Workplace Violence Prevention

October 11, 2017 By Leave a Comment

(Richard N. Knowles & Associates is in alliance with The Workplace Violence Prevention Institute. Accordingly, it is appropriate to lift up how Workplace Violence and Safety are related.)

stop workplace violenceViolence at work is a growing problem. Shootings are becoming one of the leading causes of workplace deaths. Many organizations are having the local law enforcement people come in and do active shooter programs. This is a start. Preventing workplace violence has several aspects and becoming aware of how vulnerable your workplace may be, requires a physical-safety and psychological-safety assessment. These problems just don’t happen overnight in most cases. When someone is struggling with a serious problem at home or at work and have to just keep it to themselves, they get more and more lonely and resentful. If they are subjected to bullying and harassment things get bad, quickly. Stuff can build up to a tragedy. (How well do your supervisors know their people?)

Most of the time when these incidents are investigated, co-workers say that they knew the person was not right, having a problem and being isolated. They often report that they were concerned enough about the person that they tried to avoid them and stay away.

In many organizations where the information should be flowing up and down, the organizations are restricted or blocked, and top management knows only about 10% of what is happening on the shop floor. Information flows need to open up so that critical information is shared and acted upon. A powerful way to open up the flow of information is for the top people to get out of their offices, walk around their facilities and talk with the people. The managers can encourage people to look out for each other and help each other. Talking together, listening to each other, learning together is an effective way for the organization to build the psychological safety where it is okay for people to talk together, learn together and help each other better.

Looking out for each other, helping each other, talking together, listening and learning are keys to improving both the physical and psychological safety in our organizations.

Richard Knowles and Associates has a workable dialog process to help leaders and their teams, organizations, hold the difficult conversations that need to be held around preventing workplace violence. There is a process available that is easily integrated into the day-to-day workplace. It is not enough to prevent hiring the bad “hire,” nor is it enough to prevent promoting into supervision the bad “supervisor” where incivilities beget harassment which can beget taunting which can beget all sorts of dysfunctional, hurtful behaviors, and which can create hostile workplaces and breeding grounds for more severe violent behaviors. With a strong, comprehensive, positive workplace violence prevention program, tragedies can be prevented – hostile workplaces can become civil workplaces. 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.

workplace violence

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

Hurry, Hurry, Hurry…

October 10, 2017 By Leave a Comment

slow down at work to stay safeAs I travel around and watch things happening, I see so many people in a big hurry. We are coming to the end of the good weather so people are hurrying to get outside jobs finished up. Roofers are really busy and not taking the time to properly use and secure their fall protection. I read of a recent 29-story fall in New York City when a guy on a big construction site fell through an unsecured hole in the floor.

Most of the people doing these jobs have a good idea about the hazards they face, yet they seem to ignore the possibility of getting hurt. Many of these people have families and loved ones who will suffer if they are hurt or killed. Why do you suppose they ignore this? Do they think “it” won’t happen to me?

What will it take to get these people to pay attention and be more mindful in their work?

  • Do we need more rules? OSHA already has plenty of them.
  • Do we need more fines? There already are provisions for fines, yet they do not seem to be having much impact.
  • Do we need more supervisors overseeing the work and making the people work more safely? Good supervisors are in short supply and those who are out there have lots to do and are also rushing.
  • Do we need more dramatic pictures and videos of people working unsafely as a reminder? There are lots of these floating around YouTube and other internet sites. Maybe those out on the jobs are not seeing these reminders…maybe (to their detriment) they have blinders on regarding the hazards of the work.
  • Trying to make people work more safely is okay, but we seem to be stuck with this approach. There have been about 4,600 fatalities a year for the last 4-5 years so things that we are doing are not having much impact.

Doing things to the people to get them to work more safely is not working well enough.

One way to do this is to open up the discussions about safety (and talk with each other) to make the workplace psychologically safe enough for people to stand up and ask the important questions and have the important debates about how to work more safely. Lots of organizations say that people have the right to stop a job if it is not safe; do they really?

