The Hierarchy of Aspiration

“If your focus is on avoiding the trees, all you will see is the trees” – Simon Sinek.

This statement has so much relevance in life and even more so in how health and safety is often managed.

Let’s swap trees for incidents. How many organisations base their health and safety management solely around the avoidance of accidents, principles of prevention and hierarchies of control. These all have one thing in common, they aim to drive an organisation away from an undesired outcome.

But where is it leading the organisation towards?

Let’s flip the script using the hierarchy of control as an example:

• Eliminate
• Substitute
• Engineering Controls
• Administrative Controls
• PPE

We start at the top and move down a level each time, justifying why it is not possible to implement controls higher in the hierarchy. The purpose being to minimize the likelihood or severity of a risk.

I would like to introduce a hierarchy which directs us towards a desired outcome, starting at the base level and demonstrating the value which moving up each level will bring to an organisation.

Essentially each level you move up the hierarchy positively impacts the levels below, providing an aim to aspire towards rather than an outcome to avoid.

This is my proposition:

• Empower
• Support
• Engage
• Assess
• Policy/Procedure/Process

Policy/Procedure/Process

Policies, procedures and processes provide the framework to a health and safety management system but they need to be relevant, clearly communicated and speak to the target audience in their language. This is where ‘work imagined vs work carried out’ needs to be completely aligned, otherwise we end up with a workforce that is:

Uninformed – because the policy/procedure/process hasn’t been communicated to them.

Misinformed – because they don’t understand the policy/procedure/process

Disengaged – because the policy/procedure/process does not represent how things are actually done.

Anyone who has attempted to assemble flat-pack furniture can surely relate to this. The instructions are either missing, written in technical terms and diagrams we don’t understand or do not follow a logical order.

And so what do we do?

We ignore the instructions and find our own way, often to our own detriment.

That is why this provides the foundation level of our new hierarchy as it is dependent on input from the levels higher in the hierarchy in order to make them, relevant and effective within an organisation.

Assess

The ‘Check’ element of the PDCA cycle. Logically we need to assess whether policies/procedures/processes are working or not and where improvements can be made. This should be proactive, we don’t need to wait for incidents to occur before lessons can be learned.

It is at this point where any disjoint between work imagined and work carried out will become evident. However, it’s not productive to simply beat people with a stick for not following processes which may not be fit for purpose. First, we need to understand why processes are not being followed and gain insight from those at the sharp end of the business who truly understand the practical execution of their work and its associated hazards and risks.

This level will provide a feedback loop into the base level to drive continual improvement of the health and safety management system, but its benefits are limited unless we move to the next level in the hierarchy.

Engage

If the ultimate goal is continual improvement then engaging with the workforce is vital. As mentioned before, it’s not enough to just identify non-conformances, we need to find out why this disjoint exists. And who better to ask than those who are directly involved in the processes. Every organisation has an abundance of subject matter experts which remain an untapped resource, simply because they are not engaged.

Involving your people in the development of policies, procedures and processes will give you a much greater understanding of their associated challenges from the perspective of those who actually carry out the work. Also, working collaboratively and giving workers the opportunity to contribute to how things are done will ultimately result in a much higher probability that processes are fit for purpose and actually followed.

It's also important to remember that, as with incidents, we don’t need to wait for non-conformances to arise before we take action. Even if things are going well, simply asking your people “How can we improve” or “what can we do better” will spark those proactive conversations which keep workers engaged and feeling valued.

This improves how we assess and has a compounding positive impact on the improvement of policy/procedures/processes within an orgnisation. However, (and you’ll start to notice a pattern here) we need to provide the tools necessary to maintain that engagement. Queue the next level…..

Support

Now we have engaged our people, we need to provide the tools to maintain that engagement. We need to:

• Educate
• Provide barrier-free channels of communication
• Encourage participation (e.g. hazard or near miss reporting or suggestions for improvement etc.)

We can’t assume that everybody knows the difference between a hazard and a risk or an unsafe act and a near miss, so we need to invest time to educate and coach workers by providing training which is relevant to them. Teaching workers in a factory how to spot hazards in an office is unlikely to be effective.

It’s important to ensure communication channels are a 2-way street and that those who contribute are positively acknowledged and given feedback. Many workers who actively engage in health and safety eventually lose interest when they do not receive any feedback or see any positive change as a result.

Providing regular communications and considering different or multiple media channels will ensure communications are inclusive of the entire demographic of the workforce. Wherever possible also provide opportunity for feedback.

There are many ways to encourage participation, whether that is through the introduction of health and safety committees or positive recognition of those who contribute to health and safety in the workplace. But most importantly we need to provide the tools which will allow all workers to easily participate and contribute to improving health and safety. Identifying and reporting hazards and near miss incidents before an accident occurs is extremely valuable and should be visibly encouraged by leadership within an organisation.

Crucially, we need to embed a culture which is focused on learning and improvement instead of attributing blame. In the words of Sydney Dekker, “We can learn or we can blame but we can’t do both”.

Now we have the support structure in place to sustain engagement we can progress to the pinnacle of the hierarchy and connect the final piece of the jigsaw…..

Empower

We talk a lot about engagement in health and safety but, as you can see in this hierarchy, engagement is only the half way point. To truly drive transformative change within an organisation we need a workforce that is truly empowered.

Empowered to speak up and be heard and to act in the interest of the health and safety of themselves and those around them. To call out unsafe acts, unsafe conditions and raise concerns, and in doing so, know that they have the full support of the organisation’s leadership.

This is where we put our money where our mouth is and walk the talk. The reason why this is so powerful is that it demonstrates true commitment to health and safety across every level of the organisation.

Just imagine the benefits of an orgnisational culture which is focused on learning and improvement, is proactive, open and honest, empowers its workforce and actively supports engagement. For me this is the ultimate aspiration.

What are your thoughts?