Accountability is a good thing…Especially as it applies to Safety!

April 12, 2021 By Leave a Comment

Have you heard of “The Oz Principle?”

The New York Times bestseller, The Oz Principle, defines accountability as “a personal choice to rise above one’s circumstances and demonstrate the ownership necessary for achieving desired results.”

Some people cringe when they hear the word accountability. Some people are afraid of it. Why is that? I have a very basic philosophy when it comes to being accountable for safety in the workplace:

“It is not okay for me to make my living
where it is okay for you to get hurt,
physically or psychologically!
So, let’s figure it out together…
how to profitably stay in business and
stay safe and secure all at the same time.“

The real why: All organizations know that one of the keys to their success is safe operations; that is, ensuring that their People go home at the end of their shift in one piece – having their eyes, ears, limbs, and life intact, regardless of the position they hold or the task at hand. This is the fundamental bottom line of accountability. It means looking out for your own safety and that of your coworkers all the time.

Safety results are an aspect of culture – how it is led, taught, reinforced, expected, and enforced – in the safe performance of tasks, in the safe conditions of the environment, and in the respectful engagement of employees in their own safety and those of their team. Safety refers to injuries, incidents, and fatalities in the workplace, as well as the potential psychological harm from bullying and harassment and of course, to the security of our workplaces to being vulnerable to an active shooter. Accountability needs to be present in all dimensions.

accountability is important for workplace safety

But employee safety and wellbeing are not inherent to workplace cultures – they are actively fostered and maintained through a commitment to accountability. (Safety is led through our shared accountability.) Effective leaders do not ignore safety accountability if they care about their people. So effective and caring connect with accountability. Where do you see yourself in terms of Accountability? Are you owning it? Are you accountable through the hard stuff and the easy stuff?

I was particularly uplifted to read in the March 2021 issue of Professional Safety Magazine, an article by Paul A. Esposito, “Safety through Accountability & Recognition.” In the article he quotes OSHA (1989) – (and this is worth noting):

“Management commitment and employee involvement are complementary. Management commitment provides the motivating force and the resources for organizing and controlling activities within an organization. In an effective program, management regards workers’ safety and health as fundamental value of the organization and applies its commitment to safety and health protection with as much vigor as to other organizational purposes. Employee involvement provides the means through which workers develop and/or express their own commitment to safety and health protection, for themselves and for their fellow workers.“

So back to the Oz Principle for Accountability.

It is a personal choice. You make that choice every moment, in every hour, in every day and every year while working within your workplace, while doing YOUR job.

As we start a new quarter of 2021, why not do some introspection around the choices you make. Do you have the courage, care, concern and commitment to make a positive difference? Have you formed bad habits? Are you taking shortcuts? Do you step in when you see something unsafe or do you shy away? Do you care about your workmates? Are you doing your best to work safely, and to look out for your coworkers because it is the right thing to do?

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Why are so many people being killed at work?

March 10, 2021 By Leave a Comment

Not to be ignored…

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) report for 2019, the most recent summary report, shows that in 2019, 5,333 people were killed doing their jobs.

it's time to evaluate business safetyIn 2017, 5,147 died and in 2018, 5,250 died. For the last 5-6 years the trend has slowly gotten worse. (Note: The BLS reports do not show much, if any, progress in reducing the number of people being killed and injured over the last 5 years or so.)

In 2019, about 2,814,000 people were hurt, which is about the same level as in 2017 and 2018.

Thousands of people are working to improve safety in the workplace, yet these numbers show that improvement in performance is almost non-existent. The various safety journals have lots of good information about ways to improve things. There are lots of consultants doing a lot of work with various organizations to improve safety. And there are many professional safety organizations, including OSHA, ASSP and the National Safety Council, that provide increased training and awareness. Still, people are being killed and hurt at work.

Why isn’t there progress?

All these statistics are lagging indicators. So, what drives this poor performance? What are the leading indicators showing us?

I think that the key leading indicator relates to the way the organizations are managed and led. The traditional, top-down, command and control approach, in a whole lot of organizations, is at least 100 years old and is based on Frederick Taylor’s Principles of Scientific Management, which goes something like:

The people at the top of the organization are smarter and brighter than those doing the work so the top people know better and tell the workers what to do and the workers do it – a.k.a. the mechanical model (of the past).

