Episodes
Wednesday Jul 23, 2014
Outsourcing Leadership Training
Wednesday Jul 23, 2014
Wednesday Jul 23, 2014
Today’s economic realities have necessitated a great deal of outsourcing. Organizations are clinging to their core competencies and value potential and hiring out peripheral tasks. In safety, more and more of the training function is being outsourced. This can be a good approach to some types of safety training but is definitely not for others.
Definite YES: Skills training by technical experts is almost always more effective. If the organization cannot justify keeping such an expert onboard full-time, outsourcing makes good sense and is often quite effective.
Definite NO: Training that establishes official management style or organizational philosophy. If you want your supervisors to coach safety or your leaders to stay on message about organizational mission and vision for safety, outside trainers are definitely not the way. Specific skills such as coaching or communications can be taught by outsiders, but the deep-rooted organizationally-specific style training is best done by an insider with recognized ties to the organization and specific information to answer questions on strategy and tactics.
Maybe with Qualifications: Training that is required for regulatory compliance can often be outsourced effectively. The one nuance is that much of this type of training is very generic and may not be easily or directly applied by workers to their specific tasks. Training that is too theoretical may lose its effectiveness if the link between the theory and workplace reality is not clear.
Outsourcing the right training and keeping the right training in-house can be a key to success in safety.
-Terry L. Mathis
For more insights, visit www.ProActSafety.com
Terry L. Mathis is the founder and CEO of ProAct Safety, an international safety and performance excellence firm. He is known for his dynamic presentations in the fields of behavioral and cultural safety, leadership, and operational performance, and is a regular speaker at ASSE, NSC, and numerous company and industry conferences. EHS Today listed Terry as a Safety Guru in ‘The 50 People Who Most Influenced EHS in 2010, 2011 and 2012-2013. He has been a frequent contributor to industry magazines for over 15 years and is the coauthor of STEPS to Safety Culture Excellence, 2013, WILEY.
Wednesday Apr 16, 2014
The Confrontation Calamity
Wednesday Apr 16, 2014
Wednesday Apr 16, 2014
The emphasis on the concept of confrontation in safety is epidemic. Consultants, books and articles taut the virtue of teaching workers to confront each other over safety issues. They claim that the willingness and ability to confront may be the key competency of safety. They argue that it must become unacceptable to see a risk being taken and not confront the individual taking the risk.
The basis of this misguided concept goes back to two core misconceptions of safety thinking, (i.e. the idea that the goal of safety is to fail less and that all risk-taking is a matter of worker choice). When one worker sees another being bad there must be a confrontation to make the worker less bad. The worker taking a risk simply made a bad choice and confrontation will result in less-bad decisions in the future. The truth is that safety excellence is about achieving success, not simply avoiding failure and that there are organizational influences that impact workers’ decisions that need to be discovered and addressed if lasting change is to be made.
The alternative to the concept of confrontation is the concept of coaching. Coaching is a way to achieve success rather than simply avoid failure. It involves workers building on each other’s strengths rather than simply trying to correct their weaknesses. It is built upon a vision of success in which everyone helps each other reach a goal. It necessitates a vision of success and helps to identify organizational influences on workers’ behavioral choices.
Confrontation weakens relationships and culture and seldom results in lasting change. Coaching builds relationships and culture and almost always results in improved performance. Workers listen to their allies differently than they listen to their critics. Confrontation creates either enmity within the safety culture or avoidance behavior that has the appearance of confrontation without the reality. Either damages the very fabric of what it is supposed to improve.
-Terry L. Mathis
Terry L. Mathis is the founder and CEO of ProAct Safety, an international safety and performance excellence firm. He is known for his dynamic presentations in the fields of behavioral and cultural safety, leadership, and operational performance, and is a regular speaker at ASSE, NSC, and numerous company and industry conferences. EHS Today listed Terry as a Safety Guru in ‘The 50 People Who Most Influenced EHS in 2010, 2011 and 2012-2013. He has been a frequent contributor to industry magazines for over 15 years and is the coauthor of STEPS to Safety Culture Excellence, 2013, WILEY.
