Volume 1 Issue 2
A DIVISION OF STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS PTY LTD
T R A N S F O R M AT I O N A L S A F E T Y. C O M
OCTOBER 2005
Safety Culture: A Journey Begins Well what do we understand by “culture”. It is often a misunderstood word, so for the purposes of our journey we had better work out a definition we can live with.
antecedents within BBS. Enough of that, lets get back to our cultural journey. Many people ask me: Why should we spend time on this “cultural *&^%)”. My response is
to find yourself reaching for the cheque book. Nonetheless there is limited evidence supporting the view that nice bright safety procedures means a nice clean safer workplace.
The noted social anthroTraditional pologist safety has James TransformationalSafety.Com primarily foSpradley cused on what gives an International Contact Details are someelegantly times calked succinct Oceania: +61 - 2 - 49343653 the 3 E’s of definition of United States: +1 - 562 - 2392561 safety; Educaculture, in Europe: +44 - 020 - 711931675 tion, Engiwhich every neering, and word is Asia: +852 - 8175-7801 Enforcement. carefully chosen. What we have seen quite simple; yet exthough is that despite Culture is the acquired tremely complex. this intense focus such knowledge people use has not resulted in any to interpret experience “Culture is why we do significant impact on and generate behaviour what we do!” accident statistics or Those of you who may Bucketfuls of businesses workers compensation have done some investispend time creating and costs within many gation into Behavioural promoting bucketfuls of global jurisdictions. Based Safety (BBS) safety policy and proceRegulator's too recogshould have a close look dures. In many jurisdicnise the value that at this; in other words think tions this is a regulated about how this definition requirement so it needs to (Continued on page 3) acts as a feeder for the be done if you don't want
Travelling around China with David (Part II) In the inaugural edition I introduced you to my arrivals confusion and some aspects of table etiquette. This time I am going to spend some time reminiscing about some of the early morning walks I took around the outer areas of Beijing.
What becomes very evident is the curious looks you receive. At home I am very used to being a member of the cultural majority. If someone is staring at me at home I am quickly checking to see that everything is in its place. In the ar-
eas that I was wandering I would frequently walk for an hour and not see another Caucasian. Indeed I am not sure the residents saw many either if the number of “stares” is anything to go by. (Continued on page 2)
Special points of interest:
Inside this issue: Safety Culture: A Journey Begins
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Travelling around China with David
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Safety Procedures: What Works Best?
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Safety Leadership in a Crisis: A Managers Worst Nightmare
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Fire-fighting: Why it Actually Makes Things Worse
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Some Thoughts on Intellectual Property (IP)
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David Broadbent confirms his position as an international authority on the interaction between leadership behaviour and safety outcomes.
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Travel around China with David; take another look at the humble Cricket.
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Developing a proactive safety culture within your business is quite achievable when you implement the principles of Transformational Safety.
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Leadership in a Crisis demands some very specific behaviours. David begins the journey of crisis management in the midst of organisational trauma.
