Here’s What “Business Betterment” Looks Like…

February 10, 2017 By Leave a Comment

As I talk with Leaders, I often hear that things are so entrenched they cannot even conceive that this type of “betterment” can happen for them.

We know that it can, and we prove it over and over again, as we work with leaders, their teams, and their businesses.

CULTURE: We help to knock down the walls that have grown up between people and groups so that the arguments and fighting stop and they learn to value and help each other. We help to drill holes in the silos of production, HR, maintenance and finance so that people can talk to each other to get the information they need to do their jobs. We help to remove the barriers that are restricting the up and down flow of critical information, improving its accuracy, so the organization can function more easily. We help to remove the barriers between the people writing rules and procedures (the work- as-imagined) and those doing the front-line work (the work-as-done). We help people to see that most of the injuries and incidents are the result of patterns and processes that need improvement and shift away from a culture of blame and criticism.

SAFETY: I believe that we do not have a right to make our living in a place where it is okay to hurt people. When we make this our top belief, many fewer people get hurt and our economic performance is a lot better as well. As we learn to work this way the barriers and roadblocks melt away and new channels and connections emerge.

LOSS: Avoiding the losses and waste means that our businesses are more competitive and healthy. How much do you suppose an OSHA Lost Time Injury costs the business?

  • The pain and suffering is miserable.
  • There is the direct cost of the doctors, hospitals, medications, etc.
  • We loose time:
    • having to investigate the injury and incident.,
    • writing reports,
    • having an OSHA investigation,
    • perhaps the cost of challenging OSHA’s findings,
    • legal costs for the company attorneys,
    • preparing for a potential law suit,
    • the cost of lost production time,
    • the cost of bringing someone and train them to replace the injured person,
    • the cost of lost sales,
    • the cost of bad publicity,
    • the cost of lower morale among the people,
    • and so on.

BOTTOM LINE: When the safety gets right, everything else gets right as well. In this more positive culture, not only does the waste of injuries and incidents go away, people shift the way that they chose to work together resulting in other improvements like:

  • fewer arguments,
  • fewer grievances,
  • better meetings,
  • fewer meetings,
  • more suggestions for improving our systems and processes,
  • people taking the lead in helping to fix something that is not right,
  • new ideas for better customer service emerge,
  • lean manufacturing works better,
  • the quality of products and services get better,
  • absenteeism drops, and
  • people can work together to build a better future.

When the safety performance and culture get better, the organization thrives.

These are things that each organization can work on right now. In Partner-Centered Leadership, Richard N. Knowles & Associates can help organizations to achieve all these things. This does not require investment.

  • Get clear on your thinking and purpose.
  • Go into your organization talking with and listening to the people.
  • Help them to build on their ideas.
  • Let them know how important they are to the success of the business.
  • Do this with respect and honesty.

Excellent firms don’t believe in excellence – only in constant improvement and constant change.
~ Tom Peters

Filed Under: Safety for Business, Safety Leadership Process, Safety Partnership Tagged With: , ,

A Time of New Opportunities

January 17, 2017 By Leave a Comment

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.

Here at home in the U.S.A., our culture is undergoing a shift towards the right with a move away from the centralization of power and decision-making towards one with a broader base for the exercise of power and decisions. Many people have very strong views about this shift in our culture and concerns about what will happen. What is going to be good? What is going to be bad? The complexity of all this prevents us from clearly knowing just what decisions is best.

All of this change (at both the macro and micro levels) presents us with opportunities to step in and make a positive difference. More opinions are floating around, more ideas being offered, more questions emerging. In the heat of all this, we each have an opportunity to listen for the truth, think about what is possible and to more openly share our ideas and thinking. Each of us can make a positive difference. While some people try to be louder that others, this in not where the best thinking will come from.

The best opportunities for truth and the best decisions to emerge are when we each engage together in thoughtful dialogue, searching for what is best for us, those around us and our larger communities, cities, businesses, and our country. For our specific work and how we choose to live, we each probably have the best information about what is most appropriate for success. We are engaged with living as it actually happens. When someone tries to impose his or her ideas as to what we should do or how we should live, we get resentful. Our higher leaders have a broader scope of information and know more about what is happening in the broader picture, but they do not know our specific needs or the best solutions for us. We need to talk together at all levels so that we can all develop a better understanding of the broader picture and make appropriate decisions together. This is true in our personal lives as well as our work lives.

