Through the first quarter of 2013, the Utilities Service Alliance (USA) performance has continued to improve thanks to the fleet’s behavior initiative. The two tiered initiative has improved engagement amongst members and led to a better recognition of risk to help drive performance towards excellence.

“Across USA, the core peer teams (CPTs) have really stepped up,” explained John Christensen, USA’s Director – Operational Performance. “The teams are more engaged and working on projects that benefit the entire fleet. They’re also holding each other accountable and making sure everyone shares in the responsibility to improve performance.”

The major focus of the CPTs has been to identify, assess and mitigate a specific risk behavior that is challenging performance in their area. Some examples include the Maintenance CPT’s efforts to increase first line supervisor awareness of risk and the Emergency Preparedness CPT focusing on line ownership of the emergency response organization at each member site.

The Training CPT is also reinforcing several recommendations proposed by the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations (INPO) so leaders, supervisors and individual contributors fully understand what it means to be an engaged, thinking worker.

“Engagement and risk go hand in hand,” said Christensen. “Problems occur when people disengage and don’t follow procedures or ask questions. Thinking and engaged organizations are more successful in identifying and mitigating risk. Everyone at every level knows how important they are to executing a job safely and successfully.”