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Safety Leadership | Culture | Engagement | World-Class SafetyDavid Sarkus, The Safety Coach®, Speaker Blog
Safety Expectations
Expectations often say more about the leader than the follower. Various forms of research suggest that when leaders have higher types of expectations for their followers, those followers often live up to their expectations. In contrast, when a leader’s expectations are low, followers often live down to those same expectations (Eden, 1984, 1990; McNatt, 2000). And yes, good leaders seem to provide more support and encouragement when higher expectations are established for individuals and groups. Expectations drive both the leader and follower.
We need to realize that setting safety expectations, early and often, is critically important. There are many opportunities to set daily expectations with our people, especially at the point and place where work gets accomplished. Clearly, tools such as task hazard analyses, risk assessments, inspection or audit forms, or behavioral inventories allow for expectations to be appropriately set for our front-line leaders and their workers.
From a behavioral standpoint, tools such as those addressed allow us to give focused and detailed praise for safety-related actions, but also for correcting at-risk behaviors. And these kinds of tools afford opportunities to observe and measure ongoing improvements and deficiencies that need to be addressed.
From an affective or emotional perspective, expectations help to establish acceptable norms for the group. Are there performance gaps that need to be discussed when it comes to actual job performance and expectations? Do expectations prompt the ongoing improvement of materials, tools, equipment, people, and processes? When people are brought together in small groups, before, during and after a task or shift, there’s an emotional component that helps workers to create a team-like bond and positive forms of peer pressure. This in turn helps to create a psychological presence that helps others work more safely, even when nobody’s around.
From a cognitive standpoint, expectations that help to clarify the personal importance of safety need to be maximized. With expectations set early and often, there are regular opportunities to discuss how meeting and exceeding expectations helps everyone remain healthy and enables everybody to go home safely. Expectations set by credible leaders that help align personal values with desired actions tend to lead to more durable changes in individual attitudes and actions, i.e. working safely becomes something people want to do, rather than, something they have to do.
When leaders establish increasingly higher forms of expectations, the actions of their followers will change but so should their actions, as leaders. When front-line leaders set higher expectations, their investment in their workers should also increase. Yes, in terms of time and quality of contact, serving and supporting their workers’ on-the-job needs. This may come about in the form of using more time-outs to identify concerns, hazards, exposures, and the abatement of those exposures.
Leaders need to self-monitor employee interactions. Are expectations set in clear and concrete terms? From a worker perspective, what do high safety-related expectations really look like? Do your leaders cite specific examples and tell stories to create clear mental images regarding culturally accepted behaviors?
Observing strong leaders provides insight into how expectations come alive. Throughout my career, I’ve watched leaders give clear examples of what behaviors are expected and what actions will not be tolerated. These leaders regularly use examples of PPE use, procedures, protocol, peculiar or high-risk work. When credible leaders give clear and concise, job-relevant details regarding expectations, followers are more apt to get the message and stand tall to meet their challenges, especially with appropriate leadership support.
We should be mindful of the fact that high standards and expectations should be set for every leader and worker. Don’t lower expectations based on past performance but raise the bar and watch people rise to the task. Closely monitor the way you provide support for both higher and lower achievement individuals and groups – there shouldn’t be a marked difference. Make personal and meaningful contact with both higher and lower performing groups a priority. Don’t show favoritism in support, which can negatively impact worker performance. Finally, be careful not to use constructive criticism to humiliate – use it to build people up.
Lots of variables influence safe performance including failure. When leader-driven expectations are not met by the worker, proceed with caution because people may tend to give up (Dai, Dietvorst, Tuckfield, Milkman & Schweitzer, 2017). However, expectations set by credible leaders, who provide appropriate support, generally help to inspire greater forms of trust, in-group support, communications, autonomy, and performance. Great safety leaders don’t simply lower their expectations when challenged, but raise their level of support to match the safety expectations they establish.
David J. Sarkus, MS, CSP is a speaker, author, consultant and coach with a primary emphasis on safety leadership and culture. He has over 30 years’ experience and is the president and founder of David Sarkus International, Inc. Please visit: www.davidsarkus.com.
