Safety Culture Excellence®

Greetings all! I’m excited announce the agenda for this year’s Behavior-Based Safety Conference. The ProAct Safety’s 11^th Annual Conference is scheduled for 17-18 April 2012. There are pre-conference events on 16 April and post-conference session on the 19^th.

If you would like more information on the event or would like to register, please visit: http://proactsafety.com/events/annual-conference

Session Descriptions 17-18 April 2012:

The Big Picture: BBS’ Role in Safety Culture Excellence

Every organization should have a strategy for safety improvement that includes creating an excellent safety culture. What part can a Behavior-Based Safety process play in the execution of this, and what are the potential benefits of using BBS in such a strategy? This session explores the big picture of safety strategy and the specific role of BBS.

Deadly Sins & Vital Signs: Killing & Reviving Processes

BBS processes have some extremely vital “do’s and don’ts” that can determine success or failure. Learn how to recognize the deadly sins and the vital signs that reflect these critical elements so you can reassess your process to make sure you are doing (and not doing) these critical things.

Observation & Feedback: Cop or Coach?

Still focused on the number of observations? It is time to help observers really make a difference, not just hit target numbers and go through the motions. Turning observers into effective safety coaches is the key. Moreover, it might set a great example for managers and supervisors who could use a change in style!

Process Indicators: Quality, Quantity or Transformative?

What are the metrics that tell you if you are working your BBS process effectively? Are you measuring the right things in your own BBS process? Learn what they are and how they are best measured for both quantity and quality.

On the Horizon: What Lies Ahead for Behavioral Safety

No one knows for sure what the future holds, but it is important to look forward and predict what BBS will look like in the future and what role it will continue to play in safety and culture improvement. Preparing for inevitable changes will make your future smoother and more successful! Listen to the experts who have successfully predicted most of the changes in BBS for the past 18 years.

Company Politics, Snipers & Lessons Learned

Almost every BBS process has been held hostage or misused for some kind of company political goal. There are even people in organizations who worked to make BBS fail. Most processes survived these attacks and kept on improving safety. Learn some stories from the past from other organizations that will help you not let this kind of history repeat itself in your organization.

Motivating & Managing Support: Incentives & Rewards

How can your BBS process actually manage the level of support it receives from supervisors and managers? How can you change incentive and reward systems to align with BBS and avoid the pitfalls most programs experience? Listen to and participate in this lively discussion of the issues and opportunities.

Open Q&A with Terry L. Mathis and Shawn M. Galloway

This last session of the conference is an opportunity to address questions directly to the Principals of ProAct Safety in an open forum. This is an excellent chance to finalize your plans to utilize what you have learned at the conference, get answers to any remaining questions, and bounce your plans and ideas off the experts.

PRE-CONFERENCE SESSIONS – 16 April 2012

Behavior-Based Safety (BBS) 101 for Workers

This session is designed to be an introduction to the rationale and practice of BBS for newcomers and a thorough review for participants at the workforce level who have already implemented a BBS process. Being well grounded in the principles and practices is a basic need for success to both those who are implementing or renewing BBS processes. The course will cover every major facet of BBS including the following:

· The philosophy and science behind BBS

· What leads to union resistance

· Functions of a BBS Steering Team/Committee

· The role of an Observer in a BBS process

· Manager’s and Supervisor’s support roles

· The responsibilities and benefits of employees in a BBS environment

· How BBS impacts safety culture

· How to keep the process results oriented

· How to guarantee process sustainability

· How to refresh and renew an existing BBS process

Attendees will be thoroughly versed on the basics of BBS to either return to a project or attend the Annual BBS Conference with purpose and focus.

