Safety Culture Excellence®

360 - How do you overcome change resistance?

Greetings all, here is a short video for this week's podcast. I hope it gets you thinking!

Shawn M. Galloway

President, ProAct Safety

356 - Focus on Value Not Tasks

Greetings all, here is a short video for this week's podcast. I hope it gets you thinking!

Shawn M. Galloway
President, ProAct Safety

Performance: People or Process?

What gets an organization the most excellent performance:  good people or good processes?  Obviously, these two are not mutually exclusive, but most organizations that utilize both favor one or the other.  If you view excellent performance as something delivered by all stars, then you favor recruiting and developing people.  If you view excellent performance as something delivered by a highly-functioning team, you tend to select adequate workers and give them specific processes to define their contributions to performance.  

The most excellent organizations we work with have an interesting blend of these two approaches.  They lean heavily toward the people aspect without neglecting the definition that comes from process.  In the extreme this is a choice between “hang your brain at the door and follow the procedure” and “ let’s all hold hands and sing Kum ba yah.”  Even great people need direction and no amount of direction can compensate for too much lack of ability.  

Neither of these approaches alone has ever proven to produce the highest levels of performance, but the right combination and blending of the two can and has led organizations to levels of performance they didn’t think was possible.

-Terry L. Mathis

For more insights, visit www.ProActSafety.com

Terry L. Mathis is the founder and CEO of ProAct Safety, an international safety and performance excellence firm. He is known for his dynamic presentations in the fields of behavioral and cultural safety, leadership, and operational performance, and is a regular speaker at ASSE, NSC, and numerous company and industry conferences. EHS Today listed Terry as a Safety Guru in ‘The 50 People Who Most Influenced EHS in 2010, 2011 and 2012-2013. He has been a frequent contributor to industry magazines for over 15 years and is the coauthor of STEPS to Safety Culture Excellence, 2013, WILEY.

355 - The Pointlessness of Be Safe

Here is a short video to help you see how pointless it can be to tell someone to "be safe!"

Shawn M. Galloway
ProAct Safety
www.ProActSafety.com

Awareness vs. Performance

When my staff wrote a training objective that contained the word “awareness” I made them re-write it.  Why?  Because it is not a performance term!  Awareness is simply a cognitive function.  All it requires is being awake and paying a modicum of attention.  Do you want your children to be aware of traffic or stay out of it?  Do you want your workers to passively be aware of risks or actively take precautionary measures? 

Training objectives need to be performance-based, i.e. “Given this training, workers will take these precautions regularly within 20 days.”  Performance-based objectives are observable in the workplace and can be measured. But training is not the only realm in which performance should the objective.  In safety, all communication, leadership, supervision, coaching, and peer interaction should be aimed at improved safety performance.

Yes, awareness is important; but it is a step toward a goal, not the goal itself.  If safety-improvement efforts stop at awareness, they will result in a mental state, not a performance step change.

-Terry L. Mathis

For more insights, visit www.ProActSafety.com

Terry L. Mathis is the founder and CEO of ProAct Safety, an international safety and performance excellence firm. He is known for his dynamic presentations in the fields of behavioral and cultural safety, leadership, and operational performance, and is a regular speaker at ASSE, NSC, and numerous company and industry conferences. EHS Today listed Terry as a Safety Guru in ‘The 50 People Who Most Influenced EHS in 2010, 2011 and 2012-2013. He has been a frequent contributor to industry magazines for over 15 years and is the coauthor of STEPS to Safety Culture Excellence, 2013, WILEY.

354 - Are You a Doc or Cop?

For the video this week, consider, as a leader do you come across more like a DOC (Demonstrating Opportunities to Care) or a Cop (Catching Opportunities to Punish)?

I hope you enjoy this short thought-provoking video.

Shawn M. Galloway
ProAct Safety
www.ProActSafety.com

Working In Safety vs. Working on Safety

A business unit manager who was frustrated with a bottleneck in his operations took over a job for several hours from an operator to speed up production.  His regional manager walked in and found him there and asked what he was doing.  When he explained that he was doing the job of an operator, his boss asked him, “While you are doing that, who is running the unit?”  He was working “IN” his unit and not “ON” it.

Many safety professionals are entirely too bogged down with day-to-day busywork to work “on” safety.  Others choose to roll up their sleeves and jump in rather than to stand back and strategically evaluate what really needs to be done.  Even corporate safety leaders often choose to do work rather than to manage safety strategically.  The net result is that many safety efforts are strategy-less, leaderless balls of energy being hurled at the big problem of accidents.  The underlying premise is that somehow more effort will win the day.

