A Passion for Safety from Within

Having worked in shipping since I left navigation school I have experienced a great deal about this vast inspiring ocean of an industry. For nearly two decades I have watched how Safety has moulded and been instilled into every aspect of this industry through unique practices conducted by highly performing individuals and organisations. I always thought of shipping as the Formula 1 of the high seas as it tends to share the passion for developing engineering masterpieces and more importantly the brave individuals who take charge of them. Sadly, some of these people in both professions have been portrayed as villain’s for events that have unfolded in the past with the stigma of Human Error. Even more sad is the fact that we consumers and users, who reap from the excitement or receive delivered products rarely consider the amount of safety that goes into making this happen.

Formula 1 flies from race to race but every ingredient about the car has probably spent some time in the hold of a ship, because 90% of everything moves via shipping. To the outsider Formula 1 seems fast and dangerous; to the same outsider shipping may seem slow and safe. Did you know that shipping is considered as one of the most dangerous economic professions?

I have attended many seminars where discussions focused on Safety from Within. I cannot agree more as it all has to start from within. This was instilled into me by meeting people who were so evangelical about how they practiced safety, many of them impacted from personal experiences. My impact date was February 14th and every Valentine’s day since I have been haunted by the same two images. On my first very watch as junior officer in the middle of the Pacific Ocean I lost two colleagues who I looked up to and who’d become my best friends. The Chief Engineer and the Chief Officer had died of asphyxiation in the cargo hold.

A police inquiry in port proved beyond reasonable doubt that my watch standing was no contribution to the incident and that their own actions caused it. The deep irony was that the two officers shared that month’s safety award, but died together because they ignored safety. Then I realised something needed to be changed, two of my good friends died attending to an everyday job. From that very moment Safety became an passionate integral part of me as this incident threw over-board the excitement, the sense of achievement and the sense of purpose of working in this profession.

We all have had some role models in life. I had mine in the likes of Formula 1’s Jackie Stewart, Fran?ois Cevert, Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher. Besides Sinbad of the Seven Seas, Popeye the Sailor which are of course my personal role models at sea, I also believe that shipping has so many roles models who make the impossible happen. But we do not necessarily choose to present them during their successful saga across the oceans. There seems to be a lack of role models for the upcoming superstars in the shipping industry. However, it is also important to note that even superstars make mistakes.

It is proven that even the best of the best make mistakes for various reasons that may be unknown to us. Investigations have shown that undue pressure due to underperforming, finishing things in time and making a good impression towards others have been the cause of incidents. Hence whatever we do with technical systems and processes it is the mind of the individual that matters the most. It is about handling the human condition and thus safety has to come from within. By embedding a blame culture, the industry is shying away from handling the human condition. Instead, if someone makes a mistake make them your ambassador so they will never do it again and are more likely to share the knowledge. I believe in investing in people and making them the best in what they do as they are all ordinary people doing extraordinary jobs.

When you hire individuals you not only need to train, but instil a passion of your business culture and tell them what is expected of them. Because you as a company are not just into shipping or an engineering business, but a customer service business and perhaps dealing with some customers with long term relations.Ship Captains and crews should be your brand ambassadors, the first person who your customers and users will see when they sail the oceans and visit the far reaches of the continents.

Michael Schumacher said “Once something is a passion the motivation is there”. To instil such a passion in the people who handle these giants out in the high seas across the seven seas we need to ensure by communicating that in the quest for Cent percent customer service which we don’t want to compromise on and in the quest for Zero Harm which we do not want to compromise on, they both can be partners and do not have to be mutually independent.

Shipping continues to make safe and energy efficient engineering marvels to keep one half of world from starving and the other from freezing. However, in the end of the day these sophisticated and expensive engineering marvels are put into the hands of trusted individuals who need to perform at various conditions, dynamic environments and inevitable perils of nature. With an industry’s quest for a vision towards zero harm which we do not want to compromise on, these inevitable perils need to be addressed from a human or individual centric approach.

It could be argued and to make a fair comment that in order to fulfil the global consumer and user needs and at the same time achieve zero harm, leadership at every level is not just about running ships but running a business to profit a sustainable globalised economy. In order for a ship to arrive on time or in time every time, it needs to arrive first and this is only good as good as the last voyage to port. One can easily lose the edge on to the next voyage. I sincerely wonder how many of us involve individuals in understanding leadership in such a context.