There is so much pressure in many workplaces to get the job done as quickly as they can that people are reluctant to speak up. (Mixed signals). Some people are afraid of losing their jobs if they speak up. This is not okay!

Most of the pressure to hurry up and get the jobs done is based on the belief that this is the way to maximize their profits. How much does it cost to stop a job for 10-15 minutes to get the safety right? Injuries cost a lot of money in terms of the medical bills, lost time being away from the job, getting someone else in to do the work, OSHA inspections, reports, fines, bad publicity, investigations, and audits. The average cost for an OSHA Recordable Injury is over $50,000.

Stopping the job to get the safety right saves a lot of money, pain and suffering.

Slow Down and Work More Effectively

haste makes waste and you need to be safe at workA good, proven approach is to have brief start up meetings to review the hazards of the day’s work, making sure we have the right PPE and other equipment in place and used, asking each other about what might go wrong and working to avoid this. We need to look over the schedules and be sure we have the equipment we need and the right people for the work.

Each person can make a good contribution to this start-up meeting by talking together, listening, and asking questions. Each person can take responsibility for themselves and their workmates so that everyone has a safe, productive day and can go home in good physical and mental shape.

The fastest way to get the job done is to do it right the first time!!

NOTE: A Good Leader knows this! Savvy supervisors care about the job getting done, while at the same time, that the people doing the job remain safe while doing the work. Holding start meetings to ask people…What are the things you really need to consider for this job? What unexpected things could happen? And how will you prepare for those? Do you have everything you need? Tools, PPE, etc.? What can you teach another (today) about the importance of this work being done safely? How will you look out for coworker/s (today)…during the completion of these jobs? A Good, Respected Leader/Supervisor knows and cares about the people reporting to him/her, shows commitment to safety in all ways, and continually develops expectations of excellence within a learning environment–which the supervisor is keen to establish.

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

Pressure Cooker: We Need to Partner with Each Other

September 18, 2017 By Leave a Comment

Changes in our workplaces keep coming fast and furiously. A recent report released by Price-Waterhouse-Coopers indicates that by 2030 the pressure on workers to perform will be huge. Organizations will be using all sorts of ways to track performance…even putting chips under their workers skin to look at location, performance, health and wellness! They may be tracking safety performance as well. Managers will need to be having “mature conversations” with the people about all this change and the feeling of threat this creates for their people and their jobs. The pressure to keep improving skills and performance continues to increase.

There is a “workable pressure relief valve” already available to us to release these stress levels! It’s called Partnering for Safety and Business Excellence. 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.

Who Really Cares Enough to Step In and Hold those Critical Conversations?

A recent report by the Rand Corporation, Harvard Medical School and the University of California-Los Angeles, finds that 20% of the people in our workplaces feel that the work environment is “grueling, stressful and hostile.” Other reports I have read indicate that as many as 80% of the people in our workplaces are very dissatisfied with their managers and their lack of consideration, listening and caring. It is noted that about half of the workforce would leave their current job, if they could find another, expressly because of their “boss.”

Thus the Forbes quote, “People leave managers, not companies.” Let’s face it. There are many managers and bosses that shouldn’t be managers and bosses. Many…cannot lead, are indecisive, don’t tell the truth, cannot hold the difficult conversations, aren’t clear in their expectations, have favorites, don’t follow-through, lack caring and concern.

There’s Fault…Everywhere:

It is not just the managers who are a problem. A story in the August 15th H.R. News indicates that people between 18 and 34 are putting themselves at risk by not following the companies’ safety procedures, even though over 50% say that they have read the procedures and understand why they exist. This leads, for example, to the tragic story of the death of a 29-year-old Athens, Georgia man on August 9th, who thoughtlessly jumped out of his forklift truck to catch a toppling, heavy, hydraulic car lift he was moving; it fell onto him.

On top of all this change, frustration and anger in our workplaces, many people are suffering from bullying from both managers and co-workers. Shouting and swearing are clearly inappropriate and so are actions like inappropriately withholding information, the unfair allocation of work, deliberate over-monitoring, spreading malicious rumors, and making unreasonable demands.