Often what is needed is not more but better effort.  Better effort is accomplished strategically.  When everyone is putting forth effort for the sake of effort and no one is working on strategy, that just doesn’t happen.

-Terry L. Mathis

For more insights, visit www.ProActSafety.com

Terry L. Mathis is the founder and CEO of ProAct Safety, an international safety and performance excellence firm. He is known for his dynamic presentations in the fields of behavioral and cultural safety, leadership, and operational performance, and is a regular speaker at ASSE, NSC, and numerous company and industry conferences. EHS Today listed Terry as a Safety Guru in ‘The 50 People Who Most Influenced EHS in 2010, 2011 and 2012-2013. He has been a frequent contributor to industry magazines for over 15 years and is the coauthor of STEPS to Safety Culture Excellence, 2013, WILEY.

Reporting Accident Investigation Findings

When you discuss the findings from recent accident investigations either in safety meetings, stand downs, or via email, what is the focus?  Do you determine the root cause and describe the corrective action taken by the organization to avoid repeat injuries?  If so, that is good but incomplete.  You should also discuss risk awareness techniques to help workers recognize developing at-risk situations and precautions that workers can take to minimize the probability of such accidents.

It is not enough that organizations learn from their accidents; workers should learn as well.  When root causes lead to corrective action, risk awareness should also lead to safer behaviors and better hazard recognition.  If you only do one of these, you are missing half or more of the potential improvement that could result from your findings.  Don’t settle for simply improving conditions or improving behaviors.  Always look for opportunities to improve both!

-Terry L. Mathis

For more insights, visit www.ProActSafety.com

Terry L. Mathis is the founder and CEO of ProAct Safety, an international safety and performance excellence firm. He is known for his dynamic presentations in the fields of behavioral and cultural safety, leadership, and operational performance, and is a regular speaker at ASSE, NSC, and numerous company and industry conferences. EHS Today listed Terry as a Safety Guru in ‘The 50 People Who Most Influenced EHS in 2010, 2011 and 2012-2013. He has been a frequent contributor to industry magazines for over 15 years and is the coauthor of STEPS to Safety Culture Excellence, 2013, WILEY.

Abstract Safety Leadership

A senior VP asked me to write a safety training program for route drivers and asked what my first step would be.  I responded that I would get with a route driver and ride to better understand their safety issues.  He seemed astounded and asked me if my education was so incomplete that I could not imagine what they did and direct it to be more “perfect.”  This attitude tends to permeate some safety programs and it can do serious damage.  

Safety, for workers, is not abstract, it is situational!  It involves situational awareness and correct responses to specific dangers.  Those who do not understand this are and will continue to be outsiders who may be respected for their positions but not for their knowledge.  Such leaders are tolerated, not followed.

Safety cultures are best influenced from within.  Abstract leaders are always viewed as outsiders. Outside influences cause resistance, not acceptance.  If you want to lead safety and improve your safety culture, get in touch with the reality of your workers and workplace.  Talk like someone who has been there and done that and appreciates the challenges of the job.  Such actions are not lowering your standards or admitting the limitations of your education, they are living and succeeding in the real world.

-Terry L. Mathis

For more insights, visit www.ProActSafety.com

Terry L. Mathis is the founder and CEO of ProAct Safety, an international safety and performance excellence firm. He is known for his dynamic presentations in the fields of behavioral and cultural safety, leadership, and operational performance, and is a regular speaker at ASSE, NSC, and numerous company and industry conferences. EHS Today listed Terry as a Safety Guru in ‘The 50 People Who Most Influenced EHS in 2010, 2011 and 2012-2013. He has been a frequent contributor to industry magazines for over 15 years and is the coauthor of STEPS to Safety Culture Excellence, 2013, WILEY.

351 - The Mindset of Safety Excellence

Greetings everyone, this podcast recorded while in Auburn Hills, MI. I’d like to share an article I wrote that was published in the August 2014 edition of BIC Magazine. The published article can either be found on the magazine’s website or under Insights at www.ProActSafety.com.

I hope you enjoy the podcast this week. If you would like to download or play on demand our other podcasts, please visit the ProAct Safety’s podcast website at: http://www.safetycultureexcellence.com. If you would like access to archived podcasts (older than 90 days – dating back to January 2008) please visit www.ProActSafety.com/Store. For more detailed strategies to achieve and sustain excellence in performance and culture, pick up a copy of our book, STEPS to Safety Culture Excellence - http://proactsafety.com/insights/steps-to-safety-culture-excellence

Have a great week!

Shawn M. Galloway
ProAct Safety