There are lots of examples that show that this approach does not work very well. For example, in a recent article I saw, the safety regulators in Australia 35 years ago introduced the Sex Discrimination Act, but in 2018 the Australian Human Rights Commission survey showed that 1 in 3 workers were harassed in the last 5 years – despite the endeavor. So much for top-down proclamations. Please don’t dismiss this example as just a problem in Australia or that sexual harassment is not a safety problem because you’ll be wrong on both points.

We declare safety endeavors over our workplaces with phrases like “The Goal is Zero” and slogans like, “Safety First.” Similarly, “Zero Tolerance” for harassing and bullying behaviors. And these are important because we need visual signage and reminders for raising our awareness. Yet we know that words and declarations alone won’t work as effective motivators for better safety performance or better treatment of people, nor does the old mechanical model/command and control approach work for the long-term.

We have to bring all the people together.

In every place in which we have worked we bring the people together to talk about the problem, open up the free flow of information, treat each other with respect, listen to each other because everyone has an important perspective, learn, seek better ways, and make the changes we need to make. When people are participating in creating the changes they do not resist the changes but rather apply their energy and creativity to solving the problems.

When I did this as a Plant Manager of a large chemical plant, working with the people, the injury rates dropped by 97% in just 3 years. When I worked in a large sugar mill with all the people the injury rate dropped from about 10 to ZERO in just 3 weeks. (This was shown in their annual data). When I worked with people in a truck manufacturing plant this way, the injury rate dropped from about 6 to ZERO in just a few days. (This was also shown in their annual data.)

There was no new investment in computer programs or equipment. Long involved training courses were not needed.

Most people want to become part of the solution!

It is time to wake up!

Let’s put the 100-year old, Frederick Taylor model in the museum and step up to working with all the people. Become engaged with your people in Safety. It takes a lot less time and saves a lot of money!

We know how to make this happen and would like the opportunity to talk with any of you. Please call at 716-622-6467. You can find background information at RNKnowles Associates.

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

Bringing Safety People Together…It’s all in the Venn!

January 11, 2021 By Leave a Comment

I want to share some experiences I’ve learned about the importance of sharing information and building trust – especially as it applies to the various safety aspects of our workplaces.

We surely had our hands full in 2020 with all the COVID-19 issues. While the new vaccines will help, change will always be with us. Each of you can make a positive difference for the people in your organizations by sharing information about what is going on, building respect and trust and listening carefully, so you really understand the issues and concerns.

I have noticed that those working on occupational safety and occupational health do not interact much with the people working on process safety management (PSM), and vice-versa. For example, at the ASSP meetings, I rarely hear any one talking about PSM and at the AIChE Process Safety meetings, I don’t hear much about occupational safety and/or occupational health. It is as if these are different stove pipes. But each of these are areas where people are deeply involved in the total safety performance of the organization. I have found that when everyone is talking together about the total safety, synergy emerges and all areas benefit.

When I was the Plant Manager of a big chemical plant, the people working in these three areas were engaged in conversations and contributed to improvements across the board. This Venn Diagram illustrates how we brought them together while maintaining their unique contributions.

the importance of sharing information and building trust

Each safety area was managed separately, using their own operating discipline. Where the three areas came together, we talked about what was happening and looked for input from each other. This significantly raised the total safety and environmental performance of the site. PSM also has a big impact on the environmental performance when spills, accidental chronic emissions, release incidents, improved yields and fires and explosions are eliminated; and a lot less is emitted to the environment.

The area of overlap of the three safety disciplines (at the center of the Venn diagram) is where we engaged in Partner-Centered Leadership:

  • Sharing all information
  • Building trust.
  • Listening to each other’s problems and opportunities.
  • Learning and finding better ways to do the work together.

For example, we talked about the three disciplines in our site Central Safety Meetings, keeping careful track of our safety workorder backlogs, meeting our safety equipment inspection schedules and talking about incidents and injuries that had happened, and what we could all learn from them. The engineers went into the various production areas and sat with the operators to learn what the operators were experiencing as they ran the processes, and the engineers taught the operators the engineering technology supporting their work, helping them to understand what was happening in the manufacturing operations. The supervisors, engineers, operators and maintenance people talked together as safety and work procedures were developed. The gap between work-as imagined and work-as-done virtually disappeared. As trust and the open dialogue improved, our safety and environmental performance really improved.

