safety | Safety Excellence For Business

Peeling the Onion: Exposing the Various Layers of Safety in the Workforce

January 10, 2022 By Richard N. Knowles Leave a Comment

Let’s peel back the onion on some recently published Safety Stats.

The number of people killed at work dropped in 2020 – Good News!

The Year 2021 was full of changes and challenges. Much of the news was pretty negative. But, one piece of good news was that the US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the number of fatal occupational injuries in 2020 dropped from 5,333 in 2019 to 4,764 in 2020. This is the first drop in fatalities since 2014. This is good, but no one knows why this happened. There are many possible things that could have had an impact. We must peel back the onion and look deeper.

Here are some stats:

Did the COVID epidemic have an influence? Probably.
Were there fewer businesses operating? Yes.
Were fewer people actually at work? Yes.
The pressures of excessive overtime were up as businesses began to expand again but could not get enough people to fill all the positions. Did this have an impact? Maybe.
Were the numbers unclear because there were more part-time workers? Probably.
Was management actually doing a better job in the safety arena? I hope so!
Even though there was a lot more stress among the people with all the COVID worries, the number of murders dropped by 14.5%. Women made up 16.3% of workplace homicides. Maybe people were handling the stress better than usual. I hope so!
Exposure to harmful substances went up, including overdose of drugs. Was this from increased workplace pressures. Maybe.
Fatal injuries among law enforcement people went up 18.6% to 115 people. Thank you for your courage!

This is a complex problem with which all of us in safety are working to improve. The number of fatal injuries in 2020 was lower than it has been (and that is a good thing!), but the reasons are multifaceted. Please keep up the safety work you are doing and we’ll see if the 2021 numbers improve again.

What Do Workers Want?

American workers want better stability, safety, and leadership.

Randstad, USA, a large professional and commercial staffing organization, recently conducted a survey of their clients, finding that the COVID situation had an enormous impact in raising the workers’ concerns for safety. Workers want their leaders to clearly take the lead, making and acting on decisions to improve their safety and the stability of the workplace environment. Workers want clear standards on vaccinations and working conditions like spacing and overtime considerations. This is a big challenge since guidance from the Government, OSHA, the CDC and the courts is in such flux, and the shortage of skilled workers complicates this even further. This is a huge source of stress on everyone. It is critical that there is open, honest conversations among all the people so the best, most logical decisions can be made. This is really the work of leaders and the people want them to step up and lead.

Getting back to the onion metaphor…the Leader needs to be rooted (strength of conviction, knowledgeable) and have a strong inner core…yet be flexible, able to listen, communicate and most importantly, to be able to step up and lead.

Call to Action: As you peel back the onion around the safety performance of your workplace during this past year, what will you find? Contact me (716-622-6467) and I’ll share with you the “Layers of Safety” I use when speaking to Leaders on becoming the most effective they can be in leading Safety in the Workplace.

Preventing Workplace Violence – Across the Spectrum

June 11, 2018 By Richard N. Knowles Leave a Comment

The American Society of Safety Professionals 2018 Professional Development Conference, June 4-6, in San Antonio, Texas, was attended by well over 4,500 people who came together to learn, share and network. There were many papers and large session presentations.

The rapid growth of active shooter incidents was one of the main areas of concern. The FBI and other experts gave talks about this, with their main focus on the active shooter incident itself. Most active shooter situations are conducted by men. Most of these occur in places of business. There is no typical profile for these people who come from all walks of life.

All the presenters emphasized the need for having a strong plan of action so that the organization is ready if this terrible situation occurs. Most organizations have good plans in the event of a fire and practice fire drills. Something similar to this is needed in the event of an active shooter incident.

Claire and I made a presentation on Partner-Centered Leadership: Reducing Workplace Violence and Eliminating Waste. We looked at workplace violence from a whole systems perspective, beginning with the lack of respect which leads to harassment, bullying, workplace injuries, violent behavior, and deaths from murder and suicide. Our workplaces that tolerate the lack of respect and these other behaviors are incubators for violent behaviors and, at the minimum, for hostile workplaces.

We at Nagele, Knowles and Associates, want to engage with organizations to look at the whole range of behaviors and develop together, an effective plan that is suitable for their particular situation. This is a complex, messy problem requiring us to help the people to solve this complex problem. We use a focused dialogic process that brings everyone together to build the best plans possible.