References
Dai, H., Dietvorst, B.J., Tuckfield, B., Milkman, K.L. & Schweitzer, M.E. 2017. Quitting when the going gets tough: A downside of high performance expectations. Academy of Management Journal, August 21, 2017 (Published online before print).
Eden, D. 1984. Self-fulfilling prophecy as a management tool: Harnessing Pygmalion. Academy of Management Review. 9(1), 64-73.
Eden, D. 1990. Pygmalion in management: Productivity as self-fulfilling prophecy. Lexington, MA, England: Lexington Books.
McNatt, D.B. 2000. Ancient Pygmalion joins contemporary management: A meta-analysis of the result. Journal of Applied Psychology, 85(2): 314-322.
Leaders Need to Wallow with Their People
When I speak to leaders, I often tell a story related to GE’s former CEO, Jack Welch. Although Welch was known to be a challenging taskmaster, he knew the importance of spending quality time with his workforce or “wallowing with his people.” Seemingly, he was big on teaching appropriate “wallowing lessons” to his leaders.
Jack Welch likely continues to stress the importance of leaders spending “wallowing time” with their followers. Even more, the word “wallow” resonates because the metaphor creates images those leaders can draw upon regularly. Leaders have to learn to “appropriately wallow,” one-on-one, and with groups. When I coach leaders, I often hear that the image of wallowing, stays with them long after I’m gone – even when they don’t feel like wallowing! Ultimately, the thought of wallowing moves their thoughts to intentions, and then, purposeful actions.
For leaders to wallow, I believe we have to first understand that they need to feel comfortable in their own skin and be genuine with others. The thought of wallowing often brings to mind a hippopotamus or rhino, rolling around in water and mud, having a great time, with few cares or concerns. But from an organizational standpoint, I see leaders having fun and enjoying time spent with their followers – laughing, asking, listening, and sharing appropriate and respectful thoughts that might not otherwise be shared. But also communicating information that’s normally filtered or closed off, except for those who are “a part of their worker-group.” More specifically, a part of the employees’ group that is normally “closed off” to formal leaders, and sensitive safety-related issues and concerns that might be considered, off-limits.
Wallowing also suggests allowing workers to see their leaders as “real people” who want to better relate, and understand others, but to also more clearly identify with their challenges – largely because of similar goals and personal values. By spending time with workers on their turf, and allowing them to appropriately identify with leaders suggests that greater openness and transparency can develop. And if greater forms of identification and transparency occur, then communications can become healthier, more open, candid, and helpful in improving safety. It happens and I’ve been a part of it.
When leaders provide open and candid communications that’s both helpful and reliable, followers begin to feel they need to do the same. And when followers provide important and valuable safety-related information, back to their leaders, equilibrium is established. However, when the balance of communications and appropriate actions, is off, and out of balance, and when there is unequal flow of information, between groups, there’s much greater risk of frustration, anger, resentment, closed-communications – and unwanted consequences (Newcomb, T. M. 1956, 1960).
Greater transparency and openness should create better understanding and more coherent communications that decrease errors and incidents. Individuals regularly file and filter communications, retaining what they find useful and valuable, and discarding information that will not help them to communicate better and work safer.
Wallowing helps to establish greater credibility with others, which in-turn leads to better relationships, morale, communications, and trust. When trust develops, open communications is more evident and helpful, and workers will often provide greater forms of unfiltered information about precursors, near misses, and unabated exposures. All of this will allow for more timely interventions and improvements that relate to potentially serious injuries and fatalities.
Are you helping your leaders feel more comfortable talking about safety? Are you helping them to ask the right questions in order to build credibility, so that challenges, and exposures can be uncovered and controlled? Are you helping your leaders create the right space and place for them to respectfully wallow, openly and comfortably?
It’s up to us to help create more equilibrium, balance, and genuinely open-communications – so that both parties are giving and receiving regular forms of unfiltered-information.
Our organizational leaders need and want to take on the role of facilitator, coach, champion, or even cheerleader. And it’s partly what’s needed to spend productive time with workers.