Behavior-Based Safety (BBS) 101 for Management

This session covers the same basic concepts as the “BBS 101 for Participants” course but from a management and supervisory perspective. The support roles in BBS are less active than the participants’ roles, yet more critical for success and sustainability. In addition to understanding what BBS is and how it works, managers and supervisors need to know the rationale for having a process and the strategies for ensuring that it is successful. The course will cover these facets and will include the following:

· The rationale and ROI (return on investment) of BBS

· Selection criteria for Steering Team/Committee members

· Time-away-from-work requirements of Steering Team members and Observers

· Key roles, responsibilities, and expectations (RREs) of those participating in the process

· Start-up cycles for BBS from implementation to maturity

· Support and resources needed by the process to ensure success

· How to involve unions for support

· How to communicate BBS to the workforce

· How to utilize BBS as a safety culture building tool

· How to posture BBS in relation to other safety efforts and programs

· How to pump new life into an existing BBS process

Attendees will be thoroughly versed on the basics of BBS to either return to a project or attend the Annual BBS Conference with purpose and focus.

POST-CONFERENCE SESSIONS – 19 April 2012

Advanced Cultural & Behavioral Tactics – Guaranteeing New Results

Use the latest Behavior-Based Safety Technologies for spearheading safety process improvement, borrowing proven techniques from Lean Manufacturing, Six Sigma, and experiences from over 1,500 successful implementations.

Create a customized plan to assess and improve site and/or organizational safety culture. Common myths about safety culture will be dispelled and a good working definition will be developed to empower understanding and customization. Assessment methodologies will be discussed and compared and each participant will see how to best determine the cultural strengths and improvement opportunities.

Based on the assessment findings, plans will be formulated to find the most practical and effective strategies to build on cultural strengths and address weaknesses. Opportunities will be investigated to utilize other site improvement initiatives to aid in the cultural improvement plans. All plans will conclude with measurement strategies to ensure long-term change viability and early identification of problems.

Teaching Supervisors to be Safety Coaches (Train-the-Trainer)

Supervisors constantly communicate priorities and strategies to their workers, whether they intend to or not. With training, supervisors can take active control of the messages they send to promote safety as an organizational value. They can set levels of expectation that point everyone in the direction of safety excellence and exert a positive influence on the formation of safety culture.

Most supervisors don't have the latest training and tools for coaching workers to perform their jobs safely. Becoming an effective coach can leverage a supervisor's influence to make significant gains in accident reductions. Coaching skills also improve other areas of performance including quality and productivity as well as safety. The benefits to the organization impact almost every area of human performance.

The training contains the latest behavioral coaching techniques and directly applies them to improving safety. A model for counseling problem employees or addressing serious safety situations is also included. The design of the training utilizes advanced learning techniques and helps attendees to apply the models in the classroom to reality-based scenarios right out of the workplace.

If you would like more information on the event or would like to register, please visit: http://proactsafety.com/events/annual-conference

I hope to see you there!

Shawn M. Galloway

ProAct Safety, Inc.

Listen Now:

 Standard Podcasts [00:06:26m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (19)

In 1990 there were certain beliefs and practices that were viewed as state of the art and acceptable. I’m sure in 2030 we will look back at 2011 and challenge much of what is said today on the topic of behavioral approaches. Here in lies the criticality of never accepting a one-size-fits-all methodology to injury prevention and remaining continuously searching for a better approach. No one has the silver bullet, yet we all together can contribute to making this a safer world by striving for a better way to accomplish our goals through dialogue such as this.

My research and experience with hundreds of global projects in every major industry leads me to believe that the vast majority of incidents (injury, process, equipment damage, etc.) have a conditional, behavioral, organizational, and cultural contributing factor. Now the question is, contributing factor to prevention, or causation? The latter leads people to feel a greater sense of blame than the former. Blame isn’t beneficial for anyone other than those placing it. Moreover, it doesn't facilitate ownership in prevention.

It is my belief that behaviors can indeed prevent and cause an event to occur, they can also be the reason an event was avoided. We must look beyond the behavior and remind ourselves people do things for a reason. If we only address the behavior, without addressing the reason, the sustainability of our intervention strategies will be limited at best. Certainly focusing on behaviors in a vacuum might produce faster results, but is it fast or lasting improvement we want? A little of both would be ideal indeed. I prefer sustainable value-add.

