Your 90-Day SMS Sprint: A January-March Plan That Actually Makes a Difference
January can be a deceptive month.
There is energy. There are intentions. There is often a sense that this will be the year safety culture finally gains traction. And yet, by March, many organizations can find themselves busy, but not necessarily better.
The difference between momentum and motion is direction.
For airport executives, the first 90 days of the year present a rare opportunity: a short, focused window to align leadership intent, operational reality, and Safety Management System (SMS) effort around a shared set of values and priorities before the year fragments into competing demands.
This is where a 90-Day SMS Sprint becomes powerful. Not as a checklist, but as a deliberately chosen course.
Safety Culture Is Not a Side Project
One of the most persistent misconceptions in aviation is that safety culture can be “built” independently - separate from how the organization hires, leads, communicates, rewards, and makes decisions.
Research and industry experience tell us otherwise.
I once read an article from the Journal of Airport Management which argued that culture is not something that can be subdivided into neat compartments such as “safety culture,” “security culture,” or “customer service culture.” Culture is a single, shared set of values that informs behaviour across all contexts.
Safety culture, then, is not an overlay. It is a reflection of organizational culture.
For executives, this matters because it reframes the question:
Are we trying to install safety culture… or are we reinforcing the values that allow safety to thrive?
The Five Elements That Keep You on Course
NASA’s model of safety culture - derived from Dr. James Reason’s foundational work - offers a practical lens for leaders. A healthy safety culture includes:
Reporting – People speak up early, often, and without fear
Just – Accountability is fair, consistent, and understood
Flexible – The organization adapts under pressure without losing control
Learning – Information leads to improvement, not shelfware
Engaged – People care because leadership demonstrates that it cares
These elements are not owned by the SMS Manager.
They are enabled, or constrained, by executive behaviour.
The first 90 days of the year should therefore answer a simple question:
What are we doing right now to reinforce these five elements in practice?
Why a 90-Day Sprint Works (When Annual Plans Don’t)
Annual safety plans often fail for predictable reasons: they are too broad, too static, and too easily deferred.
A 90-day sprint, by contrast:
Forces prioritization
Encourages visible leadership
Creates short feedback loops
Makes drift harder to ignore
Most importantly, it allows everyone - executives, managers, frontline teams - to pull in the same direction, at the same time.
But only if it is documented, communicated, and followed.
Framing the January–March SMS Sprint
A strong 90-day SMS Sprint is not about doing everything. It is about doing the right few things well, across the five cultural elements.
1. Set the Cultural Intent (January)
Executives should begin the year by clearly articulating:
What good looks like in reporting, decision-making, and learning
What behaviours will be supported and which will no longer be tolerated
How safety aligns with the organization’s broader mission and values
This is not a policy update. It is a leadership signal.
If safety is truly a value, it should be recognizable in how leaders speak, decide, and respond - especially when it is inconvenient.
2. Focus on Signal, Not Noise (January–February)
Many organizations are rich in data but poor in insight.
During the sprint, executives should ask:
Are we receiving meaningful reports or just compliant ones?
Are corrective actions addressing causes, or symptoms?
Do lessons learned actually change how work is done?
A learning culture is not defined by the number of reports generated, but by the quality of change that follows.
3. Reinforce Just and Flexible Responses (February)
Pressure exposes culture.
How the organization responds to deviations, errors, or emerging risks during the first quarter will quietly teach people what really matters.
Executives play a critical role by:
Ensuring accountability is fair and predictable
Supporting operational flexibility without abandoning standards
Backing managers who make principled decisions in complex situations
This is where culture is either strengthened - or undermined.
4. Close the Loop and Make It Visible (March)
The sprint must end with reflection, not fatigue.
Before the end of March, leadership should be able to clearly answer:
What changed as a result of this effort?
What did we learn about our system - and ourselves?
What will we carry forward into the next quarter?
Closing the loop reinforces trust, credibility, and engagement. Without it, even well-intentioned efforts breed apathy - the very condition that strong organizational cultures are designed to prevent.
The Executive’s Role: Course Correction, Not Micromanagement
Executives do not need to run the SMS.
They do need to:
Set direction
Allocate attention and resources
Remove cultural obstacles
Model the values they expect others to follow
A documented, shared 90-day plan provides a reference point - a way to check whether the organization is drifting or holding course.
And in safety, as in aviation, early course corrections matter most.
Starting 2026 the Right Way
Safety culture is not built in a quarter, but it can be meaningfully influenced in one.
The organizations that make real progress are not the ones that do more. They are the ones that choose deliberately, act consistently, and learn openly.
A 90-Day SMS Sprint gives executives a practical way to do exactly that. Starting now.
How Acclivix Can Help You Turn Intent Into Action
Many executives understand what needs to be done to strengthen safety culture—but struggle with how to do it consistently, without overloading already stretched teams.
This is where Acclivix comes in.
We work alongside airport leadership and SMS teams to translate intent into clear, auditable, and sustainable processes that support—not compete with—operations. Our role is not to replace internal ownership of safety, but to reduce friction, bring structure, and help organizations maintain momentum beyond the initial push.
Acclivix supports organizations across four key areas:
SMS Processes & System Design
We help ensure SMS processes are:
Clearly defined, documented, and understood
Aligned with regulatory requirements and operational reality
Designed to produce usable information—not administrative noise
This includes reviewing and refining reporting, risk management, corrective action, internal QA, and management review processes so they actually support learning and decision-making.
SMS Administration & Load Reduction
One of the fastest ways safety culture erodes is through administrative overload.
We help organizations:
Streamline SMS administration and recurring tasks
Clarify roles, responsibilities, and handoffs
Reduce reliance on informal workarounds and heroics
The goal is to free up time and energy for thinking, engagement, and improvement—not just maintenance.
Safety Strategy & Executive Alignment
A strong SMS sprint needs executive visibility and coherence.
Acclivix supports leadership teams by:
Helping define short- and medium-term safety priorities
Aligning safety objectives with corporate goals and risk appetite
Creating practical roadmaps that leadership can actively sponsor and track
This ensures safety strategy is not disconnected from how the organization actually operates.
Culture Support, Not Culture Theatre
Safety culture cannot be installed—but it can be supported.
Our work focuses on:
Reinforcing reporting, just, learning, flexible, and engaged behaviours
Identifying cultural friction points that quietly undermine safety
Helping leaders recognize where signals are strong—and where drift is occurring
The emphasis is always on practical reinforcement, not slogans.
Let’s start the conversation. Reach out to us today!