The elimination of workplace violence saves the organization a lot of money by reducing arguments, grievances, absenteeism, and high turnover. It also opens up new potential by opening up the free flow of information among the people. Ideas can be exchanged and developed, new and safer procedures created, and more problems can be solved. People create better, healthier relationships other than looking out for each other’s wellbeing. New potential for the business often emerges from the open conversations. All these things lead to the potential for higher profits.

When an organization uses a whole systems approach to the elimination of workplace violence, the people win because it is a good place to work, and the organization wins because they stop wasting money and open up new possibilities for better earnings.

If you are interested in receiving our blueprint booklet for reducing the risk of workplace violence (from the inside or the outside), please contact us at NageleKnowlesAndAssociates.com. We’ll be happy to send you a copy.

What People are Saying…

On May 18, 2018, we (Nagele, Knowles and Associates) held a workshop in Tampa. It was billed, “What You Need to Know about Reducing the Risk of Workplace Violence.” Feedback was excellent. What we found is that people do have some burning questions, and came away with new learning from this session.

Here are some reflections:

I did not realize how much the “culture side of the organization” is involved in preventing workplace violence. The continuum of incivilities to bullying to harassment to vengeful acts to even murder is an eye-opener. Especially because supervision must know how to intervene.
I realize now, how employee engagement fits. I’m anxious to learn more about having in place an integrated, constructive dialog process for our in-tact work groups to use to stop bullying and harassment while having a positive engagement approach.
More and more I see how important it is for the every-day interactions we have to be keen on lifting up the concerns around employees that may be showing warning clues…so we pay attention…and do what we need to do, quickly.
I think every workplace needs to have some Active-shooter training (at the minimum).
Why are so many supervisors “weak in their leadership?” Why do they ignore bad behaviors? (Yes, we do know the answer to that!)

Filed Under: Safety Excellence, Safety for Business, Safety Leadership Tagged With: prevent workplace violence, safety, workplace violence

What If Your Organization’s Safety in 2017 was NOT VERY GOOD?

January 17, 2018 By Richard N. Knowles Leave a Comment

What Can You Do to Turn it Around…So That Every Person Goes Home Safe at the End of the Day?

Recognize Einstein’s Words of Wisdom: “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.“

This means that a serious “retrospection” is needed. What happened right in 2017? What went wrong? Why? How do we make sure that injuries/incidents will not happen again? Where are we strong? Where are we missing the mark? Who’s supporting Safety? Who’s undermining Safety? How?

Look Deeper: Where are we at cross-purposes? What mixed signals are being given to the Organization? How is Leadership truly leading safety?

Look deeply at the processes you have in place that demonstrate authentic caring about your people and their safety. Here are some great examples…Are your first line supervisors asking these type of questions of their direct reports on a daily basis (individually, and team-wise) in order to manage risks, & engage people genuinely:

What are the top 2 or 3 risks you face today in your work?
How will you need to help (coworker) today (and vice-versa)?
What are the standards you are using today for this job?
What risks are you facing and how will you manage them today?
How will you know you’ve…done a safe, quality job?
What help do you think you might require today?
What extra precautions are you taking?
What did you learn today, in the course of your work, that you can share to help others on this team (gain competence and commitment to safety)?
How did you do on a scale of 1 to 10 today? What surprised you?
How can you share this new information to make tomorrow’s tasks be done more safely?

What is Essential to Know: The safety performance of any work team, work group, organization or company directly correlates to the Leadership of Safety…at all Levels of Leadership.

Call us at 716-622-6467 if you want to turn your organization around.

Filed Under: Safety Excellence, Safety for Business Tagged With: safety, safety performance

Caring for Each Other: How to Hold Those Meaningful Conversations!

August 12, 2016 By Richard N. Knowles Leave a Comment

In my June 29th presentation at the American Society of Safety Engineers 2016 Professional Development Conference, I discussed the fact that one of the best ways for the safety professional attending the talk to help to improve the safety performance in their workplaces was to show the people that they cared about them and to enable them to make decisions about their specific work. I want to elaborate on these ideas in this newsletter. This is not just for the safety professional. This is for every team leader, supervisor, and workgroup leader. Going into your workplaces and opening up the conversations is a journey; each time you do this it gets easier and more effective. (Caring, Understanding and Openness!)

Meaningful caring to me means that we treat each other with respect as adults.