Stress, indifference and bullying are behaviors that block the ability to have the focused, disciplined, purposeful conversations required for both the people and their organizations to successfully negotiate all the changes we are and will be facing. The costs for the people and their organizations are huge resulting in the loss of as much as 30-40% of their effectiveness.

It doesn’t have to be this way!

Let’s all of us pull together and partner to build a successful and prosperous future. I challenge you to change your workplace for the better. Give me a call at 716-622-6467 and I’ll explain how you can do that quickly and effectively.

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

What Linkages Do You See for Engaging More with Your Employees…and Reducing the Risk for Workplace Violence?

August 17, 2017 By Leave a Comment

workplace violenceEmployee engagement has long been a concern to the U.S. workforce…it is a vital component of employee attraction and retention. Yet, with all the leadership programs targeted to “engage better with employees,” there hasn’t been a significant shift in relationships.

Add to this the alarm being sounded of various degrees of workplace violence happening…from unchecked incivilities and unprofessionalism leading to bullying to harassment to taunting (cyber or otherwise), leading to behavioral dysfunctions and, ultimately, violence from fist-fights to vengefulness to physical/mental abuse, to homicide. And the connection is…not knowing your people and lack of authentic engagement!

Culture is an outcome – an outcome of all the interactions of people – with each other, with supervision, with management, with the systems and processes they work with and in the carrying out of everyday “norms.” How interactions happen, how engagement takes place, and how deep it evolves are all key cogs in the workplace culture wheel – whether it is spinning for Safety, Quality, Morale, Involvement, Sustainability – the very same critical engagement processes need to happen. (Note: The Process Enneagram© is an example of a constructive dialog process used successfully for cultural-based improvement outcomes).

So creating a culture of engagement requires more than completing an annual employee survey and then leaving managers on their own, hoping they will learn something from the survey results that will change the way they manage.

Highly engaged organizations share common practices like these:

  • They know creating a culture of engagement starts at the top.
  • All levels of the organization are held accountable.
  • They communicate openly and consistently.
  • They hold their managers accountable – not just for their team’s measured engagement level, but also for how it relates to their team’s overall performance.
  • They ensure that managers are engaging employees from the first minute of their first day at work. (Members of supervision possess emotional intelligence and are expected to be able to lead, interact with authenticity and caring with individuals and teams.)
  • They have well-defined, integrated, and comprehensive development programs for leaders and managers (including how to hold the most difficult conversations. And how to lead constructive dialog processes).
  • They focus on the development of individuals and teams with emphasis on constructive dialog around safety, quality, and the interactions of people to fulfill the business purpose. (This includes organizational assessments and vulnerability assessments for safety and security).
  • Engagement is a fundamental consideration in their people strategy – and not an annual “check-the-box” activity.
  • They hold regular, integrated, constructive dialog sessions to lift up the concerns that getting in the way of the team being the best that it can be and to support cooperation and collaboration.
  • They care about positive co-worker relationships as well as the business outcomes. (Workplace rules, policies, procedures are clear – and well established/communicated/enforced for working within the work environment – for supporting the sustainability of the business as well as the welfare needs of the people. Preventing workplace violence fits here).
  • They regularly hold team improvement sessions where knotty problems are lifted up and addressed, including process problems, safety problems, quality problems and interactive problems.

Some of these insights are gleaned from Gallup 4/17: The Right Culture; Others come from the experience of R.N.Knowles & Associates in helping Organizations and Teams become the best they can be together.

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

Sound the Alarm!

July 17, 2017 By Leave a Comment

alarming safety trendsI just saw an announcement that the Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety was closing after 59 years, to reduce costs. The ISO 45001 Standard is in the final stages and is aimed at improving safety around the world. Yet some people are reacting that it will not make a difference because of management indifference or cost restraints.

Workplace violence seems to be on the rise with 417 homicides and 354 shootings in the US in 2015. In spite of this, only 28% of the American Society of Training and Development members offer safety training programs in collaboration with law enforcement.

