These are stressful times for all of us.
It 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.
I have abstracted it here for those reading this newsletter since you may have missed it.
In all cases, the healthcare provider and local health department should be consulted.
This 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.
Like 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.
Artificial intelligence and robots, block chains and bitcoins, the opioid epidemic, political strife, and workplace violence, international worries and potential conflicts are some of the challenges facing all of us. There is a critical need for people, in all walks of life, to come together to openly and honestly talk about our challenges, share our thinking and learn together. We do not have to be blindly swept along. We can make decisions and do the things that we need to do to help to make the world a better place.
When I talk about safety. my thinking goes well beyond the traditional safety numbers, training and procedures. It includes ideas about respect and how everyone has agreed to work together. It includes ideas about personal responsibility, integrity and dedication to helping everyone improve. It includes openness, honesty and sharing information abundantly. It includes ideas about the deeper, often hidden patterns of behavior which have a profound impact on the work environment and drive much of the behavior. It includes the fact that the managers and leaders have the largest impact on their organization’s performance. It includes the understanding that managers focus on reliability, stability, predictability and control as they try to maintain the status quo and that leaders focus on the people, change and the future sharing information abundantly, treating people with respect and helping people find meaning in their work. Both good leaders and managers are needed.
This begins with the leaders deciding to create a culture where it is okay and encouraged that people genuinely talk together, listen, help each other, look out for each other and learn together. This is a culture that helps people to be the best they can be and for the organization to get a lot more profitable. It all begins with all of us treating each other with respect.
This is the sort of culture that Eric Hollnagel is talking about in his Safety II work, which is intended to move the organization beyond the traditional top-down safety management. (I’ve written about Safety II in previous articles – it is all good!)
There 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.
For example, the workers on the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform received good recognition for outstanding occupational safety performance (the slips, trips and falls sorts of incidents) just a day or two before the explosion on April 20, 2010, that killed 11 people and injured 17 others. The pressures from top management to get into production led to failures of their process safety management (PSM) systems and processes. Communications were limited because management did not want to hear of more problems; they were driving the production schedule. The fine occupational safety performance masked the PSM deficiencies which are more subtle and invisible to upper managers, unless they are keenly aware of the needs for excellent PSM.
Now we have another example with the mess at Boeing and the 737 Max crashes. Top management was feeling the pressures for market share from Airbus and putting terrific pressures on cost reduction and faster production.
There 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?