Travelling around China with David (cont) (Continued from page 1)
Once you get past this strange sensation, whilst also gaining an appreciation for something we don't often think about. The surroundings become more focused. The first thing I noticed was the pace of the morning. Everybody is rushing and there is huge variance in the modes of travel. It is not at all uncommon to see several 7 Series BMW’s and a couple of Audi 8’s pushing their way through a multitude of pushbikes that appear extremely well used. Add to that the unlimited supply of people walking as well and you find some of what would appear to be the most hazardous streets around. One morning I found myself walking toward a middle aged gentleman squatting down beside a blanket on the side of the road. This intrigued me from a distance so being forever the tourist I had to try and have a peek. As I came closer I began to make out what was laid out on the blanket. There was the odd bike chain, a range of quite rusted screws and various nuts bolts, a bucket of water and various spanners. It took a few moments for the penny to drop. I had stumbled upon the corner road service for pushbikes. As I continued my walk it became evident every kilometre or so somebody else had a similar blanket laid out. Coming around a corner my senses were invaded by a cacophony of sounds coming from within a grove of trees. I peered in as best I could and was unable to make out the source of these sounds. It just sounded like a warm summers evening in Australia listening to the rhythms of the Cicada’s. I was just about to give up and the first zephyr of a breeze arrived and shifted a few leaves of
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one of the nearer trees. Hanging in the branches was a small hand made cage of sorts. The construction appeared to be some type of cane? Anyway my auditory invasion appeared to be emanating, at least in part, from within that construction. I just had to know more! Having identified the source I decided to venture deeper into the grove. Almost immediately it opened up like something you would see in the movies. Inside was a fairly spacious grass area which was surrounded by this dense thicket of trees. Hanging amongst all of the lower branches were many dozens of these cane cages within which were imprisoned “crickets”. My earlier
thoughts of the Cicada were close to the mark as they are both from the same family. Anyway at the base of the grove were a couple of Chinese gentlemen doing a brisk trade running (not walking) from branch to branch collecting the little cages and then selling them to others who had arrived. It seems that the Cricket is recognised as China’s first insect and they have been symbols of luck for thousands of years. The Chinese Cricket are prized pets as well as being highly sought after as “fighters”. Yes you read that correctly; there is a very large industry built on the Chinese Fighting Cricket! In Ningyang County (in
East China’s Shandong Province) a Cricket sold for 18,000Yuen; i.e approx US$2000. This is a phenomenal amount of money in anybody's language and particularly so in China, where this could feed multiple families for a year. The Cricket market in Ningyang is reported to exceed US$12,000,000 annually. Add to that the Chinese Cricket Research Centre and the annual professional fighting circuit associated with the Tai Mountain Climbing Festival and you get a small appreciation of the value placed on these little creatures within China. Certainly a far cry from the less than esteemed position enjoyed by the Cicada within Australia and many other so-called advanced countries. Anyway coming back to the grove for a moment; one of the gentleman noticed me having a curious peek from behind the trunk of a large tree. He immediately generated a huge smile (not that he wasn't smiling in the first place), reached up to the branch above his head withdraw a cage and came across to where I was, I thought, discreetly hidden. I am not sure whether he was trying to sell or give me one of his crickets. During these early sojourns my Chinese was quite limited (I’m afraid it still is) although I did know enough of the language to respectfully decline his offer. I think between my gestures toward a nearby Hotel and my Chinese attempts at No Thanks we managed to understand the dilemma. In all of my contacts with people in China the genuine friendliness of the population is an experience in itself. Make sure you read next edition of “Safety Matters” to find out about my tour of the Forbidden City, The Great Wall; not to be missed.
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Safety Culture: A Journey Begins (Cont) (Continued from page 1)
Safety Culture provides. For example in the State of Montana, in the United States, we find a piece of legislation called the “Safety Culture Act”. The Act encourages workers and employers to come together to create and implement a workplace safety philosophy. It is the intent of the Act to raise workplace safety to a pre-eminent position in the minds of all Montana's workers and employers. I have to say I have lost count of the number of times senior managers have said to me:“we have been investing in safety for some time, we regularly have our safety audits, and we still see people getting hurt falling off the ladder. To make matters worse they did not lash the ladder and it also fell and hit somebody else on the head. They know better, they’re always having safety training”
This is the nub of the challenge confronted by so many trying to make their workplaces safer. It comes down again to why do people do what they do. So let’s talk more spe-
cifically about beginning the journey toward a proactive best practice safety culture. The very first thing we need to get our head around is the question of priorities. In business we are forever accosted by various priorities and we feel good when we promote our approach to safety as giving it the highest priority. Sounds good does it not! We are saying that safety in our business has a higher priority than production, quality, build etc. I am going to suggest to you that maybe this is not quite as good as it sounds. Consider for a moment what are your core values. In my case the values I have based my personal and business life on are honesty, integrity, loyalty and trust. When it comes to values these are pretty intransigent. In other words they are fundamental beliefs about who we are and the way we believe things should be. I am hoping you are seeing here the
difference between a Value and a Priority. Priorities by their very nature are able to be varied dependant upon circumstances. As indicated previously priorities are always competing for placement, resources etc. On more than one occasion I have seen business temporarily allow production to become a greater priority than safety with dire results. That manager had to visit a home and tell a family their loved one would never be returning home. In contrast to this, having Safety as a core value means that nothing can shift it. This is far more than a “play on words”. It is about loudly, consistently, and assertively demonstrating from the top of the business, and throughout all its levels, that safety is an intransigent value within the organisation. It is not something we consciously have to think about. It is about who we are. I recall visiting one work site in which a telephone call came through (Continued on page 4)
Safety Procedures: What works best?