In just three years, the Total Recordable Injury Rate dropped by about 97% to a rate of about 0.3, and the people sustained this for 17 years. PSM improved with much lower levels of releases and upsets. The emissions to the environment (accidental and permitted) went down about 95% in four years. When the PSM was run as a separate stove pipe from the occupational safety and occupational health stove pipes, the Plant’s performance did not come anywhere close to these low levels. This is significant!

The improvements we made in how we worked together in safety spread into all the other parts of our work in running the big (1,300 people) chemical plant. The more we shared information, treated each other with respect and listened to each other, the more the total performance improved. For example, productivity rose by about 45% and earnings rose about 300%.

Learning to work more effectively, through our safety work, spread to the whole organization. Each of you reading this newsletter can make a big difference as you engage with the people in your organizations, sharing information, building respect and trust. The impact of your work will spread.

Want to know more? Contact me at 716-622-6467. Or, Order my book, “Partnering for Safety and Business Excellence” on Amazon.

 

Note: Venn is a diagram that shows all possible logical relations between a finite collection of different sets. Take a look at what sits right in the middle!

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

The Dilemmas

December 10, 2020 By Leave a Comment

Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, Happy Kwanzaa
and Happy New Year to all!

We will all have to apply ourselves to make these Holidays fun and happy. This is a Season where personal responsibility will be vitally important and we all need to use the best judgement we can even with all the confusing information.

take personal responsibility for safety

The Dilemmas

With the COVID-19 pandemic, the wild politics and the busy holiday season, there are so many distractions and pressures that it is hard to stay focused. At work, at home, wherever, there is a lot going on and much of it is way out of the normal patterns for this Season. There will be fewer shopping trips to the local stores, lots of trips to UPS to mail packages, fewer visits with family and friends, etc. Routines will change.

Do we wear masks to try to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus as some tell us to do? Do we decide that this is unnecessary and perhaps expose someone to the virus? The guidance we are getting is confusing.

It will be lonely for some people with all the restrictions on visiting and celebrating together. There is the real fear that a grandparent or other susceptible person could get infected by being accidently exposed to a family member with the virus. In the cold weather we are all spending more time inside and closer to others.

Our care givers need our support and prayers. So do the store clerks, the cleaning people, our co-workers, cooks and servers, the Doctors and nurses, etc.; so many have to work where others are around so we all have to try to keep our distances (social distancing) and try not to spread the virus.

safety decisions are importantWe each need to take the personal responsibility to try to avoid spreading the virus. With all the pressures, this is not easy. It is best if we each take personal responsibility to social distance and try to avoid spreading the virus. Government edicts really do not cover the details of what we each need to do very well. It is really up to us.

With the COVID-19 vaccines just now getting approved a whole new debate is opening up that we all have a stake in. This is another big distraction. Who should get it first? What should the priorities be? Is it safe? Already there are strong opinions beginning to clash. If we are not mindful, our selfish sides will cause a lot of strife and concern.

Taking Personal Responsibility

So it seems to me that each of us has to take personal responsibility to make the best decisions, unselfish decisions, to make things work as well as they can. We need to keep asking ourselves if we really need to go out. Can we plan our trips so that we keep our exposures as low as we can? We need to be mindful about going into places where it can be crowded. We need to think about our work places and do our best to try to avoid spreading the virus.

None of us have all the information we need, so we have to think carefully about of situations we face and make the best decisions we can, for each other and for ourselves. We need to be especially careful when we make an impetuous decision out of frustration. We need to look out for each other when the frustrations are high.

High Frustrations Can Lead to Violent Behavior

We do not have a right to take out our frustrations on other people whether it is at work, at home, in a store or anywhere. I have read that during this pandemic that the incidence of family and co-worker abuse has gone way up. We need to look out for ourselves and each other so these situations can be avoided. Sometimes we just need to go for a walk to get this out of our systems. Sometimes we need more space. Please pay attention to each other, at home and at work, and when you see something going wrong try to help to defuse things. We are not alone. We can help each other. There are ways to de-stress!

