Building 'Line Accountability' for Safety: Why is it difficult?

A few years back, the site head of a large manufacturing location asked me the question…‘why is it so difficult to establish line accountability for Safety at our site?’

We had been driving a Safety Culture Transformation process and I mentally rejoiced when he asked the question. It seemed he had ?understood what ‘line accountability’ really meant.

Over the years, I have worked along with many esteemed clients to build a strong Safety Culture in their organisations.

The backbone of a strong Safety culture is ‘line accountability for Safety’. ?Which means that the Operations/maintenance hierarchy (and supporting functions) ?take accountability of Safety in the organisation. They do not just delegate it to the Safety function. The Site leader believes that ensuring Safety at the site is his job, and that he is supported by everyone to make it happen.

This is among the toughest transitions in the Safety Culture Transformation process.

Intuitively, it is easy to understand. But it flies in the face of conventional Safety mindset.

The first question that comes up is ‘what will the Safety department do?’

Initially, the answer is difficult to accept. The reality is that as there was an absence of ‘line accountability’,? Safety as a value was delegated to the Safety function. So instead of playing the role of an ‘internal domain expert, consultant and auditor’ the Safety function started micro managing the Safety procedures on a daily basis, continually conflicting with operations/maintenance to implement Safety.

The second question is 'How do we demonstrate line accountability for Safety'?

Initially, it is assumed that top leadership commitment and formal communication is enough. So, for example if the site leader talks about Safety in leadership meetings and ‘demands’ good Safety practices ( say, while addressing the site supervisors/workers), it's a good example of line accountability.

Unfortunately, that is not so.

The first big ask is for the site leader (and functional leaders) is to ensure participation by all the site leaders/managers in the Safety transformation, irrespective of their functions/roles.

Any Safety Culture Transformation process is driven by a Governance Structure which invites functional leaders/managers from Operations, Projects, HR, Quality, R&D, Supply Chain etc (all those who are related to the Site operations) to join and implement the Safety processes. This is critical to take Safety from a priority (managed by a small Safety team) to a Value (which is understood and managed by all who matter in the site operations).

The first reaction is for functional leaders/managers to wriggle out of this ‘new responsibility’. ?Even if they join the teams, they do not bring in their commitment/energy to understand the process and drive it forward. At this point, the site leader (and his immediate team) have to step in and push/inspire everyone to start ‘owing the process’. That can happen when the leader himself shows commitment, and understanding of the process.

The second ?ask is for site leadership to start ‘role modelling’ safety… or ‘walk the talk’.

Here, the big challenge is that most of the time, the line leadership at the site believes that they are ‘walking the talk’ quite well… though it is grossly inadequate. Regarding role modelling Safety, they have to continually ask themselves if they are truly checking all the boxes? Are they inspiring others? Are they noticing Safety lapses and raising red flags? Are they showing concern for unsafe practices? Are they bordering an obsession for Safety, enough to leave an impact?

The third ask is to intelligently navigate the various Safety processes which are part of the Safety Culture Transformation.... for example, the process for Safe behaviour, Incident investigation, establishing standards, building competency of people and so on.

Many ?site/functional leaders join the meetings or discussion groups but do not really put their ‘skin in the game’. They ask general, insipid questions or just listen in as the data is presented.

Here, they need to understand the ‘why’ of the process and ask intelligent questions on what are the gaps and what can be done more. The processes are supported by rich data and the leader should be able to wade through the data, pick gaps, ask tough questions, provide support and drive implementation.

As the site leadership builds this ‘Safety mindset’ and drives the various processes, the mindset slowly percolates down the hierarchy, till it reaches the shop-floor conversations and actions (supervisor/worker). ?

Eventually, the worker’s safety mindset resonates with that of the site leaders, the worker/supervisor proactively communicates/engages on Safety and the whole hierarchy (Site leader to worker) aligns itself to ensure Safety at work.

That is when the Safety Culture starts delivering significant and positive outcomes for the organisation.

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