When we can come together with respect, listening, being in a search for understanding together in our dialogue, new thinking, ideas and possible solutions emerge. We are all learning to live in this new world and we need each other’s help and support. None of us individually have the “right” answer, but together we can discover solutions that can really help.

Bringing This Into Our Workplaces and Businesses

safety work groupsAs 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.

Every organization has work groups within them where the safety performance and business results are excellent. In our dialogues, let us search for these fine examples and learn from them. The people in these groups have a lot to offer us so we can learn together with them.

When the upper management and leaders create the environment where people doing the work have the information they need and can make the appropriate decisions about how they perform the actual tasks, then each group can make the best contributions to the success of safely working and developing the best business results.

Filed Under: Safety Excellence, Safety for Business, Self-Organization Tagged With: , , ,

Even When the “Force” is With You, Things Can Go Wrong!

November 11, 2016 By Leave a Comment

The background story:
workplace safety for employeesA recent article in the October 13, 2016 Daily Mail reported a £1.6 Million fine (equivalent of $2 Million) against Disney after actor, Harrison Ford, was crushed by the Millennium Falcon’s hydraulic door on the set of the latest Star Wars Episode VII, “The Force Awakens”, movie which was being filmed in June, 2014.

Ford had gone through the door, hit a button, walked out the door, and unexpectedly turned to walk back through the door when it came down on him. He assumed that the set was not live since it was a rehearsal. In this scene, Ford was helping his injured Wookiee friend through the door into the spacecraft. The door, which was operated by a person who was remotely located and could not see Ford, quickly closed it as he unexpectedly turned back into the spacecraft. Ford screamed and an emergency stop button was pressed, stopping the door just eight inches from being completely shut. They described it like a blunt-edged guillotine with a force comparable to being hit by a small car. Ford was pinned to the ground, suffering a broken tibia and fibula, a dislocated ankle and cut hand. The door had to be opened by the operator.

Disney’s subsidiary, Foodles Production (UK) Ltd., admitted to two counts of safety violations. In the main violation, while the company had done a risk assessment recognizing the risk of death, they had failed to talk to Ford so he was unaware of the precautions he needed to take. In earlier films, the door was operated slowly by a rope and pulley by a stagehand. The mechanized operation moved the door very quickly, surprising the 71-year-old Ford. After Ford’s recovery of about eight weeks, the film was completed.

The Meaning of the Story: Looking at the Blunt End and the Sharp End of Safety

Blunt End and the Sharp End of SafetyThis story illustrates so many of the changing conditions and people involved in our work places. Most of our companies do a good job in risk assessments and developing safe working procedures. However, this planning often takes place away from the actual location where the work will be done. This is sometimes called the “blunt end” of the safety process where the people doing the planning do not understand what happens in the work at “sharp-end” where conditions and demands may be quite different, and where most of the injuries happen.

Relating this Story to Safety Theory and Practice

the past and future of safety managementIn Erik Hollnagel’s book, “Safety-I and Safety-II” (2014. Ashgate Publishing Ltd., Surrey, UK), he discusses ideas like the significance of the gap between “the work-as-imagined” done by managers and engineers planning and designing the work and the “work-as-done” by the people actually doing the work. This is illustrated nicely by the Ford Star Wars incident where the people doing the “work-as-imagined” failed to understand the actual conditions and mindset of Ford doing the “work-as-done.”

Hollnagel describes the way in which we have traditionally done our safety work as reactive and where so much of it relates to “work-as-imagined” as Safety-I. The gap between where the “work-as-imagined” and “work-as-done” is where there are very difficult communication challenges. We tend to react to what has gone wrong. Bridging this gap moves our safety work into Safety-II where we move into the world of more performance variability, more adaptability and resilience. This is a world where everyone needs a better understanding of how and why things work, particularly our organizations. It is a world where we need to have a sense of both the whole and the parts. It is a world where we focus more on understanding what is going right than just on what went wrong. It is a world where we are more proactive in our safety work.