Earlier within this edition of Safety Matters we speak about the ubiquitous “safety procedure”. We all have them (or we should), they come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. The first question to ask is why do we have safety procedures at all. There are a number of responses we might come up with:1. It is the right thing to do 2. We have to or we’ll get fined 3. Everyone else has them 4. Keeps the Union off our back 5. It’ll be cheaper in the long run 6. How else will the worker bees know what to do 7. It is part of an integrated safety management system 8. Really don't know; they've just always been there
I have to tell you I have heard all of the above and generally more than once. So to get your safety procedures giving you maximum value (you VOLUME 1 ISSUE 2
are also going to have to determine what method you shall use to measure “value”) I am going to suggest we need to think about them a little bit differently. Firstly we need to deal with the firfe that “good procedures” means minimal injury. Unfortunately that is not the case at all. There are all sorts of reasons why a company has safety procedures. It is just possible they may be an external indicator of an underlying effective safety culture. Alternately, it might just be that you have been fined for not having them so you now have them. Existence of safety procedures does not in itself identify the reasons why they exist. It is these reasons which most significantly contribute to the safety journey that the business is needing to travel. So the first step to effective safety procedures, arguably more important than much of the content, is
the “why do we have them in the first place”. Notwithstanding this we must also acknowledge that in many jurisdictions throughout the world safety procedures are mandated by regulation. Therefore if you do not wish to “pay up” in fines etc they are a requirement. We have thus determined that safety procedures actually are not a voluntary creation at all, are they? OK, so what makes the most effective safety procedures. They need to be accurate: Within the procedure you are outlining how you want the business to approach particular hazards etc in a manner that you believe shall result in a business outcome as close to being free of risk as is possible. They need to be pragmatic; i.e. there is no point in hav(Continued on page 4)
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Safety Procedures: (cont) What works best? (Continued from page 3)
ing the most attractive procedure on the planet if it is so complex to deliver that when employees do understand the myriad of procedural requirements they “elect” to not follow the procedure. Whilst there may well need to be a level of complexity to ensure that “all bases are covered”; the actual application demands a level of simplicity. Whilst this may be one of our goals it is not always possible. In such circumstances we need to consider applying a communication principle called “chunking”. Chunking was first put forward in the 1950s by a Harvard psychologist named George A. Miller. He published a landmark journal article entitled "The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two". Miller studied short term memory. For example, how many numbers people could be reliably expected to remember a few minutes after having been told these numbers only once. The answer was: "The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two".
Millers concept goes beyond numbers. For example, most of us can remember about seven recently learned chunks of similarly classified data. Keep these points in mind when you are presenting information to other people.
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All information should be presented in small digestible units. A digestible unit of information contains no more than nine separate items of information. Research suggests that human beings can understand and remember no more than seven plus or minus two items of information at a time. This phenomenon is called the "chunking limit". Further, as the complexity of the information increases the chunking limit decreases. By chunking information the author improves the reader's comprehension and ability to access and retrieve the information
Chunking is arguably the most effective approach to the generation of all of your safety procedures. At this stage go back and have a look at your safety procedures. Do you have more than nine bullet points anywhere. If you do then I
suggest you re-evaluate how you are presenting this information and apply the “chunking” principles. Remember there is really no magic associated with the number seven (7); it is a research validated principle, so there is actually some solid science behind it! It may be that you recognise that your safety procedures need to be reviewed. If you are going to have them, and we have determined that in most jurisdictions in the world, you must have them by law, then surely it is in your interest to ensure they actually add value to your corporate existence. Should you require assistance in “chunking” your safety procedures then feel free to contact TransformationalSafety.Com. In almost all cases this service is able to be provided remotely to any location in the World.
