Safety Culture Excellence®

Outsourcing Leadership Training

Today’s economic realities have necessitated a great deal of outsourcing.  Organizations are clinging to their core competencies and value potential and hiring out peripheral tasks.  In safety, more and more of the training function is being outsourced.  This can be a good approach to some types of safety training but is definitely not for others.

Definite YES:  Skills training by technical experts is almost always more effective.   If the organization cannot justify keeping such an expert onboard full-time, outsourcing makes good sense and is often quite effective.

Definite NO:  Training that establishes official management style or organizational philosophy.  If you want your supervisors to coach safety or your leaders to stay on message about organizational mission and vision for safety, outside trainers are definitely not the way.  Specific skills such as coaching or communications can be taught by outsiders, but the deep-rooted organizationally-specific style training is best done by an insider with recognized ties to the organization and specific information to answer questions on strategy and tactics.

Maybe with Qualifications:  Training that is required for regulatory compliance can often be outsourced effectively.  The one nuance is that much of this type of training is very generic and may not be easily or directly applied by workers to their specific tasks.  Training that is too theoretical may lose its effectiveness if the link between the theory and workplace reality is not clear.
Outsourcing the right training and keeping the right training in-house can be a key to success in safety.

-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.

346 - Measuring Safety Culture Maturity A Better Way

This is an audio version of the previously published blog on this topic:

Forget the old ways of measuring safety culture maturity. There is a new, more effective way to measure cultural maturity and it starts with looking at the chemistry.

Just as a growing plant needs the right elements in the soil for maximum growth, a safety culture needs the right elements in the organization to maximize its true potential for excellence.  Safety culture is much more organic than most of the models recognize and the formation of a safety culture is more akin to growing a plant than to drawing an organizational chart.  If you plant the right seeds of capability and control the climate and chemistry, you will grow a safety culture toward excellence.  Once it is growing, you can shape it and further adjust the climate and chemistry to maximize its potential. – An excerpt from STEPS to Safety Culture Excellence (2013, Mathis and Galloway)

In consulting globally with many of the best in safety performance and culture, nine elements (see the picture with this post) have been identified as most important foci to establish the chemistry which facilitates the necessary climate for a culture of safety excellence to grow. Through consulting engagements and workshops, these nine elements have been successfully leveraged and measured to help organizations identify both their starting point baseline, and also to strategically prioritize which elements to focus on to advance the capabilities of their safety culture.

A simple exercise to facilitate answering these questions is to lead a group discussion on these nine elements to measure your current cultural maturity around safety. Putting this into practice, every workshop has resulted in very insightful conversations that identify the precise actions that need to be taken to enhance the existing culture of safety. To lead this discussion, a conversation framework is needed, thus the purpose of this article.

If you have read my work, participated in any of my workshops or keynote presentations or worked with me directly, you will know I work hard to always provide more take-away tools than motivational fluff. If I was able to provide the framework to facilitate the internal dialogue in article format, I would.

To assist you on your journey to safety excellence, I would like to share this tool with you. To obtain a copy for your internal use, send an email to info@proactsafety.com with the subject of Please Send Chemistry of SCE and our staff will respond at our earliest opportunity.

Cultures will always influence the beliefs and behaviors of employees and contractors as they join the group. You can either manage the chemistry, climate and culture, or the results in any area of operational performance will be managed by them. I invite you to start the conversation to strategically enhance the safety aspect of your company culture and measure your progress by contributed value, not just the lowering of injury rates.

-------------------

Shawn M. Galloway is the President and COO of ProAct Safety. He writes (and tweets:@safetyculture) about his work helping organizations in all industries to achieve and sustain excellence in their culture and performance. He resides near Houston, Texas with his wife and three children.

Culture and Customizing

Some of the old safety programs and processes are still alive and well in certain organizations.  When I examine how they have survived so long I almost always find that the program has been modified and customized.  The organization is not still doing the process like they were taught, they have “made it their own” over the years using the basic concept(s) but modifying the details.
 
Another term for customizing might be “culturizing.”  When a group of people not only use a methodology but modify it to fit their specific needs and standards, it truly becomes a part of the organizational culture.  It is no longer solely the brainchild of the originator, but the adopted child of the group.  As it permeates the group it becomes a part of the culture that is shared and handed down.
 
Such processes never become outdated because they are fluid and the group can evolve them to meet changing needs and challenges.  Perhaps it should be the goal of every safety program or process to have this kind of flexibility built in as a sustainability tool.  If this were the case, there would likely be fewer flavors of the month and more tools to build strong safety cultures.

-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.