As we study and look at what is happening, we see a critical lack of managers and supervisors in their understanding of what leadership is all about and how important each of their roles is to the success of the organization. The guidance about leadership that fills so many books are not making much impact because it does not provide suggestions as to what leaders need to do.

Leadership is about action, about taking the initiative to work together, to partner, with the people to make their workplaces safer and better.

We Need Better Leadership!

leadership is needed for safetyMany of you who have been reading this newsletter know that our emphasis is on Partner Centered Leadership. We emphasize the importance of supervisors and managers getting into their workplaces each day and talking with the people. Talking with the people is a key to breaking through to safety excellence. Talking about the risks they face each day, how they are managing them, how their kids are doing, how the safety is doing, how the business is doing, asking them what they see as to ways to improve their own work, asking about problems they are dealing with, etc. Doing this with respect and really listening are vitally important.

This was the focus of my ASSE talk in Denver. There is a solid, scientifically based reason for engaging in Partner Centered Leadership. The Self-Organizing Criticality theory shows the importance of making small, focused changes like talking with the people. Each conversation builds the potential energy of the organization and at some point people begin to do things more safely, helping each other, taking the lead when they see a problem and begin the process to correct it. As the organization begins to work together more safely, share information and help each other, safety improves. The organization learns to live near the critical point where changes occur and their creative energy builds.

The Process Enneagram©, which I have spoken about in these newsletters and written books about, is the tool to us to develop the focused conversation that lift the organization towards excellence in safety. Combining the ideas about change coming out of the Self-Organizing Criticality work with the Process Enneagram© tool for developing focused, disciplined conversations enables the organization to achieve excellence in their safety performance and have more people going home safely.

Partner Centered Leadership is also the way for organizations to build more kind, considerate, helping, effective workplaces where everyone is looking out for each other. This is a key piece of work in reducing workplace violence. When there is an acceptance of bullying and harassment in the workplace, the field is fertile for violence. Partner Centered Leadership is the pathway to excellence. It is time to move forward. Call us at 716-622-6467 to get on board the important leadership train for safety.

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

Some Unsettling Trends

July 10, 2017 By Leave a Comment

safety trendsThe American Society for Safety Engineers (soon to be The American Society for Safety Professionals) in Denver, Colorado, on June 19-22, 2017, was attended by about 5,000 people. This was a record for attendance. There were lots of papers and a huge trade show exhibit. I never saw so much safety equipment and other offerings.

I presented a paper during the last series of talks. It was titled “Breaking Through to Safety Excellence, Self-Organizing Criticality and the Process Enneagram©.” Even though I was among the last of the papers, I had about 150 people attend and received a rating for my talk of 4.7 out of 5. Many people came up at the end to talk further. If any of you would like to see my paper, please send me an email.

Richard Knowles presenting at the American Society for Safety Engineers

In spite of the large attendance and all the safety equipment in the trade show, I feel some alarming trends in safety performance. The number of workplace fatalities in the US has been at around 4,700 each year for the last 6-7 years. New regulations and ISO Standards are not making a strong impact. This is true in other countries, as well like New Zealand, where they have already had 28 fatalities; almost as much as for all of 2016 even though they had a new National Standards issued in April 2-16.

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

Managing the Dynamical Balance Between Production and Safety

June 12, 2017 By Leave a Comment

Lots of organizations proclaim that “Safety is Number 1” or something like this. In my early years, I thought this way as well. In reality, we have to have both in order for the business to make money. I have talked about this before in other newsletters and in my talks at the ASSE Annual PDC Conferences.

Sometimes we need to work on and talk more about the safety hazards, needs and requirements. Other times we need to work on and talk about the production needs. Both Safety and production are always in the conversations; sometimes more of safety and other times more of production. This is a both/and situation.

We were always in this conversation when I was the plant manager and you can see from the results mentioned in the proceeding section, we were able to do very well in managing this dynamical balance. It is dynamical because, not only are the situations dynamic in themselves, but also there are many situations going on at the same time around them so everything is always moving. We have to be very alert, talk together, help each other work at our highest skill levels.