What are your thoughts?

I hope you enjoy the podcast this week. If you would like to download or play on demand our other podcasts, please visit ProAct Safety’s podcast website at: http://www.safetycultureexcellence.com

Have a great week!

Shawn M. Galloway

ProAct Safety, Inc.

Listen Now:

 Standard Podcasts [03:45m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (535)

In 1990 there were certain beliefs and practices that were viewed as state of the art and acceptable. I’m sure in 2030 we will look back at 2011 and challenge much of what is said today on the topic of behavioral approaches. Here in lies the criticality of never accepting a one-size-fits-all methodology to injury prevention and remaining continuously searching for a better approach. No one has the silver bullet, yet we all together can contribute to making this a safer world by striving for a better way to accomplish our goals through dialogue such as this.

My research and experience with hundreds of global projects in every major industry leads me to believe that the vast majority of incidents (injury, process, equipment damage, etc.) have a conditional, behavioral, organizational, and cultural contributing factor. Now the question is, contributing factor to prevention, or causation? The latter leads people to feel a greater sense of blame than the former. Blame isn’t beneficial for anyone other than those placing it. Moreover, it doesn't facilitate ownership in prevention.

It is my belief that behaviors can indeed prevent and cause an event to occur, they can also be the reason an event was avoided. We must look beyond the behavior and remind ourselves people do things for a reason. If we only address the behavior, without addressing the reason, the sustainability of our intervention strategies will be limited at best. Certainly focusing on behaviors in a vacuum might produce faster results, but is it fast or lasting improvement we want? A little of both would be ideal indeed. I prefer sustainable value-add.

What are your thoughts?

Shawn M. Galloway

ProAct Safety, Inc.

www.ProActSafety.com

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

Listen Now:

 Standard Podcasts [14:48m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (429)

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.

Listen Now:

 Standard Podcasts: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (599)

Greetings recording this week in Peoria, Illinois! We have received some amazingly positive responses from a recent article of ours (Unions and Behavior-Based Safety: The Seven Deadly Sins) that was published in EHS Today in the October 2009 edition. If you would like to view a hard copy and print out the article, please either visit www.EHSToday.com or www.ProActSafety.com. For the podcast this week I have recorded the article so it can be listened to at your leisure. A free webinar on this topic has been recorded and can be found on the ProAct Safety website as well.

I hope you enjoy, here we go!

Have a great week!

Shawn Galloway

ProAct Safety

Listen Now:

 Standard Podcasts [12:35m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (975)

Greetings! This podcast recorded in Omaha Nebraska. This week I’d like to provide a recording of a white paper that was written by Terry, back in 1998. Terry was one of the first actual practitioners of behavioral approaches back in the early 1980’s, when he was the Director of Training at a little organization called The Coca-Cola Company. He created some of the world’s first corporate roll outs of what is now called Behavior-Based Safety. After successfully rolling this out throughout the company, he left Coca-Cola and joined the consulting ranks in 1996 and started our firm, ProAct Safety. Being one of the world’s first actual business practitioners of behavioral approaches provided him a different perspective than those who had respectfully (at the time) only had the academic experience.

If you have listened to the other 93 podcasts by now you have heard us reference the difference of theory and practice multiple times. When 1998 came about Terry had already customized many different approaches for many of the firm’s first clients and what he was seeing throughout the world when looking at the academic methodologies really concerned him, as did it concern the unions and many executives as well. So terry wrote a white paper in 1998 called, “Why Behavior-Based Safety Must Change Or Perish.” I would like to present that paper to you today. While yes, it is a little dated and our philosophy has greatly been enhanced, I believe it provides some understanding of how our firm’s viewpoint came to be. I hope you enjoy!

Shawn Galloway

ProAct Safety

Why Behavior-Based Safety Must Change Or Perish.

And what the new model will look like.

