All of us, together, make a difference in the safety and the lives of our co-workers.
When Claire Knowles, Robin Nagele, and I (NageleKnowlesAndAssociates.com) are asked to come into an organization to help them reduce the risks of workplace violence and develop an active shooter protection plan, we have a good selection of options for them to consider, ranging from a comprehensive training and development plan to a bare-bones introduction. We see workplace violence ranging from a simple lack of respect to harassment to bullying to fighting and even murder, and our offering covers the range. Workplace violence can happen from the inside (bullying, harassment incivilities) and from the outside (perpetrator entering the workplace with intent to do harm). It covers Psychological Safety and Physical Safety.
However, many people see this whole subject from a wide range of perspectives. It is very unlikely that an active shooter situation will develop here so why bother? Well, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics in 2019, 761 people were murdered at work. Homicides were 454 and suicides were 307. This is the fourth highest cause of workplace fatalities. Could that happen here? It is a myth if you think it can’t happen in your workplace.
Harassment and bullying are HR problems and not often considered safety problems–but they are because they impact psychological safety. They can lead to people making mistakes and getting hurt. Lack of respect, harassment and bullying are just little issues (unless you are the target) so why spend the money? According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics in 2019, in addition to the 307 suicides, there were 313 drug overdoses at work. What was the impact of harassment and bullying on these people? Their psychological safety is hugely impacted. There are all sorts of ways to try to talk your way out of these sorts of issues. But there is a big impact on both the people and the businesses’ profits.
In the unlikely event of an active shooter situation, people can be killed and injured, the business will be shut down as a crime scene, the bad publicity runs rampant, and the regulators and lawyers will be all over the place. Your relationships with your people and customers will be a shambles. This results in huge losses.
When the business leaders tolerate lack of respect, harassment and bullying, the workplace is not psychologically safe, and people stop talking together and sharing information. This costs a lot of money in grievances and HR meetings, etc. It also costs a lot in missing the possibility of new business opportunities that are discovered as people talk together about how the business is doing and find new ideas for new opportunities emerging from their conversations.
We can all come together and address the elimination
of all forms of workplace violence.
Let’s pull together and make it happen for the good of us all.
Building a Better Place – We can do this Together!
There is so much bad news of workplace shootings, conflict of all sorts in our cities and streets, police and other citizens being killed and the endless arguments in our governments at all levels that it is tempting to just try to shut everything off and pretend nothing is happening. It feels as if we are in chaos with no good answers to be found.
But there are many good people in our cities and states, in volunteer organizations, in our governments and businesses. We need to rise above all this noise and strife. I believe that most people want to live good, safe lives, to raise their families, to seek life, liberty, and happiness. We want this in our private lives, in our homes, towns and cities as well as in our places of work where we spend so much time.
We can each make a positive difference in our homes, neighborhoods and at work. We can look for the good we each have to offer and make connections. We can have conversations together about how we are doing. We can talk about the little things that matter and connect us. We can show caring for each other and kindness. We can value our differences without trying to force them onto someone else. We can do this at work where we spend so much time together. We can find our common purpose and build on that.
As all of you readers know I have a great concern about leadership and workplace safety. When we build a more harmonious workplace the levels of anger and frustration drop. We can treat each other as real people and not some object to push around. We can build a better workplace with co-created principles and standards of behavior.
I know we can do these things because we did this at the plants where I was the manager and in the businesses in which I consult. When we co-create our principles and standards, working together with respect and listening, sharing information freely, helping people to see that their work is important, the levels of anger and frustration drop. I have seen this many times over. When this happens, more and more of the time we are focused at doing things right and the total performance of the organization improves. We can learn and grow together so our levels of knowledge and understanding go up. Fewer injuries and incidents occur. Total quality of our life and the products we make get a lot better. I have seen this happen over and over. We can do these things if we want to do them.
Our leaders play a big role in this by setting the standards and modeling the positive behaviors that are so important. We all watch our leaders and those with integrity and a caring heart are those we most admire. Their behaviors and the words they use set the way for us all.
However, we all have a role to play. We can all be winners as we pull ourselves up. Sometimes, it is not easy, but we can all do this with courage, caring, concern for each other and commitment to the dream of a better world.
If you do not do this, then who is going to do it? It rests on each of us.
