Safety from Within
Note: this is the same article as was published in Dutch on 1 July
Many are unfamiliar with the fact that the number of serious and fatal accidents in the Netherlands has been increasing since 2015. Before that time, that number fell for a long time. Existing safety management must therefore be examined. The tide can possibly be turned with the explanation below. And that also results in pleasant side effects such as fewer accidents in general, improving the quality of products and services, less damage, higher productivity, lower costs, and so on. And even without it have to be accompanied by extra manpower, hiring consultancy firms and the like. Should make many happy.
In order to grow Safety from Within, I mention four elements here: what moves people, integrating safety into company policy, the power of safety (instead of the "headache file") and the importance of psychological safety. These four are of course closely linked. What I review in this article is just a coat rack. The "coats to be hung" are asking for more depth, but without a coat rack it is difficult to hang coats!
First motivation. What moves people? The Dan Pink TED talk (https://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pink_on_motivation) explains that clearly. You only have to watch it from minute 2 to 4. Rewarding is not a motivator (note: it is a dissatisfier!). And the same applies to penalties. A good example dates from the late 90's in a daycare center in Haifi Israel. They were struggling with the problem that about a quarter of the children were picked up after closing time. Not nice for the children, not nice for the supervisor. This had to change. They would simply and swiftly change this behaviour and they set a fine for the late collection of the children. That will teach them. What happened? The number of parents who came to collect their children too late ...... uhh, increased ??. First to a third, in a short time even to 40% that was late. As it turned out, the parents had a moral obligation and because of the financial punishment the moral incentive was bought off. At first glance maybe not such a direct link with safety but read on. That link is huge!
Now to safety. The teachings I have had may possibly save some of you from having to go through the same (painful) experiences. In my experience, safety has always been high on my agenda during my career. When I started as a Site Manager in 2010 with the realisation of a Seveso activity, I started with that same safety spirit. The running-up, the construction, and even the start-up, with here and there some not noteworthy fits and tricks, went almost according to plan. However, a number of incidents took place shortly after commissioning. Not immediately (every new installation has 'issues' in the initial phase), but it didn't take long before it started to nibble. On a Saturday during fall, something went very wrong but without serious consequences. However, I fully realised, and therein lies the sheer luck, the coincidence, the tiny difference between a near miss and one or more fatalities. Despite a thorough RCA, a few weeks later another incident, less serious, but still, too much went wrong. Luck ends once, so after a weekend of breeding I decided to take the installation out of operation for a while. Supported by the people around me, I was of the opinion that we should investigate the process safety level of the installation. A fierce decision that caused great commotion. After a 'scan' we realised that a new HAZOP study was required. As a result, a considerable number of additional measures have been taken.
When, in the period that we were thinking again about restart, we were still shaking by what we had found out, a conviction settled in my mind: whatever objectives (commercial, productivity, costs) would be imposed on me, safety would always be on the agenda and I solemnly promised myself that I would no longer be distracted by any pressure whatsoever. There is, of course, a lot to be said about everything that should have been done differently in the design phase, because if that had been done properly we would never have ended up in this situation, but I will not elaborate on this in this paper. We were where we were, and we had to deal with those shortcomings. The installation was put back into operation, the organisation subsequently developed strongly, and with all activities, actions, plans, and so on, with safety, with considering risks as a basis. We have now moved on for a number of years and I have come to the following conclusion: if your safety focus is clear and you look clearly at and deal with risks, and take appropriate control measures for every situation and activity, you not only drastically reduce the number of incidents, but it has an contagious effect on the other interests of your company such as quality of your products or services, productivity, your uptime, elimination of bottlenecks, maintenance of the installations, your cost management, and so on! Safety, we have experienced since, is therefore not a "headache", it is not a “brake", it is not an “obstacle", but it is a “muscle"! The most important thing is to integrate safety (risk thinking) into all activities that are being undertaken.
And now back to intrinsic motivation. If this mindset 'intrinsically' grows, then it becomes a way of working, of thinking, of collaborating and settles in all your systems. For many organisations, safety is number 1 at the weekly MT-meeting and also during the morning prayer. But that resembles how important it is, but it is as extrinsic as can be. Compliance management. And if the subject of safety is the first thing that usually has passed the agenda without any significant issues, then we will move as fast as can be to topics such as deadlines, productivity, too high downtime, recurring maintenance problems, the market, turnover and what the hell to do with those (too) high costs! No, it should be on the agenda for all activities, not in a special or in the first place. So not: safety is at 1, no, safety at all activities. We apply risk management thinking to all activities. What measures do we need to take to bring the risks that we see to an acceptable level?
Looking at safety in this way does not mean that it will become less or simpler, but it will be with more focus and with much more effectiveness, it will become part of the system, it will go from inside out instead of imposed requirements, it will become increasingly intrinsic.
Incidentally, this does not take away, and actually unnecessary to mention at all, but I do it anyway because otherwise I would be reminded by many that the legal frameworks (Seveso, Occupational Safety laws, and so on) are and remain the bear minimum, a minimum limit and is simply a must to keep the not-safety-minded under control. However, those laws are imposed, are extrinsically driven and deal with compliance and bring punishment and fines if things are not in control. And a must is also a safety management system, preferably integrated with the quality or business system / manual. Every organisation needs structure. No self-respecting safety company works without a management system.
But that does not stick, because it is imposed extrinsically. From the inside, intrinsically, you leave those legal frameworks behind you over time. A condition for intrinsic motivation is psychological safety. People should be able to raise safety issues or near misses without risk of reprimanding or repercussion, and receive feedback, even if this means that delays or temporary shuts downs production so be it. A culture of trust and transparency is emerging. During his inaugural speech in January, Job Groeneweg (psychologist and behaviour scientist) of the Universities of Leiden and of Delft explained that in his findings, psychological safety is at the very top when it comes to safety culture. And it is a very important condition for the development of intrinsic motivation!
Summarising:
- see the importance of and use the knowledge of intrinsic motivation
- integrate safety in all business activities (and not as a separate management program)
- recognise safety as a “muscle" (instead of a “headache")
- see the importance of and create psychological safety
In our “Safety from Within" training course, these themes are unraveled, explained, and with these insights as a basis, handles are provided in such a way that these insights become implementable. A large number of companies have already embraced these insights, but many have not yet and sometimes they do not know how to do it, or where to start. We can help with this.
