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.

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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!

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Announcing: New Edition – Hot off the Amazon press!

May 11, 2020 By Leave a Comment

“Guide to Reducing the Risk of Workplace Violence”

Guide to Reducing the Risk of Workplace ViolenceOur new comprehensive guide, revised and updated, is now available on Amazon.

It is the “Gold Standard” in providing people who are concerned about reducing all sorts of violence in their work places. The guidance ranges from a hostile workplace to bullying to sexual harassment to threats to fighting and even to murder.

Some safety professionals do not see workplace violence as a safety issue, but if you stop to reflect a moment, you’ll see that these sorts of behaviors distract people from their work. Distractions lead to safety problems. When the behaviors are acute, someone can get hurt or even murdered. The leading cause of death in the workplace for women is murder or suicide. The third leading cause of death in the workplace for men is murder or suicide.

Our “Guide to Reducing the Risks of Workplace Violence” is a must read for all who are interested in creating a safer workplace! All HR groups should read, understand and share this critical information so that everyone can learn about the hazards of workplace violence and their role in helping to create a safer workplace. Safety and Security people – it is all in here, including active shooter protocol and situational awareness. And, it is a no-brainer for Supervisors – this comprehensive guide covers the gamut!

Check it out here on Amazon!

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Returning to Work After the Pandemic

April 10, 2020 By Leave a Comment

We are in the middle of this Covid-19 pandemic.

returning to work after the pandemicSo many people are sick and have died that I expect that almost everyone knows of someone who has the virus. Hopefully we are coming to the point where the increases in the number of the sick and those who have died is leveling off and may be headed down.

More and more, our collective attention will turn to getting the economy going again and people going back to work. Balancing the medical and economic needs will be difficult. There will be a lot of thought going into this and a lot of debate about just who should go back to work and when.

As people begin to return to work, there may likely be requirements to wear a face mask of some sort so that someone who is still carrying the virus, without knowing it, will be less likely to transmit it to someone else. The challenges, as we go into our workplaces, will be around social distancing and when and where to wear face masks. Social distancing will be difficult or even impossible in some jobs.

Our supervisors and managers will have to talk with everyone so that the ground rules are clear and everyone will follow them. There will have to be good discussions with the unions, if there is one in your workplace. It is also important to realize that OSHA rules remain in the picture under the General Duty Clause, requiring the companies to provide a safe workplace.

Our teams and work crews may not have everyone back to work, for a variety of reasons, so it is important that management and the people talk fully together about how to make the adjustments so the work can be done safely.

It will be a hazardous time as people come back to work and things start up. Anytime we are in a period of change like this, safety becomes a bigger issue. We all need to look out for each other and help each other. Having a respectful, caring work environment is really important so we can all get through the next few months safely. We all need each other, so please be fully present and vigilant.

The Edge of Chaos

getting back to normal at work after the pandemicThis pandemic has created a lot of change and instability in our society. The FDA and the CDC have changed or suspended many rules and regulations in order to attack the pandemic and save lives. It is a period of high energy and creativity as people everywhere are coming up with ways to help people. Industries have shifted to making PPE-like face masks. The foodservice industry has shifted to take out and delivery. This creativity and positive energy is gratifying.

However, when we return to work, we will be tempted to change things because some of our team mates are missing or the patterns of work have changed, we must be very careful. If you see a need to change things, get together with everyone who is involved and talk about the situation and what should be done. Make the changes and adjustments, but do it after careful consideration so no one gets hurt or the processes get spoiled.

Change is important. We just need to be deliberate and be thoughtful, engaging those involved (operator, mechanics, supervisors, engineers, etc.) so we get the best thinking and do the right things. As we consider the management of change, we also need to document the changes carefully.

These difficult times require all of us to be alert, respectful and caring.

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Defending Ourselves from COVID-19

March 10, 2020 By Leave a Comment

With all the information flowing around about the Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19), it seems very easy to get quite alarmed and concerned.

stay safe with coronavirus and other diseasesLike all flus, we need to take it seriously and take appropriate steps to protect ourselves and our families. I have read a lot about what employers should do to protect their employees, which makes sense, but it sounds as if they are running a kindergarten class. OSHA has declared the flu as a recognized workplace hazard, so employers do have a responsibility to do what they can to protect the people, but there is a lot we can do for ourselves.

It seems to me that there are two basic things we each can do. First is to take responsibility for ourselves and the second is to avoid situations where we may get the flu.