By Terry L. Mathis

1998

Behavior-Based Safety (BBS), as it has come to be called, has been a very successful intervention for reducing accidents.  Many organizations have tried it with success and others would have tried it except for its high costs both in terms of external and internal resources.  Others have chosen deliberately not to use Behavior-Based Safety precisely because of these high costs.

In today’s climate of lean manufacturing and downsizing, Behavior-Based Safety is becoming a dinosaur in real danger of extinction.  Like dinosaurs, Behavior-Based Safety has changed relatively little since its inception in the mid 1980s.  It is artificially expensive to hire expert consultants and the methodology is very liberal with the use of workers who must be excused from their regular jobs to do the “process.” Behavior-Based Safety has been effective but not efficient.

If Behavior-Based Safety is going to survive, must less thrive in the current business environment, it is going to have to change in some real ways.  An examination of current methodology reveals a number of ways in which it could change to better meet the demands of the business world as it has become.

Behavior-Based Safety Must Become “Lean”

The amount of money spent on external consultants often wanes in comparison to the amount spent on internal resources necessary for Behavior-Based Safety.  Sites have calculated as much as 1,000 work/hours of training per 100 employees to get the process started and 100-200 work/hours per month to keep it going.  A typical Behavior-Based Safety process has a steering committee or team which receives days of training and workshop activities to get the process started and several hours per month for the term of the process.  In addition to this team, observers are selected from the workforce who can include as much as 100% of the workforce.  These observers may take from one half hour per week to three hours per week to complete their observations.  Many sites give observers overtime to complete observations.

Lean workforces struggle to spare this many people away from their regular duties.  Experimental sites have been able to accomplish Behavior-Based Safety with far fewer people and still produce dramatic results.  Leadership teams/committees can be downsized or replaced with facilitators.  Observations can be performed in larger blocks by fewer observers which reduces preparation and observation trip time.  Checklists can be focused on fewer behaviors or precautions, which speeds and simplifies the observations.  Feedback can be separated from observations or limited and targeted to save additional time. 

Behavior-Based Safety Must Become Union Friendly

Unions have been among the critics of behavioral safety initiatives claiming that it tends to blame workers for accidents and provide an avenue for management to abdicate its rightful role in safety leadership.  These claims are truer at some sites than others.  Some sites have done remarkably better at making Behavior-Based Safety a fact finding rather than a fault finding process.  Some site leaders have taken an active role in safety leadership and others have stepped back hoping that Behavior-Based Safety would solve their safety problems.

Experimental Behavior-based Safety processes have successfully tried several techniques to win union support: 

•  Omit all behaviors from the checklist that overlap with safety rules and procedures.  This eliminates the danger of using Behavior-Based Safety for disciplinary purposes.  Everything on the checklist is discretionary and non-punishable.
• Separate the observations from the feedback.  Have an observer “sweep” the organization for measurement and use this data to focus peer coaching only in areas where improvements are needed.  Some sites have even used salaried observers in this role to eliminate the perception that a climate of union members spying on other union members would be developed. Union members were used as coaches, but not to gather data.
• Site management only views the identified, prioritized items provided to them by the hourly team members to fix the problems and not just to fix the blame.
• Observations are used to find unsafe conditions as well as concerning behaviors.

Even non-union sites have benefited from these and other techniques.

Behavior-Based Safety Must Become Professional

One of the weaknesses of traditional Behavior-Based Safety is that it uses amateurs to perform expert duties.  This is especially true in the area of data analysis and problem solving.  Employee teams/committees have been charged with analyzing the behavioral observation data (sometimes coordinating it with ongoing accident and near-miss data) and using their findings to continuously improve safety and solve identified problems.  Most employee teams have no expertise in data analysis or training in statistics and fail to accurately identify and/or prioritize their safety problems and opportunities.  Some teams spend hours pouring over data and fail to really understand what they are looking at.  Even teams who identify problems are seldom empowered to solve them and workers hesitate to take issues to managers and ask for help. 

