The Subtle Undermining of Standards
In a recent LinkedIn post, we placed viewers in the shoes of a cruise ship Public Health Officer confronted with a dilemma. During a Vessel Sanitaton Program (VSP) inspection, a crew member is observed—outside the inspector’s line of sight—handling Ready-To-Eat food without gloves.
In that moment, two options were presented:
- Option A – Correct the mistake immediately and risk a finding.
- Option B – Remain silent, hoping it goes unnoticed, and address it later.
From a public health perspective, Option A is unequivocally the right course of action. But doing what is right is not always straightforward for the person in the moment. Add the pressure of a VSP inspection, where the final score is often valued more than the actual violations raised, and judgment can be clouded. The temptation to prioritize appearances over integrity can outweigh the obligation to act.
Nevertheless, turning a blind eye to unsafe practices is never neutral. Choosing not to intervene is itself a decision, and one with consequences. Beyond the obvious health risks, the long-term cost of ignoring lapses is far greater than most realize.
Moments That Matter: Where Culture Is Won or Lost
Small deviations in public health rarely trigger immediate disaster. When taken in isolation, a missed hand wash, a skipped temperature check, or a slight discrepancy in recreational water halogen levels seldom cause harm. (For instance, a chef who neglects to wash their hands must also be carrying a pathogen for illness to occur.)
The true danger lies in what happens when these lapses go uncorrected. Left unchallenged, they gradually erode the very culture that keeps ships safe—a phenomenon that could be aptly described as The Erosion Effect.
Every silence sends a signal: rules are flexible, enforcement is optional. Over time, these signals accumulate, transforming occasional oversights into normalized behaviour. Crew begin to question whether public health standards truly matter, and once those doubts take hold, they spread quickly.
Research in organizational behaviour and safety confirms that tolerated lapses compound until they reshape norms, degrade accountability, and create conditions for major incidents. The erosion does not happen overnight. It advances subtly, almost imperceptibly, until a culture becomes synonymous with complacency.
The consequences ripple outward. Crew lose confidence in leadership. Managers forfeit authority. At the executive level, the costs are strategic. Weakened standards increase operational risk, invite regulatory findings, and undermine the very credibility on which a public health culture depends.
Blind Spots in Judgment: The Biases That Excuse Risk
Even when the dangers of procedural violations are obvious, they are often ignored due to predictable patterns of human judgment. Seasoned professionals are not immune, and these patterns frequently manifest as biases that shape how risk is perceived and acted upon:
- Severity bias: Attention gravitates toward hazards with immediate, visible consequences—like raw chicken thawing on a counter—while subtler ones, such as a minor deviation in a sanitizing bucket’s chlorine levels, are underestimated.
- Professional bias: Each department sees risk through its own lens. Chefs emphasize food safety, engineers prioritize maintenance, housekeeping zeroes in on cleanliness. This siloed perspective can obscure overlapping hazards that defy neat categorization.
- “Common sense” assumptions: The belief that some procedures are so obvious they don’t need reinforcement. This can translate into presuming every doctor knows what to report to specific health agencies, or that hose connections will always be sanitized before bunkering potable water. Inspections repeatedly demonstrate that “common sense” cannot be taken for granted.
These blind spots do not necessarily stem from negligence; in fact, they tend to reflect natural cognitive shortcuts. Yet if left unaddressed, they create fertile ground for The Erosion Effect to take root.
Leading by Example: How Actions Shape Culture
On a ship, credibility is forged in moments that never appear in KPIs—moments like those captured in our Sliding Doors series. When a Bar Manager corrects a hand-washing lapse or enforces time-control policies, the immediate impact may appear negligible. However, each intervention conveys a message: standards matter. And not because of an inspection, but because health is non-negotiable.
Even so, small corrections only carry weight when consistently reinforced by senior leadership. Managers who act decisively need executives who bolster—not dilute—their authority. When interventions are habitually upheld, accountability becomes embedded in operations.
As science fiction writer Joan D. Vinge warned, “In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is stoned to death.” It’s a reminder that enforcing higher standards can feel isolating. But when leaders support each other in upholding those standards, consistency earns respect and sustains credibility.
Senior leaders set the cultural tone. Frame corrections as personal criticism, and crew will conceal mistakes. Frame them as professional discipline, and the organization builds a culture where even minor risks are addressed before they escalate.
The legacy of strong public health leadership is written one deliberate action at a time. The true mark of a safe ship is not compliance for an inspection, but a culture shaped by leaders who choose to do what is right, every single day.
Decisions That Define Culture: Silence or Accountability
Correction in the moment is not merely a managerial task; it is the frontline expression of a company’s values. A leader who addresses even minor lapses affirms that standards are non-negotiable, sending a message that resonates across the team.
This is especially true during inspections. What matters is not the appearance of compliance, but the integrity of actions taken when no one is watching. Inspections assess preparedness, but daily decisions define culture. The immediate consequences of speaking up can sometimes feel more intimidating than the issue itself. However, silence carries its own message: that health and safety can be compromised.
Biases and assumptions make overlooking risk easy, but the long-term consequences are profound. Turning a blind eye reshapes culture, erodes credibility, and undermines trust. It also communicates the wrong message to crew about what the company values most (and that shouldn’t be an inspection score).
The true measure of leadership lies in these small decisions. Not in the polished outcome of an inspection, but in the unremarkable daily choices where culture is either upheld or allowed to decay.
Leaders who consistently address unsafe practices, support their teams, and promote accountability reinforce a resilient public health culture. Silence carries a high price, but the benefits of decisive, values-driven leadership extend far beyond a single correction.
Ultimately, the pressures of inspection will pass, but the culture created in daily decisions endures. The choices leaders make in those moments—whether to act, to correct, or to uphold standards—define the health of the ship far more than any inspection report ever could.