The Bottom Line: Re-engaging the Force…People and Business Together

At Richard N. Knowles & Associates, we help organizations move into a world similar to Hollnagel’s Safety-II world. Our work environments and tasks are complex. Our organizations are complex, adapting, self-organizing networks of people. Building on these ideas, we help organizations to learn how to open up the communications, to engage everyone, to help and support each other, to listen and learn from each other, and connect real caring with the work that needs to be done. We help organizations to reconcile the relationship between the needs of the business and the needs of the people, which results in the release of enormous energy and creativity.

Give us a call so we can explore this more fully with you and help you see the sorts of improvements you and your people can make. We are here at 716-622-6467 to meet your needs.

Filed Under: Safety Excellence, Safety for Business Tagged With: , ,

Working with Multi-Generations in our Workplaces – Safely!

October 10, 2016 By Leave a Comment

Historical context:
workerConsider the Golden Gate Suspension Bridge (San Francisco) built between 1933 and 1937, an architectural marvel, thought to be impossible because in order to bridge that 6,700 ft. strait, in the middle of the bay channel, against strong tides, fierce winds, and thick fog, meant overcoming almost impossible odds. But it was built, with a grand opening in May of 1937, deemed, at the time of its completion, to be the tallest suspension bridge in the world as well as the longest. A man named Joseph Strauss engineered many new ideas, including developing safety devices such as movable netting, which saved 19 lives; though in all, there were 11 men lost during this construction. Thousands of men – workers of varying ages and from varied ethnic groups – came together to complete this project. (They had to listen and learn to be successful together.)

high-scalersConsider the feat of building the monumental Hoover Dam (1931-1936) – a miracle of technology and engineering. No dam project of this scale had ever been attempted before. There were 21,000 people working at that site with approximately 100 industrial deaths. The walls for this structure – that would uphold the weight of the dam – required workers called “high-scalers” who excavated the cliffs, dangling on ropes from the rim of the canyon. Can you even fathom this?

niagara-power-projectConsider the great Niagara Power Project (1957-1961). During construction, over 12 million cubic yards of rock were excavated. A total of 20 workers died. When it opened in 1961, it was the Western world’s largest hydropower facility. Many people, including from the “greatest generation” and the “traditionalist generation,” worked together on this project. It was a 24/7, multi-year project.

Note that the Niagara Power Project, the Golden Gate Bridge and the Hoover Dam construction (detailed above) all occurred before OSHA was in existence – the protections were sparse so people (young and old) had to especially look out for each other! Each of these great projects, nonetheless, took lives – workers that did not come home to their loved ones.

Today’s multigenerational Workplace – with Greater Safety Emphasis and Engagement

Fast forward to today…to your workplace…a different time and place…where people of multi-generations also come together for a purpose – to complete the work of your respective business (safely). Managing multi-generational workforces is an art in itself.

  • Young workers want to contribute and make a quick impact, valuing inclusion
  • The middle generation needs to believe in the mission – it has to make sense – they have to see the “why” of it
  • The older employees don’t like ambivalence; they’re looking for clarity, straight-forwardness, and no wishy-washy explanations

Does that make success (together) impossible? Absolutely not. The common denominator is that all people, regardless of their labeled generation, want to be accepted for who they are, to have their contribution valued, and to feel a part of the team/business endeavor. All want to go home from work safe. The need for their brother’s/sister’s keeper remains paramount.

In today’s workplaces, we often have a co-worker population that can represent age ranges of forty-plus years. With that range comes a host of different experiences, expectations and perspectives, and technology prowess. (All good; all offer ways to learn from each other.)

Everyone in the workplace came to there because of the employment opportunity – the opportunity to make a living – in order to provide for themselves and their families. (That’s a collective no-brainer…and the place to start in safety-mindedness – so we can all keep earning a living with all our parts, hands, toes, eyes, ears, etc. all in-tact, every day, regardless of what generation we touch.)