Many organizations have some type of vision for safety but is it backed by meaningful actions? And I’ve stated before, “Vision without purposeful presence is folly.” Leaders who have a great vision for safety also need to learn to appropriately wallow. And in doing so, will likely experience what Jack Welch wanted his leaders to feel – a purposeful presence that leads to open, rather than closed communications, and much more. From a leadership perspective, this is partly key to improving safety performance, and reducing serious events that can be controlled or eliminated.
David J. Sarkus, MS, CSP holds maters degrees in both safety management and organizational psychology. He is a speaker, consultant, coach, and author with over 30-years of experience. More of his work can be seen at www.davidsarkus.com and www.virtual-davidsarkus.com.
References: Newcomb, T. M. The Prediction of Interpersonal Attraction. American Psychologist, 11, 1956, 575-586; Gouldner, A.W. The Norm of Reciprocity: A Preliminary Statement, American Sociological Review, 25, 1960, 161-179.
Accidents Aren’t Trick or Treat and Don’t Blame Your Workers!
More than 30 years ago, one of my mentors in the graduate safety program at West Virginia University provided an insight that I continue to embrace. It guides much of my thinking and my actions, still today. C. Everett Marcum, often espoused his foundational belief regarding accidents, which was, “Accidents are signs and symptoms of management’s failure, to deal as effectively as needed, with its resources.” By extension, it stands to reason that organizational leaders must create the right climate and culture for people to work efficiently, effectively, and safely. And it’s up to leaders to determine how much risk their organizations are willing to accept.
I believe it’s up to us, as leaders, to provide the right facilities, materials, tools, and equipment. And it’s up to leaders to keep looking upstream in order to continuously improve our facilities, materials, tools, equipment, people, and processes.
It’s necessary for leaders to hire the right individuals and to remove the wrong people as quickly as possible – especially those in leadership roles.
I believe it’s clearly up to organizational leaders to create the right climate and culture for safety, by becoming as transparent as possible, and by becoming as approachable and open to the communications of its workers.
And it’s necessary for leaders to appropriately engage workers, so they buy-into the various programs, processes, procedures, and at times, move from engagement to ownership of these same programs, processes, and procedures.
It’s also up to us to provide the right systems for near-miss, accident reporting, data reporting, and analytics.
And it’s up to organizational leaders to provide the right learning opportunities and to appropriately influence the attitudes and actions of its workers, every day.
I could continue with many additional thoughts, going much deeper and broader with additional cultural dimensions, but I won’t bore you. I think you get the picture.
So the next time you, or anyone else wants to blame your workers – maybe, just maybe, the failure lies somewhere else.
For me information please visit: David Sarkus International.
Do Your Leaders Have a Purposeful Presence?
Dear Friend and Colleague,
Many of you likely have a well written vision statement for safety or at least some form of it. However, is that vision regularly expressed through your senior leaders? The most important aspects of your vision occur through the expression and execution of that vision by your senior leaders and their subordinates. Having a substantial budget that supports your various programs, processes, and system-wide improvements is critically important, is it not? And it captures a great deal of safety alignment, execution, and improvement, right? But is that enough?
Even if we throw lots of money at safety, the one thing that managers, supervisors and workers really want to see, is more of your senior leaders. Most want to see visible support and ongoing communications from your senior leaders, on the floor or in the field. And when these leaders connect through very simple ways, like smiling, shaking hands, and asking important safety-related questions, again on the workers’ turf, not from the phone or from behind a desk, the vision is being expressed and enlivened in very real ways.
Are you getting your senior leaders out from behind their desks, and helping them get a bit dirty with their workers? Are you helping them have a “purposeful presence” with their front-line leaders?
Never underestimate the purposeful presence of your leaders, on the floor or in the field. This is especially true when your leaders show concern by spending valuable time with your front-line leaders and workers; smiling, shaking hands, asking important questions, affirming, speaking the language of safety, and taking action to make safety-related improvements. Sounds so simple but these connections and expressions of support are critical to your leaders’ credibility, your vision, and sustained success.