345 - When Site Managers Undo Corporate Safety

Greetings everyone, this podcast recorded while in Banff, Alberta. I’d like to share an article Terry Mathis wrote that was published May 2014 in EHS Today 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

Measuring Safety Culture Maturity: A Better Way

Forget the old ways of measuring safety culture maturity. There is a new, more effective way to measure cultural maturity and it starts with looking at the chemistry.

Just as a growing plant needs the right elements in the soil for maximum growth, a safety culture needs the right elements in the organization to maximize its true potential for excellence.  Safety culture is much more organic than most of the models recognize and the formation of a safety culture is more akin to growing a plant than to drawing an organizational chart.  If you plant the right seeds of capability and control the climate and chemistry, you will grow a safety culture toward excellence.  Once it is growing, you can shape it and further adjust the climate and chemistry to maximize its potential. – An excerpt from STEPS to Safety Culture Excellence (2013, Mathis and Galloway)

In consulting globally with many of the best in safety performance and culture, nine elements (see the picture with this post) have been identified as most important foci to establish the chemistry which facilitates the necessary climate for a culture of safety excellence to grow. Through consulting engagements and workshops, these nine elements have been successfully leveraged and measured to help organizations identify both their starting point baseline, and also to strategically prioritize which elements to focus on to advance the capabilities of their safety culture.

A simple exercise to facilitate answering these questions is to lead a group discussion on these nine elements to measure your current cultural maturity around safety. Putting this into practice, every workshop has resulted in very insightful conversations that identify the precise actions that need to be taken to enhance the existing culture of safety. To lead this discussion, a conversation framework is needed, thus the purpose of this article.

If you have read my work, participated in any of my workshops or keynote presentations or worked with me directly, you will know I work hard to always provide more take-away tools than motivational fluff. If I was able to provide the framework to facilitate the internal dialogue in article format, I would.

To assist you on your journey to safety excellence, I would like to share this tool with you. To obtain a copy for your internal use, send an email to info@proactsafety.com with the subject of Please Send Chemistry of SCE and our staff will respond at our earliest opportunity.

Cultures will always influence the beliefs and behaviors of employees and contractors as they join the group. You can either manage the chemistry, climate and culture, or the results in any area of operational performance will be managed by them. I invite you to start the conversation to strategically enhance the safety aspect of your company culture and measure your progress by contributed value, not just the lowering of injury rates.

-------------------

Shawn M. Galloway is the President and COO of ProAct Safety. He writes (and tweets:@safetyculture) about his work helping organizations in all industries to achieve and sustain excellence in their culture and performance. He resides near Houston, Texas with his wife and three children.

344 - Safety Excellence Focus Trumps Fanaticism

Greetings everyone, this podcast recorded while in Denver, CO. I’d like to share an article I wrote that was published June-July 2014 edition of BIC Today 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

Blue Ocean or Bomb the Island: Innovation vs. Provocation

A controversy has almost always attracted attention. That is why some constantly try to provoke an argument about some aspect of a practice.  The idea of questioning the status quo is a legitimate issue, but simply challenging the establishment does not advance the cause.  True advancement comes from trying the new, not from simply attacking the old.  

There is a parallel between the provocateur and the old dichotomous thinking expressed in the saying, “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it!”  The idea that everything fits into either the fixed or broken category is limited, two-dimensional thinking at best.  The innovative approach does not categorize ideas or practices, but seeks to advance them.  In true innovation, there are not even “best practices” because such thinking might stop future progress.  There are better practices that will be replaced by even better practices as our wits sharpen and our organizations embrace transformational thinking.  

Blue ocean thinking opens whole new avenues of opportunity for the landlocked.  Provocation tends to bomb the island on which we live without discovering a new one.

-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.

343 - What is Your Safety Elevator Pitch?

Greetings everyone, this podcast recorded while in my home in Texas. I’d like to share an article I wrote that was published May 2014 in Professional Safety 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

How Do You Define Production?

If you define production as products or services delivered and do not include safety in that definition, you are creating a dichotomy that will damage both production and safety.  Production that injures those who produce it is most likely not the kind of production your organization wants.  An accident (incident, injury – pick your preferred term) is a defect in your production process just as surely as a quality issue.  If you develop a tolerance for poor quality or poor safety, you have developed a tolerance for poor production.

Organizations who achieve safety excellence do not make this distinction.  They define production as safe and high quality products or services delivered.  They manage safety and quality as a part of production rather than separate priorities.  Workers who compromise any aspect of safety or quality have compromised production.  The old ideas of production at any cost and sacrificing your body for the team are antiquated and counterproductive.  If you still have these dichotomies in your organization, begin to improve by redefining what production is and what you expect from production workers.

-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.

342 - Is Winning or Losing a Safety Culture Habit?

Greetings everyone, this podcast recorded while in Auburn Hills, MI. I’d like to share an article I wrote that was published May 2014 in Occupational Health & Safety 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