Please have the very best Holiday Season you can have.

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

Your Workplace Safety Culture

October 12, 2020 By Leave a Comment

Who says you can’t do it all?

LEADERS: You can have EXCELLENCE in all Four of the Legs on YOUR WORKPLACE’S SAFETY CULTURE STOOL! HERE’s HOW and WHY!

Understanding each of the 4 Legs of the SAFETY CULTURE EXCELLENCE STOOL – It’s Essential for Leaders!

workplace safety

Are you a CEO, an executive, or a safety leader in your Workplace? Regardless of the titles we hold or the initials that we give to Health, Safety and Environmental endeavors…it still comes down to people being in the workplace who are fully cognizant of and devoted to reducing the risks of harm to employees in that workplace – physical or psychological. And, the ability to instill mindsets with our people to “want to protect themselves” and “to go home at the end of the day with all their parts (legs, arms, eyes, ears) intact” – the behaviors they choose are critical, as are the behaviors our Leaders Expect, Embrace and Enforce.

OSHA tells us that despite new technologies, more mandatory training, more regulations, more policies and procedures, and yes, more compliance officers…the annual statistics for fatal injuries and recordable injuries on the job have hardly moved the needle. Similarly, the top 10 most cited violations keep showing up…Falls, Scaffolding, Ladders, Lock-Tag-Try, Powered trucks, Machine guarding and Hazard Communications/exposures. Why is that?

Why isn’t progress happening? (Experts tell us that genuine employee engagement is dropping while these statistics rise!)

In the past, we’ve talked about the 3-legged stool of Workplace Safety for which safety leaders must be focused, including:

  • Occupational Safety: Related to potential injuries from slips, trips, moving machinery, etc.
  • Occupational Health: Related to preventing latent, long-term effects from potential injuries like carpal tunnel, and effects of inhalations – asbestos being an example. (Now, of course, in the time of COVID 19 we have even more to concern ourselves in the Health-arena).
  • Process Safety Management (PSM or PSMS): Ensuring standards are complied with (OSHA) in many industries that handle hazardous substances (intended to prevent or minimize the consequences of a catastrophic release of toxic, reactive, flammable or explosive HHC’s from a process).

It is a big job – keeping people safe – regardless of which leg of the stool we’re particularly focused upon.

Yet, today, with this new decade of workplace violence rearing its ugly head, we know that we have to add a fourth leg to the Safety Stool. This 4th leg addresses the security/civility of our people – because diligent awareness to workplace violence prevention is required (to promptly address inside harassment/bullying and incivility or to thwart a provoked active shooter who enters the Workplace to do harm).

  • Social Risk: The fourth leg of the stool is what is called “Social Risk.” Another way to say it is the psychological harm that comes with repeated bullying, harassment, dysfunctional behaviors, (civility not being required), that leave workers dreading to go to work, or that increase the risk of home-growing an active shooter, or having a suicide or murder in your workplace, let alone the bad press that comes with a highly-publicized incident. Requiring a civil workplace is integrated here. Not paying attention to social risk manifests into psychological harm as the continuum of bad behaviors escalate in the workplace – and ultimately, can impact people in harmful ways. (Add COVID 19 to the mix and this 4th prong of Social Risk takes center stage.)

Roll it all up and what do you have?

The Safety Leadership Biggie: Workplace Culture.

SO…what can YOU do about this? How do you get out in front of it?

In the Professional Safety Magazine a couple years ago, a peer-reviewed article on safety culture showed that, “Leadership is the antecedent to safety culture and is essential for fulfilling the intent of OSH throughout industry. It is critical to the creation, support and drive of an organization’s safety culture.” Also, “Executives and Safety Leaders should understand the impact that their Leadership style can have on Safety culture.”

We couldn’t agree more!

We look at the “whole organization’s culture” – including safety, security, civility, and the means and quality of engagement. Leadership makes the impactful difference. The OSHA general duty clause requires that employers provide a “safe workplace environment” for employees. There’s no doubt that a hostile environment/toxic workplace impacts the psychological safety of workplaces (i.e., bullying, harassment, sexual harassment, vengeful acts). There’s no doubt that disregard for OSHA regulations impacts the physical safety of the people in our workplaces. There’s no doubt that the security of our facilities and people’s awareness of intrusion/perpetrators intent to do harm, is critical. (i.e., workplace violence prevention/security vulnerability). There’s no doubt that when the above focus is absent, effectiveness plummets.

