Just Culture, Proactive Safety, and Mishap Prevention

MEMORANDUM FOR 18 AF/CC
USAF EC/CC
AMC/SE
AMC WING COMMANDERS

FROM: AMC/CC
510 POW/MIA Drive
Scott AFB IL 62225-5310

SUBJECT: Just Culture, Proactive Safety, and Mishap Prevention

1. As we Accelerate Change to Win, I ask you and your Airmen to join me in committing to full integration of mishap prevention within every facet of our mobility enterprise. The ability to meet our Pacing Challenge depends on the trust, faith, and teamwork that is only fostered through a strong and authentic Just Culture.
2. Just Culture empowers our Airmen to identify hazards and errors that might otherwise go unnoticed. AFI 91-202 describes this as a foundation that “encourages personnel to provide safety-related information without fear of reprisal. Leaders establish a Just Culture environment by encouraging hazard and error reporting for safety analysis and mis hap prevention purposes. At the same time, they must understand and promote the idea that more can be learned through full reporting and detailed investigation of safety issues than by assigning blame and punishment. Leaders must also establish clear guidelines on acceptable and unacceptable behavior.” Errors are an inherently human occurrence. Regardless of our best intentions, experience, or training, we are all susceptible to unintentional mistakes. While maintaining accountability to standards, a Just Culture capitalizes on errors as an opportunity to understand and address vulnerabilities and transform those errors into powerful lessons learned that are accessible and beneficial to the entire organization.
3. Our Just Culture is the foundation of all of our proactive safety programs, to include the Aviation/Airman Safety Action Program (ASAP), Military Flight Operations Quality Assurance (MFOQA), and Line Operations Safety Audit (LOSA). The success of these programs relies upon the active participation of every Airman. This level of participation can only be achieved by an organization that exhibits mutual trust where Airmen are encouraged to report hazards and errors with the knowledge that leaders respect the difference between acceptable mistakes and inacceptable behavior.
4. I am very proud of what AMC Airmen do each and every day. I expect commanders and supervisors at all levels to internalize a Just Culture and encourage their subordinates to participate in our proactive safety programs so that risks to our operations can be identified, assessed, and mitigated.

MICHAEL A. MINIHAN
General, USAF
Commander