, technical, and academic audiences on a variety of occupational safety and risk management topics.

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