Building Culture: Principle 7

A nine-part introduction to the Principles of Culture Principle 7. Hazards are identified for every task, every time

 Author: Dr. Lisa Lande

 Key messages

• No task, no matter how often repeated, will ever be exactly the same
• Identifying hazards every time for every task, requires raised and expanded awareness of one’s environment
• Principle 7 aligns with and reinforces Principle 8: in order to identify hazards every time, one must bring in a clear understanding of what can go wrong in light of what must go right. It requires character, competence, and commitment

 A whole lot of data

Did you know that the human brain processes roughly 11 million pieces of unconscious information every second but we process only about 40 pieces of information consciously (1)? That’s a whole lot of “stuff” going on that we are not consciously processing but that impacts our environment. And that’s a whole lot of “stuff” that shifts in every second of every day. There are at least two important points to make about this bit of knowledge relative to Principle 7. First, there’s a pretty good chance that circumstances are different today than they were yesterday when you did the same task. In fact, there’s a pretty good chance that something is going to change from point A to point B in the task you’re doing right now, that is completely novel to the 10 or 20 or 100 times you’ve done it before. So yeah, we want to evaluate every task, every time because something (well a lot of things) will be different. 

The second point I want to make about this important bit of research on consciousness, is that we have some control over how much we are perceiving consciously. We may not be able to – nor would we want to – attend to all of those subtle cues in our environment, but we can train ourselves to recognize those cues that matter most relative to the work we are doing. We can, to borrow a term from the 70’s, “raise our consciousness” so that we are more consciously aware of what is happening in our environment. We can train ourselves to be more attentive to both “under the iceberg” cues like emotions, values, beliefs that are powerful but often not directly observable, as well as “the iceberg” cues that are tangibly observable and hence more easily identified. I would argue that the greatest skill we bring to participants who attend our Laboratory Operations Safety Academy (LOSA) and our Safety Academy for Excellence (SAFE), is this heightened awareness to the cues existing in the environment that make or break healthy culture. How? Well we teach them to look through two lenses: one for the obvious, above the water-line, operational cues that exist in the workspace (you know, like sharps put away correctly, containers labelled to specifications, log-out-tag-out completed perfectly in line with guidance, etc.), and one for the nuanced, ‘psychological safe’ space that exists under the water-line (like colleagues sharing information openly, soliciting each other’s points of view and being open to differences of opinion, background, generation, etc.). We teach our participants to look for hazards both above and under the water-line, because the whole iceberg is there, even if we can’t see half of it. Our goal is help them raise awareness so they consciously identify and address both the nuanced and overt cues, because both must be attended to and considered for the work to continue successfully.

The Interplay of Principles

In reviewing Principle 7, we also see the influence of Principle 8. Recall that Principle 8 tells us to maintain a healthy respect for what can go wrong, and to do so in light of what must go right. This is wise counsel, because we are more likely to hone in on our true risk areas – the hazards - if we have assessed these risks within the parameters of what must go right in the work to be performed. We also find Principle 8’s influence on identifying hazards each time, because to do so requires that we bring humility and intelligence to play, as well as commitment to performing the task correctly and safely each time. It comes down to keeping our mind focused on the work being done RIGHT NOW, and ensuring that this particular situation, no matter how commonly encountered, is treated with the freshness of perspective it deserves and keeps us and those around us, safe. That presence and constant vigilance is both an outcrop and a contributor to our understanding too, that learning never stops. Hopefully you can already recognize “learning never stops” as a principle in its own right; it is Principle 6 which we will cover in greater depth in our next article. And as I mentioned in the prelude to this series, in some way, each of the principles naturally retain the potential to exponentially reinforce all others. Master one, and we undoubtedly strengthen those remaining. Let one weaken, and we will unfortunately experience erosion around it. 

Mastering the Art

Before closing however, let’s return to Principle 7 and how to master it. How does one retain a level of focus and awareness in order to live up to this Principle? I mean, think about it for a minute, this level of constant awareness requires serious commitment to the work at hand. Which means we better love and be committed to the work being done, if we expect to keep ourselves as focused as we possibly can be. Though we all know it instinctively to be true, fortunately there is also an abundance of academic studies on motivation out there that validate a strong positive correlation between goal achievement and level of commitment to task. This should come as no great surprise, right? But what does surprise me and maybe you too, is that our hiring practices often ignore how critical this core attribute of “commitment” is to individual and organizational goal success. Organizations today still make technical credibility and academic pedigree their primary if not sole hiring criteria, even when their own data aggregates to tell them that s ignoring “commitment”, “character”, and the interpersonal side of “competence” has impeded success, hurt the pocketbook and the organization’s reputation to boot. are equally critical to selecting the ideal candidate for the position. I’ll take this moment to make a “shout out” to balancing our hiring scorecard, ensuring we put equal value on all three legs of the stool: character (are they honest and reliable), commitment (do they love what they do, show passion for the work they pursue), and competence on both the interpersonal as well as technical (interpersonally: show consideration for others, adapt to the situation at hand, stay calm under pressure; technical: education and work experience). Making the right hiring choices ups our organizational chances of the workforce more easily honoring this, and all, principles.

A Leadership Challenge

Until next time, I challenge you to raise your awareness to the more subtle cues around you, looking for information above and below the water-line that can help you shape your behavior and ultimately, the culture.

Next: Principle 6 – Learning Never Stops

8. A healthy respect is maintained for what must go right, and could go wrong

7. Hazards are identified and evaluated for every task, every time 

6. Learning never stops 

5. A questioning attitude is cultivated 

4. Cutting edge science requires cutting edge safety 

3. Staff raise safety concerns because trust permeates the organization 

2. All staff value the safety legacy they create in their discipline 

1. Everyone is personally responsible for ensuring safe operations