Safety Culture: A Journey Begins (Cont) (Continued from page 3)
you about the underlying safety culture in operation within these workplaces.
from a senior production foreman. The basis of the discussion was whether a particular injury needed to be reported to the Head Contractor; whilst this may seem important, and is, at no time during that conversation did I hear any mention of how the employee may have been faring etc. The focus was entirely upon reporting! In another instance I witnessed a senior safety officer have to excuse himself from a meeting to visit a local medical practitioner. An employee had suffered a serious sprained ankle and the medical practitioner had prescribed compression, elevation and three (3) days absence from work (an appropriate treatment, I would have thought). The “trigger” here was the absence from work. This companies VOLUME 1 ISSUE 2
safety officer was heard commenting upon how such an absence was going to effect the months “stats” and that he was attempting to have the absence reversed. The focus was entirely upon statistics!
Let me come right back to the question of values; the foundations of culture. An organisations’ culture, and indeed its safety culture, are not easily quantified; you cannot download them from the Internet. However, you can see traces of it, and you can feel it when you enter some workplaces, “wander” around and see behaviour in action. The previous examples are samples of just some of the “insights” that are inadvertently provided into Culture. In the next edition I shall explore some pragmatic strategies for developing a powerful values driven safety culture that is well grounded in contemporary safety theory.
What do these two examples tell Page 4
Safety Leadership in a Crisis: A Managers Worst Nightmare! You are a Manager and you are going about your every day work and fulfilling the many and varied responsibilities that come with the job. At times you might even think this is all a bit mundane and repetitive. Well things are about to change! You are about to be thrown into one of the nightmares of almost all workplaces. Guess what? You’re probably in “neck deep”. So there you are sitting at your desk, or you might be wandering around the Office or Plant when tragedy strikes your workplace:-
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An employee is heard screaming and someone tells you one of your staff has been run over and killed!
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The fire alarm goes off; you manage to get out, and you find that three of your people are trapped inside. They are all burnt with one fatally! An LPG gas bottle explodes and you have people lying injured all around it! You have just found out one of your longest serving employees has committed suicide; left a note and in it said he was finding work too difficult! A disgruntled employee storms into your workplace, shoots one of your people, and runs off!
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One of your people is involved in an horrific motor vehicle accident, they are “OK” but the other people are all dead! A stunned employee walks into the work area and says they were assaulted whilst coming to work!
In the first instance, your responses to such tragic situations will more than likely be automatic. You will notify the appropriate emergency services providers (Ambulance, Fire, Police) and take whatever actions are deemed necessary to preserve life and safety. At the same time workers compensation legislation may require you to contact the occupational Health & safety authority in your jurisdiction. Concurrently you may be required to contact your Insurer and advise them what has happened. In addition you may be expected to contact appropriate legal representation, whilst also contacting Senior Management. Already you can see that as the Manager a number of time sensitive expectations have landed upon you. Failure to perform these functions may be costly to you. Once the emergency services, and investigators leave, the hard questions begin for you as a Manager:-
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How do you ensure that the “right messages” are conveyed to your employ-
ees and their families regarding what has happened and what may be continuing to occur; without contributing to rumour, innuendo, and panic?
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How do you help your employees recover from this event, so their personal wellbeing and professional effectiveness will not suffer long term effects as a result of trauma? How do you get your staff moving again after employees have suffered from injury, bereavement, or psychological trauma? How do you make sure that after focussing so hard on your people that you don’t ignore your own situation; after all although you are a manager you are also just another member of this workplace?
As I’m sure you are thinking about now, there are no easy answers, and each unique set of circumstances confronts you with a unique collection of hurdles. However, there are some general guidelines to help you jump these successfully in most situations. In the next edition we shall provide you with some of the easier guidelines that shall assist you navigate the crisis optimally. We shall also provide access to excerpts the E-book “Managing Traumatic Events inside your Business”; an internationally recognised trauma management system developed by the creator of TransformationalSafety.Com
Fire-fighting: Why it actually makes things worse! When I ask your people who you most resemble when it comes to leading safety within your workplace what response am I likely to receive. “Oh them, you can never find them, particularly when something goes wrong”, or “Oh them, yeah when something goes wrong they ‘put-in’ but once the situations over they seem to disappear again” If the first snippet sounds like a reasonable facsimile of you then you are lucky you don't work for me. I would probably take a leaf out of Jim Collins’ watershed book “Good to Great” and assist you “off the bus”. In this instance though we are thinking about the style of “fire fighting”. Firefighting is one of the key Transformational Safety descriptors and refers to the leader who is seen as being very VOLUME 1 ISSUE 2
reactive to safety situations. They certainly come out and assist in the resolution of the incident, and may actually be quite good at it, although once resolved they crawl back into the shell.