Leadership should hold the expectation that their people need to return home from work whole – no one harmed physically nor psychologically – and be willing to hold that principled-stand (always). From that public stance, leaders can move forward, choosing to live that value in their actions and making an effective difference. Engaging effectively with your people – at all levels is key to safety leadership.

CEOs, leaders, safety officers, team leaders set the safety, health, security and social-related culture, period. Leaders are charged to ensure that culture remains steadfast and promptly address the behaviors that bring down people and teams.

There can be no ignorance of, or turning away from, dysfunctional or unsafe behaviors that need to be identified and addressed, or safety rules that have been violated. Leaders are charged with enforcing the standards of the organization (and not selectively). A lack of engaged leadership and/or allowing incivilities lead to issues on several fronts – so every organization needs to be creating this authentic essence – across the board – across all 4 legs of the safety stool.

“It is too much,” you say? “You Can’t Do It All?”
Oh, Yes, YOU CAN!

If you consider two sides of the penny metaphor (Lincoln’s face side indicative of the people/psychological side, and the Lincoln Memorial’s facility side indicative of the safety/security side of the organization), then you can clearly see that the copper in the penny – that integrates both sides and throughout – is indeed, the LEADERSHIP component of the metaphor. That’s the leadership effect on workplace culture.

Leadership practices (i.e., level of engagement, degree of autonomy, enforcement of standards, clarity of focus, amount of collaboration, cohesiveness, support, communications/feedback, etc.) are key to an organization’s effectiveness. And leaders are just like that copper – they impact the whole enchilada – or, per the metaphor, the whole penny – the whole organization.

For us at NageleKnowlesAndAssociates.com, we look very closely at Leadership. It doesn’t take much to see when an organization lacks good leadership. It shows up in Safety compliance, in your entire stance on Safety and Health and Civility – across the board, in your overall culture, in security measures and in active shooter readiness, in workplace performance and results, in employee engagement, civility, turnover, involvement, participation, in awareness of what is happening within (i.e., bullying, harassment, cover-ups), and in leadership’s effectiveness to create, maintain and embrace the value of every person as an individual, thus enabling a positive and safe workplace culture. All of these can be changed for the better – and very quickly.

We Teach Leadership.

Guide to Reducing the Risk of Workplace ViolenceWe teach how leaders (up and down the organization) can get it all done – by understanding first, how to lead and to know and follow the tenets of authentic Leadership, including embracing the Engagement Diamond© – a leadership process of Richard N. Knowles and Associates. And, we also teach (every level of your organization) how to effectively engage the people you’ve hired to work together in your organization to do their work with the highest attention to safety, security, civility and effectiveness. It can be done! (We’ve proven that over and over again).

To this point, we invite you to connect with Amazon to order up a copy of our Amazon best-selling book, “Guide to Reducing the Risk of Workplace Violence – the absolute essentials.” In it we address the entire spectrum of workplace violence – the culture that extends from the psychological aspects to the physical aspects to the Leadership aspects, and to the active shooter aspects.

It is a safety/health/security/civility spectrum and it translates both to the Professional Safety Magazine article and to what we do for Leaders and their Teams, in their Workplaces every day.

We invite you to peruse our website: NageleKnowlesAndAssociates.com or call us at 716-622-6467 and we’ll engage in the essential Leadership conversation with you – call for a free conversation now. (Soon…You Can Do it All!)

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

We Need More Partnering…COVID-19 and All

September 10, 2020 By Leave a Comment

The Problem – Fractured Organizations

more partnering is needed in businessesThe COVID-19 pandemic, the return to school questions, the protests and riots in so many of our cities, the bitter political campaign, the demand for using the “correct” words, are driving people crazy. The COVID-19, the questions, the anxieties and concerns, spill into our workplaces causing a lot of uncertainty and stress. We see this happening every day. Our businesses, our schools and hospitals, our governments, and not-for-profits, at all levels, are struggling. Changes and pressures are coming faster and faster.