As managers and supervisors we get out of our offices and go into the workplace.
Help people to see that it is okay to talk together and be open with each other.
We sit down together in their work place and have a cup of coffee together. We are not in a hurry just trying to make some specified number of contacts.
We share the truth together as best we can knowing that today’s truth may be different than the truth for tomorrow because the world keeps changing, and reminding them that you’ll be back tomorrow if things have changed.
We ask about how we each are doing. How is the day going? What good things are happening? What have we learned today or over the last few days? We listen to what we each are saying.
We try to build on each other’s good ideas.
We talk about how the business is doing? We talk about the contributions we are making to the success of the business.
We discuss problems together sharing our viewpoints and seeking possible solutions. If people ask you questions which you can’t answer, tell them you do not know and will get back to them…then do it. We pay attention to the dynamics and do not over stay our visit.

As we get to know each other better we begin to explore what is really going on around here.

Are we really doing what we say we want to be doing?
How can our communications get clearer and better?
What is the rumor mill saying? Talk together about the rumors and clear them up.
Do you see better ways to go after the problems around here than we are doing? What are we missing?
Are there hidden elephants we need to be addressing?
When we have made a mistake, we own up to it and say we are sorry. We ask for their help.
Are there better ways that you see to get your job done well?
What information do you need to get your work done more effectively? Let’s talk some more about your good ideas and see if you can make some improvements.
What is going on over and over that is really bugging you?

As you get to know the people even better, there will be opportunities to inquire about how the family is doing. You can ask…how the kids are doing in their sports and schoolwork, ask if there are things that you can be doing to help them, ask how everyone’s health is, etc. You need to use good judgment as you get into these personal conversations and not push things too far into their privacy, by accident.

These are the kinds of conversations that most of us would like to have with our own managers. How many times have you wanted to talk together with them to share an idea or problem and have not had a chance to do it? How often do you get to talk with your boss’s boss? What is important and good for you in talking with your boss is about the same as for you talking with the people in your organization about the things that are important to them.

We are all partners in making our workplaces to become healthier, physically and mentally, and helping the people in them to be the best they can be. This is a key element of Partner-Centered Safety!

Filed Under: Safety for Business Tagged With: injury-free workplaces, leadership, safety

Conceptualize “Caring” in Your Workplace! Then Conceptualize “Tragic Fatality” in Your Workplace!

August 10, 2016 By Richard N. Knowles Leave a Comment

Eighty (80) pages and counting…that’s how far I got while perusing the numerous pages for the 2015 fatalities logged on OSHA reports – there were still many names and circumstances yet to read.

Each one of the entries represents a real person – who has a name, a family, a job, and was doing a task within his/her workplace. I also looked at the OSHA count for 2014 and the total fatalities in the workplace that year numbered 4,821.

Think about this tragic loss of life. 4,821 is a big number made up of 1+1+1+1 + another, another, another, and each single number is not just a number…it is connected to a personal name. Having recently visited the 911 Memorial in New York City, it really drives home the importance of an individual – a named individual. The visual has such meaning.

Making a living shouldn’t have to cost you your life. As Dr. David Michaels, Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health notes,workplace fatalities, injuries, and illnesses are preventable.

Employers and Employees share responsibility for safety. We say that we care. We know that we care deeply when we are touched by the closeness of a tragic injury to someone we know – we’re able to put a face and a name to the number. Yet, how many times have you tuned out during a safety meeting, thinking that the subject was boring, or giving only lip-service, believing it can’t happen here.

If only we all understood that every single safety rule has been written in blood. Meaning someone, somewhere, somehow was hurt badly enough that rules emerged to prevent a recurrence. Yet, the OSHA logs keep growing, showing real time statistics. We have a lot of caring to demonstrate!

Conceptualize real caring. What does it look like in your workplace? In the 80’s, there was something called a “Unity Triangle,” which was a useful model…to strive for commitment within a team structure in a way that demonstrates caring, understanding and openness (all three) so that individual growth is stimulated while team efforts are increasingly directed toward achieving safe workplaces, and organizational alignment of goals.

The learning is this:

Ponder this: We can have safe workplaces. We can have involved, caring, individual, safe-minded employees. We can understand that safety rules are written in blood and we can be open about connecting with our coworkers to keep learning and remaining diligent in keeping each other safe. We can be open to reaching out in ways we may not have done before; we can be open to achieving full Safety alignment…by everyone in the workplace, in our teams, individually and collectively.