Granted, there are some differences in how teamwork is viewed, loyalty to the job and dealing with change, work-life balance, diversity, rewards and recognition, decision-making, personal growth and development – yet all of these differences are surmountable. Consider too, that all of these differences pale in comparison to the generations that went before, who demonstrated that when working together, toward a clear purpose, were able to complete the type of monumental projects described earlier in this article. To do what they did, required extraordinary teamwork.

I’m reminded of the (illustrative) story of four people going gulf fishing in a boat – a Traditionalist, a Boomer, an X-er, and a Millennial. All of a sudden the boat’s captain fell over dead with a heart attack and, in that process, did something destructive to the boat’s motor key mechanism as he fell over, as well as hitting the radio – breaking its channel mechanism. The boat stalled – dead in the water. Fully adrift.

So the combination of four people had to figure out how they’d get back to shore. Each of them devised a workable plan and got to work. The Traditionalist quickly determined what he could salvage from the boat to make more workable oars for paddling back to the shoreline and readied safety flares for expected overhead helicopters or airplanes; he also knew, instinctively, their directional status, fully understanding the sun’s position in the sky.

The Boomer hunted for and found the boat’s engine manual and was troubleshooting the starting mechanism, and how to bypass it – to restart the engine – plus was troubleshooting the boat’s radio, etc.

The X-er immediately used his phone’s GPS coordinates and was preparing to call in to the Coast Guard for help. The Millennial quickly text messaged an SOS to the Coast Guard with emphasis for HELP!

We often resort to solving problems with the technology to which we are most accustomed. In this illustration, each method had value. Each had potential to solve the problem and return the group to shore! Each person, regardless of his/her generational label, has something important to offer – a way of thinking about things. We each have ideas to offer for solving problems in our workplace; we are each other’s brother/sister in the workplace. We are all in the same boat!

We all can learn from each other, especially in safety. We all can listen to each other. History teaches good lessons. We all can share our concerns, our expectations, our perspectives, our technologies…for the betterment of the success of whatever it is that we came together to do (together).

We, at R.N. Knowles & Associates, work with leaders, teams, organizations, and businesses, helping them to solve their complex problems (together). We know that complex situations require new ways of thinking and being. We also are keen on the use of the Process Enneagram© because it is the proven “tool of complexity” that helps leaders and their teams resolve their complex issues (together and quickly). It allows for extensive input, ideas, perspectives, realities, understanding, and acceptance of various ideas, sharing and learning…so that we bridge perception differences and viewpoint gaps around any complex issue that you are facing. When we learn from our individual talents and work as a team, there is no limit to our potential achievements – including our collective safety!

Call us at 716-622-6467and we’ll show you how it can work for your organization, too.

Filed Under: Safety for Business, Safety Leadership Process, The Process Enneagram© Tagged With: , , ,

Caring for Each Other: How to Hold Those Meaningful Conversations!

August 12, 2016 By Leave a Comment

Richard-ASSE-Conference2016In my June 29th presentation at the American Society of Safety Engineers 2016 Professional Development Conference, I discussed the fact that one of the best ways for the safety professional attending the talk to help to improve the safety performance in their workplaces was to show the people that they cared about them and to enable them to make decisions about their specific work. I want to elaborate on these ideas in this newsletter. This is not just for the safety professional. This is for every team leader, supervisor, and workgroup leader. Going into your workplaces and opening up the conversations is a journey; each time you do this it gets easier and more effective. (Caring, Understanding and Openness!)

Meaningful caring to me means that we treat each other with respect as adults.

  • As managers and supervisors we get out of our offices and go into the workplace.
  • Help people to see that it is okay to talk together and be open with each other.
  • We sit down together in their work place and have a cup of coffee together. We are not in a hurry just trying to make some specified number of contacts.
  • We share the truth together as best we can knowing that today’s truth may be different than the truth for tomorrow because the world keeps changing, and reminding them that you’ll be back tomorrow if things have changed.
  • We ask about how we each are doing. How is the day going? What good things are happening? What have we learned today or over the last few days? We listen to what we each are saying.
  • We try to build on each other’s good ideas.
  • We talk about how the business is doing? We talk about the contributions we are making to the success of the business.
  • We discuss problems together sharing our viewpoints and seeking possible solutions. If people ask you questions which you can’t answer, tell them you do not know and will get back to them…then do it. We pay attention to the dynamics and do not over stay our visit.

