Safety Culture Excellence®

Some thoughts on Incentives and Rewards:

The following is from a 1993 HBR Article titled: Rethinking Rewards: “In fact, we believe our incentive compensation program is at the heart of our company’s success… Since we adopted this approach, the quality of the budgeting process has substantially improved. Finally, award opportunities are uncapped, and, as a result, they encourage the entrepreneurial spirit that we value. When designed effectively and integrated thoroughly into the management process, executive incentive programs work well for management and shareholders alike.” L. Dennis Kozlowski (Former Chairman and CEO of Tyco Laboratories and now residing in a New York Correctional Facility for financial crimes).

If a site were to imagine what safety excellence looks like, what role do incentives play? I would not define safety culture excellence by what we have to do to prompt desirable behavior. Excellence to me looks like a naturally occurring series of desirable behaviors that occur unprompted. I prefer approaches that inspire people to do things above and beyond what is required for the right reasons, and recognize them for then doing more than what is expected for their job. Often positive reinforcement (R+) is sufficient.

Managers can certainly reward the individual behaviors, nothing wrong with recognizing behaviors that helped achieve a result. I agree with that. I just want to ensure people are performing these desirable behaviors for the right reason, not the reward. If an organization cannot afford to pay their reward program and if the behaviors are not occurring for intrinsic reasons, they will often cease. I choose to set goals, inspire, coach, recognize and then lead by not leading.

When people see progress and are recognized for their individual efforts, you have developed a sustainable model for performance. Telling them if you do this, I’ll give you that and then no longer can, isn’t sustainable. It should be recognized that we all are trying to develop paths to the same goal: Creating a world safe and free from risks and a society that knows the precautions necessary to keep themselves injury and disease-free. Both I believe can only be sustainable through an intrinsic passion for excellence, and the right combination of tools. Incentives can certainly be a starting point; they just shouldn’t be the ending one. If this is a site’s ending point, than they aren’t there yet.

What are your thoughts?

Shawn M. Galloway

ProAct Safety, Inc.

Greetings, this podcast recorded while working in Cottage Grove, Minnesota. I’d like to share an article I wrote that was published in the February 2011 edition of Drilling Contractor Magazine. It was titled “For Sustainable Safety, Leaders Must Do More Coaching, Less Policing”. The published article can either be found at www.DrillingContractor.org 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 Buena Park, CA. For the podcast this week I’d like to share an article I wrote that was published in the March 2011 edition of BIC Magazine. It was titled “Fear And Inspiration: Two Sides Of The Motivational Coin”. 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, this podcast recorded while working in Dallas, Texas. For the podcast this week, I’d like to share an article I wrote that was published in the February 2011 edition of BIC Magazine. It was titled “Motivation Through Fear: How To Destroy An Effective Culture”. 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 all! For the video podcast this month, I'm sharing a video where I discuss a very effective approach to identifying the right leaders either through hiring or promotion. You can either watch the video here at www.SafetyCultureExcellence.com, at www.ProActSafety.com/Insights, or directly on the magazine’s site at: http://cos-mag.com or you can watch it below from YouTube.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtOyehb6ZlI]

I hope you enjoy and have a great week!

Shawn M. Galloway

ProAct Safety, Inc.

Greetings, this podcast recorded while working in El Paso, Texas. For the podcast this week I’d like to share an article I wrote that was published in January 2011 by Canadian Occupational Safety Magazine. It was titled “Ownership In Safety: The Challenge Of Increasing Headcount?” The published article can either be found at www.COS-Mag.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 Chicago, IL. For the podcast this week I’d like to share an article I wrote that was published in the December 2010/January 2011 edition of BIC Magazine. It was titled “Challenging, Changing Five Dangerous Safety Perceptions”. 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, this podcast recorded while working in Newburg, New York. For the podcast this week I’d like to share an article I wrote called “Black Holes of Safety: Gain Visible Progress Through Identification and Prevention” published October 2010 in Facility Safety Management Magazine. The published article can either be found at www.fsmmag.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 Waukegan, IL. For the podcast this week I’d like to share an article I wrote called “Do You Have Safety Volun-tolds?”. It was published September 2010 in my column for Canadian Occupational Safety. The published article can either be found at http://www.cos-mag.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 all! For the video podcast this month, I'm sharing the 5 different types of people in an organization (as it relates to change) and how to engage them. You can either watch the video here at www.SafetyCultureExcellence.com, at www.ProActSafety.com/Insights, or directly on the magazine’s site at: http://cos-mag.com or you can watch it below from YouTube.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4UAVQgJKjs]

I hope you enjoy and have a great week!

Shawn M. Galloway

ProAct Safety, Inc.