Safety Culture Excellence®

Greetings, this podcast recorded while working in Jacksonville, Florida. For the podcast this week I’d like to share an article I wrote that was published in the March 2011 edition of EHS Today Magazine. It was titled “The Contributing Factors of Behavior-Based Safety Failures”. The published article can either be found at www.EHSToday.com or http://www.proactsafety.com/insights/articles-and-white-papers.

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

Have a great week!

Shawn M. Galloway

ProAct Safety, Inc

Greetings, this podcast recorded while working in Pineville, Louisiana. For the podcast this week I’d like to share an article I wrote titled “Behavior-Based Safety: The Piece Forgotten” published October 2010 in BIC Magazine. The article can either be found at www.BICALLIANCE.com 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

Have a great week!

Shawn M. Galloway

ProAct Safety, Inc

Greetings, this podcast recorded while working in Atlanta, Georgia. For the podcast this week I’d like to share an article I wrote called “Behavior-Based Safety: The Piece Forgotten” published October 2010 in BIC Magazine. The published article can either be found at www.bicalliance.com 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

Have a great week!

Shawn M. Galloway

ProAct Safety, Inc.

Greetings! Recording this podcast while working in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Recently one of the subscribers to this podcast, Peter Hinton, emailed me to discuss the podcast and offered the following suggestion: “…as I listen to your podcasts I chuckle at the statement “ …Recorded while on the road…” I envision you driving and trying / recording your podcast. This of course is not accurate, but it makes me wonder how many people might think it is accurate? If I could recommend changing your statement to something like, recorded while away from home, in Timbuktu…. You have discussed multitasking a time or two, and the dangers of distracted driving, so…..”

Thanks Peter your comment reinforces the importance of providing feedback. I didn’t consider how this statement could be interpreted and it has become a habit. I’ll try to remember this as I record future podcasts.

For the podcast this week I would discuss the public events we have scheduled in October 2010. I’d like to begin first discussing the two public webinars we have scheduled, then talk about National Safety Council’s 2010 Congress and Expo and close with details of our upcoming Lean Behavior-Based Safety Internal Consultant Certification Workshop

Webinar: Integrating Lean and Safety: Myths and Practical Strategies

01 October 2010

12:00 PM ET

Details:

Lean does not mean less; however less is indeed what we are continuing to face. Lean in safety focuses on effectiveness and efficiency. This has become an increasing necessity as our resources become less and less. Peter Drucker once said, "There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all." We can no longer afford to "throw money" at a problem. Our attention must be focused on transformational opportunities while integrating the philosophy of continuous improvement into the fabric of the culture.

Webinar: Cop or Coach?  How Supervisors Can Make a Difference

12 October 2010

11 am ET

Details:

Do your employees view supervisors as safety police or safety coaches? Do your supervisors view their role in safety as more than just “keeping people safe and correcting them when they aren’t”?

NSC 2010

Terry Mathis and I are honored to be invited back to speak this year at National Safety Council 2010 Congress & Expo. If you are attending the event please either drop by our booth (#3547) or join us for one of our talks listed below.

NSC 2010 Congress & Expo Booth # 3547

Session #20: Using Podcasts to Improve Safety

October 4 [1:30pm - 3:00pm]

Communicating safety information is a challenge that has a new potential solution: Podcasts are being used to help consultants reach clients, safety managers reach and train logistically challenged workers, and organizational leaders share their safety vision and strategy with workers they seldom see in person. This session studies cases involving each of these uses, and discusses results and possible future applications.

Session #60: Teaching Supervisors to be Safety Coaches

October 5 [1:30pm - 3:00pm]

Learn how Georgia-Pacific is training its supervisors to coach safety and how this training fits into its overall strategy for safety excellence. Learn how leveraging the key position of supervisor impacts safety from the middle of the organization and extends out in all directions. The training, which has been used in other organizations, has been modified to meet specific goals in GP and targets a coordinated effort with the overall business management strategy.

Session #62: Sustainable Safety Cultures

October 5 [1:30pm - 3:00pm]

Many companies are focused on creating an improved safety culture and have achieved success in doing so. Marshall Goldsmith wrote a book titled, “What Got You Here Won’t Get You There,” and the same holds true for maintaining a safety culture. This highly inspirational session will discuss ways to continuously increase the positive factor of your safety culture and ensure you don’t fall into traps that negatively affect your success.

Session #84: Unions and BBS: The Seven Deadly Sins

October 5 [3:30pm - 5:00pm]

Behavior-based safety has a history of conflict and resistance from unions – for some good reasons. Learn what those reasons are, how the conflict started, and how to avoid it. If you want to use BBS at a union site, you need to know how to gain union support and engagement – and not to repeat the mistakes of the past. Take away a step-by-step checklist to guarantee success.

