Naval Safety Center (NAVSAFECEN) hosted the 2019 Safety Summit Aug. 6-8 on Naval Station Norfolk. The purpose of the annual summit was to discuss how United States Fleet Forces Command (USFF), United States Pacific Fleet (PACFLT), Type Commanders (TYCOMs), and NAVSAFECEN can further collaborative efforts to implement the Safety Management Systems (SMS) and move performance and evaluation beyond ‘compliance’ to ‘effectiveness.’

Capt. Joseph Torian, USFF director for Fleet Safety and Occupational Health, led the multi-day event and fielded the many great ideas and recommendations brought forward during the summit. Torian stated the motivation is high to preserve resources, and most importantly save lives.

“The goal of the Safety Summit was to promote the sharing of information, networking, and collaboration amongst the safety professionals within the TYCOMs and the Naval Safety Center,” said Torian. “An abundance of great work and safety initiatives are being developed and implemented in the fleet and at the Naval Safety Center; conducting a Safety Summit was the most effective means to bring the safety professionals on one accord to analyze, discuss, and make recommendations on these initiatives.”

Torian and other leaders see the importance of holding events like the summit and understand how this type of collaboration can strengthen the safety culture Navy-wide.

“Events like the Safety Summit are important to the fleet because they allow the represented organizations to most effectively share information, enabling effective learning,” said Torian. “Information, data, and lessons learned by one organization are shared with all organizations promoting efficient learning throughout the fleet.”

Rear Adm. Mark Leavitt, commander, Naval Safety Center spoke on the second day, fielding questions during a discussion following his remarks. Leavitt updated the attendees on the NAVSAFECEN’s latest innovations, stressed the importance of data in effective safety, changes in reporting systems, and provided updates on the long-awaited Risk Management Information (RMI) program.

“The breadth and depth of attendance at this year’s summit surpasses what we’ve seen previously. It’s great to see this type of response,” said Leavitt. “It’s all about the warfighter and readiness, not just safety for safety’s sake; safety answers readiness.”

Safety professionals conducted an open and frank discussion about a number of topics to include the Secretary of the Navy (SECNAV) safety campaign, safety workforce competencies, and policy updates. Many attendees provided feedback, which included their suggestions to existing policies or potential innovations for implementation. Much of the three-day discussions centered around data and the collective Navy-wide efforts to capture and analyze more effectively at the various organizations.

“There’s always room for improvement. As safety professionals, we need to look at what’s getting done, what’s not getting done, and how do we fix it,” said Leavitt. “We invite you all to share your ideas to help move the ‘safety ball down the field.’”

At the conclusion of the summit, attendees had the option to participate in an additional day’s discussion. The fourth day allowed those interested in attending a predictive modeling summit at the Naval Safety Center led by Dr. Kirk Horton, Director of the NAVSAFCEN Knowledge Management and Safety Promotions (KMSP) Directorate.

The Naval Safety Center and the Department of the Navy are looking to align efforts to the Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Admiral John M. Richardson’s “A Design for Maintaining Maritime Superiority Version 2.0” initiatives to include establishing data-driven decisions as a foundation for achieving readiness in the Navy’s warfighting enterprises. Richardson directed Lead Type Commands, supported by Systems Commands (SYSCOMs), Budget Submitting Offices, and higher echelons with developing and maintaining authoritative and accessible data for decision-quality information.

“Without good and deep data we can’t get after the problems,” said Leavitt. “The entire Navy is in its infancy with data, but we know data modeling can allow us all to become predictive and prescriptive in the long run.”

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