In this story, a wicked witch puts the princess and the whole kingdom to sleep for 100 years. They all have to wait for the arrival of the prince to kiss the princess and awaken everyone. As children, we all knew this story, but in this new book, Stephen Capizzano shifts the story to thinking about what happens in our organizations.
When we were able to shed our old habits at our Plant in West Virginia, injury rates dropped by 97%, emissions to air, ground and water as reported to the EPA dropped 95%, productivity rose by 45% and earnings rose by 300%. As I walked the plant for 5 hours each day we were reminding ourselves to shed the old habits and create a much brighter future.
You can’t turn on the news or check your Internet homepage without sensing the depth of the issues that our country is experiencing. Whether it is returning to the workplace amidst COVID-19 rules, political protests, religious non-tolerance, or negative nightly news events – we’re experiencing a wide berth of dramatic events. And each of us has an opinion, a response, a way that we individually see these events and cope with this discord.
It doesn’t have to be that way! Take a timeout!
This begins with the leaders deciding to create a culture where it is okay and encouraged that people genuinely talk together, listen, help each other, look out for each other and learn together. This is a culture that helps people to be the best they can be and for the organization to get a lot more profitable. It all begins with all of us treating each other with respect.
This is the sort of culture that Eric Hollnagel is talking about in his Safety II work, which is intended to move the organization beyond the traditional top-down safety management. (I’ve written about Safety II in previous articles – it is all good!)
For example, the workers on the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform received good recognition for outstanding occupational safety performance (the slips, trips and falls sorts of incidents) just a day or two before the explosion on April 20, 2010, that killed 11 people and injured 17 others. The pressures from top management to get into production led to failures of their process safety management (PSM) systems and processes. Communications were limited because management did not want to hear of more problems; they were driving the production schedule. The fine occupational safety performance masked the PSM deficiencies which are more subtle and invisible to upper managers, unless they are keenly aware of the needs for excellent PSM.
Now we have another example with the mess at Boeing and the 737 Max crashes. Top management was feeling the pressures for market share from Airbus and putting terrific pressures on cost reduction and faster production.
This is quite attainable with authentic, courageous leaders who take a stand that this is the sort of place they want to lead. The knowledge and technology are available and broadly known by lots of people so I want to share my own experiences.
This all began with my determination to work on improving respect, civility and safety. As I built credibility and trust with everyone, people began to make improvements in many other areas. Everything got better.
A review of the Bureau of Labor Statics summary of fatal occupational injuries for 2011-2017 shows a 1% drop in fatalities from 2016 to 2017 to a total of 5,147 people having lost their lives at work. This is about 9% higher than the 4,693 people killed in 2011. The top three 2017 fatalities categories are roadway accidents totaling 1,299 (up 15% since 2011); slips, trips and falls totaling 887 (up 23% since 2011); and murders and suicides totaling 733 (up by only 2% since 2011).
We need courageous leaders who focus on the people, change and the future. Leaders value sharing information, building trust and interdependence, and helping people to see how their job is important for the success of the whole venture.
Go into your organizations listening to and talking with the people. Share your vision. Build trust and interdependence. Create safe spaces for people to talk with each other, to share and create the future. Everything will change. That is what I experienced at the Belle Plant.
It is a problem across society in general and a big safety and HR problem in our organizations. In 2017, it is estimated that there were about 72,000 overdoses across the country. About 70% of businesses report that they have been impacted by this terrible problem. The National Safety Council reports that there are problems with poor prescription drug use, higher absenteeism, injuries, and accidents resulting from overdoses.
Next, you need to reach out to the people with respect and offer to help them. Many people with drug problems believe no one cares, so reaching out to help would be a step forward.
The patterns at work are also changing as the business activities and demands are changing. There are not enough good, trained people to fill all the openings so the pressure on everyone is going up. Everything at work happens through people so it is critical that we keep everyone engaged in helping to achieve our successes. We need to open up the trust and build interdependence among everyone to keep the information flowing freely. It is clear how important genuine engagement is within our workplaces.
They are totally unconscious that they are an important part of networks at work and at home. Many are the bread winners and if they get hurt or killed, they will cause their loved ones terrible hurt and trouble. The indifference of so many people in supervisory or management positions to this sort of behavior is terrible.
