partnering for safe workplace | Safety Excellence For Business

Artificial Intelligence and Big Data Can’t Replace the Wisdom of the Skilled People Doing the Work

May 10, 2021 By Richard N. Knowles Leave a Comment

I have read several recent articles about how big data and artificial intelligence (AI) can be used to help to improve safety.

The AI approach involves the collection and evaluation of huge amounts of data (big data) to learn from human behavior, looking for patterns and helping to improve safety performance. By doing this over and over, the machines can learn to keep doing better and better analyses and even begin to provide predictions about improving human performance. For example, repeated activities like lifting can be studied, problem patterns in lifting techniques be identified and improvements in the behavior or the physical arrangement of the lifting work modified.

This could provide very useful information that could reduce injuries and incidents, however, it is important to understand that people creating the algorithms are making assumptions and decisions about the way the work is done. “The devil is in the detail.” This can lead to a gap between the work-as-imagined and work-as-done. While the piles of data, the patterns they predict and the predictions they make can be useful, they can also be a problem. All this information can be quite beguiling and lead us to thinking we have all the information we need to reduce the injuries and incidents.

These studies can help to reduce injuries and incidents by providing the people some tools to see what is happening and make some adjustments in their behavior. But relying on them to do our thinking is a problem.

These tools need to be taken with a huge grain of salt. There is nothing to replace the wisdom and good judgement of the people actually doing the work and helping each other to see and improve what they are doing.

These AI tools can help, but they are not the final answer. It is those close to the work who need to make the final decisions. We do not want to automate taking peoples’ brains out of the picture. These AI tools cannot see the actual situation that the person is facing as he/she does their job. Decisions often need to be made as the work unfolds to get the work done right. The gap between work-as-imagined and work-as-done needs to be closed as much as possible so the best procedures and practices can be used to do the work safely.

We need to help each other to rise to be the best we can be. Partnering together, helping each other, talking together about the work and the potential safety challenges are all highly effective ways to improve the total performance in sustainable ways. We should not allow the AI to push the thinking and good judgement of our highly skilled people aside. We can use AI as a supplement and to provide clues about improving the work. But pretending that AI can do our thinking for us is myth.

Everyone sharing information about your particular situations, treating each other with respect, telling the truth, making sure that the standards of performance and expectations are clear, helping everyone to see the importance of their work for the success of the whole business are foundational. Treating the people as intelligent, highly skilled and thoughtful will bring out the best in them.

AI can help, but it is not a replacement for the collective intelligence of the people who are dedicated to excellence.

I would be remiss if I did not insert (here), that the process for actually achieving this highly effective communication among and with people is Partner-Centered Leadership. Please call me (716-622-6467) and I’ll show you how easily this framework can be applied to your every-day communications and Leadership.

The Internet of Things (IoT): Another Caution

There are more and more electronic tools becoming available to help us with all sorts of tasks. We see ads for building electronic homes, installing fine security systems and even monitoring the sleeping babies. There are dozens of Apps for our cell phones so we can keep track of things.

Monitoring tools are also becoming available to monitor people as they do their work. It is a good idea to monitor someone who is working alone at a remote location or working alone at night doing security in a big warehouse. Sensors installed across wide locations enable rapid response in the event of an accident or emergency.

Like AI, these can be quite helpful, providing we don’t become too dependent on them. As these tools are developed and deployed, remember that they are put together by people who are making assumptions about their particular use.

Some of this monitoring can be used – drawing from the old time and motion studies from the days of Frederick Taylor in his 1911 book, “Principles of Scientific Management“. There is high value in learning from the past. There is high value in integrating new technologies. Yet striking that right balance is key – and always, always, with the genuine involvement and input of the people who are actually doing the work.

Summary

AI and IoT can be quite useful, but they need to be taken with caution and not allowed to replace the good thinking, planning and actions of our highly skilled, intelligent people. The comments in this newsletter are not luddite, but rather a caution about not throwing away the thinking, creativity and resourcefulness of the people with whom we work. Let’s help people become their best and rise to the top.

Filed Under: Safety Excellence, Safety for Business Tagged With: Artificial Intelligence, Frederick Taylor, highly effective communication, human behavior, partnering for safe workplace, Principles of Scientific Management, safety in the workplace, workplace safety

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

January 11, 2021 By Richard N. Knowles 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.