In new Behavior-Based Safety experimental sites where the trust levels and culture supports, the data is analyzed by someone with both the training and the expertise to identify issues and distribute data to the right person or level at the site that can potentially solve the problem.  Most Behavior-Based Safety processes identify a lot more than concerning practices or behaviors.  They identify systems issues, unsafe conditions, training deficits, organizational and cultural issues, problems with management and supervision, and even safety rules and procedures that don’t work.  Much of these issues are never identified or addressed by employee teams and the opportunity costs of such omissions are significant.

The traditional thinking is that the data must been seen only by workers to keep it anonymous and separated from discipline.  Many techniques have been developed to solve this problem and still allow for more expert analysis and use of the observational data.   The same issues that apply to data analysis and problem solving often apply to observation and feedback and innovative sites are finding ways to improve observation and feedback expertise, while reducing resource requirements.

 Behavior-Based Safety Must Include True Safety Leadership

Behavior-Based Safety has focused on changing what it has called the safety “culture“.  The traditional Behavior-Based Safety vision of this ideal culture is at the heart of the problem.  The ideal Behavior-Based Safety culture is self-directed with almost no management intervention and is replete with workers who have time to effectively communicate with each other about safety issues.  Behavior-Based Safety has a leadership team which meets independently and a team or teams of observers who regularly take time away from their jobs.  Managers are asked to support and not interfere with the leadership team or steering committee while supervisors are charged with “empowering” the observers.

In reality, many of the Behavior-Based Safety processes have stopped far short of creating a new culture and have instead produced a new cult.  The workers involved in Behavior-Based Safety create a new clique in the organization that enjoys immunity from normal management and supervisory scrutiny.  Managers find they have diminished ability to influence the safety priorities and activities of the workers.  The gap between leaders and workers widens.

Any safety culture should involve all levels in the organization and use the levels in the way they can best serve.  Leaders should establish goals and direction and workers should use their abilities to find better and safer ways to accomplish organizational goals.  All safety efforts should be integrated and great care should be used not to create separate activities that separate and alienate levels of the organization from each other.  Even some of the Behavior-Based Safety experts who purported the traditional approach are recanting and acknowledging the importance of leadership in successful Behavior-Based Safety processes.

Conclusions

Sites that are looking at implementing Behavior-Based Safety should consider alternatives and not just look at the traditional approaches.  Some of the innovations could make Behavior-Based Safety a viable process for sites where traditional Behavior-Based Safety simply would not work, or fit.

Sites that already have a Behavior-Based Safety process are encouraged to consider putting their processes on a diet.  Even if it currently works, it may be too large and ineffective.  Look at innovative ways to downsize and realign resources.  Use site expertise in data analysis.  Look for innovative ways to streamline observations and make your process more union friendly and supported.  Above all, keep leadership in an active role in the process and make the process integrate into your existing organization and safety efforts. Your Behavior-Based Safety process is not extinct yet!

Listen Now:

 Standard Podcasts [12:00m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (1340)

Greetings, recording this week from East Brunswick, New Jersey. This week I’d like to provide an overview of an upcoming free webinar scheduled for the 24th of September 2009. The webinar will be hosted by EHS Today. You can find a link to enroll at either www.ProActSafety.com or www.EHSToday.com if you are reading this after the live event, a link should be available to watch it on demand at www.ProActSafety.com.

There are many processes called Behavior-Based Safety, or something similar, and Unions oppose most of them. When you examine union resistance to Behavior-Based Safety, you find seven primary objections. How did this opposition start, why is it not resolved, and what can you do about it if you want to use Behavior-Based Safety at a union site? This webinar explores the history, the seven key issues, and a detailed plan for Behavior-Based Safety success that has worked at over 600 union sites. So Terry and I sat down to discuss this webinar and what will be covered. I hope you enjoy!

Shawn Galloway

ProAct Safety

Listen Now:

 Standard Podcasts [13:37m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (1407)