A vision without purposeful presence is folly. We need to make it easier for our senior leaders to have a profound and purposeful presence, are you?
Leadership Lessons from Undercover Boss
I really love the reality show Undercover Boss but I have to watch it alone because I often become a little weepy! I’ve gotten much softer with age. You probably know what generally happens in each show. A company executive plants himself in his own organization in order to find out what’s really happening and to make improvements. He works side-by-side with individuals who perform some of the most difficult, demanding, and dirty jobs in the company.
After a short period of time, the undercover boss gets to know people in very personal ways and also finds out first-hand about their work challenges.
Near the end of each episode, after getting all kinds of seemingly unfiltered information, the leader begins to make various organizational changes. Finally, the Boss meets one-on-one with some of his “recent co-workers” and discloses who he or she is and their organizational role. Each employee is usually completely surprised.
What We Can Learn
In almost every episode, Undercover Boss reveals some very good leadership lessons. The undercover boss connects with his employees in ways that bring out different kinds of emotions. For me, many scenes are quite moving – that’s why I watch alone, so nobody sees teary eyed, David – ha ha ha.
In particular, there’s one episode with Mitchell Modell of Modell Sporting Goods that I’ve especially enjoyed. Mitchell really connects with his workers and it shows. Below, I’ve unveiled four leadership tactics that Mitchell uses to empathize and connect with his workers. We can use these same principles to get our leaders more engaged with their workers and workers to their leaders.
- Listen till it hurts. By its very nature, productive listening is hard work, especially when it comes to something as important as safety. Asking the right questions, listening actively, keeping the conversation open, and acting upon important feedback is critical. But listening also affords opportunities to feel what the workers are feeling and to better engage with them concerning their challenges and avenues for improvement. Listening shows concern and opens communications for ongoing safety improvement.
- Look through people not at them. Mitchell Modell does something that not every leader is able to do. He looks through people in order to feel what they feel and value the same. He sees their living situation, financial challenges, and the families they are attempting to support. All of this draws the leader into a more empathetic state but also endears the worker to the leader. This alone can pay big dividends, especially when done for the right reasons.
- Meet on their turf. Leaders who are like the well-connected undercover boss know the importance of working with and listening to their employees on “their turf.” And their turf is a breeding ground for discovering possibilities for improvement and increasingly open two-way communications. Their turf is where workers can more readily point out specific challenges and the reality of their everyday environment. But it takes time, patience, and a leader who really wants to become more transparent.
- Show appreciation. Near the end of each episode of Undercover Boss, some workers are given raises, bonuses, monetary gifts, and promotions because of their input and daily efforts. On other occasions, workers are simply recognized for their hard work. Mostly, this is what many employees want – appreciation for their efforts. And when it comes to safety, people need to be shown appreciation and recognized for their feedback and effort. Showing appreciation is free and can easily be displayed through a kind word or thoughtful gesture. However, I see organizational leaders miss regular opportunities to show appreciation for various safety-related efforts each and every day. Showing appreciation costs absolutely nothing!
In The End…
I really don’t care if some believe that Undercover Boss is staged or contrived. It provides valuable insights regarding the way leaders are able to connect with their workers and how each side can become more engaged and productive. Boss also brings out the kind of “leadership empathy” that is so sorely needed in today’s fast paced organizations. It is the kind of empathy that I observed with some of the best leaders that I’ve coached and consulted for over the last 30 years. These are leaders who are able to experience greater productivity because they engage through empathy – and safety is all about productivity improvement, just ask me!
Many leaders need to tap into their own empathy and use it on a more consistent basis. Peter Drucker once stated that empathy is “the number one practical competency for success in life.” At the core of one’s culture for safety, I believe that empathy is a practical competency that builds trust and ongoing reciprocity.
I believe empathy can be taught, discovered, learned, and effectively used for the good of an entire organization – especially in terms of ongoing safety improvement which impacts morale, productivity, and quality too. It may take the right circumstances, but you need to give empathy a try. I’ve provided a start, and I’m trusting you’ll find a bit more empathy too!
