The concepts and philosophy of what was to evolve into the Positive Attitude Safety System (PASS) were introduced to Cominco’s Sullivan Mine in the mid 1980’s by James S. Burns, a Canadian consultant. This early and crude prototype achieved significant results and in the early 1990’s was refined into the Positive Attitude Safety System with the key process components and with Jim Burns’ unique imp
lementation approach. The PASS is based on the concepts of Learned Helplessness, Positive Reinforcement (shaping of behaviours) and Intervention Therapy, which Jim Burns studied for six years at the Universities of Victoria and Calgary. Since then, Jim Burns and his colleagues have been working with tens of thousands of people in hundreds of Natural Resource and Heavy Industrial organizations; such as, mining, manufacturing, stevedoring, transportation and construction operations in Canada, Australia, Indonesia, Vietnam, New Zealand, Jamaica, Tanzania, Malaysia, Argentina, Pakistan and the United States of America. The PASS is a dynamic process that ensures the transfer of all PASS technology to the Client. The client’s dependence on the consultant’s content expertise is not desired nor is it an objective. The goal is to establish a relationship which fosters “ownership in” and “stewardship of” the PASS process by the client. The consultant provides training, coaching, monitoring and evaluation to the client’s organization. The PASS consists of Safety Huddles, Charting of crew-defined Safe Days, Check-Offs, the Report-Down System, Positive Observation and Feedback and Safety Improvement Huddles.