So many of us seem to be trying to cope by withdrawing into our shells and trying to push the turmoil all away. The trust levels among all the various groups is very low. So many loud voices are pushing their version of the “truth” that it is almost impossible to find the truth.

Mary Eberstadt, in her 2019 book, Primal Screams, suggests that people are basically social animals and that many of our connections are broken. With all these, many have lost their sense of identity. Social distancing and COVID-19 concerns, changes in how family’s function or not, changes in where people live and work, changes in the way the strife in our society are making us feel isolated and lone.

At work, many of us do not feel psychologically or physically safe. The COVID-19 and other distractions pull us away from focusing on our work. This can lead to arguments, bullying, injuries, and incidents, as well as to lower productivity. Not only are these problems distracting us, they are very expensive for the business. For example, if we just spend the equivalent of one day a week for each employee trying to solve all the issues raised by these problems, that would amount to 20% of our payroll costs.

Pulling Together and Partnering are Needed.
We Can Each Make a Difference!

We can make choices about how we agree to work together, and build a community that is safe and productive.

We can choose to:

  • Be respectful of one another.
  • Listen to each other.
  • Learn from each other.
  • Look out for each other and be our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers.
  • Learn from our successes and our mistakes.
  • Give each other the benefit of the doubt and not jump to judgement.
  • Talk together about how to improve our jobs.
  • Talk about our differences and figure a way through them.
  • Be aware of people who are bullying or harassing others and speak up about this.
  • Create a safe space where it is okay for people to ask questions and provide feedback.
  • Help each other to be successful.

make good choices in your business while under pressureIn thinking about your own place where you work, what do you suppose it would be like if you did some of these things? Do you think that you could begin talking with others about the COVID-19 challenges and building a more respectful environment? What do you think it would be like if you could openly talk together about the important issues like workable, social distancing and improving the safety of your job?

What would it be like if the managers and supervisors openly shared more information about these issues, as well as about how the business is doing? Would talking about how other businesses are handling these issues be helpful? What would it be like if you felt you were in an environment of trust? What would it be like if people really asked important questions and talked about them?

Hopefully, the people in upper management will be asking you for your honest opinions and really listen.

Each person can make a positive difference, if you decide to do it. It is a matter of will. If you do not step forward to make our workplaces safer and more productive, who will?

There are people with whom you can partner and begin these focused conversations. These do not have to be big projects. Start small, start slowly and it will spread it as it grows.

Change happens one conversation at a time!

I would be glad to talk with any of you about building Partner-Centered Leadership with you. Please call me at 716-622-6467.

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

Workplace Safety…When Tempers Flare

July 10, 2020 By Leave a Comment

We are currently living in really tense social and political times.

when tempers flare at work risk of injury goes upYou 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.

However we cope, we need to do our best to keep it out of the workplace, because when we allow the national scene to externally influence our internal emotions, then our emotions, in fact, can impact our safety and the well-being of others.

Whenever we are distracted by emotions, the risk of an injury or incident goes up, we become less able to concentrate and our minds get (emotionally) preoccupied. Our emotions can be influenced from a host of negatively-impacting ways; in turn, we can be hair-triggered to respond in negative ways. Today, we are especially challenged.

Below is a list of things that add to one’s emotional trigger points and what we can do when emotional overload pushes tempers to flare beyond the threshold level in our workplaces.

When tempers flare, adrenaline flows – it cranks up your heartbeat and breathing rate and primes your body for a fight response. This is NOT GOOD in our Workplaces! When tempers and emotions flare, regardless of the impetus, then the focus on safety takes a back seat. Emotion takes over. That is when you and your coworkers are exposed to higher risk and become most vulnerable to the unexpected.

So what just set you/him/her off?