David J. Sarkus, MS, CSP is an author, speaker, consultant, and coach with over 30 years of experience. He has written five books and more than 60 evidence-based articles. He is president and founder of David Sarkus International, Inc., which provides a full menu of safety leadership and culture driven services for some of the biggest and best run organizations in the world. Please visit www.DavidSarkus.com for more information. David can also be reached at 1-800-240-4601.
Please visit: www.DavidSarkus.com
Roller Coaster Ride or Steady Ascent: What Does Trust Look Like in Your Organization?
Last weekend, I was riding my bicycle up a 16 mile grade near Morgantown, West Virginia. It was a long but relatively easy ride. During my trek, I began to think about organizational trust. At times, the level of trust that organizational leaders possess, relative to safety, is only as good as their last day, or even their last job. You see, trust is very fluid—it changes. Levels of trust can move up or down—but more often than not, great leaders help to ensure that trust-based undulations are minimized and respectfully safeguarded.
Trust is often a two-way exchange, for both leaders and followers—each having to monitor and ensure that it is protected and kept intact. However, from a leadership perspective, trust is largely about believing that someone will do what is best for his or her followers or group. And in our context, trust is mainly about doing what’s right to protect our assets and keep others safe, especially when workers are vulnerable to a given risk or injuries.
Leaders have to understand that trust is a multi-dimensional component of leadership which can be built, eroded, or even lost along an assortment of dimensions like those cited below.
- Competence pertains to one’s knowledge of a specific job and the overall knowledge, skills, and abilities of a leader. That’s why individuals have to continually grow and build trust through their work-related competencies.
- Cultural Integrity is about doing what is right—even when nobody’s around. One’s integrity as a leader requires that you do what’s right for your organization to uphold the highest levels of organizational and cultural expectations that will keep your employees safe. Pushing back on the various organizational pressures that may pose unacceptable risk for harm or injury also builds and maintains cultural integrity.
- Coaching, for me, is about modeling the way, setting a great example—day in and day out—task by task, in small and large ways that show the absolute value of safety for every individual.
- Collaboration requires that leaders remain approachable and open to the thoughts, ideas, and recommendations of others, in order to lower risk and improve safety performance, continually.
- Care being shown for others begins by connecting with people on a personal and emotional level. Showing care, concern, and respect is the very foundation of great safety leadership and influence.
It’s important to realize, there’s a natural bias for workers to remember “trust-eroding experiences” to a larger extent than “trust-building experiences”. As the old adage goes, “it’s easy to lose trust and very difficult to gain it back.” Bad experiences that relate to trust-eroding are remembered for longer periods of time and overshadow the brighter side of trust-building experiences. Ask any leader who has had to regain a higher level of trust that’s been damaged or lost.
Leaders have to work hard to build and maintain trust, especially when it comes to something as personal and individual as safety. And we need to be ever mindful that trust is delicate—it’s fluid and fragile. Leaders have to be diligent to maintain it, rather than allow it to erode or fully corrode. When trust erodes it’s much harder to engage and lead people toward and through your safety-related challenges, goals, and objectives.
Leaders must fully realize that trust is built or damaged in a number of ways and through a number of dimensions that may often occur simultaneously through: our competence and knowledge; our cultural integrity in doing what is right to keep people safe, even in the midst of productivity challenges; our everyday coaching or actions and example; the degree collaboration and openness in working with others, obtaining their input and acting accordingly; the care and concern we express toward each other in our actions, communications, and overall respectfulness.
Trust is fragile and challenging to maintain. Work hard to build and maintain it, because once the erosion begins, it may be extremely difficult regain.
Oh, and my bike ride back? It was great—a quick descent, but not the kind of drop you want to experience when it comes to safety-related trust within your organization.
Pizza or Power?
Your People Want Power not Just Pizza!
I’ve been in safety for a long time — almost embarrassed to state how long. Well, not really. But I do have to say, I’ve been to enough “pizza parties” for various safety accomplishments. And just about everyone enjoys pizza and time spent together, but what your people really want is power — not pizza. They want the safety-related power that’s needed to do something big — much bigger than themselves. This often requires that people get involved with others to reach the next big and challenging milestone. But don’t stop there, unleash the power of your people by building teams and training them to influence the safety-related attitudes and actions of others.