We can all do things like…

  • Staying away from work and other people if we are coming down with flu symptoms. If we get the symptoms, then don’t go around exposing others.
  • Working from home, if we can, to avoid others.
  • Washing our hands often, soaping them for 20 seconds or so.
  • Keeping our hands away from our faces so we do not put the flu virus right into our nose or mouth.
  • Using disinfectant wipes to clean our cell phones, shopping cart handles, etc.
  • Cleaning our work stations and computer keyboards.
  • Using proper coughing etiquette.

We can all take the personal responsibility to do these things without having the need for our employer to try to get us to do these things. Employers can help to support us, but please take personal responsibility for yourselves and families.

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Faster is Often Slower

October 15, 2019 By Leave a Comment

In Orlando, Florida, there is a $2.3 billion, 21-mile, I-4 highway improvement project that has been underway since 2015. It is such a traffic headache that we try to avoid it as much as we can when we are driving across Florida.

safety is important in construction areasThere have been five fatalities since the project began. All five of the fatalities have been “struck-by” incidents. The most recent occurred about October 1st, when a beam slipped off a piece of equipment and struck a worker on the head. One person was hit by a dump truck. Another died when he was hit by a piece of steel equipment. The fourth person died when a rebar cage fell on him, and the fifth person was killed when he was hit in the head by a pipe.

All construction was suspended to review the safety plans and to get everyone refocused on working safely. OSHA and safety experts have been involved in the analyses, “Until the root causes are determined, girder erection and installation are suspended.”

Suspending the work to get everyone focused, bringing in safety experts, and seeking root causes are a start, but they will not, in themselves, stop the fatal accidents. There is so much more going on that there are no root causes. The pressures to get the projects going again are intense.

There’s A Deeper Pattern…

Every fatality was a “struck-by” incident, which indicates that things are moving when the incidents happened. On projects like this one, there is huge pressure to keep on schedule and get the work done. The pressure to move too fast is great. Yet, as these incidents show, going faster results in things going more slowly, and people getting killed. Hurrying is a big problem!

Each person needs to be looking out for the others, talking together about how to do the job without anyone getting hurt, sharing ideas about how to do the work more effectively and safely. Supervisors and managers need to be talking with the people about getting the jobs done effectively and safely. Everyone needs to be kept informed on the status of the work and the details for each day’s work.

Toolbox meetings are a critical element in this. Everyone needs to be able to shut down a job if they see that there are safety issues that need to be addressed. Coming together to form safety teams to help build the focus on specific tasks would be useful. Building an environment where everyone is treated with respect and is open to having people speak up, be able to ask questions and look for better ways is important.

But working this way will be a challenge for them. They have many separate contractors, many people of different skill levels, and a worksite spread over 21 miles.

When I have talked with people in other situations about working this way, I often get funny looks. They tell me that they do not have time to work this way. They have to get the job done!

My belief is that they really do have to take the time to work this way because, in my experience, working this way is the fastest, safest and least costly way to get the work done. Just think about all the time that is lost and distractions that occur in investigations, dealing with OSHA, job shutdowns, fighting the unions, dealing with the lawyers, the media and the families that have suffered a loss of a loved one.

Working fast, ignoring the people, taking short-cuts and cutting corners all lead to higher costs, project delays and more people getting hurt. Call me 716-622-6467 and let’s talk deeper-pattern safety!

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The Need for Partnering Grows

September 10, 2019 By Leave a Comment

Our society is fracturing into so many disconnected and angry parts. At every level of society and even in our workplaces, we see this happening every day.

businesses, schools and hospitals, governments, are fractured and coming apartOur businesses, our schools and hospitals, our governments, and not-for-profits, at all levels, are fractured and coming apart. Change is coming faster and faster. So many people seem to be trying to cope by pulling into their 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 tell who is being honest and should be listened to. How do we find the truth?

The connection to physical and psychological safety…

When problems like these come into our workplaces, people do not feel psychologically or physically safe. The distractions pull people away from focusing on their work. This can lead to injuries and incidents, as well as to lower productivity. This is expensive both in terms of the impact on the people and the business. Working in a place like this, where the pressure for production is intense, can feel like we are living in a pressure cooker.

When connections breakdown…

Mary Eberstadt, in her 2019 book, Primal Screams, suggests that people are basically social animals and that our connections are broken. A lot of our problems in society are the result of people having lost their sense of identity. Changes in how families function, or not, changes in where people live and work and move away from their roots, changes in the way the internet seems to be dividing us and making people feel scattered and lonelier, changes in the role of churches and other centers of moral guidance like more fathers in our homes, and the political strife blocking our ability to talk about the real issues are some of the concerns she raises.