As we get to know each other better we begin to explore what is really going on around here.

  • Are we really doing what we say we want to be doing?
  • How can our communications get clearer and better?
  • What is the rumor mill saying? Talk together about the rumors and clear them up.
  • Do you see better ways to go after the problems around here than we are doing? What are we missing?
  • Are there hidden elephants we need to be addressing?
  • When we have made a mistake, we own up to it and say we are sorry. We ask for their help.
  • Are there better ways that you see to get your job done well?
  • What information do you need to get your work done more effectively? Let’s talk some more about your good ideas and see if you can make some improvements.
  • What is going on over and over that is really bugging you?

As you get to know the people even better, there will be opportunities to inquire about how the family is doing. You can ask…how the kids are doing in their sports and schoolwork, ask if there are things that you can be doing to help them, ask how everyone’s health is, etc. You need to use good judgment as you get into these personal conversations and not push things too far into their privacy, by accident.

These are the kinds of conversations that most of us would like to have with our own managers. How many times have you wanted to talk together with them to share an idea or problem and have not had a chance to do it? How often do you get to talk with your boss’s boss? What is important and good for you in talking with your boss is about the same as for you talking with the people in your organization about the things that are important to them.

We are all partners in making our workplaces to become healthier, physically and mentally, and helping the people in them to be the best they can be. This is a key element of Partner-Centered Safety!

Filed Under: Safety for Business Tagged With: , ,

Conceptualize “Caring” in Your Workplace! Then Conceptualize “Tragic Fatality” in Your Workplace!

August 10, 2016 By Leave a Comment

construction safetyEighty (80) pages and counting…that’s how far I got while perusing the numerous pages for the 2015 fatalities logged on OSHA reports – there were still many names and circumstances yet to read.

Each one of the entries represents a real person – who has a name, a family, a job, and was doing a task within his/her workplace. I also looked at the OSHA count for 2014 and the total fatalities in the workplace that year numbered 4,821.

Think about this tragic loss of life. 4,821 is a big number made up of 1+1+1+1 + another, another, another, and each single number is not just a number…it is connected to a personal name. Having recently visited the 911 Memorial in New York City, it really drives home the importance of an individual – a named individual. The visual has such meaning.

Making a living shouldn’t have to cost you your life. As Dr. David Michaels, Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health notes,workplace fatalities, injuries, and illnesses are preventable.

Employers and Employees share responsibility for safety. We say that we care. We know that we care deeply when we are touched by the closeness of a tragic injury to someone we know – we’re able to put a face and a name to the number. Yet, how many times have you tuned out during a safety meeting, thinking that the subject was boring, or giving only lip-service, believing it can’t happen here.

If only we all understood that every single safety rule has been written in blood. Meaning someone, somewhere, somehow was hurt badly enough that rules emerged to prevent a recurrence. Yet, the OSHA logs keep growing, showing real time statistics. We have a lot of caring to demonstrate!

Conceptualize real caring. What does it look like in your workplace? In the 80’s, there was something called a “Unity Triangle,” which was a useful model…to strive for commitment within a team structure in a way that demonstrates caring, understanding and openness (all three) so that individual growth is stimulated while team efforts are increasingly directed toward achieving safe workplaces, and organizational alignment of goals.

The learning is this:

Unity-Triangle

Ponder this: We can have safe workplaces. We can have involved, caring, individual, safe-minded employees. We can understand that safety rules are written in blood and we can be open about connecting with our coworkers to keep learning and remaining diligent in keeping each other safe. We can be open to reaching out in ways we may not have done before; we can be open to achieving full Safety alignment…by everyone in the workplace, in our teams, individually and collectively.

That’s unity…that’s being aligned on the principle that making a living (anywhere) shouldn’t have to cost a real person his/her life…none of us are numbers. We are a Team, with named individuals, committed to the betterment of our collective workplace.

