To be effective you must periodically review your objectives and update your action plan. The following are some specific questions that can help you:
I have recently begun rereading two books that I found to be beneficial. As you work to develop a safety process, it is not only the implementation of your programs you should be concerned with. You must take the time for personal improvement.
The first book is “Mastery – The Keys to Success and Long-Term Fulfillment” by George Leonard. Leonard defines what mastery is and maps the process that leads to becoming not just good at your profession but a Master of your craft or discipline. As example, he suggest that mastery is a continuous journey consisting of not continuous improvement but a process of improvement then a learning plateau to further improvement followed by a plateau and so on. The one seeking mastery lives for the practice and is on a journey. The rest of us expect to jump from beginner to mastery through frantic activity – that is not the path of mastery.
To get where you want to go, you must know where you are starting from. A variety of self-audit mechanisms can be employed to compare your site processes with other recognized models of excellence such as VPP sites. Visiting other sites to gain first hand information is also invaluable. One must remember that you need to dig deeper in another process to really understand systems.
Initial training of management, supervision, union leadership (if present), and safety committee members, and a representative number of hourly employees. This may include both safety training and any needed management, team building, hazard recognition, or communication training, etc. This will provide you a core group of employees to draw upon as resources and also gets key employees onboard with needed changes.
Establish a steering committee comprised of management, employees, union, and the safety staff. The purpose of this group is to facilitate, support, and direct the change processes. This will provide overall guidance and direction and avoid duplication of efforts. To be effective, the group must have the authority to get things done.
Develop organization safety vision, key policies, goals, measures, and strategic and operational plans provide guidance and serve as a check. These are used to ask yourself if the decision you are about to make supports or detract from your intended safety improvement process.
Align the organization by establishing a shared vision of safety goals and objectives vs. production. Top management must be willing to show support to the safety by providing resources (time) and holding managers and supervisors accountable for doing the same. The entire management and supervisory staff need to set the example and lead the change. It is more about leadership than management.
Define specific safety roles and responsibilities for all levels of the organization. Safety must be viewed as everyone’s responsibility. How the organization is to deal with competing pressures and priorities, for example, production, vs. safety, needs to be clearly spelled out. As you have seen in preview post, I have discuss that safety must become a core value in the organization and just another priority.
Develop a system of accountability for all levels of the organization. Everyone must play by the same rules and be held accountable for their areas of responsibility. Signs of a strong culture are when the individuals hold themselves accountable
Develop an ongoing measurement and feedback system. Drive the system with upstream activity measures that encourages positive change. For examples include the number of hazards reported or corrected, numbers of inspections, number of equipment checks, JHA’s, pre-start-up reviews conducted, etc.
While it is always nice to know what the bottom line performance is, for example, the number of injuries, overemphasis on these and using them to drive the system typically only drives injury under reported. It is all easy to manipulate incident rates that will only result in risk issues remaining unresolved and a probability for more serious events to occur in the future.
Develop policies for recognition, rewards, incentives, and ceremonies. Again, reward employees for doing the right things and encourage participation in the upstream activities. Do not pass incentives for doing nothing. Tie the incentive with an activity. Continually reevaluate these policies to make sure that they are effective and to make sure that they do not become entitlement programs.
It’s not enough for a part of the organization to be involved and know about the change effort. The entire organization needs to know and be involved in some manner. A kick-off celebration can be used to announce it’s a "new day" and seek buy-in for any new procedures and programs.
Continually measure performances, communicate the results, and celebrate successes. Publicizing results is important in sustaining efforts and keeping everyone motivated. Everyone needs to be updated throughout the process. Progress reports during normal shift meetings allowing time for comments back to the steering committee opens communications, but also allows for input. Everyone needs to have a voice; otherwise, they will be reluctant to buy-in. A system can be as simple as using current meetings, a bulletin board, and a comment box.
One key requirement here is reinforcement, feedback, reassessment, mid-course corrections, and on-going training is vital to sustaining continuous improvement.
Reference: OSHA web site http://www.osha-slc.gov/SLTC/safetyhealth_ecat/mod4_factsheets.htm#, public domain
setting up Twitter for my Squidoo account
The Future of Human Performance: Viral Accountability
By tim
Today’s video introduces the future of human error reduction, safety improvement, and lean / six sigma breakthrough success. It’s forum will be HU-2.0. It’s essence, the “crux of the biscuit” if you will, is…Viral Accountability™ …
hufactor.com – http://hufactor.com/
This is the very first step that needs to be accomplished if you want to develop a successful safety culture. Top managers must be on board. If they are not, safety will compete against core business issues such as production and profitability, a battle that will almost always be lost. They need to understand the need for change and then be willing to support the change. Showing the costs to the organization in terms of dollars (direct and indirect costs of injuries), that are being lost, and the organizational costs (fear, lack of trust, feeling of being used, etc.) can be compelling reasons for looking at needing to do something different. Because losses due to injuries are bottom line costs to the organization, controlling these will more than pay for the needed changes. In addition, when successful, you will also go a long way in eliminating organizational barriers such as fear, lack of trust, etc.: Issues that typically get in the way of everything that the organization wants to do.
Continue building “Buy-in” for the needed changes by building an alliance or partnership between management, the union (if one exists), and employees. A compelling reason for the change must be spelled out to everyone. Employees must understand WHY they are being asked to change what they normally do and what it will look like if they are successful. This needs to be done up front. If employees get wind that something "is going down" and have not been formally told anything, they naturally tend to resist and opt out.
Trusting management is a critical part of accepting change and management needs to know that this is the bigger picture, outside of all the details. Trust will occur as different levels within the organization work together and begin to see success.
Reference: OSHA web site http://www.osha-slc.gov/SLTC/safetyhealth_ecat/mod4_factsheets.htm#, public domain
Creating a safety culture takes time to implement; frequently it is a multi-year process. A series of continuous process improvement steps can be followed to create a safety culture. Management and employee commitment are hallmarks of a true safety culture where safety is an integral part of daily operations.
A company at the beginning of the road toward developing a safety culture may exhibit a level of safety awareness, consisting of safety posters and warning signs. As more time and commitment are devoted, an organization will begin to address physical hazards and may develop safety recognition programs, create safety committees, and start incentive programs.
Safety cultures consist of shared beliefs, practices, and attitudes that exist at an establishment. Culture is the atmosphere created by these beliefs, attitudes in the environment, which shapes everyone’s behavior.
As we have discussed in previous post you are your way of assessing your current situation, identifying safety program elements that are either lacking or in need of improvement, and formulating objectives that address your safety process needs.
Critical Questions to Improve Behavior Based Safety
By safetyculture
After many years of auditing all of the existing Behavioral Approaches to Safety, I share with you four (4) critical questions worth asking. I hope that these questions, (certainly not the only questions you should consider) will set …
Safety Culture Excellence – http://safetyculture.podbean.com
