The application of change management models to safety critical change

The railways are in a constant state of change, both in terms of the infrastructure they operate on and the technologies used to control them. From the vision documented in Network Rail’s Technical Strategy (2013), RSSB’s... [ view full abstract ]

The railways are in a constant state of change, both in terms of the infrastructure they operate on and the technologies used to control them. From the vision documented in Network Rail’s Technical Strategy (2013), RSSB’s Rail Technical Strategy (2014) and various Route Utilisation Strategies, the scale of planned change is substantial and sustained. The industry is now into Control Periods (CP) 5, and has planned or is planning changes for CP 6, 7 and beyond.
These changes will affect safety critical staff in different ways so an RSSB research project was created to better understand the risks and mitigations associated, with infrastructure and technological change and the effects of these on train drivers. The concerns were potential risks such as over-loading drivers with information; the clarity, structure or format of the change information, and how well projects work together to deliver these changes. The research output is a Good Practise guide that will help Managers and Operators to better manage change and to understand that change management is a discipline in itself, as important as the project management, design and construction.
The GPG opens with a model of change management and in writing this a range of change management models were reviewed for their applicability to managing safety critical changes. The review found that models of change were predominantly related to the management of organisational change rather than safety critical changes. For example Lewin’s ‘Unfreeze, Freeze. Re-Freeze model’ (1947) and Covey’s (1989) seven stage model to help managers deal with organisational change as effectively as possible.
The review also found a number of models that relate to the way an individual react to change. For example, a model of how individuals personally react to organisational change (Kubler-Ross, 1960); the Nudge Theory model which describes how to encourage engagement in change (Thaler et al, 2008), Stanley’s RISE model (2010) of personal change; and the model of the Psychological contract and the maintenance of this before, during and after change (Schein, et al 1965).
While the review found that the models were all valid and robust, their application to the management of safety critical change was limited as they do not account for the context or the risks posed. The project also reviewed railway-based change models such as the Office of the Rail Regulator (ORR)’s key elements of a change management process. While this accounts for the impact on a company’s Safety Management System (SMS) and the safety critical nature of the change, the project identified a gap between the ORR model and the more general organisational and individual change models.
To address this gap, the authors have developed a safety critical change model which is described in the paper, how this fits into a proposed good practise guide for change, the benefits of its use and some potential barriers to its application within a project environment. The paper concludes with proposals on how it can be applied and some initial findings from the pilot review and implementation of the model.