We’re not helpless – we can make some important choices…

We do not have to be helpless victims. We can make choices about how we agree to work together. We can choose to…

  • be respectful of one another,
  • be aware of people who are bullying or harassing others and speak up about this,
  • 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,
  • create a safe space where it is okay for people to ask questions and provide feedback, and
  • help each other to be successful.

There are many things we can do in our workplaces to build a sense of community that is safe and productive.

What if…?

true character is revealed in the choices a human being makes under pressureIn thinking about your own place of work, what do you suppose it would be like if people did some of the things mentioned earlier in this newsletter? Do you think that you could begin talking with others about building a more respectful environment? What do you think it would be like if you could openly talk together about the important issues like improving the safety of your job? What would it be like if the managers and supervisors talked frequently about with everyone about how the business was doing the challenges from the competition? What would it be like if you knew that someone was looking out for your back? 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? What would it be like if people in upper management asked you for your honest opinion and really listened? That’s called breaking the iceberg and engaging in authentic conversations!

YOU CAN MAKE THAT POSITIVE DIFFERENCE!

Each person can make a positive difference, if they 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 must be people with whom you can partner and begin these focused conversations. These do not have to be big projects. Start slowly and 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.

Partner-Centered Leadership – You don’t have to live like a pressure cooker!

There is a “workable pressure relief valve” already available to us to release these stress levels! It’s called Partner-centered Leadership.

The need for open, honest, disciplined, constructive dialog is critical. It is through these sorts of continuous conversations that people and organizations change. The positive energy for continuous improvement builds one conversation at a time over and over. Showing respect and caring for both the people’s mental and physical health, as well as for the success of the business, is critical. The business can’t succeed without the creativity and energy of the people and the people’s jobs can’t survive without excellent business performance.

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

Leading in High-Consequence Industries – Red Flags are needed!

August 12, 2019 By Leave a Comment

Every now and then a major disaster occurs in high-consequence industries like chemical manufacturing, petroleum production, refining, and aviation.

These disasters tend to be low-frequency events, which often look like some big surprise just happened. A lot of people get killed and severe damage to their facilities, their customers and the environments results. Often things looked like they were going fine just before the disaster strikes.

major disasters do occur in high-consequence industriesFor 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.

Part of being keenly aware is getting out of their offices and into the field looking, listening, talking with the people, and learning what is really going on. The gap between PSM-as-imagined and PSM-as-done was huge. When the pressures for production begin to overwhelm the safety systems, red flags need to be raised. The culture needs to be one where people can bring up problems and challenge the pressures without sacrificing their careers.

Another example occurred at the DuPont Belle, West Virgina plant (now Chemours) where I was the plant manager. I used the Partner-Centered Leadership (PCL) approach when I was there. I spent 5 hours a day in the plant looking, listening, talking with the people, and helping to build higher standards and performance. Along with all our other improvements, our occupational safety and ergonomics injury rates (Total Recordable Case Rate (TRC) dropped by over 97% to about 0.3 and emissions to air, water and land (a measure of our PSM performance) dropped by over 95%.

When I was transferred, the people close to the actual work continued to self-manage themselves with all we had learned about PCL, and their TRC stayed around 0.3 for 12 more years. However, the new managers that came after me used the traditional top-down approach and pulled lots of the PSM decision-making up to themselves. The TRC rates were so good that they left the people close to the work using PCL alone. The managers started to cut corners by limiting funds, cutting back on engineering support, letting inspection timelines slip, and the like. While the TRC looked great, the PSM was slowly rotting away and things fell apart.

They eventually had a series of disasters and an operator was killed. The managers hardly got out of their offices, lost contact with the people, let the standards slip and trust fell apart with the result that the gap between work-as-imagined and work-as-done became very wide. This sounds like the Deepwater Horizon pattern.

Safety in High-Consequence Industries

people need to continue to work safely to have a great safety cultureNow 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.

According to an April New York Times story, the people were forced to take short cuts, and about a dozen whistle-blower claims and safety complaints on things like defective manufacturing, quality problems, and debris left on planes were ignored. Training of pilots was shorted from 4 to 2 sessions in flight simulators. These problems went from the top of the organization all the way down. Now after two crashes 346 people are dead. There is a lot left in this story as it unfolds. Again, this pattern is like the first two stories.

In these high consequence industries, the top management needs to have a discipline of raising red flags when they are feeling the pressures to hurry up, cut costs and produce more. These pressures shutdown and destroy the communications, quality, and safety standards. This takes discipline and courage but that is the nature of the business. Leading businesses where there are high-consequence, low frequency events requires focus, skill and leading using the PLC approach.

When the system fails, it is not the top managers who get killed!

