Safety Culture Excellence®

Safety’s “Usual Suspects”

In the classic movie, Casablanca, whenever a crime took place the police gathered up the “usual suspects” to show that they were taking action.  The usual suspects regularly got blamed but were seldom the true guilty parties.  At the end of the movie, even when they were sure of who committed the crime, they simply went through the motions to satisfy those in control...Investigating industrial accidents can fall into the same trap of substituting action for results.  

When reading over a recent set of accident investigation forms, I was alarmed at the cut-and-paste wording that seemed to repeat in so many of them.  Corrective actions almost always were the same:  either change a condition or blame an individual by imposing discipline or retraining.  There were no influences or barriers mentioned.  It was as if all accidents were caused strictly by conditions or negligence.  

Theoretically, neither a condition nor a behavior can be a true “root cause” since they are both caused or influenced by other factors.  Conditions don’t cause themselves and behaviors are not always simply the choice of the individual involved.  All this emphasizes the need to ask the question “Why?” when investigating accidents.  Why was there an oil spill on the floor?  Why did you use pliers instead of a wrench?  Without getting to the underlying causes we tend to take the easy action of fixing the blame on the usual suspects instead of truly fixing the problem.

-Terry L. Mathis

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.

303 - Safety leadership happens in the middle

Greetings everyone, this podcast recorded while in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin. I’d like to share an article I wrote, published May 2013 in BIC Magazine.  It was titled, Safety leadership happens in the middle.  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, Inc

Creating a Sense of Urgency

For many years business strategists suggested that cultures benefited from what they called “Positive Urgency.”  Experimentation and research had shown that a sense of urgency caused otherwise complacent workers to rally around a cause and produce higher levels of action toward goals.  To accomplish this end, leaders were urged to create artificial emergencies to challenge workers.  These were called “burning platforms” and were designed to produce stress and a sense of crisis.  

Slowly leaders and their experts realized that what people really do on burning platforms is to escape, not solve problems.  They also do not continue their emergency behaviors after the emergency is over.  A sense of urgency only creates a culture change if it is sustained over time and does not kill the members with stress before they change.  The experts are now calling for more lasting and important and less urgent and artificial stimuli to create the desired sense of urgency.

In safety, it has historically been tragic accidents or bad trends in accident frequency that have caused us to become positively urgent.  We react to disasters in safety as we do in business, by rallying and taking significant action.  However, just like in business, when the severity and/or frequency goes away so does the increased action.  The challenge in safety is to find these long-lasting reasons for significant action even when accidents are not providing them.  This is the way to proactive excellence.

In business, they have turned to building a sense of identity, not just action.  What will the organization be remembered for and is it important?  Safety must find its own identity also.  What does this safety culture seek to become and does that identity inspire significant action toward excellence?  The answer may be different for different organizations, but the right answers will not be found unless the right questions are asked.

-Terry L. Mathis

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.

301 - Accountability: A Dirty Word in Safety

Greetings everyone, this podcast recorded while in Prattville, Alabama. I’d like to share an article I wrote, published April 2013 in Occupational Health & Safety Magazine.  It was titled, Accountability: A Dirty Word in Safety.  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, Inc

300 - Leadership Support for Safety: A Self-Contradicting Term

Greetings everyone, this podcast recorded while in Missoula, Montana. I’d like to share an article Terry Mathis wrote, published April 2013 in EHS Today Magazine.  It was titled, Leadership Support for Safety: A Self-Contradicting Term. 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, Inc

299 - Misunderstanding Safety Leading Indicators

Greetings everyone, this podcast recorded while in Nashville, Tennessee. I’d like to share an article I wrote, published April 2013 in BIC Magazine.  It was titled, Misunderstanding Safety Leading Indicators.  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, Inc

The Bandwidth of Safety Management: How much can you do at once?

One of the most common mistakes organizations and safety professionals make is to try to do too much at once.  It seems logical that more safety-related activities should create better safety awareness and thus result in improved safety performance.  This is seldom what happens.  Too much at once results in overload and also blocks internalization of important safety principles and practices.  Trying to eat the elephant in one bite chokes the eater and aggravates the elephant.  

Human attention, like the internet has limited bandwidth.  It can only handle a certain amount of information at once.  More is not better, it is lost.  When organizations and safety professionals focus on specific and well prioritized improvement targets, the human attention machine works well.  New precautions are understood and internalized.  As the new safety habits and thinking progress, new targets can be added.  The organization sees the elephant disappearing a bite at a time and that further motivates progress.  

It requires discipline and clear thinking to realize that more is not better and that slower can actually be faster.  But keeping safety efforts within the proper bandwidth of the human brain is the best and ultimately fastest path to safety excellence.

-Terry L. Mathis

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.

298 - Who Says "Go"? Is Safety Led or Abdicated?

Greetings everyone, this podcast recorded while in Shreveport, LA. I’d like to share an article Terry Mathis wrote, published March 2013 in EHS Today Magazine.  It was titled, Who Says "Go"? Is Safety Led or Abdicated? 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, Inc

294 - The Power of Shared Definitions

Greetings everyone, this podcast recorded while in Winnipeg, Manitoba. For the podcast this week I’d like to share an article written by Terry Mathis, published in February 2013 in EHS Today Magazine.  It was titled, The Power of Shared Definitions. The published article can be found 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, available through WILEY (publisher), Amazon or Barnes and Noble. Have a great week! Shawn M. Galloway ProAct Safety, Inc

293 - From Edicts to Discretionary Effort: Maturing Your Safety Culture

Greetings everyone, this podcast recorded while in Harlingen, Texas. I’d like to share an article I wrote that was published February 2013 in Occupational Health and Safety Magazine.  It was titled, From Edicts to Discretionary Effort: Maturing Your Safety Culture. 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, available through WILEY (publisher), Amazon or Barnes and Noble. Have a great week! Shawn M. Galloway ProAct Safety, Inc