Lean Behavior-Based Safety Internal Consultant Certification Workshop

26-28 October 2010

Houston, Texas

Workshop Details:

This intensive, highly interactive workshop will fully qualify attendees to return to their companies prepared to design a customized plan to strategically implement a Behavior-Based Safety process.  This approach is an option for companies who want to maximize their own ability to implement BBS while minimizing outside costs.

Recommended Option It is ProAct Safety’s experience-based belief that to ensure success, materials should be customized to reflect the unique culture of the location and details of the process. Handout materials are provided for seminar use only. Electronic materials are not included. If the attendees would like to license the materials for use at a single site or multiple locations, please contact ProAct Safety for a quote.

Creating Internal Capabilities This workshop will train participants to utilize ProAct Safety’s Lean BBS^® methodologies for facilitating an implementation. Most importantly, it will prepare the consultants to anticipate and handle the issues that can challenge the success of Behavior-Based Safety (BBS) efforts.  Participants will also be able to identify opportunities to minimize the perception of change, achieve the quickest success possible, and ensure long-term process sustainability.

ProAct Safety has been extremely successful with their Internal Consultant Certification Workshop that is designed for organizations that desire to internalize and sustain Behavior-Based Safety capabilities. Additionally, ProAct Safety is familiar with all the major methods of implementation and has developed a collection of best practices through our experience with over 1000 successful Behavior-Based Safety implementations.  Because of this unique position, we are able to instruct individuals on specific consultative methods to customize & implement Behavior-Based Safety, and attractive but ineffective approaches to avoid.  Companies using this path strategy should have highly qualified personnel and sufficient internal resources.

ProAct Safety will certify the selected individuals to return to their location and begin designing and implement a customized Behavior-Based Safety process. This approach is not strictly a train-the-trainer course, nor is it intended to teach individuals to simply deliver training on Behavior-Based Safety. Every site will have its own unique challenges and cultures. To allow the internal consultants the most opportunities for success, it is extremely important they understand and internalize the strategies to identify the site-specific variables that have become, or could become, problematic barriers. What works at one site will not always work at another.

Lean BBS^® utilizes aspects of performance and quality systems to drastically reduce the typical internal resource requirements of a Behavior-Based Safety process. Lean Behavior-Based Safety focuses on leveraged use of resources, resulting in better results in a shorter time, less disruption to operations, and less resistance from workers and unions.

Re-energize Your Existing BBS Process Unfortunately, it is common to see the results from many traditional Behavioral Safety processes plateau after the first two to three years of operation.  At that point, the process can become routine and lose the original result-based orientation.  The successes that motivated the process early-on disappear and the entire process tends to slowly lose momentum.  Successful Behavior-Based Safety processes do not typically fade away, but can be much less effective than they are capable of being. This is the perfect time for BBS process improvement.  Improvement strategies can accomplish several important objectives:

• Attain the next step in accident-reduction results through better targeting
• Increase the level of expertise in the personnel active in the process
• Provide new techniques to the observation and data analysis strategies
• Re-energize the process utilizing Lean BBS® techniques to improve results and increase employee participation
• Reduce manpower requirements to maintain the process
• Assess the existing Behavior-Based Safety process for foundations to build on
• Make more efficient use of site leaders and steering teams
• Narrow the focus of the checklist to improve efficiency
• Focus observations where they will produce the best results
• Learn tactics for continuous process improvement to ensure process sustainability

Internal Consultant Workshop Materials After completing the workshop, your Internal Consultant(s) are certified by ProAct Safety. The attendees will be provided with a binder containing the following handouts:

• Internal Consultant Overview
• Internal Consultant Implementation Guidebook
• Behavior-Based Safety Assessment Kit
• Steering Team Training Presentation
  • Learn The Process
  • Customize And Design Your Process
  • Analyzing The Data And Creating Data-Driven Action Plans
  • Sustain The Process And Self Auditing Techniques
• Steering Team Workbook
• Observer Training Presentation
• Observer Training Booklet
• Workforce Training Presentation
• Workforce Briefing Handout
• Managers’ and Supervisors’ Role in BBS Presentation

Participants will leave this workshop with the knowledge and skills to:

• Conduct an assessment to determine site readiness
• Strategically plan a custom implementation of BBS
• Appropriately select steering team members and observers
• Manage and coach the team through a BBS implementation or expansion
• Train site leaders to understand and adapt the process to the specific needs and culture of the site
• Develop a site-specific checklist of behaviors which will have the greatest impact on accident prevention
• Develop a site-specific customized observation and feedback strategy that will have the highest impact
• Customize training for observers to gather data and give feedback to improve behaviors
• Build a management-support infrastructure to ensure long-term success
• Hold kickoff activities to start the BBS process
• Monitor and audit the process to keep it on course
• Continuously improve the process

Advanced Elements:

• Change Management: The psychology of resistance to change, and how to avoid creating resistance.
• Culture Change Strategies – A Best Practices Approach
• Advanced Assessment Strategies – Developing Quick Wins
• Building understanding and support for the BBS process prior to assessment or implementation
• Strategic options for implementation that customize the process for the site culture

Have a great month!

