In order to build a culture of safety excellence, information needs to be widely shared in a way that it is credible, clear and understood. Talking together is so important.
Treating people with respect, showing them that we care about them and their safety, listening to them as they share their hopes, concerns and ideas, is vital to building a culture of safety excellence.
As managers go into their workplaces, walking around watching, listening and sharing with true authenticity and interest, trust and interdependence build. People learn to open up, to share, to point out possible areas for improvement, and to realize that they are a critical part of the whole safety effort. A huge, positive shift in the safety culture occurs. The people close to the actual, physical work are often in the best position to see potential hazards that are not visible to the managers. The managers often need to push to meet production schedules so it is easy for them to miss these potential hazards. Therefore, having the active help of those closest to the work is an important piece of the total safety effort. This is one way we avoid disasters like the Deepwater Horizon explosion and fire.
Yet, many managers find that talking like this with the people in the organization is difficult. In the early days of my career, I also was reluctant to go into the workplace and talk with the people. This is a participative process and sometimes you can get tripped up. I found that I needed to get very clear about the safety messages and their importance so that I was able to be coherent and credible as I engaged with every one. Once I had the ideas about safety clear and cogent, I could easily talk with people. I learned that I did not have to have the answers to every question that was asked. When I didn’t know the answer, I’d say I did not know and would get back to them as quickly as I could. This actually made the encounters more effective since the people could see that I was listening and learning as well. People want to get to know their managers and see that they are truly interested in them and their safety.
So, I strongly suggest that the managers get clear and coherent on their safety messages, get out of their offices and into their workplaces, talking together, listening and learning so problems can be avoided and potential improvements identified. Then get going with the people to solve the problems and make the improvements. This takes time and effort, but over the long run, time is saved and leading gets easier as we avoid the dreadful mistakes and injuries.
This way of communicating with the people is highly effective and a key part of The Complexity Leadership Process. While much of my focus is related to workplace safety, this Complexity Leadership Process can apply to all aspects of organizational life since organizations are complex evolving systems.
Safety is very complex with all the interactions of people, technology and varying conditions; this tool enables the people to have the necessary conversations for them to come together in partnership and achieve excellence.
Most of us working in safety have been brought up to see organizations as if they are machine-like. This thinking goes all the way back to Descartes (1596-1650) and Newton (1642-1727). We use reductionist approaches to try to understand them. We seek cause/effect relationships. We use linear processes for training and the like, prescribing answers and doing things TO the people. We work on this part or that part trying to fix the whole thing. 
Lots of critical knowledge, experience and skills will be lost. Younger people, who have grown up in an electronic world of texting and games, will replace these people. Many are out of shape and bordering on being over weight; some are developing diabetes. This will pose significant challenges to employers and the need to work safely and well.
Most of the safety people I’ve come to know approach organizations as if they are mechanical things to manipulate. Organizations are structured in functions. Knowledge is structured in pieces. People are narrowly skilled. Motivation is based on external factors. Information is shared on a need to know basis. Change is a troubling problem. People work in prescribed roles seeing only their part of the work. If change is needed people are moved around like chairs. Training is provided in abundance. Safety programs are set up as step-by-step processes where things are arranged in a prescribed sequence. 
Overlap: All three of these areas of safety are often lumped together as SHE, EHS or HSE. When we lump these all together we can miss things so I think it is useful to see these three overlapping, interacting areas of our safety and health work. There is some overlap between Occupational Safety and Occupational Health like the proper selection and use of respirators. There is some area of overlap between Occupational Health and Process Safety like preventing chronic exposures to toxic chemicals. There is some overlap between Process Safety and Occupational Safety like locating trailers and offices away from operating areas using large quantities of flammable and explosive materials.