Monday Feb 24, 2014
330 - What Followers Want In Their Leaders
Monday Feb 24, 2014
Monday Feb 24, 2014
Greetings everyone, this podcast recorded while in Denver, CO. I’d like to share an article I wrote that was published February 2014 in BIC Magazine. The published article can either be found on the magazine’s website or under Insights at www.ProActSafety.com.
I hope you enjoy the podcast this week. If you would like to download or play on demand our other podcasts, please visit the ProAct Safety’s podcast website at: http://www.safetycultureexcellence.com. If you would like access to archived podcasts (older than 90 days – dating back to January 2008) please visit www.ProActSafety.com/Store. For more detailed strategies to achieve and sustain excellence in performance and culture, pick up a copy of our book, STEPS to Safety Culture Excellence - http://proactsafety.com/insights/steps-to-safety-culture-excellence
Have a great week!
Shawn M. Galloway
ProAct Safety
Monday Feb 10, 2014
328 - Five Vital Questions to Effectively Develop Leaders
Monday Feb 10, 2014
Monday Feb 10, 2014
Greetings everyone, this podcast recorded while in Grapevine, TX. I’d like to share an article I wrote that was published December 2013 in Occupational Health and Safety Magazine. The published article can either be found on the magazine’s website or under Insights at www.ProActSafety.com.
I hope you enjoy the podcast this week. If you would like to download or play on demand our other podcasts, please visit the ProAct Safety’s podcast website at: http://www.safetycultureexcellence.com. If you would like access to archived podcasts (older than 90 days – dating back to January 2008) please visit www.ProActSafety.com/Store. For more detailed strategies to achieve and sustain excellence in performance and culture, pick up a copy of our book, STEPS to Safety Culture Excellence - http://proactsafety.com/insights/steps-to-safety-culture-excellence
Have a great week!
Shawn M. Galloway
ProAct Safety
Wednesday Jan 29, 2014
Coaching Safety: Performance vs. Improvement
Wednesday Jan 29, 2014
Wednesday Jan 29, 2014
The most ineffective safety coaching I have ever seen had some great ideas and techniques, but it was based on a bad premise. That premise was that supervisors and leaders should coach the day-to-day performance of their workers in an evaluative manner. They used some powerful interaction models and evaluative techniques, but in the end, it just seemed like the boss’s opinion vs. the worker’s opinion of performance.
The best safety coaching is based on targeted improvements rather than evaluation. Targeting specific improvements (precautions to take or behaviors that contribute to culture) helps coaching in several ways:
- It creates talking points that are friendly and logical (what we agreed to work on) and not subjective (what the boss does or doesn’t like)
- It creates a clear dichotomy of performance (you either took the targeted precaution or you did not) vs. the boss thinks you did well or poorly
- When targeted precautions are not taken, it fosters a discussion of why and why not rather than a judgment of performance
- It creates a communication atmosphere of adult talking to adult vs. adult overseeing child
- It creates the expectation that safety is about getting better not just staying the same
Safety coaching can be an effective tool for supervisors and leaders when done in this way. When organizations learn how to improve safety, it is an easy and logical step to apply targeted-improvement coaching to other performance issues as well.
-Terry L. Mathis
Terry L. Mathis is the founder and CEO of ProAct Safety, an international safety and performance excellence firm. He is known for his dynamic presentations in the fields of behavioral and cultural safety, leadership, and operational performance, and is a regular speaker at ASSE, NSC, and numerous company and industry conferences. EHS Today listed Terry as a Safety Guru in ‘The 50 People Who Most Influenced EHS in 2010, 2011 and 2012-2013. He has been a frequent contributor to industry magazines for over 15 years and is the coauthor of STEPS to Safety Culture Excellence, 2013, WILEY.
Monday Jan 27, 2014
326 - Teaching Supervisors to be Safety Coaches
Monday Jan 27, 2014
Monday Jan 27, 2014
Greetings everyone, this podcast recorded while in Cotulla, TX. I’d like to share an article I wrote that was published December 2013 in BIC Magazine. The published article can either be found on the magazine’s website or under Insights at www.ProActSafety.com.