  • Someone hell-bent on bringing the national scene/election/politics into the workplace, and you vehemently disagree with their view? (Workplaces should be neutral places).
  • Someone unable to keep their personal views on national, regional, or local events to themselves…to which you disagree?
  • Someone unable to contain negative views about another’s race, gender, ethnicity, etc.? (Even when it is well known that what you think about a person/group of persons doesn’t matter when you come through the workplace door – if you’re going to collect a paycheck, you have to find ways to constructively work together with “all” people, regardless of your personal feelings. We’re all in this together, whether we like it or not.)
  • Something else? Something that has become habitual? Like… bullying, intimidation, harassment or someone purposely pushing your buttons, again? And now they’ve crossed the line!
  • You woke up angry and carried that into the workplace? Maybe you were stressed out before you came through the workplace door and you’ve taken it out on your mates.
  • You’re tired? Maybe you’re tired of people taking shortcuts in the workplace and endangering others; maybe you hate that immature horseplay that may be happening, and that your supervisor seems powerless to address it.
  • You’re an old-timer and could care less about the poor example you’re setting? (Don’t think people don’t see this.) Maybe you’re impulsive or maybe you just don’t give a darn. Maybe, because of the way you/he/she is behaving, that you/he/she has now not only lost the respect of coworkers, but the unexpected safety lapse is fully lurking around you; someone can get hurt…it is in the law of probabilities.
  • Maybe you have just had a long, hot day and you are bone-weary?

Are you about to lose your temper (for whatever reason)? Cool it!

a moment of patience at work saves a lot of regretIt doesn’t have to be that way! Take a timeout!

  • Cool Off: Take a walk around the building or around the block.
  • Take Two: Two minutes and think it through. Try to remove your emotion from this situation.
  • Ask to have a private talk with your supervisor about your concerns: Make sure he/she fully grasps the situation and why what is emotionally happening is impacting safety and the workplace environment. Talk it through.
  • Recognize that the actions of all of us have an influence on the safety-mindedness of other workers, particularly newcomers.
  • If cornered, avoid responding to the aggressiveness of another: Don’t escalate the situation. (Walk away…it’s okay).
  • Learn some work-group de-escalation processes, like our Stop-It Process – where one group code-word can quickly cool the ardor and bring harmony back.

Tame Your Temper: Because anger can be powerful, managing it is sometimes challenging. It takes plenty of self-awareness and self-control to manage angry feelings. It is hard, but you’ve got it in you!

Self-awareness is the ability to notice what you’re feeling, thinking, and why. Little kids aren’t very aware of what they feel – they just act it out in their behavior. That’s why you see them having tantrums when they’re mad. Adults (like workers in our workplaces) have the mental ability to be self-aware. If you’re still throwing tantrums, it is time you got some help or leave the workplace. When you get angry, take a moment to notice what you’re feeling and thinking.

Self-control is all about thinking before you act. It puts some precious seconds or minutes between feeling a strong emotion and taking an action you’ll regret.

Together, self-awareness and self-control allow you to have more choice about how to act when you’re feeling an intense emotion like anger.

The Safety Bottom Line: Our workplaces have to be as free as possible from the external emotional factors of the outside world. We’ve got enough to worry about internally – within our workplace walls.

Anytime tempers flare (as a result of any impetus – national, regional, political, or internal frictions) or when aggressive, bullying, intimidating behavior is not appropriately addressed, the risk of incidents increase. Hostile workplace and workplace violence potential increases, as does the potential liability for employers who have a duty to employees to provide a safe work environment, free of abuse and harassment.

Emotion-based discord is a health and safety issue. Supervisors need to be vigilant, “clued-in” and able to address such heated times with calm and genuine concern. Emotions can occur inside or outside the workplace and can range from simple disagreements that escalate to temper tantrum level, to threats and verbal abuse, to physical violence. (All no-no’s in the workplace!)

Thousands of people are exposed to workplace tensions each year…as well as the macro-level national concerns.

The advice is solid: Cool It! Don’t let tempers flare and emotions get elevated in your workplace…where severe consequences can ensue. Nope! Walk away – It’s okay!

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

June is National Safety Month

June 11, 2020 By Leave a Comment

Safety Challenges are Still With Us!

national safety monthIn times like this, when the business and production activities are ramping up, there is a real danger that safety problems will show up. Any time the level of activity changes, up or down, is a time of danger.

Talk with the people about these issues as well. Every day have tool box or pre-start meetings to talk about the challenges for the day. Ask the people what their biggest hazards are for the day and what they are doing to prepare for them and to protect themselves and the processes. At the end of the day, have another safety conversation and reflect on the day and whether the things that they talked about at the start really helped. Talk about the surprise for the day and how they overcame these challenges.