Many of the best organizations that I work with have teams for PPE selection, hazard identification, ergonomic improvements, near-miss reporting, and the list goes on. They also invest in their leaders, at all levels, to be great safety coaches.
When you invest in your workers — empower them — and encourage them to use their talents, the outcomes are nearly always better! And if you need help empowering your people, training them, and establishing new norms within your company, please give me a call. I’d really love to work with you and help you in BIG Ways.
Following are a few recent testimonials that I’ve received from speaking and training within my client base. Helping to empower workers, leaders, and to get more engagement.
“David Sarkus connected with three very diverse groups at our Worthington Industries facility. He did his homework and his message was on target and very timely for our culture. He did a great job – awesome!”
– Dustin Lawson
EHS Manager, Worthington Steel
“I’ve followed David Sarkus for many years before he came to speak for my company, Alta Forest Products. His story often inspired me to press further with safety and safety leadership. In 2015, Dave spoke at the Washington Governor’s Conference — the first time I saw him speak at a live venue. His message was powerful and hit home for the group of safety committee members that I brought with me. I finally had the opportunity to have David speak for Alta Forest Products, and he delivered his story in his usual manner — with power, emotion, excitement, and influence. He will have you laughing one minute and crying the next. Most of all, he will have you taking a hard look at how you view safety and safety leadership. He will push you to change your paradigm about safety. He will push you to use your safety leadership skills in ways that will help people remain safe. Finally, he will make you think about how you lead others and empower them for safety improvement. I cannot recommend David Sarkus enough!”
– Brian Wamsley, Alta Forest Products LLC
Corporate Safety Manager
When it comes to safety, productivity, quality, and morale:
You’ll engage your people to a much greater extent when you build them up, rather than break them down.
Leaders really listen to their workers and get the pulse for safety, every day.
Leaders work hard to treat their workers with dignity and respect.
Leaders develop the skills, knowledge, and confidence of others in order to release their power and purpose – to make your culture for safety a culture of great safety leadership and coaching.
Thanks for reading and I hope to hear from you very soon!
David Sarkus, The Safety Coach®
www.DavidSarkus.com
1-800-240-4601 or 1-724-379-6439
Cognitive Failures Don’t Need to be Fatal!
Cognitive failures are often known as action slips, brain burps, slips in attention – mistakes that a person should not normally make (Wallace & Vodanovich, 2003). These occur as a result of faulty processes in our brain such as a lapse in attention (failures in perception), memory (information retrieval), and motor function. Cognitive failures may be as simple as forgetting to lock the office door when heading home or as complex as an air traffic controller overlooking an inbound airplane. Some of which can be quite serious, as you can imagine.
Cognitive failures commonly found at the worker level, may be as simple as forgetting important work-related rules or procedures, or ignoring an important communication request made by a co-worker. Little mistakes like these detract from effective job performance and can lead to serious accidents (Wallace & Chen, 2005).
As a person learns a new task, they may be prone to memory-related cognitive failure. The information they are learning may be new to them, which can be easily forgotten or confused with other information. At times, this may explain why accidents occur more frequently with newer employees. If the person is overly-familiar with a task, making it even more automatic or mundane can also lead to errors. People often complete the same tasks day-after-day, which results in autonomous motions, without thinking, and with little focus. This also gives a person time to invite distractions into their mind that could lead to accidents or errors, particularly if a sequence or pattern in work changes. A person who completes a task in robot-like fashion, could result in cognitive failures when new events arise, and that individual is not focused on the task. This creates a need to modify or change actions that have not been anticipated.
Finding a solution to cognitive failures is easier said than done. Simply stating, “pay attention” is the typical answer and solution, but “pay attention” to what and how? To lessen the occurrence of cognitive failures, and related accidents, multiple changes can be implemented which can help answer the “whats” and “hows”.
- In regard to extended shift work, “mini” breaks are found to be helpful in keeping the worker focused and on-task.
