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: , , , , , , ,

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: , , , , ,

Workplace Safety: 2018 Can be an Excellent Year

January 10, 2018 By Leave a Comment

Safety Leadership ProcessOSHA recently reported that there were about 5,190 workplace fatalities in 2017. This is almost a 7% increase over 2016. I expect that this partly reflects the higher levels of business activity and more people who are working. Still, every single number reflects a personal tragedy – the death of a worker.

The causes of many of these fatalities are not addressed in much of our safety work, which is largely focused on slips, trips and falls. A lot of the events causing fatalities seem to come from very unexpected directions. These surprising events catch us quite unprepared. A key finding: All of our safety efforts over the last 5-6 years have not had much impact in reducing the number of fatalities which have been at about 4,800 per year until the jump in 2017.

Here is a three-step approach that will make a difference:

  1. First, open up the conversations about potential, really unusual events that could happen as we do our work. As you talk together, have toolbox or weekly safety meetings and ask yourselves to think way outside of the box and imagine what unusual events could happen that could seriously injure or kill you. (Actually these unusual events will happen at some point in the future, so we need to take them seriously.) Ideas will come from all directions as you talk together. The people actually doing the work will have good ideas about what can kill them if things go wrong. Ideas will also come up from reading safety magazines like Professional Safety. Articles in the newspapers about recent tragedies may have some important ideas. A process of brainstorming could be useful. Keep track of your conversations as ideas emerge over time and post them where everyone can see them.
  2. Second, talk about the things that are in place that will protect you in the event one of these fatal events does happen. What are these protections and will they really work? If the protections are not sufficient, then talk together about what needs to be put into place so that the unexpected event will not kill you. Create a synthesis of all you know and have learned so that new perspectives and preventions can be put into place. For example, as I watched the testing of my home generator, the maintenance man opened the electrical switch box in the basement to test the relays. I asked him how he protected himself from an unexpected electrical flash. He said he turned away from the panel so a flash would not hurt him. We talked about the potential for a flash and that people have been seriously burned and blinded by a flash. Just turning away was not going to help him much and I suggested that he talk with his supervisor about this and use additional protection. I also suggested some websites he could find useful. I hope he followed through.
  3. Third, be open to the emergence of new, unusual ideas and suggestions that come out of freely flowing conversations and the synthesis of new insights and knowledge. Some ideas may mean that you talk over each job to be sure you have thought about the unexpected. Maybe a new or different piece of protective equipment is needed. Maybe a reminder about not cutting corners on the procedures is needed. Is extra help needed? Ask yourselves questions about how to do things differently, about new ways to protect yourselves and avoid serious injuries and fatalities. There is a huge amount of information available that can be very useful so steps to better protect you can be developed and used.

These three steps are simple yet are very powerful ways to reducing the chances of a serious injury or fatality:

  • Open up the conversations about the very unusual and unexpected events that could seriously injure or kill you, and keep track of your thinking.
  • Think about the things that are in place that will protect you and decide if they are really sufficient. Synthesize and blend together all the ideas and other information you have into developing better ways about how you will protect yourselves in the event of a serious or unexpected event.
  • As you open up the conversations, synthesizing and blending information and ideas about how to better protect yourselves, new ideas and ways to do things will emerge that will make a big difference in how you work, look out for each other and reduce the chances of a serious injury or fatality.

Your families and loved ones should expect no less from you.

Filed Under: Safety for Business 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: , ,
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