We are in a high period of change for many families as the schools and colleges have all opened and are under way. Patterns of behavior at home are changing as demands on our time are changing. The ways we depend on each other are changing.
New responsibilities, opportunities and challenges are popping up. It is more clear than ever how much we depend on and need each other. The networks in our lives are always changing.
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.
The Need for Building Strong Interdependence
The networks of interdependence spread across our business life as well as our personal lives. When there is a break or disruption in the network, it can have a broad impact. We need to remember that we are in networks and that we need to better understand our roles in them. Everyone depends on us to keep the networks in our organizations and families strong.
One area that is especially vulnerable is safety. The pressures to get the work done quickly pushes people to do a lot of things quickly – cutting the safety corners. This puts a lot of people at risk. Every day on LinkedIn I see pictures of people doing really creative, very unsafe and frightening things. For example:
- A man stands on the forks of a fork truck to get lifted up to a reach high place;
- A man lifts a fork truck with another fork truck to reach a higher shelf;
- Step ladders are used unopened to substitute for a regular ladder;
- Step ladders are placed on stairs and make-shift scaffolding;
- Fork trucks tip over having unbalanced loads or loads that are too heavy;
- Cranes tip over because of poor positioning, or an unexpected shift in the lift;
- People are standing under loads as they are being lifted;
- Materials fall unexpectedly from overhead, narrowly missing a man on the ground;
- A man falls from a beam as he tries to walk across it;
- A woman is killed jumping onto a fork truck to prevent it from tipping over under the huge load;
- Unsupported trenches collapse unexpectedly trapping and killing the people;
- Etc.
I expect that there are lots of things going on that lead to repetitive motion injuries; these just don’t show up in the Linkedin videos. There is also probably a lot of process safety management work being short circuited. For example, I wonder about drift in the technology and hope people are staying on top of it.
People are putting themselves at risk in all sorts of ways. I keep asking why and what are they not thinking about. Most people are not stupid or trying to get hurt. They just are going off in a half-baked way to get the job done in any way they can.
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.
More OSHA rules and regulations do not seem to be the answer. There are already plenty of rules and regulations which managers, supervisors, and workers disregard. There is a whole safety consulting industry offering all sorts of ideas, classes, training, etc., yet this unsafe stuff just keeps happening. Some businesses have taken responsibility and do not have this sort of behavior, but how do we get all the rest on board?
I wonder what would happen if the spouses and children of those doing these sorts of unsafe behaviors could see their loved one putting themselves at risk. Do you suppose that they would speak some sense to them and help them to understand their full responsibilities? People are taking lots of videos so there is material that could be sent home.
The rapid growth of active shooter incidents was one of the main areas of concern. The FBI and other experts gave talks about this, with their main focus on the active shooter incident itself. Most active shooter situations are conducted by men. Most of these occur in places of business. There is no typical profile for these people who come from all walks of life.
Almost every day I see people post on LinkedIn, engaging in awful safety practices. Some are so ridiculous that they could be funny – except that people are getting hurt. Some workers seem quite content to endanger their lives and co-workers seem to be so unaware of the risks around them – that it is unbelievable!
A recent Gallup study conducted over several years, covering about 150 countries, revealed that only about 15% of the people were actively involved in their work and that another 15% were actively opposing their managers and supervisors. The other 70% must be just doing as little as possible and not helping or looking out for each other. We are better in the USA, but not by much.
Recognize Einstein’s Words of Wisdom: “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.“
In 2001, Jim C. Collins wrote the best-selling management book, Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…and Others Don’t. It described how companies transition from being good companies to great companies and how most companies fail to make that transition. The author found that focused leadership, clear expectations and alignment, and staying true to their field of major competence was key. There were other factors about greatness that showed up too – like Leaders being humble, and high employee engagement – employees being in tune with the company’s purpose, mission, endeavors, goals – not just the business side of things, but on the people side of the enterprise. Line organizations integrated information; people were involved, included and respected – because getting the right people in the right places was deemed as essential too. Entire organizations were communicating, collaborative, and cooperating.
Changes in our workplaces keep coming fast and furiously. A recent report released by Price-Waterhouse-Coopers indicates that by 2030 the pressure on workers to perform will be huge. Organizations will be using all sorts of ways to track performance…even putting chips under their workers skin to look at location, performance, health and wellness! They may be tracking safety performance as well. Managers will need to be having “mature conversations” with the people about all this change and the feeling of threat this creates for their people and their jobs. The pressure to keep improving skills and performance continues to increase.
The American Society for Safety Engineers (soon to be The American Society for Safety Professionals) in Denver, Colorado, on June 19-22, 2017, was attended by about 5,000 people. This was a record for attendance. There were lots of papers and a huge trade show exhibit. I never saw so much safety equipment and other offerings.
As the snow begins to melt and the spring winds arrive, it is time for cleaning up the place. Mud season is upon us as the snow melts. All sorts of curious things emerge from the melting piles of snow; stuff that was covered up and lost. (Just imagine: Years ago the settlers kept their animals sheltered next to their houses or barns attached to their houses so that they could care for them when the winter cold set in. They really had to do the spring-cleaning!)
Our new year is full of opportunities, dark clouds and unknowns. The world is full of strife of all sorts. Our political situation here in the U.S. is full of hope, tension, noise, and unknowns. So many people are screaming about their opinions that it is almost impossible to hear. I get so tired of it that I often just quit trying to listen. That is probably a mistake for me to do that; we are all connected and I can’t just go away and hide. None of us can do that.
As we bring this sort of thinking and being together into our workplaces, we can seek ways to improve our safety performance and business results. I have found over and over that we can vastly improve our safety and business performance when we share information together, listen for understanding, develop trust among us and see how well are all contributing, solutions emerge. When we help to change the behavior of bullies of get them out of the work place, we get even better.
