Safety Culture Excellence®

Where is the Safety Expertise in Your Organization?

Who is the safety expert in your organization?  The larger the organization the more people should have safety expertise; but at what level does the expertise reside?  Certain types of safety expertise can be limited to one or a few individuals at the mid-management level.  

Regulatory compliance issues in detail can easily be referenced when needed from a centralized source near the top of the organizational chart.  Expertise on daily safety issues should be located nearer to the job.  This expertise can reside in the safety manager or supervisor if there are enough of them.  If there are not enough safety managers or supervisors to adequately oversee the jobs, the expertise should reside in the crew lead or the workers themselves.

Many organizations are in the process of driving expertise down to the lower levels and most are finding great value in doing so.  When every employee at every level becomes a safety expert at their particular job, organizations find their safety performance greatly improves.  The old reliance on the boss telling the worker what to do and how to do it safely is changing to the boss becoming the coach who teaches the worker to direct his or her own efforts and to do them safely.  Performance coaching skills are the vehicles that transfers safety and job-specific expertise to where it does the most good.  Does your culture have this crucial capability?

-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.

 

The Most Expensive Way

My great grandfather used to joke that every time he trained a mule to plow without eating hay, the darned animal up and died on him.  A lot of organizations starve their safety efforts and still expect them to produce results.  There is nothing wrong with being frugal or financially conservative, but there is a point at which lack of funds or lack of support will actually be fatal.

Many leaders still think they can decide between a more expensive or a less expensive approach when, in reality, they are really choosing between success and starvation.  Safety efforts should be analyzed to find which are effective and which are not; but those that are successful and efficient should be adequately funded and supported.  Smart leaders realize that ultimately the most expensive way to do anything is the way that does not work.

-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.

359 - How Do You Define Safety Excellence?

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

Shawn M. Galloway
President, ProAct Safety

358 - Hands and Feet or Hearts and Minds?

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.

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

350 - Evolving Your Safety Culture Elements That Matter Most

Greetings everyone, this podcast recorded while in Eunice, LA. I’d like to share an article I wrote that was published in the July 2014 edition of OH&S 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

STEPS to Safety Culture Excellence Workshop - October 2014

Strategy is a framework of choices the organization makes to determine how to capture and deliver value. Strategy, therefore, is how do we win? How confident are you about your strategy to achieve and sustain safety excellence?

Based on the book, STEPS to Safety Culture Excellence, the authors will lead this workshop and provide a detailed roadmap on how to develop a three to five year safety excellence business plan. This two-day workshop is limited to ten participants. It would be helpful if each attendee read the book prior to the event to escalate the discovery process.

STEPS is a universal process for identifying, prioritizing, and solving safety problems at the organizational, behavioral, conditional, or cultural levels. Using one process for addressing all safety issues eliminates the need for continuously bringing in new consultants, programs, and approaches that create the "flavor of the month" mentality.
ProAct Safety^® recently compiled data on over 1,100 sites that requested our help in improving safety. The commonalities of these sites' issues has led to a new approach to solving safety problems and permanently implementing continuous improvement. The approach includes organizational structure, problem identification, issue prioritization, action plan development, improvement metrics, and a motivational and marketing strategy to ensure sustainability. The process is called STEPS (Strategic Targets for Excellent Performance in Safety^SM).

Objectives:

1. Develop a solid understanding of a safety excellence strategy
2. Learn the leading causes of safety program ineffectiveness and failure
3. Examine a standard methodology used by excellent safety organizations to identify virtually any type of safety issue or problem
4. Learn to use statistical tools to prioritize issues by their potential impact
5. Learn to develop action plans to solve safety problems
6. Explore innovative ways to measure success and progress
7. Discover how one process can replace multiple programs and allow for seamless transition of focus without causing a flavor-of-the-month culture

Workshop Takeaways - Attendees will be provided with:

• Electronic Materials (Templates) to return to their organization and facilitate discussions for the creation of their unique safety excellence strategy.
• A 60-Minute Recorded High-Level Webinar outlining the key STEPS to Safety Culture Excellence methodologies. This will help convey the messages and build support and understanding for the necessary path forward. Moreover, this can also help during on-boarding of future leaders to provide an understanding of why the strategy was created, furthering the future support necessary as the organization continuously improves safety performance and culture and acquires or promotes new leadership talent.
• Access to Shawn M. Galloway or Terry L. Mathis from 8 am to 5 pm CT during the week by email and phone for one month following the workshop, to help support efforts by coaching and advising through the initial creation of the strategy. If not immediately available, calls and emails will be returned within 24 hours.
• A personalized autographed copy of the book, STEPS to Safety Culture Excellence.

For more information, visit this link.

See you there!

Shawn M. Galloway
ProAct Safety, Inc.

Upcoming Free Webinar: 3 Building Blocks For An Excellent Safety Culture

There is an increasing amount of talk about safety culture with very few real, implementable tactics that outline how to create a culture of safety excellence, and sustain it.

For the first time ever, leveraging the expertise of Canada’s Greg Ford of TalentClick and The United States’ Shawn M. Galloway of ProAct Safety, a free one-of-a-kind webinar will occur on the 24th of September, 2014.

This webinar will be a one a unique and revolutionary exploration into what both industry leaders (with different backgrounds, approaches and client experiences) have found to be the three most important building blocks of safety culture improvement. Safety culture has never been explored, developed, measured and understood like this before.

Greg Ford is the CEO of TalentClick Workforce Solutions. He is passionate about helping organizations eliminate incidents. He is committed to empowering people with “safety self-awareness” so they get home safely at the end of the day. Born in a blue-collar town and raised in a working-class family, Greg has a degree in Psychology and a Masters in Adult Education & Workplace Learning. He is CEO and co-founder of TalentClick and an adjunct professor at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada.

Greg’s articles have been published in numerous magazines and journals such as Workplace Today, Canadian HR Reporter, People Talk, Mining Weekly, Oil & Gas Monthly and others. He is a member of the Canadian Association of Professional Speakers and has spoken throughout North America.

Shawn M. Galloway is the President of ProAct Safety and coauthor of two books, his latest is STEPS to Safety Culture Excellence. He is one of the top speakers for American Society of Safety Engineers. National Safety Council calls him a “Global safety excellence expert” and a “Top-rated speaker” and listed him in the 2013 Top 40 Rising Stars.

He continues to be recognized by industry magazines as one of the most influential EHS leader and safety excellence expert. In addition to the books, hundreds of podcasts, articles and videos he is also the host of the highly acclaimed weekly podcast series, Safety Culture Excellence and a columnist for several magazines.

I hope you will join us for this exciting event!

Link to event: http://tinyurl.com/pu3axfn