Filed Under: Safety for Business, Safety Leadership Process Tagged With: ,

Brother’s and Sister’s Keepers

May 11, 2016 By Leave a Comment

human-dominoesHardly any of us can do our best work all by ourselves.

We need teammates to help us stay focused and be fully present to our work. None of us can see all that is happening around us so someone to be our keeper is critical to our safety. We need someone to remind us if we are hurrying or preoccupied. We can do a much better take-two pre-start-up check if we have someone there with us looking, thinking about and talking over the work before us.

Here are some things that we need to be doing as a Brother’s/Sister’s Keeper.

  • We can keep alert about someone being in danger because we notice that they are preoccupied.
  • We can look for potential safety hazards, and talk about them with our teammates.
  • We can check to see if our safety procedures are consistent and adequate for the job we are about to begin.
  • We can talk with our brothers and sisters about looking for some really unexpected event or condition that could kill one of us.
  • We can talk with our teammates about the elephants that are blocking us and messing up our work.
  • We can help to check the OSHA rules and procedures to be sure we are in compliance.
  • We can stop the job if we see it is going unsafely.
  • We can help to be sure that we have the right tools for the work before us.
  • We can ensure that we (alone or together) do not take shortcuts.
  • There are lots of things we can do as a Brother’s/Sister’s Keeper and we can be open and receptive to the Brother or Sister looking after us.

Sometimes the events can roll out like a string of dominos. Some little thing at the beginning tips over, bumping into the next domino and so on until we have a big, ugly event. Brother’s and Sister’s can help us to see these little events and avoid the big one that comes like a snowball rolling down a hill.

Being a brother or sister goes both ways – I look after you and you look after me. This is a deep responsibility for us to be doing so that no one gets hurt or killed and we all get the job done to the highest standards.

Brothers and Sisters are really important when we dig more deeply into the real issues behind an observed hazard. Two or three people who are looking for and thinking about the deeper issues are much more likely to find the real, basic problem behind the hazard and be able to eliminate or minimize it. They can also help to find the best ways to circumvent a hazard; two minds are better than one!

Being our Brother’s and Sister’s Keepers is a deep responsibility we all have. None of us have a right to work in a place where it is okay for someone to get hurt. Taking on the roles and responsibilities of being our Brother’s and Sister’s Keepers is a big step in moving the organization’s safety performance beyond compliance towards excellence.

Filed Under: Safety for Business, Safety Leadership Tagged With: , ,

Caring: Displaying Kindness and Concern for Others

April 18, 2016 By Leave a Comment

A few days ago, I had the opportunity to hear Mark Breslin, a professional speaker, author and strategist (Breslin Strategies), talk about his approach to going beyond compliance in safety performance.

He made the point that the two most important things to people in the workplace are:

  • to be sincerely praised and recognized; authenticity is key
  • to be given the opportunity to make decisions; autonomy

People need to know that management cares. These important ideas are quite consistent with some of our ideas in Partner-Centered Safety.

construction safetyIn our Partner-Centered Safety realm, we go beyond this to having everyone (the people on the floor, the supervisors, the managers, and all the others) feel they are cared about. Caring means helping each other, listening to each other, sharing information, being respectful, asking for help and receiving it, looking out for each other, saying we are sorry when we make a mistake, and treating each other as whole persons. Just what caring means for people is something on which they should all agree. Management, alone, should not do it for their approach can often be quite patronizing – treating the people in the work place as if they are children. All the people, at all levels, together, need to come up with their ideas about what caring is for them. Management should not try to dictate the answers, but management needs to open up and lead this discussion about caring or it will not be addressed. Caring is visible; as is non-caring. Partner-Centered Safety is visible caring. Mistreatment of people is non-caring.

For example, in one plant making large pumps to fracture gas wells, there was a serious injury when a guy tried to hoist a 3,200-pound pump with a 2,000-pound rated overhead crane. The pump fell onto the employee’s hand causing serious damage. When I was talking about this with another man on an adjacent work table about 10 feet away, I asked him if he had seen what was happening. He said he had. When I asked why he did not stop the work, he said that he was not the other guy’s boss. They had never talked about caring and what it meant to them. This is certainly not caring! Being your brother’s/sister’s keeper was a foreign concept.

