NO ONE HAS TO DIE

No one had to die at work to motivate companies to get World Class Safety.

We all know it. We all know it happens.

It was the fifth why, the root cause, the causal factor, the one degree, the spur to action that led to many great safety initiatives.

Someone died at work, spurring us to action and becoming the genesis of World Class Safety Efforts.

In retrospect it looked terrible.? Where we failed became obvious and visible for all to see.? Our shortcomings highlighted by a trillion-candle power moral and legal spotlight.

We most often took the high road.? We committed to providing workers with everything that they needed to stay safe.? Everything plus, we spared no dollars, or time.

We were sincere, we shed tears, we lost sleep.? If you are human, having someone’s Daddy die on your watch tends to do that.? The pain of reality.

We learned.? We listened to the experts tell us what we already knew.? We developed a “bias for action,” at least for now.

We heard endless workers, our own people, testifying (literally) that “they knew it was gonna happen.”? We felt the “indictment of knowledge” every time it was said, we wondered how we could have been so blind. Or blinded?

We knew it was all true, and more painfully, we knew that we always knew.

We did the only thing that we could do, we spared no expense, we opened up our hearts, we made it better.

And for a while, if only for a while, we touched the rare air of World Class.

It’s a story that has repeated itself time and time again in the history of contemporary safety.

I hear it often, to be honest, in 2024 as a pulse check it seems like it’s ramping up in the last few months. That feeling.

Medics know the feeling and what causes it. In EMS we call it "a feeling of impending doom." We know what it means, death is near.

One company that I’m in discussions with feels it happening as we speak.? Their records are tanking, TRIRs etc rising, they're feeling lost.?

They have great people, great Leadership, great HES Professionals but feel lost, struggle with what is the next step.

Credit to them that they are taking steps to get in front of what is happening.? The first step is a simple acknowledgement. Drag it out from the shadows, force it to engage.

Like many, time has conspired to filter their views, caused them to become myopic, in some cases that terrible feeling of “flying blind.”? Knowing that something bad is going to happen, but can’t put a finger on what, and when.

The message today is that just feeling that way is a step.? Get someone in who doesn’t have your filters, someone who can be objective about what she or he sees.

Most of all, someone who will be honest, and help you to chart the path to the future that we all want.

A future where nobody’s Daddy has to die and be the motivator for us to achieve World Class Performance.

Peace – Love – Do It for The Right Reasons

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POSTSCRIPT:? There are many great, honest, conscientious, Safety and Cultural Practitioners out there who can help you.? They will bring honesty, and positive paths forward for you, the feeling of hope that comes with being headed in the right direction, accompanied by quantitative metrics that show progressions and opportunities.

They will slap you in the face, figuratively of course, with observations of who you are and how you are.? They will bring some pain, and some healing.

The best will absolutely not “camp out” on your pay roll.? You will be tempted to offer them jobs, don’t.? One huge company earlier this year offered me an “exclusive services contract,” based on work that we did with their culture and their people.

I politely told them no.? If you need me, I’m here for you, just call.? What’s important to me is that I remain who I am, who at 5 years and 9 months old was the little kid whose Daddy died in a drilling rig accident.?

I remember and have no desire to ever forget.

If I spend too much time with you, if I collect too much of your money, I become filtered, I become just like you.? I become more concerned about not hurting your feelings than being honest.

I become less effective and objective in a venue that demands effectiveness and objectivity.

Leave behind that metaphorical silver bullet, ride off into the sunset without them hardly knowing or noticing (the ultimate compliment.) Leaving behind the knowledge that if they need you, you can be here in a minute. ?

Choose to do something.?