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

Wishfully Thinking that Violence Will Not Happen Here is No Longer Acceptable

July 11, 2019 By Leave a Comment

As we interact with a lot of people in different businesses, we continue to be amazed at the number of businesses that do not know about this problem or do not want to know about this problem.

do not turn your back on violence at the workplaceOne director of a large organization of various businesses was completely unaware of the problem among their members. This is amazing since the statistics show that problems like bullying and sexual harassment are occurring in way over 50% of the organizations in our country. Apparently none of the businesses in this organization feel it is important to think about and discuss.

When business leaders turn their backs on this problem and try to avoid it, they are putting their people at unnecessary risk and costing their owners a lot of wasted money. This ignorance or indifference results in tolerating bad behavior like the lack of respect among all the people. With a culture of disrespect, bullying and harassment people avoid talking together about the important issues they are facing. No new ideas are generated. Learning stops. Frustration and violence build. This sort of indifference creates the culture where people are afraid and do as little as possible. Over time, a person who has suffered years of bullying or harassment can very easily become your home-grown active shooter. Management shares a lot of responsibility for this breakdown.

Understanding workplace violence prevention means leaders need to look at both the physical safety/security side and the psychological safety side of one’s business, organization and teams. Call us 716-622-6467 to learn more or send me an email.

 

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Focus Where It Makes a Difference

July 10, 2019 By Leave a Comment

OSHA recently published the list of the top 8 safety violations in 2018:

  • Fall Protection
  • Hazard Communication
  • Scaffolding, General Requirements
  • Control of Hazardous Energy (Lockout/Tagout)
  • Ladders
  • Fall Protection Training Requirements
  • Machinery and Machine Guarding
  • Eye and Face Protection

The Bureau of Labor Statistics lists the areas causing the most deaths in 2017:

  • Total Deaths: 5,147
  • Roadway: 1,299
  • Falls: 877
  • Homicides: 458

focus where it makes a difference in businessThere seems to be an interesting disconnect here. OSHA does focus on falls, but what about roadway deaths and homicides? These are serious workplace problems as well. What about the whole problem of workplace violence that begins with the lack of respect (bullying, harassment), and that can lead to serious business problems like poor productivity, high absenteeism, fighting, injuries, murder, and suicide?

Safety professionals and managers are spread quite thinly and need to prioritize their safety work. Certainly, the conditions of each workplace have their priorities, yet, these questions need to be considered:

  • What is our real experience? Our vulnerabilities?
  • Where can I have the greatest, positive impact?
  • Where do I best put my efforts?
  • What does OSHA want?
  • What does management want?
  • What do the people in our organizations want?

At Richard N. Knowles and Associates, we have found that the best place to focus is to build respect in our workplaces. While this may sound like an odd place to start, we have found that it positively impacts the performance of the entire organization. Safety gets a lot better. Productivity gets a lot better. All dimensions of our work get a lot better.

I know because this is what I did as a Plant Manager. Building a respectful workplace resulted in much better performance in all dimensions of our businesses because fewer people got distracted with bullying, more information was shared about the work and how we were doing, improvements in all aspects of what we were doing got made, new opportunities for better business performance showed up, the gap between work-as-imagined and work-as-done got smaller and total performance improved; this applied to all our work.

Each and every one of us can decide to treat each other with respect. We can share information about what is going on, listen and learn together. When this happens, everything gets better. We can agree about things. We can disagree about things. When we treat each other with respect, we can have honest, adult discussions about how to do things the best way we can. New ideas emerge, different ways to see things are learned, we think together to make our work the best it can be.

Safety gets better because the gap between work-as-imagined and work-as-done closes. We, together, come up with the best possible solutions to our challenges. All phases of our work get better.

When I was the Plant Manager in a large West Virginia chemical plant, working together with everyone with respect enabled us to cut injury rates by over 97%, cut emissions to the air, water and land by about 96% and earnings rose about 300%. All the things we looked at showed improvement.

Focusing on helping the workplace to become more respectful is a powerful place to work and the payoff is terrific. All you have to do is to decide to treat each other with respect, talk about the important challenges in all dimensions of our work, listen and learn together, then do what you have agreed to do with honesty and diligence.

A Step Forward

Every manager needs to go into their workplaces every day, talking with the people about the business and how it is doing, listening and learning together. They need to take a stand insisting on a respectful workplace and enforce it. Trust will build, people will open up and share what is happening and everyone can learn. The safety gets a lot better along with all the other aspects of the business.

Every manager that I have met has the capability to do this. It just takes the will to care enough. Call me…glad to share how this can happen in your workplace, too (716-622-6467).

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