The Chamber of Mines of South Africa Leading Practice Adoption System

Abstract

The Chamber of Mines of South Africa was interested in significantly improving the industry’s occupational health and safety (OH&S) performance. More than two decades of prior investment and effort into technology transfer (deployment of technology—equipment, machines, training—in the workplace) had not produced satisfactory results in that it was not used, safety performance did not improve, or safety performance declined. Yet, many leaders throughout the industry remained convinced that technology transfer was the optimum means for improving OH&S performance. This chapter examines the process and outcomes of applying a Mental Modeling approach to identifying barriers and aids to widespread adoption of occupational health and safety technology and best practices in a mining operation, and then how they were used to design the behavioral and decision-making aspects of an industry initiative called the Leading Practice Adoption System (Adoption System)—an approach for achieving systematic adoption of innovative technology and best practices.