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: business safety performance, health and safety in the workplace, improvements in workplace, improvements in workplace safety, occupational health, occupational safety, Partner-centered Leadership, partnering for safe workplace, prepare employees for safety in the workplace, process safety, process safety meetings, safety in the workplace

It is all about “YOU”

January 14, 2019 By Richard N. Knowles Leave a Comment

It is a new year. Businesses have compiled their 2018 safety statistics. They are looking at economics and at people. Who was hurt during this past year? What have we put in place so that those injuries won’t happen again? What are we talking about together for betterment? How did our systems contribute to our successes or to the injurie/s? What was the presence and the strength of Leadership support like around those people who were injured? Where are we most vulnerable safety-wise? How can we lead more effectively? How can we have an even safer workplace in this new year, 2019? How can we help employees to become more aware, more safety vigilant? And thus more able to return to their families at the end of the shift whole – with arms, legs, toes, fingers, eyes, ears – all intact. (Leaders, are you asking these questions?)

I don’t believe anyone wakes up in the morning and then upon entering the workplace plans on getting hurt that day. Nope. It doesn’t work that way. Rather, we go into work, we start our work, and our focus tends to wander from safety – inattentiveness – hurrying – trying to do two things at once – perhaps even emotionally upset at times. The result is that slips, falls, pinches, pinnings, caught between, run over, cuts, scrapes, and near-misses or worse scenarios come about. Somehow we drop the ball on being able integrate safety into the whole task from the initial safety reminders to the safety wrap-up at the end of the day. Even in-your-face safety signage doesn’t save the day.

It doesn’t have to be that way. Nope. Safety starts when YOU—the individual person takes a stand that YOU will work safe…all day. YOU will ask yourself where the biggest risks are and how you must prepare for them. YOU will watch out (as well), for your buddy and the newbie. YOU are an adult. YOU don’t want to have to wear a brace or a cast or bandage because of the pain and the inconvenience it’ll cause you. YOU don’t want to have to miss work or become a statistic. YOU will look out for booby-traps and surprises. YOU will be attentive to what is happening around you and with your specific task. YOU will be your own poster child for doing your work safely…because YOU want to…because it is the right thing to do, because YOU can think for yourself. YOU don’t need to have a safety prize for a reward, either. YOU decide to be safe…everyday, every moment, every task, constantly building on the good things you know and strengths you have. YOU make the decision!

Why am I beating this drum today for this newsletter? Because it is a clear aspect of Safety and Leadership. Until YOU can take a stand…a genuine stand…on YOUR own Safety, your head won’t be or stay in the game. And Leaders, Supervisors, Managers, CEO’s, you need to take your stand, too. Your stake has to be clearly and visibly in the ground. Your people need to know that you’ve taken your stance on safety and expect the same of them.

What does “taking a stand mean?” It means that not only will you publicly share that you recognize that YOU believe that working safely is important and something you must do, but you are, in addition, willing to ask all those you work with, to kindly hold you accountable to that stand. Will you do that? What’s your stand?

That’s the difference that makes the difference!

Filed Under: Safety for Business, Safety Leadership Tagged With: employee safety, engage with your employees, make a difference in safety, partnering for safe workplace, safety for employees, safety leadership

Employee Engagement…Really

December 11, 2018 By Richard N. Knowles Leave a Comment

In our November Safety Newsletter, I wrote about Partner-Centered Leadership. This is the most effective way to improve safety performance. This way of leading also results in improvements in most other aspects of the business as trust and interdependence are built and the environment is safe for the open flow of information. A key aspect of this is working with the people.

When I was the Plant Manager for a big chemical plant in West Virginia, we wanted to engage with the people as effectively as we could. We helped the people to form teams around their own work groups as well as being on site-wide teams to help improve other things. There were site-wide teams to address:

safety shoe quality, cost and fitting issues,
environmental improvement and reporting issues,
safety glasses purchasing and fitting issues,
addressing and correcting the roomer-mill chatter,
eliminating sexual harassment problems,
contractor safety improvement and coordination of safety training and
many other site-wide challenges.

As we moved to teams, we in management all realized that we had a lot to learn. For example:

Many people were very cautious and skeptical. How do we overcome this?
What did it mean to go to teams?
No one wanted to be seen as cozying up to management.
What extra work would be required?
Would there be a lot of extra training?
Would a person be required to come in during the day for a team meeting when they were scheduled for working at night?