- To help new hires, employees need to be “coached-up” to follow rules, procedures, and protocols.
- Small group “time-outs” to discuss immediate concerns, risks, and changes without looking too far ahead is also very important.
- Leaders asking “what if” questions to help employees anticipate changes in work and related-risks is critical – but again, focus only on the immediate task, don’t speak too far ahead within the work path.
- Help your employees pay better attention though attention control training – having them realize that they need to constantly shift between channels in order to “pay attention” to the right things. Check out the four channels within my PACE Model to help your people “Dial into the Right Channel”.
Do yourself a big favor and begin to categorize your near-misses and accidents. If you are seeing underlying causes that relate to poor planning, lack of focus and distractions, or poor attention to one’s surroundings, then you have attentional problems that can be improved.
All of the above tips and techniques can help you lessen the impact of cognitive failures and the overload associated with cognitive error. It’s a never ending battle but we have more tools than ever to help workers stay safe and whole. Give me a call at 1-724-379-6439.
References
Wallace, J.C. & Chen, G. (2005). Development and validation of a work-specific measure of cognitive failure: Implications for occupational safety. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 78, 615-632.
Wallace, J. C., & Vodanovich, S. J. (2003). Workplace safety performance: Conscientiousness, cognitive failure, and their interaction. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 8, 316-327.
Safety’s Most Easily Forgotten and Most Fundamental Cultural Dimension
I don’t believe this dimension gets the ongoing scrutiny and attention it deserves. And this dimension is so basic, so fundamental, and so familiar; it can easily get overlooked, and create big problems that relate directly to safety, productivity, and morale. The importance often slips and slides so insidiously, so imperceptibly, and so gradually, that it gets away from our notice much too painlessly. That is, until the pain, and push-back from our workers is heard more loudly and disruptively.
One of the more disturbing findings that leaders often read about when I complete a safety climate survey and conduct various safety focus groups within their organizations, is the perception gap that exists regarding materials, tools, and equipment. Oftentimes many employees don’t believe they have all the tools and equipment needed to do their jobs safely, especially when compared to the views of their supervisors, managers, and senior leaders. At the same time, many employees don’t believe their tools and equipment are well maintained. Even in many very good organizations, it isn’t unusual to see only 60 to 70 percent of surveyed workers who believe they have the necessary tools and equipment to work safely – tools and equipment that are also well maintained.
In contrast, front-line supervisors typically have better opinions regarding the tools and equipment used by their personnel. With these leaders, roughly 75 to 85 percent feel that employees have what they need in to work in a safe manner. Moving further away from the work, up the organizational ladder, close to 100% of senior leaders often believe workers have what is needed in order to work safely. Of course, there are outliers to these kinds of findings, but generalizations like this, often hold true.
There is nothing that can bring about more employee frustration, resistance, detachment, and anger than not having the right tools and equipment needed for their jobs. By having good tools and equipment, which are well maintained, you develop increased levels of employee trust and commitment to safety. In addition, the vision you have for greater levels of safety achievement is much more of a possibility because workers become more engaged in safety and the shared vision.
All of this leads to a secondary theme within this narrative, which goes beyond materials, tools, and equipment. And that is, we have to use multiple-means to move our leaders to action. For most leaders, findings such as these can be quite perplexing; however, there is also good news. For one, numbers-driven leaders often need this kind of survey data in order to take more definitive steps. And these types of perception gaps (as they relate to tools and equipment) are usually closely-tied to logistical and budgetary issues that can be fixed with relative ease. So by all means, use data from climate surveys, BBS data, and historical data – all of which have an intellectual, logical, and cognitive appeal. Also use stories that have an emotional aspect that will help call your leaders to action and will also help to close a variety of perception gaps, beyond those already discussed. And certainly, all of this requires that you further listen to your employees, and take action, where you can and should take action.
