The more people who are involved in thinking about, looking at and helping each other, the more likely that the organization’s safety performance will be outstanding. A key to having the people come together as partners in helping each other begins with respect. I think that most of us want to be treated respectfully and feel valued by each other; I know that I do. We all have jobs to do and our work quality and productivity need to be as good as we can do. We each need to be held to high standards and keep learning and growing in our knowledge and understanding. We can achieve this while treating each other respectfully, honestly sharing our knowledge and insights, asking for help when we need it, and giving a helping hand.
This idea of respect applies to everyone in the organization. None of us has a right to abuse, harass, or bully anyone. Some people may feel that when they are responsible for getting things done, that they have a right to be abusive and push people. The pressures of the work can push any of us to the levels of frustration that we can experience under pressure. But we need to control ourselves, never forgetting that respect is a key for achieving high performance.
When we have an environment where people treat each other with respect, the levels of trust will improve. When the trust levels are positive and strong, people are more willing to open up and share information. The free flow of information is vital for the people in the organization to learn and grow. As people are sharing information, new ideas and insights emerge – people find better ways to get the work done, and to improve effectiveness – new opportunities for the people and organization open up.
Lack of respect, harassment and bullying create an environment of fear, which blocks the flow of information. These behaviors are not only bad for the people, they cost the organization a lot of waste and lost opportunities. In this sort of environment, people are distracted, frustrated and stop thinking about how to do the work more safely and effectively.
Creating New Pathways
In our work, we creatively destroy these barriers and roadblocks that are wasting businesses a lot of money and blocking new opportunities.
We help to knock down the walls that have grown up between people and groups so that the arguments and fighting stop and they learn to value and help each other. We help to drill holes in the silos of production, HR, maintenance, and finance so that people can talk to each other to get the information they need to do their jobs. We help to remove the barriers that are restricting the up and down flow of critical information, improving its accuracy, so the organization can function more easily. We help to remove the barriers between the people writing rules and procedures (the work-as-imagined) and those doing the front-line work (the work-as-done). We help people to see that most of the injuries and incidents are the result of patterns and processes that need improvement and shift away from a culture of blame and criticism.
I believe that we do not have a right to make our living in a place where it is okay to hurt people, nor is not okay to be disrespectful and beat up on people. When we make these our top beliefs, many fewer people get hurt and abused; our economic performance is a lot better as well. As we learn to work this way, the barriers and roadblocks melt away and new channels and connections emerge.
Avoiding the losses and waste means that our businesses are more competitive and healthy. A strong focus on building positive behaviors, respect and developing a partnership together is a good place to begin to shift the environment to safer and more productive workplaces.
How much do you suppose an OSHA Lost Time Injury costs the business?
- The pain and suffering is miserable.
- There is the direct cost of the doctors, hospitals, medications, etc.
- We lose time…
- having to investigate the injury and incident.,
- writing reports,
- having an OSHA investigation,
- perhaps the cost of challenging OSHA’s findings,
- legal costs for the company attorneys,
- preparing for a potential law suit,
- the cost of lost production time,
- the cost of bringing someone and train them to replace the injured person,
- the cost of lost sales,
- the cost of bad publicity,
- the cost of lower morale among the people,
- and so on.
When the respect and safety gets right, everything else gets right as well in this more positive culture. Not only does the waste of injuries and incidents go away, people shift the way that they chose to work together resulting in other improvements like:
- fewer arguments,
- fewer grievances,
- better meetings,
- fewer meetings,
- more suggestions for improving our systems and processes,
- people taking the lead in helping to fix something that is not right,
- new ideas for better customer service emerge,
- lean manufacturing works better,
- the quality of products and services get better,
- absenteeism drops, and
- people can work together to build a better future.
When the safety performance and culture get better, the organization thrives.
These are things that each organization can work on right now. In Partner-Centered Leadership, Richard N. Knowles & Associates can help organizations to achieve all these things. This does not require investment.
- Get clear on your thinking and purpose.
- Go into your organization talking with and listening to the people.
- Help them to build on their ideas.
- Let them know how important they are to the success of the business.
- Do this with respect and honesty.
Change is Speeding Up
Changes are coming fast and furious. President Trump is moving ahead on deregulations and removing barriers to improve our businesses, so we’ll probably see a lot of changes show up in our workplaces. Some will be positive and others will not. It is our responsibility to work together and make all these changes as good as possible.
All these changes are going to be distracting from our usual routines. This is a time when we have to be extra vigilant so that none of us gets hurt. Anytime the pace of our work changes, we move into a higher hazard environment. It is more dangerous when the pace quickens and it is also more dangerous when the pace slows.
Please treat everyone with respect. Look out for and help each other.
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