The Paradox of Safety - Square One

"We would do anything to assure a safe workplace where no one will die."

In my line of business, I've heard this time and time again, from well-meaning individuals, usually in upper leadership.

My response is always, "no you would not." To startled looks as you can imagine.

I used this line once at supper at Papasito's Cantina in Houston to a Vice President of the Company that I was employed by and a President of a Major Business Partner.

We were having supper discussing how we were going to bring in an MCP (Major Capital Project) IFO (Incident Free). The plus was that we were incorporating an IFO plan from FEED (Front End Engineering & Development) stage on out. the delta was that from the looks I got I thought that there was a good chance I was going to be terminated or at least tossed from the project.

Those conversations are best had in a Social Format, over supper or lunch and in discussion on the "blueprint" and "accountability model" of how we are going to bring a project in IFO. Starting where it needs to start, with executive leadership, those who can actually spend the dollars and make the decisions needed to achieve World Class.

My response is usually met with surprise, sometimes with incredulity, as if in some way I was testing them, sometimes with anger that the guy who is supposed to be key in bringing this MCP or other project in IFO is doubting their resolve.

At least once it resulted with me withdrawing from a project when we could not come to agreement on a path forward. Much to the consternation of the sponsors and mentors who were the foundation of my career journey.

Consternation be damned I learned a long time ago that no degree of fear of offending a "suit" was worth killing somebodies Daddy.

Even this early in a project alignment is critical. If not at some point in this project I'm going to make Presidents and VPs look like fools. Not great for a career, so if we can not get alignment, I'll just back out.

On the majority of projects, we showed them exactly why they would not "do anything" to prevent accidents, and we used it as a major cornerstone of achieving World Class performance. In a message that not surprisingly (if you know how they think) resonates with "the worker at risk."

Have no doubt that it takes major trust in the process, that it takes herculean effort to bust the paradigms that doom most organizations to mediocrity, that it takes an incredible strength of leadership to accept change to the degree needed. To say the things that really need saying.

Those that accept what needs to be done put their teams on the road to World Class. Without exception we historically achieved our goals.

Those that do not, doom themselves and their teams to being Safety First, pretty good organizations. Not bad, if "good enough" is what you aspire to be.

You see, achieving World Class starts with alignment. Alignment of your Safety Practitioner and your Executive Leadership. That alignment (or not) is virtually always determined at supper or even at a social event over a beer.

World Class is not for everyone, though everyone says that they want it. It takes strength, courage, honesty, and a real conviction to doing what it takes to be as good as you can be.

Of course, there is more, much more, to the "rest of the story" that I opened with. Part of it is that we gained alignment, I stayed on that project, and we exceeded our goals for safety AND economic performance.

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Peace - Love - Change with Purpose