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

Staying Focused…Amid Distractions…Looking Out for Each Other

May 10, 2017 By Leave a Comment

I love talking with people and getting to know them. Sometimes it is really interesting and sometimes it gets quite funny. The other night I was at the local piano bar, sitting between two older gentlemen. One was an 86-year-old retired colonel who was pretending to play his imaginary drums along with the piano player and the other guy introduced himself to me 5 times in the first 10 minutes. Sometimes you just don’t know until you start talking.

Hopefully the people with whom we talk to at work are more focused than these two gentlemen. Staying focused on our work is critical to doing it safely. However, it is so easy to lose focus and have our minds wander for a moment. That may be just the time of a critical step and we miss it. This is one aspect of working alone that is problematic.

Other things can cause us to lose our focus as well. People joking with you can be a big distraction, pulling your mind off the work. High levels of noise can distract us. Having to work in unusual places like at heights or inside of a closed space can be distracting. Fatigue and muscle soreness can be distracting.

A big distractor is the bully who likes to harass you. These people should be taken aside by their supervisors and instructed to stop the bullying. This can be hard and it takes courage to have these encounters. The supervisors need to be supported so they can deal effectively with the bullies. Bullies need to stop their destructive behavior or be removed from the workplace. The toleration of bullies by supervisors is a major failing in management.

There is so much in our work environments pulling our focus away from doing the details of our job that we must always be alert to. When you feel that your focus is lost, stop, back away, take a deep breath, and think about what you are doing. Resist the urge to push forward through the job. This is a time when some one looking out for you can help. This is your brother’s or sister’s keeper looking out for your back. We all need this. Building a more supportive, caring workplace where people are looking out for each other is one of the top jobs for our leaders.

Talking with each other and helping to stay focused is not rocket science or difficult. It is simply an important component of improving our safety and having everyone go home in one piece to their loved ones.

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

Buddy Benches

May 10, 2016 By Leave a Comment

buddy-benchThere was a video on Facebook a few weeks ago about Buddy Benches being placed in schoolyards. The video explained the importance of the communication and training that is essential to their use and effectiveness.

The essence of the Buddy Bench is for inclusion and safety. Kids who feel alone and have no one to enjoy their recess time with are encouraged to sit on the bench – as a signal that he/she is in need of a friend, a buddy, a playgroup to join. Conversely, when the Buddy Bench has a person sitting on it, the kids who are enjoying their recess time, are chartered to practice being a Buddy…by sharing friendship, to invite the person into their group, to ask what might be troubling the bench-sitter, to provide protection from a bully; the list of helpful acts extended from the community of kids towards the person in need of a buddy is heartwarming.Buddy Benches serve as a safe place for kids who are feeling bullied or for kids to make new friends.

In exploring Buddy Benches, I learned that they are multiplying; they are in many school districts across the country. Some Boy Scout troops are now making Buddy Benches for schools for their badge-earning credits. The Buddy Bench is a simple idea to lessen loneliness, to counter bullying, and to foster friendship and a sense of belonging. Buddy Benches provide the symbolic learning space for both asking for help and, in return, receiving the extended hand of friendship.

After learning about this uplifting idea, I thought about inclusion within our workplaces and about being our brother’s/sister’s keeper – simply because it is the right thing to do – ensuring we have each other’s back. I thought about OSHA’s workplace bullying guidance, the connection to the General Duty Clause, and knowing that escalating workplace bullying, harassment, and intimidation is linked to poorer safety performance as well as employee mental and physical wellbeing. And, of course, I thought about employee accountability – we are each accountable for our behaviors. I thought about the culture of our workplaces being strongly related to the worst behaviors we are willing to tolerate. I thought about that old book, “All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten,” by Robert Fulghum. Remember those simple truths?

How our work worlds would be improved if we all adhered to the same basic rules as children: sharing, being kind to one another, no hitting, cleaning up after themselves, learning together, etc. Maybe we need to place something like Buddy Benches in our workplaces. What do you think?

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