In another example, when we have bullies in the workplace, they cause huge destruction in shutting down communications. How can there be an authentic and caring atmosphere with bullies contaminating the environment by picking on people when they speak up and try to contribute. Sometimes, the bully is in supervision, which makes matters worse. Management must deal with them for they are extremely destructive. The culture is set by the worst behavior that is tolerated!

However, when the people all come together to talk about the various ways they want to show caring, treat each other, and agree on ways to work together, the culture quickly shifts towards one that is open, healthy, and where the communications can flow freely. This is the environment where there can be good learning, growth and progress towards safety excellence. This is the environment where people can talk together about their ideas, share opportunities to improve the work, and have the opportunity for making decisions about some of the things going on and how they are cared about and treated.

Filed Under: Safety for Business, Self-Organizing Leadership© Tagged With: , ,

We do “Safety” Because We Care

April 11, 2016 By Leave a Comment

Bok-Tower-GardensAt one of the highest geographical points in Florida, at Lake Wales, is a large, 205-ft high, carillon tower. It is beautiful, as are the gardens surrounding this tower structure, made of glistening coquina stone. The tower and gardens were a gift from benefactor Edward W. Bok, who cared deeply about nature, beauty and sanctuary spaces. Millions of visitors have traversed this place of solace since it opened in 1929. Edward Bok was all about CARING for future generations – to be able to enjoy peace and beauty. His tribute signature is this:

“Make you the world a bit better or more beautiful because you have lived in it.”
~ Edward W. Bok (1929)

Our safety work (at R.N. Knowles & Associates) has taken us to many places over the last few months. We’re reminded, as we’ve interacted with many people, and visited many workplaces, that Safety is about caring deeply. Likened to Edward Bok’s inspiration about caring about the world of beauty and leaving his legacy, let’s substitute the word safety for beauty, and leave our positive safety legacy for our respective workplaces. What if everyone in our workplaces chose to care deeply about safety?

What if this statement became your chosen signature phrase?

“Make your work-world a bit better and more safe because you have lived in it.” (2016)

We all make choices – every day – as we live and work in our workplaces. We do “Safety” because we care deeply – stemming from a core concern for others.

Filed Under: Safety for Business, Safety Leadership Process Tagged With: ,

Safety Culture…Is Yours Healthy and Thriving? How Do You Know?

February 17, 2016 By Leave a Comment

When the Safety Culture is right…what do you see? What does Excellence look like?

  • People helping each other;
  • People looking out for others;
  • People are committed to caring about people, the work, the success of the Business; Aligned, Cohesive.
  • Few injuries;
  • Full Reporting;
  • Learning from all incidents; Collaborative.
  • Safety is talked about all the time – integrated into the work and the conversation;
  • Process safety management is respected and rules followed.
  • People understand the need for enforcement of standards & rules.
  • Good People treatment principles apply. (No bullies tolerated)
  • Litter-free workplace; (people care)
  • Problems are discussed openly; Differences are discussed, resolved.
  • Training is fully completed;
  • Employees regularly input what training is most important to their success.
  • Improvements are made in timely fashion;
  • Communications are open…up and down organizational lines.
  • People fully understand that the success of the business is tied to making a profit. Safety excellence and business success go hand in hand.
  • Safety excellence for business means that people understand safety and the business – information is shared; relationships are built; and people know the importance of their role to the Business.
  • Processes for healthy discussion/communication are prevalent and used.
  • Leaders are involved, inclusive, and open.
  • People feel good about their roles, their coworkers, their business success.

How does your team, business, or organization measure up to these? It is worth doing a very simple analysis. On a straight line, along this measure, where does your team stand on many of the above items listed? What does that tell you about where your efforts should be placed?

Not too long ago, EHS Today had a neat article about Safety Culture and Training…worth a look. Here’s the link.

Filed Under: Safety Excellence, Safety for Business Tagged With: ,
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