I hope you enjoy the podcast this week. If you would like to download or play on demand our other podcasts, please visit the ProAct Safety’s podcast website at: http://www.safetycultureexcellence.com. If you would like access to archived podcasts (older than 90 days – dating back to January 2008) please visit www.ProActSafety.com/Store. For more detailed strategies to achieve and sustain excellence in performance and culture, pick up a copy of our book, STEPS to Safety Culture Excellence - http://proactsafety.com/insights/steps-to-safety-culture-excellence
Have a great week!
Shawn M. Galloway
ProAct Safety
Wednesday Dec 11, 2013
Showing Up: Step One of Safety Leadership
Wednesday Dec 11, 2013
Wednesday Dec 11, 2013
We have been told that the first step of doing any job is showing up. This is equally true of the job of leading safety. Leaders who are noticeably absent lose opportunities to effectively lead. Obviously leaders cannot be everywhere every time; but they can pick and choose key opportunities to emphasize the importance of safety with their presence.
When tragedies happen and leaders don’t show up, what is the message sent to the troops? When major new safety initiatives begin without the in-person support of key leaders, how official and important are they. When organizations have safety teams or committees which oversee safety efforts, how do they proceed when leaders fail to attend?
The physical presence of leaders must be accompanied by their involvement and attention as well. A worker commented recently, “There was a serious safety incident and none of the leaders got mad.” He reflected that at his last job leaders showed emotions when safety efforts didn’t go well and caused heated discussions and decisive actions. In short, he equated emotion with caring. Leaders show they care when they show up and participate. What they do in their offices and the boardroom will not have the necessary impact if they are not present and engaged at key happenings in the workplace. Leaders, start with step one.
-Terry L. Mathis
Terry L. Mathis is the founder and CEO of ProAct Safety, an international safety and performance excellence firm. He is known for his dynamic presentations in the fields of behavioral and cultural safety, leadership, and operational performance, and is a regular speaker at ASSE, NSC, and numerous company and industry conferences. EHS Today listed Terry as a Safety Guru in ‘The 50 People Who Most Influenced EHS in 2010, 2011 and 2012-2013. He has been a frequent contributor to industry magazines for over 15 years and is the coauthor of STEPS to Safety Culture Excellence, 2013, WILEY.
Wednesday Nov 06, 2013
The Danger of Compliance
Wednesday Nov 06, 2013
Wednesday Nov 06, 2013
The goal of many safety programs is to get all workers and the workplace into compliance with applicable rules and regulations. This is a necessary and foundational step in any effective safety effort. However, if the goals and progression stop at compliance, this can cause crucial problems for the future. Once the workplace passes muster and workers know and adhere to the rules, then what? The next steps in safety must take the organization beyond the performance levels achieved through compliance. These steps require much more of workers than simply following the rules.
Beyond compliance is excellence through safety culture. An excellent safety culture is one in which workers are engaged, not simply conforming. Worker engagement in safety is seldom accomplished with the tools of compliance. A new set of tools that challenges workers to belong, participate, and expend creative energy is needed. The tools of compliance cannot be used or even adapted to meet these challenges. In fact, the tools used by many organizations to accomplish compliance can actually hamper or kill employee engagement. A work force can be policed into compliance but must be coached into excellence.
Failure to change from safety cops to safety coaches can stop the progression of safety performance in its tracks. Workers will develop a “good enough” attitude toward safety if there is no reason to go above and beyond. They will not buy in if there is no compelling rationale. They will not feel part of the effort if there are no involvement opportunities. They will never own the safety-excellence effort if they are not allowed to help create it. Recognizing the point at which compliance needs to give way to excellence is the key to continuous improvement in safety.
-Terry L. Mathis
Terry L. Mathis is the founder and CEO of ProAct Safety, an international safety and performance excellence firm. He is known for his dynamic presentations in the fields of behavioral and cultural safety, leadership, and operational performance, and is a regular speaker at ASSE, NSC, and numerous company and industry conferences. EHS Today listed Terry as a Safety Guru in ‘The 50 People Who Most Influenced EHS in 2010, 2011 and 2012-2013. He has been a frequent contributor to industry magazines for over 15 years and is the coauthor of STEPS to Safety Culture Excellence, 2013, WILEY.