one of “fire-fighting” then how can you expect your business to have any form of proactive safety management system. What you will end up with is an entirely reactive program which waits for things to happen before anything is done. Unfortunately with the improvements to engineering practices within the realm of safety it is not uncommon for that incident to be a serious one. All because the key safety leaders are “fire-fighters”. You then find yourself facing one of your worst nightmares.
So what’s wrong with this I hear you saying. Well for a start as a safety leader within the business you should be setting the “benchmark” against which your followers are likely to model their own behaviour (I actually promote the view that we are all “safety leaders” in our workplaces).
I am not suggesting you are seen as the safety policeman; this actually has minimal advantage; though certainly an improvement on fire fighting. In fact many line management safety professionals bemoan the fact that they are seen as the local safety policemen. If this is the case then there is great value in implementing The Transformational Safety System within such workplaces.
If your primary style, i.e. the one your followers observe most consistently is
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Beware of Some Safety Incentive Programs The sign at the gate read "4000 Hours Without a Lost Time Injury". Monetary awards were given based to employees bas ed on how long the y work ed withou t a los t time injur y. What's wrong with that?
TransformationalSafety.Com
Do you want to be the one that causes the number on the sign to drop to zero and voids your safety related bonus and the bonuses of those you work with? Of course not, This type of incentive program encourages employees to fail to report injuries.
A Division of Strategic Management Systems Pty Ltd Level 1, 464 High Street, MAITLAND, NSW, 2320 P.O. Box 250, MAITLAND, NSW, 2320 AUSTRALIA Telephone: Facsimile: Mobile: Email/MSN: Skype: ICQ:
In the US OSHA recently levied a fine of $65,000 against USA Waste Management; they had aligned significant cash awards to working periods of time without injury which thus caused employees to hide their injuries. The answer is to change to a totally proactive mentality instead of a reactive one. Safety mangers need to abandon the age old practice of rewards based solely on working a period of time without injury, and instead base rewards on positive behaviours
61-2-49343653 61-2-49343651 0411-252534
[email protected] d.g.broadbent 325496919
Some Ideas include awards for proactive behaviors such a employee safety suggestions. safety training, and observed safe behaviours.
YOUR PREFERRED PARTNERSHIP “We Exist to Assist” Coming in January ‘06
We’re on the Web at www.transformationalsafety.com
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Safety Culture: A Journey Continues
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Transforming Safety: The barometer of metrics explained.
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Safety Leadership in a Crisis: General Guidelines for Behaviour
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A Safety Issue at The Great Wall of China
Some thoughts on Intellectual Property (IP): A recent situation where the intellectual property (IP) of TransformationalSafety.Com was “claimed” without permission has caused us much grief. Apart from the ethical dilemma surrounding such actions by third parties (sadly ethics appears to be a plastic concept for some), there are also very structured legal frameworks which exist to protect the IP of original works. By nature and condition all work produced and published by TransformationalSafety.Com and/or its agents, is protected by international copyright. VOLUME 1 ISSUE 2
Some terms are also protected by Trademark:-
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Transformational Safety The Transformational Safety Improvement System The Transformational Safety Survey The Integrated Safety Culture Survey
That is not to say we take a hardnosed approach to IP. In actual fact we are often the opposite. As long as our IP is appropriately acknowledged, and permission sought, we are generally happy for anyone to use our material. In almost all cases we are happy to provide a release for publication etc. In this time of almost unlimited access to information it is actually in all of our
interests to be familiar with the concepts behind copyright and intellectual property. As a service to the global community the University of Minnesota maintain a FREE public access program exploring these constructs in a simple, yet constructive, form. I would encourage you to have a peek at these resources. The web link is http://www.research.umn.edu/intellectu alproperty/ Have you noticed the copyright infringement on this page? The IP image is original work and the authors have asserted their rights and thus the work requires acknowledgement.. The appropriate acknowledgement is:© 2005 Caroline Kent & Manda Lo
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