Safety Culture Shelf Life

Have you ever seen any of the many movies where the captain of an airplane suddenly dies and there is no co-pilot? The ominous question comes out over the loudspeaker from the flight attendant, “is there anyone on board with a pilot’s license?”

Remember the scenario above…

When your organization undergoes a “transformation”, “reorganization”, or any of the “…ations” that precede a great amount of attention to injury and illness statistics, quality results, or environmental performance, these rates miraculously improve. Are these improvements artificial? Are they temporary? Before answering these questions, ask a simple question related to how the improvements occurred.

Did the improvements occur due to a greater amount of attention from the top? You bet they did. The first rule of business is that we must give the boss what is being asked for – we simply need to know what is being asked for. The takeaway – improvement is possible if the desire is there. This is an extremely important point, so I will re-state it – improvement is possible if the desire is there. Although, as a corporate leader you may already have had that desire, the boss prioritized that desire for you in language you could understand.

NOW ask the first questions I posed…

Are the improvements we’ve realized artificial? They could be if course corrections are not being handled properly. If procedure is being consistently followed and aggressively managed responsibly by the organization then the improvements are most likely genuine.

The next question logically follows – “are the improvements sustainable?” Answering this question takes us on a bit of a round robin back to the scenario at the beginning of the article. When that skilled and professional pilot died suddenly the folks in the plane went from confident and safe to frightened and vulnerable…very vulnerable.

The point of the story is that if we put in the effort to achieve a goal only to back off or “check out” like our friendly pilot, just because we hit a goal, what will the next and following years look like? If we prove that we care enough about the health and safety of our employees then back off the momentum and sit back and watch things, we will surely lose the gains we made in the first place. This is an artificially created culture with a shelf life...dependent solely on desire for results from the top.

Is that desire organically generated by an established company VALUE or by a priority that may shift due to other concerns? We must constantly prove that we have the desire to prevent injuries, whether the desire is innate in us or given to us by leadership. The desire for positive change is the real value. We show this desire by making constant course corrections everywhere. When you publish the company values and your vision/mission statement, care for employee safety should always be right up there at the top. How you express this in writing on your poster makes a difference. "The Safety of Our Employees" is what I see most often in these value lists. Expressing employee safety more profoundly in a value statement may take the form of something more like this - "Returning Our Employees Home Safely Every Day to their Families." This shows a more genuine desire to create a truly sustainable safe work atmosphere and not simply state what should be on the poster. There are nuances to messaging at all levels.

When a spreadsheet is created showing company metrics, keep safety at the top as the first discussion point and celebrate the successes while discussing the shortfalls. Establish a safety message at the beginning of all company meetings. Call out operational leaders consistently when injuries occur AND when safe work successes are achieved. Make safety the nose cone of your rocket.

These are easy things to do, but the secret is that without that desire to keep pushing forward with safety results, we will find ourselves scratching our heads when the lagging indicator comes out showing we have not moved, or God forbid, we lost the gains we had previously realized when we were given that desire to move the needle by the boss!

Let’s not forget that we proved that it could be done – all it takes is desire and cooperation to keep it going!