That’s unity…that’s being aligned on the principle that making a living (anywhere) shouldn’t have to cost a real person his/her life…none of us are numbers. We are a Team, with named individuals, committed to the betterment of our collective workplace.

Filed Under: Safety for Business, Safety Leadership Process Tagged With: business safety, safety

Shifting the Way We Look at Organizations

July 11, 2016 By Richard N. Knowles Leave a Comment

On June 29, 2016, I presented a paper at the American Society of Safety Engineers 2016 Professional Development Conference in Atlanta, Georgia. It was titled “Partner-Centered Safety: A New Leadership Approach for Safety Excellence.”

My message to those who attended my session was that the Bureau of Labor safety statics show the rate of improvement in reducing injuries in the workplace has slowed down since about 2009 and the rate of improvement for deaths has stopped; about 4,600-4,700 people are being killed at work each year.

The safety professionals and managers are putting a lot of effort into improving the safety performance in our workplaces, but we seem to be stuck. I think that the problem is that we are approaching organizations as if they are just complicated systems rather than as complex systems.

The complicated view of organizations has served us well, and a lot of progress has been achieved. Now we need to move forward in our thinking.

When we view our organizations as complex systems, a better description of the way organizations actually behave emerges.

While many people crave reliability, predictability, stability, and control for their organizations, this is rarely achieved. Our organizations are full of movement, feedback, changes, and surprises. Nothing sits still; everything is in motion.

When I learned to view my organization as a complex system, everything improved. Our injury rate dropped by ~97%, earnings rose ~300%, emissions dropped ~88%, and productivity rose ~45%.

My experience in leading the organization as if it was a complicated system was difficult and strenuous. I felt that I had to push everything to get the work accomplished safely, and we never achieved success. When I shifted to a complexity view of the organization, everything became easier to lead, my work was more effective and the improvements were dramatic. In working with the organization as a complex system, the people opened up, the conversations were more purposeful, and energy and creativity were released. All dimensions of the business improved and the people were pleased and proud of their achievements.

There is a lot in making this shift in perspective. I think that everyone can learn to work this way. I would be happy to talk with any of you about this and help you on your own journeys.

Filed Under: Safety Excellence, Safety Leadership Process Tagged With: business safety, complex systems, safety

Brother’s and Sister’s Keepers

May 11, 2016 By Richard N. Knowles Leave a Comment

Hardly any of us can do our best work all by ourselves.

We need teammates to help us stay focused and be fully present to our work. None of us can see all that is happening around us so someone to be our keeper is critical to our safety. We need someone to remind us if we are hurrying or preoccupied. We can do a much better take-two pre-start-up check if we have someone there with us looking, thinking about and talking over the work before us.

Here are some things that we need to be doing as a Brother’s/Sister’s Keeper.

We can keep alert about someone being in danger because we notice that they are preoccupied.
We can look for potential safety hazards, and talk about them with our teammates.
We can check to see if our safety procedures are consistent and adequate for the job we are about to begin.
We can talk with our brothers and sisters about looking for some really unexpected event or condition that could kill one of us.
We can talk with our teammates about the elephants that are blocking us and messing up our work.
We can help to check the OSHA rules and procedures to be sure we are in compliance.
We can stop the job if we see it is going unsafely.
We can help to be sure that we have the right tools for the work before us.
We can ensure that we (alone or together) do not take shortcuts.
There are lots of things we can do as a Brother’s/Sister’s Keeper and we can be open and receptive to the Brother or Sister looking after us.

Sometimes the events can roll out like a string of dominos. Some little thing at the beginning tips over, bumping into the next domino and so on until we have a big, ugly event. Brother’s and Sister’s can help us to see these little events and avoid the big one that comes like a snowball rolling down a hill.

Being a brother or sister goes both ways – I look after you and you look after me. This is a deep responsibility for us to be doing so that no one gets hurt or killed and we all get the job done to the highest standards.

Brothers and Sisters are really important when we dig more deeply into the real issues behind an observed hazard. Two or three people who are looking for and thinking about the deeper issues are much more likely to find the real, basic problem behind the hazard and be able to eliminate or minimize it. They can also help to find the best ways to circumvent a hazard; two minds are better than one!