In contemplating this shift in how we wanted to lead, it was clear that all of us had a lot to learn. For example:

Who would be the team leader?
How often should they meet?
How was the work to be shared?
Would the teams need a facilitator?
What is the best size for a team to be?
How do they keep track of their work?
Do we pay overtime for the meetings if they were conducted in an off-shift?
Do we pay for meals during the team meetings?
And on and on.

A really important resource for helping us was the Association for Quality and Participation (AQP) located in Cincinnati, Ohio. They helped us to set up a Chapter for our site and invited our teams to national meetings to see other teams from other companies and learn from them. All of us could see for ourselves that many companies were shifting to teams and that they were effective and fun. This was at the time of the big excitement about the quality movements in the early 1990’s.

These engagements with AQP were a big boost to us and really helped us to learn how to work in a team environment. Then the AQP was merged with the American Society for Quality (ASQ) and the whole team movement seemed to fade away.

But at our plant, we kept the teams moving, building on all we’d learned. We kept improving and learning together about what it meant to be really engaged with the people. Month after month the teams got stronger and more effective. The people in the teams became better leaders and the whole organization became leaderful, that is, when someone saw a need to improve something, they took the lead to get it done. The move to Partner-Centered Leadership became a real strength for us helping to eliminate injuries by 98%, reduce emissions by 88%, improve productivity by 45%, and increase earnings by 300%. The people sustained our safety performance at a Total Recordable Injury Rate of about 0.3 for 17 years.

The move away from AQP to ASQ was part of the broader shift to emphasizing costs, earnings, profits, and using big data to try to solve problems. Moving away from the people reduces the organization’s capacity for real, sustainable success. (Is this what has happened to GE?)

We kept key business indicators before us, but we did not lose sight of the people who make all this happen. When we brought the people side of the business together with the people side, things really improved.

Bringing the people and the business together is a powerful and effective way to release the energy and creative energies of the people to achieve terrific, sustainable results.

Filed Under: Safety for Business, Safety Leadership Tagged With: engage with your employees, Partner-centered Leadership, partnering for safe workplace, work with your employees for a safe work environment

Partner-Centered Safety

November 6, 2014 By Richard N. Knowles Leave a Comment

Sustainable levels of safety excellence are achieved only when everyone is pulling together to make their work as safe and productive as possible.

creating a safety culture Partner-Centered Safety is a robust, proven way to bring people together to achieve sustainable levels of safety excellence being based on deeply held beliefs and values.

People want to be treated as people.
Most people have good minds and think.
People want to know what is going on.
People want to be successful and want to work safely.
People love their kids and want to go home safely, everyday.
People come together as partners to co-create their shared future in a structured, focused, intense, disciplined dialogue using the Process Enneagram©.
People are self-organizing all the time openly and freely sharing information, building relationships of trust and interdependence through their agreements about how they are willing to work together and creating meaning.
All the people at all the levels in the organization are in this together contributing from their unique roles and perspectives.
People want to be heard, listened to, valued and respected.

A second element of Partner-Centered Safety relates to the environment in which everyone works that is complex in the sense that ideas, conditions, people, outside influences, etc. are interacting and changing all the time. Every decision is made in these complex situations yet no one has all the information, sees everything and has their mind totally focused on the specific task at hand. To over come these everyone needs help and support so that the best decisions are made in the moment of taking action.

A third element of Partner-Centered Safety is “The Bowl”. In co-creating their shared future and operating out of these shared beliefs and values a container is created consisting of their mission, vision, principles of behavior, standards of performance and expectations. This container is called “The Bowl”. The Bowl provides order for the organization, holding it together and within the Bowl the people have the freedom to make the best decisions possible. A major responsibility of the leaders and managers is to help everyone understand and maintain the Bowl through continuous conversations and interactions. If someone becomes a problem in not working this way or in violating the Bowl, management must address and deal with it. All the people have a responsibility to work within the Bowl holding each other accountable to live up to their shared agreements.

See our website for successful examples of the effectiveness of Partner-Centered Safety.

Filed Under: Safety Excellence, Safety Partnership Tagged With: business safety, injury-free workplaces, partnering for safe workplace, safe work environment, Self-Organizing Leadership