Shawn M. Galloway

ProAct Safety, Inc.

Greetings, this podcast recorded while in Decatur, Alabama. For the podcast this week I’d like to share an article Terry Mathis and I wrote called “Old Dogs and New Tricks: Keep BBS From Rolling Over and Playing Dead” that was published in the June 2010 edition of EHS Today. The published article can either be found at http://ehstoday.com/safety/news/old-dogs-new-tricks-bbs-7785/index.html 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

Have a great week!

Shawn M. Galloway

ProAct Safety, Inc.

ProAct Safety Founder and CEO, Terry L. Mathis was recently interviewed by the American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA). They have a podcast called Safe & Sound, hosted by Melissa Hurley and Craig Sorrell. They were kind enough to allow us to repost the interview in its entirety for the subscribers of Safety Culture Excellence. To visit AIHA’s podcast site and listen to other interviews, visit http://www.aiha.org/news-pubs/Pages/SafeandSound.aspx

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

Have a great week!

Shawn M. Galloway

ProAct Safety, Inc.

Greetings, recorded this on the road in Louisville, Kentucky. The topic this week is about an upcoming webinar scheduled for this Friday, 05 March 2010 titled, Assessing Your Behavioral Safety Process: Finding New Results. - http://www.proactsafety.com/webseminars

Many traditional Behavior-Based Safety process results plateau after the first two to three years of operation. At this point, the process can become routine and lose the original results-based orientation. When this occurs, the successes that motivated the process early on quickly diminish, and the entire process tends to simply “go through the motions” and slowly lose momentum. Don’t let this happen to you.

Based on ProAct Safety’s extensive experience in assessing and improving all major approaches to Behavior-Based Safety, this webinar will provide a simple structure to internally assess your existing Behavioral Safety process.

I hope you are able to join us!

Shawn M. Galloway

ProAct Safety

Greetings, recording this on the road in Cheswick, Pennsylvania. We receive a lot of calls from organizations looking to purchase software for their behavioral safety processes. So for the podcast this week, I would like to provide some independent thoughts on this. There really are several software options available to an organization looking to implement a Behavior-Based Safety process.

They range from spreadsheet tools to installed or online databases. Our firm (ProAct Safety) is familiar with all major methodologies and applications currently in use throughout the world. Due to this unique position, our firm has often played a support role in identifying, selecting and utilizing the most effective application that fits each organization’s needs. Many companies choose to internally create an application. This can be a good strategy. We have helped several organizations by providing the critical functional guidance necessary, to ensure a successful outcome.

A key success factor in any implemented Behavior-Based Safety Process is data management. The data is what enables continuous improvement and helps the observers keep score.  Sometimes the reason workers are not improving in safety is because something is getting in the way. Identification of safety obstacles and barriers, and measuring their impact is a powerful tool in improving safety. Traditional safety tends to only focus on lagging indicators and failure rates. The percent safe provided by a behavioral safety approach, is a great leading metric for comparison to the downstream metrics of accident rates, severity rates, costs of accidents etc.

It is critical for a steering team to design an effective data management and problem-solving technique, in conjunction with their behavior-based safety efforts. This data flows to the steering team and helps them to remove barriers to safety and change the influences that could tempt workers to take risks. Additionally, the ability to isolate problem areas increases the ability to focus corrective effort reducing wasted resources. The observations are most definitely a great tool for beginning the creation of a culture of safety awareness and development of a personal safety focus; however without a good Behavior-Based Safety data management strategy, the process may not be sustainable.

The data usually reveals first the weaknesses of the data, i.e. too little, not representative, not complete, what’s and no why’s on comments, etc. Once the data gathering process is adjusted, the data starts to reveal where the greatest risks are and why workers are taking them.  The observation data combined with the original Pareto Analysis data helps to prioritize the risk issues for the team to address.

The steering team will need to be able to identify trends in the performance. It is important to know if risk taking is increasing, decreasing, or remaining relatively constant. Since the observers in a Behavior-Based Safety process cannot see every precaution taken or not taken at the site, it is important that the behaviors sampled are representative of what is happening across all times and locations at the site. If data is bunched into certain times or locations, the data may not be reliable.

