Workplace Safety Culture

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Have you ever experienced a time in your life when you were having trouble coming up with an idea? Have you ever observed someone at work saying, "I can't do that" and then nothing happened, or you said, I can't do that" and find that you're stuck?

What is truth when it comes to safety? The regulation-oriented data tells us a part of the story with respect to training, incident records, safety meetings, work orders, policies/procedures and the like. Observations add a bit more insight to what our people are actually doing when they are occasionally being watched/evaluated by others.

How often do you thank the members of your safety team? Whether they are safety professionals or volunteers on your safety team or even people who have been appointed based upon their position in your organization, they are a special group of people. As a safety speaker, I always end any presentation to safety teams or leaders with a thank you on behalf of all the people they protect.

On Friday, July 11, Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told a national press conference he was “disappointed,” “deeply troubled,” “frankly angry,” “astonished,” “unsettled,” “upset” and had lost sleep over safety lapses at CDC facilities that “never should have happened.”

Why are our most important leaders, responsible for driving improvement in performance, culture and results, often our most inexperienced, undertrained, underdeveloped and incapable? Most of us have seen the situation when the super employee becomes the supervisor without ever being taught how to be an effective leader.

The regulation-oriented data tells us a part of the story with respect to training, incident records, safety meetings, work orders, policies/procedures and the like. Observations add a bit more insight to what our people are actually doing when they are occasionally being watched/evaluated by others.

Certainly the average person desires to be both liked and respected. While a gross oversimplification of behavioral sciences, we behave in a way consistent with seeking out what we desire and avoiding what we don’t. Leaders of all kinds are often put in positions to make decisions that impact the lives of others.

A great leader has passed, Chuck Noll, Hall of Fame coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Coach Noll impacted the lives of many, many people. Chuck Noll is the only NFL head coach to win four Super Bowls and may be the greatest NFL coach ever.

These words keep surfacing at safety conferences, speeches, articles and conversations and paint a picture of the issues and trends important to the profession here in 2014: Value– as in, “What’s the value of having a safety professional around here?”