You may be saying, all of this is so basic and commonsensical. Well, yes it is, but common sense is not all that common today. We often think that getting to higher levels of sustained achievement takes more sophisticated and complex approaches, which it sometimes it does. However, workers and organizational leaders regularly get lost in their busyness and lose sight of the basics – what’s fundamental to their jobs. Nonetheless, we have to ensure the right tools and equipment are available, well maintained, and accessible. And we have to assure that we work hard to close other known perception gaps, too. For our workers and leaders, their perception, is their reality, and people act on their view of their own particular realities. Realities that sometimes need to change through our decisive and supportive actions.
Improving this very basic cultural dimension is critically important for building trust and getting people to believe in your vision for safety. In fact, so basic, that it can easily be overlooked or dismissed.
For you, it may be time to engage your leaders a bit differently by using good data, and most importantly by listening to your leaders and employees a bit more so you can take appropriate actions for sustainable improvement.
Finally, it may be time to survey your people and gain a more objective understanding of what your workers think and feel in order to get this fundamental dimension right – like right away!
How to Get Back Your Bark for Safety!
This past weekend, I was working out in a local park when I crossed the path of a large dog being walked by two individuals. Initially, the dog concerned me because he was so large and near to me. As I continued to look, the dog was old, gray, and hobbled. And as I passed even closer, he turned, stared, and snarled, but I soon lost my fear. You see, I realized this dog had no fight left – not even a bark – not even a whimper! I was saddened – I love dogs.
How many of you have lost your fight and bark for safety? How many of you have dialed back your efforts because you are tired or have been beaten down over the years? And just maybe you are saying to yourself, “good enough is good enough – this is all they want – I’m tired.” But don’t you owe yourself and others your best – or a new best?
Well, I say to you, start to dial-it-up, because people are depending on you! In fact, their future, their health, their safety, and their families are depending on your efforts, so don’t dial back or give up!
How can you dial-up your efforts? By getting stronger mentally – by getting tougher, mentally and by gaining a new perspective and new “personal vision for extreme success in safety.” I’ve highlighted three proven ways that address behavioral, cognitive, and affective dimensions that will help you to get things juiced-up and re-energized for safety!
- Get in shape – that’s right – get in great shape so you’ll have more energy. Start eating healthier, get regular exercise, and push yourself, physically. When you do, you’ll have greater energy and better focus on-the-job. See your physician and get regular check-ups. My closest friends and colleagues, who are doing outstanding work, have really great energy. Many of them work long days and get lots of things accomplished because they take care of their physical health and well-being. So if you’re not there yet, take the first-step and get in great shape!
- Re-frame your efforts, mentally, by understanding that you can have a lot to do with various successes and failures related to safety. Changing your view or perspective can allow you to better understand how your efforts impact the lives of those around you. Just because you don’t always see the positive outcomes you are having, doesn’t mean you aren’t saving lives, and improving the everyday attitudes and actions of others. Keep going – your job is more important than you realize, and re-framing your efforts will help you to re-energize “your personal vision” for safety. Having a more positive self-perspective will affect how you relate to others and how you engage them in improving safety-related performance, within their own work groups.
- Develop open and honest relationships with others or one particular person who is more successful and brighter than you. Everyone should have someone who can serve as a personal coach or mentor. Contract with someone who will challenge you to do more, or to do things you’ve never done before. Unless you are regularly challenged you will never improve personally or professionally. You will never have the kinds of impact that you should be having.
Reading about the very recent passing of Doctor Thomas Starzl, a Pittsburgh-based pioneer in liver and organ transplant surgery, reveals how he was driven by a personal mission and a great form of accountability to save the lives of others. I’m certain he took good care of his health, after his heart surgery, earlier in his career. I’m certain that he continually re-framed his mission and work – his personal vision for success. And I’m certain others challenged him directly and indirectly to reach new levels of achievement. Doctor Starzl was reading, researching, and writing, up to four-hours a day, until his death, at 90 years of age. Thomas Starzl should inspire both you and me.
You may have all kinds of degrees or certifications or successes, but if you aren’t in great physical shape, if you aren’t continually re-framing your personal mission, vision, and efforts, and if you aren’t regularly challenged by someone – you’ll simply remain in a state of comfort and complacency. And that isn’t good for you or your organization.
What do you say – isn’t it time to raise the bar, and get back your bark for safety?
Let’s GO!