Being our Brother’s and Sister’s Keepers is a deep responsibility we all have. None of us have a right to work in a place where it is okay for someone to get hurt. Taking on the roles and responsibilities of being our Brother’s and Sister’s Keepers is a big step in moving the organization’s safety performance beyond compliance towards excellence.

Filed Under: Safety for Business, Safety Leadership Tagged With: safety, safety culture, workplace safety

Caring: Displaying Kindness and Concern for Others

April 18, 2016 By Richard N. Knowles Leave a Comment

A few days ago, I had the opportunity to hear Mark Breslin, a professional speaker, author and strategist (Breslin Strategies), talk about his approach to going beyond compliance in safety performance.

He made the point that the two most important things to people in the workplace are:

to be sincerely praised and recognized; authenticity is key
to be given the opportunity to make decisions; autonomy

People need to know that management cares. These important ideas are quite consistent with some of our ideas in Partner-Centered Safety.

construction safety In our Partner-Centered Safety realm, we go beyond this to having everyone (the people on the floor, the supervisors, the managers, and all the others) feel they are cared about. Caring means helping each other, listening to each other, sharing information, being respectful, asking for help and receiving it, looking out for each other, saying we are sorry when we make a mistake, and treating each other as whole persons. Just what caring means for people is something on which they should all agree. Management, alone, should not do it for their approach can often be quite patronizing – treating the people in the work place as if they are children. All the people, at all levels, together, need to come up with their ideas about what caring is for them. Management should not try to dictate the answers, but management needs to open up and lead this discussion about caring or it will not be addressed. Caring is visible; as is non-caring. Partner-Centered Safety is visible caring. Mistreatment of people is non-caring.

For example, in one plant making large pumps to fracture gas wells, there was a serious injury when a guy tried to hoist a 3,200-pound pump with a 2,000-pound rated overhead crane. The pump fell onto the employee’s hand causing serious damage. When I was talking about this with another man on an adjacent work table about 10 feet away, I asked him if he had seen what was happening. He said he had. When I asked why he did not stop the work, he said that he was not the other guy’s boss. They had never talked about caring and what it meant to them. This is certainly not caring! Being your brother’s/sister’s keeper was a foreign concept.

In another example, when we have bullies in the workplace, they cause huge destruction in shutting down communications. How can there be an authentic and caring atmosphere with bullies contaminating the environment by picking on people when they speak up and try to contribute. Sometimes, the bully is in supervision, which makes matters worse. Management must deal with them for they are extremely destructive. The culture is set by the worst behavior that is tolerated!

However, when the people all come together to talk about the various ways they want to show caring, treat each other, and agree on ways to work together, the culture quickly shifts towards one that is open, healthy, and where the communications can flow freely. This is the environment where there can be good learning, growth and progress towards safety excellence. This is the environment where people can talk together about their ideas, share opportunities to improve the work, and have the opportunity for making decisions about some of the things going on and how they are cared about and treated.

Filed Under: Safety for Business, Self-Organizing Leadership Tagged With: management safety, safety, Safety culture and the Management of Change

We do “Safety” Because We Care

April 11, 2016 By Richard N. Knowles Leave a Comment

Bok-Tower-Gardens At one of the highest geographical points in Florida, at Lake Wales, is a large, 205-ft high, carillon tower. It is beautiful, as are the gardens surrounding this tower structure, made of glistening coquina stone. The tower and gardens were a gift from benefactor Edward W. Bok, who cared deeply about nature, beauty and sanctuary spaces. Millions of visitors have traversed this place of solace since it opened in 1929. Edward Bok was all about CARING for future generations – to be able to enjoy peace and beauty. His tribute signature is this:

“Make you the world a bit better or more beautiful because you have lived in it.”
~ Edward W. Bok (1929)

Our safety work (at R.N. Knowles & Associates) has taken us to many places over the last few months. We’re reminded, as we’ve interacted with many people, and visited many workplaces, that Safety is about caring deeply. Likened to Edward Bok’s inspiration about caring about the world of beauty and leaving his legacy, let’s substitute the word safety for beauty, and leave our positive safety legacy for our respective workplaces. What if everyone in our workplaces chose to care deeply about safety?

What if this statement became your chosen signature phrase?

“Make your work-world a bit better and more safe because you have lived in it.” (2016)

We all make choices – every day – as we live and work in our workplaces. We do “Safety” because we care deeply – stemming from a core concern for others.