Problem Solved
An injury has occurred, what is the first thing response from supervision. “The employee was at-fault; they just need to be trained. This employee needs to be disciplined. Sound familiar?
So, my question is what is the end result? Does this prevent injuries or re-occurrence of an injury? Not really. All that is accomplished here is to put a bandage on the problem and taken the easy way out. So with this response supervision thinks that the problem is solved. Supervision never acknowledges that they may have contributed to the injury.
This is part of the discussion that I provided in my book, “Developing an effective Safety Culture: A Leadership Approach.” (See book at support this site) This is a common approach from most supervision, as I mentioned above, it is the easy way out. If this was a quality issue that affects a customer then the problem would be resolved immediately.
The question is: Why don’t we think of safety the same as Quality? In view the systems act the same. In safety you are dealing with employees and in quality you are dealing with customers and when there is a defect you have to fix it.
