Breaking Through

I think that we, safety professionals, are on the verge of breaking through to our next major shift in building safer, more effective businesses. We can do both of these things at the same time.

The way in which we think about and work with all the people is a key shift that is needed.Leading thinkers like Eric Hollnagel, Tom McDaniel, Beth Lay, Carl Stent, and Ron Gantt are searching for better, more effective ways of engaging with everyone to build on the good things people are doing.

This is not about looking at things through rose-colored glasses but rather a hard-headed, practical, proven shift in how we all work together. Most people want to be treated with respect and be listened to. Most of the people I’ve met want to do a good job and be proud of their work – even the grumpy ones. They want to have the opportunity to have their ideas heard and considered. They want to have the opportunity to explore better ways to do their work. The people working close to the actual physical work know their jobs and often have good ideas about how to do the work to improve the efficiency, effectiveness, and safety of their jobs. It is highly frustrating for them when managers do not listen to them or care about what they are thinking and know. This frustration usually leads to all sorts of counter-productive behaviors that are both unsafe and costly.

What has been you own experience when treated this way? This is not just a problem for the front-line people. This sort of behavior happens at all levels of the organization and is hugely expensive. Frustrated people do not share constructive information together, decisions are avoided, learning is blocked, and opportunities for improvement are lost.

I think that safety professionals are in an ideal place to help their organizations break through to higher levels of performance. We are often called upon to work across many different parts of the organization to provide safety insights, investigations and consulting. We often have access to many people at different levels in our organizations. This gives us a lot of opportunities to engage respectfully with the people and open up the important conversations.

We can model the behavior of asking questions for understanding, of listening deeply, helping to understanding the situations and exploring ideas together. As we engage with the people with respect and consideration, trust builds. As trust builds, people are more willing to open up and discuss their ideas and concerns. Each positive conversation builds on the ones before it. In this process a space for open, honest conversations develops.

The breakthrough comes as more and more people are building on their successes, sharing ideas and insights, testing their thoughts with each other, and seeing what is possible. People find meaning in this way of working; they feel better about themselves and their jobs. More and more focus and clarity develop about how to do their work more safely and better. In addition to the good work you are doing with the safety systems and procedures, with your compliance and training efforts, you are bringing the people into the business. New ideas keep emerging and more good decisions are being made.

Engaging with the people this way takes courage, care, concern, and commitment. This is an ongoing way of working. Getting out of our offices and into the workplaces takes time and effort. When I learned to work this way, I discovered that my job got a lot easier. The gap between work-as-imagined and work-as-done almost disappeared. I found I was working on real challenges and getting out ahead of problems. All of us can engage with people this way. It is a matter of will; just do it!