Behavior-Based Safety Process considerations when determining software needs:

• First define the (paper) trail of how the completed checklists get to the data entry person
• Determine who the data entry person(s) will be
• Does the application need to be within the corporate infrastructure, an installable application, or online?
• How will the steering team/committee retrieve the data from the computer for their meetings (printed copies of reports vs. access to computer and projector to see the data in real time)
• What data will be posted and shared, and how will this be accomplished
• Will the team require support in understanding data and trends and the ability to create action plans to address them?

We recommend the following types of reports for Behavior-Based Safety Data Analysis:

Report: Overview

What to look for: Low % safe, high # of concerns, adequate sample size

Use: Select areas that need improvement or attention

Typical Distribution: Steering Team

Report: Overview chart

What to look for: Safe vs. Lucky

Use: Feedback to workers

Typical Distribution: Post and share with everyone

Report: Trends

What to look for: Is percent safe increasing, decreasing, or staying the same?

Use: Track the effectiveness of the process and specific action plans

Typical Distribution: Steering Team, Workers in areas of action plan focus

Report: Observer Progress

What to look for: Has observer completed assignment and what is the quality of the data

Use: Manage the observation process and give feedback and recognition to observers

Typical Distribution: Steering Team

Report: Comments

What to look for: What is influencing a person to take a risk: perception, habit, or barriers

Use: Develop steps of action plans to improve safety

Typical Distribution: Steering Team

Report: Additional Comments or Best Practices

What to look for: Suggestions or concerns about the process from observers or workers

Use: Continuous improvement of the process and safety

Typical Distribution: Steering Team

Report: Breakdown Reports

What to look for: Are the areas of concern concentrated by location, time, day, or other variables

Use: Target areas of concentration for action plans

Typical Distribution: Steering Team

Report: Action Items

What to look for: Any activities that are a result from this initiative that are: Actionable and within the team’s control (if not, who will manage follow-up?) and focused on measureable results

Use: Manage activities, follow-up, focus efforts and continuous improvement to ensure a results orientation

Typical Distribution: Steering Team

I hope I have provided a couple of ideas that are useful for you. I’d like to close with this, if you only have time to do one thing in safety today, what would it be and how will it contribute to making this a safer world for us all? Thanks for tuning in...

Have a great week!

Shawn Galloway

ProAct Safety

Bonjour! Recording on the road this week in Paris, France. We have recorded many topics on Behavior-Based Safety and specifically the observation portion of the initiative. After all it is the engine of the average process. However, consider that conducting observations is not the only source of energy and there is not one type of observation strategy. There are several methodologies and practices. What works for one organization won’t necessarily work for another. Moreover what works for one site will not often continue to work later on. If you are still observing in the exact same manner that you did when the process started, than I have to question, is the process is still having the desired impact? An approach like this should have a positive impact on your culture and thus your culture should be enhanced, and so should the strategies.

This then means that we need to continue to enhance our tools to facilitate future gains. Peter Drucker said in his book The Essential Drucker, “Success always makes obsolete the very behavior that achieved it. It always creates new realities. It always creates, above all, its own and different problems. Only the fairy tale ends, ‘They lived happily ever after.’” So let’s consider there are 5 major observation strategies for Behavior Based Safety and Terry and I sat down recently and discussed these. I hope this gets you to consider other options to accomplish success with your Behavior-Based Safety process. Here’s how the conversation went…

Have a great week,

Shawn M. Galloway

ProAct Safety

Guten Tag! Recording on the road this week in Basel, Switzerland. We have assessed and worked with all major methodologies of Behavior-Based Safety (Behaviour-Based Safety, BBS, Behavioral Safety, etc). Regardless of the effectiveness of the methodology, it is easy for processes to lose the drive for results, and fall into the process orientation. What I’m referring to is cranking the process, requiring more and more observations without measuring the impact on results. There is a principle in performance management that says “be careful what you measure, because people will work towards the measurements”.

If the only thing you measure in a Behavior-Based Safety process is the number of observations, then it is likely that you will get your numberes, but will they be quality observations; and will those numbers improve safety, or just crank a process? So years ago this brought us to start asking the question “What Triggers an Observation in Behavior-Based Safety?” We often find that the answer to this question provides insight to whether the initiative is focused on a results or a process orientation. I hope this topic gets you thinking about what you are measuring in Behavior-Based Safety. Moreover I hope it gives you some ideas to remind people this is just a tool in our safety toolbox. It is not the magic cure for all safety ails. This tool should be used to focus on understanding what influences behavior and overall culture. Certainly performing the observations will help, but remember the observations are not the end goal. Ensuring people are not at risk is what we should be after. So let’s get started with the conversation…

Have a great week,

Shawn Galloway

ProAct Safety