You’ve likely read some of the stories linking Blue Bell Ice Cream to three deaths and up to 10 listeria cases. But did these events have to occur?
Seemingly workers repeatedly informed management about housekeeping-related concerns and the issues were apparently poorly addressed.
Well, I can’t help but think of an old video I reviewed years ago that highlighted the four basic behavioral principles: positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, punishment, and extinction. I believe the great Albert Bandura hosted this black and white video while working at Stanford University. The fourth principle is largely about ignoring some action or activity that will eventually fade to zero because it was not reinforced in some manner. Seemingly the leaders at Blue Bell got this principle wrong – maybe they thought that ignoring the employee concerns (or letting workers know their complaints needed to stop) would cause the health and safety issues to go away, but in reality it caused the upward-feedback to fade.
Ultimately, ignoring the workers and their feedback was a bad move – the all-important feedback went away, but the problems reportedly got worse. Maybe there was a little less initial pain to not hear from the workers, which had likely led to a bit of negative reinforcement for management – but not the type of reinforcement leaders should have been experiencing.
In no way I am trying to beat up Blue Bell and maybe we’ve all gotten this part of the story wrong. I’m just citing one side of the occurrences that have been in the press. And I’m sure there are other explanations for what happened at Blue Bell – surely there are many good leaders there. Nonetheless, listening and acting is critical to the health of every organization.
Asking, listening, and acting on important upward-feedback is crucial. And listening well to the people closest to the work makes really good sense. Just query a few leaders who chose to use the fourth behavioral principle in the wrong way.
This phenomenon can actually be reversed when employees elect to say nothing to management while using a number of excuses for not doing so. Regardless of the reason, it’s wrong.
A more specific example I have involved family members who worked for a major manufacturer in the Midwest. They would often complain about how dangerous it was at work yet they were unwilling to voice their concerns to their supervisor or even report the hazards to OSHA anonymously.
As you might guess, I had little sympathy for them if they were unwilling to do something about it or to even quit to remove themselves from a hazardous environment. If you do nothing, nothing changes. Excuses included “nothing is going to change” and “that’s just how it is” and “I don’t want to lose my job – they’ll figure out it was me who squealed”. All bad excuses and horrible things to settle for after someone is severely injured or dies as a result of silence.
As a society, we really love to point the finger at the employer. It’s easy and it makes a lot of sense that the building, the equipment, materials, and the boss…that’s the nature of hazards in the workplace. But if we don’t say anything, we contribute to the problem. Actually, we make it worse because we convince ourselves and others to work in conditions that could harm us. It’s dumb.