Keep the safety dialogue going. One of the best ways to show that you really care about the people is to work hard on the safety front. Go into the workplaces, listen, talk together, and build collaboration, helping everyone to work towards a healthy, safe and profitable business.

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

Returning to Work and Getting it Right!

June 10, 2020 By Leave a Comment

These are stressful times for all of us.

build collaboration in your workplacesIt will not be easy as people are returning to the workplace. Leaders and managers must get out of their offices and purposefully engage with the people. They need to talk about the COVID-19 problem, share what is happening, and talk about the problems with which they are dealing. They need to do this with openness, honesty, respect, and caring. This is not just a one-off contact; leaders and managers need to engage in these conversations every day!

People are deeply concerned about returning to work and what they may face regarding the COVID-19 situation. Leaders and managers must not ignore or down-play the people’s concerns. If the people do not have confidence in their leaders and feel that they are being ignored, they will take other steps to protect themselves. Being indifferent to the people and ignoring their concerns is the first step to bringing in OSHA, a union or aggravating the union you have. You already have enough problems.

This is a time of real test for those in leadership positions. It is time to build a more collaborative workplace.

  • Do you really care about your people?
  • Do you really listen to the people and try to understand their concerns?
  • Can you honestly, really share with the people the challenges the business is facing and ask for the people’s help so everyone can be safe?

Show caring for them and their families. This is a time to .

In a recent LinkedIn post, Bruce Wayne with Johnson of Sims Crane & Equipment Company of Clearwater, FL, shared some really good ideas about what leaders need to be doing. For example, he talked about building trust, listening, showing appreciation, apologizing for mistakes, giving credit where it is due. I built on this posting by adding that leaders need to show courage, make the tough decisions, and address the complex problems. Leaders need to talk with the people about why they are making these decisions, help them to understand where you are coming from, and ask for their help in solving the problems.

Tell the truth as best you can. If things change, then go back and tell the people what changed and keep them in the loop. People can handle difficult news, but they will not tolerate misinformation or lies. Leaders must balance the people side and the business side of things.

Continuously talking with the people about what is going on and asking for their help in finding the best way to work together to minimize the COVID-19 hazard is important leadership and managership work.

Get everyone engaged in helping each other and do the social distancing and take the other precautions that are needed. Be sure that everyone has and uses the appropriate PPE.

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

COVID-19 Return-to-Work Standards

May 11, 2020 By Leave a Comment

On April 15, 2020, David Sparkman of EHS Today, wrote about new guidance from the CDC regarding COVID-19.

returning to work after the pandemicI have abstracted it here for those reading this newsletter since you may have missed it.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recently offered guidance for people returning to work who have been through the COVID-19 illness. The CDC had recommended that people self-isolate for 14 days after recovering from COVID-19. The CDC has now created two, more flexible standards for people returning to work after recovering from COVID-19. According to the CDC these recommendations will prevent most incidents of secondary spread of the virus.

Several requirements are still in effect:

  • If an employee arrives at work showing COVID-19 symptoms, that
    person needs to be separated from other employees and sent home.
  • If an employee becomes sick during the day, that person needs to be separated and sent home.

First, under the new guidance, when someone returns to work after the COVID-19 home isolation, the employer needs to:

  • be sure that at least three days (72 hours) have passed since their recovery, meaning they have not run a fever without the use of fever-reducing medications,
  • respiratory symptoms such as coughing and shortness of breath have improved,
  • and at least seven days have passed since symptoms first symptoms first appeared.

OR

Second, if the employee is tested to determine if they are still contagious, they can also leave home after these three conditions have been met:

  • The employee no longer has a fever without the use of fever reducing medication.
  • Symptoms like coughing and shortness of breath have improved.
  • The employee has received two negative tests in a row, 24 hours apart, when the patient’s doctor is following the CDC guidelines.

Change is upon us - big time. How will you greet these return-to-work changes?In all cases, the healthcare provider and local health department should be consulted.

If an employee tests positive for COVID-19, the employer needs to inform other employees of the possible exposure and keep track of whom they have talked with for disease tracking purposes by health officials.

Please pay very careful attention to and help employees who are over 60 and/or have some preexisting condition like a heart problem or diabetes since they are much more vulnerable to this highly contagious virus. About 85% of those who go into hospital are over 65 and about half of them die.

This is a very tough disease!

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