Safety Culture Excellence®

For the video this week, consider, as a leader do you come across more like a DOC (Demonstrating Opportunities to Care) or a Cop (Catching Opportunities to Punish)?

I hope you enjoy this short thought-provoking video.

Shawn M. Galloway
ProAct Safety
www.ProActSafety.com

A business unit manager who was frustrated with a bottleneck in his operations took over a job for several hours from an operator to speed up production.  His regional manager walked in and found him there and asked what he was doing.  When he explained that he was doing the job of an operator, his boss asked him, “While you are doing that, who is running the unit?”  He was working “IN” his unit and not “ON” it.

Many safety professionals are entirely too bogged down with day-to-day busywork to work “on” safety.  Others choose to roll up their sleeves and jump in rather than to stand back and strategically evaluate what really needs to be done.  Even corporate safety leaders often choose to do work rather than to manage safety strategically.  The net result is that many safety efforts are strategy-less, leaderless balls of energy being hurled at the big problem of accidents.  The underlying premise is that somehow more effort will win the day.

Often what is needed is not more but better effort.  Better effort is accomplished strategically.  When everyone is putting forth effort for the sake of effort and no one is working on strategy, that just doesn’t happen.

-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.

Hello everyone, here is a quick video for you to reflect on your leadership style.

Have a great week!

Shawn M. Galloway
www.ShawnGalloway.com

When you discuss the findings from recent accident investigations either in safety meetings, stand downs, or via email, what is the focus?  Do you determine the root cause and describe the corrective action taken by the organization to avoid repeat injuries?  If so, that is good but incomplete.  You should also discuss risk awareness techniques to help workers recognize developing at-risk situations and precautions that workers can take to minimize the probability of such accidents.

It is not enough that organizations learn from their accidents; workers should learn as well.  When root causes lead to corrective action, risk awareness should also lead to safer behaviors and better hazard recognition.  If you only do one of these, you are missing half or more of the potential improvement that could result from your findings.  Don’t settle for simply improving conditions or improving behaviors.  Always look for opportunities to improve both!

-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.

Hello everyone, here is a quick video to help you shape performance in those you are coaching, leading and/or managing.

Have a great week!

Shawn M. Galloway
www.ShawnGalloway.com

A senior VP asked me to write a safety training program for route drivers and asked what my first step would be.  I responded that I would get with a route driver and ride to better understand their safety issues.  He seemed astounded and asked me if my education was so incomplete that I could not imagine what they did and direct it to be more “perfect.”  This attitude tends to permeate some safety programs and it can do serious damage.  

Safety, for workers, is not abstract, it is situational!  It involves situational awareness and correct responses to specific dangers.  Those who do not understand this are and will continue to be outsiders who may be respected for their positions but not for their knowledge.  Such leaders are tolerated, not followed.

Safety cultures are best influenced from within.  Abstract leaders are always viewed as outsiders. Outside influences cause resistance, not acceptance.  If you want to lead safety and improve your safety culture, get in touch with the reality of your workers and workplace.  Talk like someone who has been there and done that and appreciates the challenges of the job.  Such actions are not lowering your standards or admitting the limitations of your education, they are living and succeeding in the real world.

-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.

Greetings everyone, this podcast recorded while in Auburn Hills, MI. I’d like to share an article I wrote that was published in the August 2014 edition of 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

There is an increasing amount of talk about safety culture with very few real, implementable tactics that outline how to create a culture of safety excellence, and sustain it.

For the first time ever, leveraging the expertise of Canada’s Greg Ford of TalentClick and The United States’ Shawn M. Galloway of ProAct Safety, a free one-of-a-kind webinar will occur on the 24th of September, 2014.

This webinar will be a one a unique and revolutionary exploration into what both industry leaders (with different backgrounds, approaches and client experiences) have found to be the three most important building blocks of safety culture improvement. Safety culture has never been explored, developed, measured and understood like this before.

Greg Ford is the CEO of TalentClick Workforce Solutions. He is passionate about helping organizations eliminate incidents. He is committed to empowering people with “safety self-awareness” so they get home safely at the end of the day. Born in a blue-collar town and raised in a working-class family, Greg has a degree in Psychology and a Masters in Adult Education & Workplace Learning. He is CEO and co-founder of TalentClick and an adjunct professor at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada.

Greg’s articles have been published in numerous magazines and journals such as Workplace Today, Canadian HR Reporter, People Talk, Mining Weekly, Oil & Gas Monthly and others. He is a member of the Canadian Association of Professional Speakers and has spoken throughout North America.

Shawn M. Galloway is the President of ProAct Safety and coauthor of two books, his latest is STEPS to Safety Culture Excellence. He is one of the top speakers for American Society of Safety Engineers. National Safety Council calls him a “Global safety excellence expert” and a “Top-rated speaker” and listed him in the 2013 Top 40 Rising Stars.

He continues to be recognized by industry magazines as one of the most influential EHS leader and safety excellence expert. In addition to the books, hundreds of podcasts, articles and videos he is also the host of the highly acclaimed weekly podcast series, Safety Culture Excellence and a columnist for several magazines.

I hope you will join us for this exciting event!

Link to event: http://tinyurl.com/pu3axfn

How many safety professionals who manage contractor relations have ever been contractors themselves?  Is safety different for contractors than it is for regular employees?  Anyone asking these questions is thinking but probably does not have the answers.  YES!  Safety is different for contractors and those who try to manage it as though it were not quickly lose credibility.  

That does not mean contractors will not placate them and try to make them happy.  It simply means that their directives may be dramatically unrealistic and obviously out of touch with the reality of the task at hand. The sad truth is that safety is not an abstract construct that is universally applicable.  

True safety is highly in tune with the realities of the job, the worker and the workplace.  Safety guidelines that ignore these realities flash a neon light that says “Out of Touch” and labels the originator of them as a complete outsider who is clueless even if the person in charge.   Savvy safety professionals seek out these realities and remain flexible.  Remember the old saying, “In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice.  In practice, there is!”

-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.

Safety leaders are regularly looking for ways to improve safety, or are they?  All too many leaders would settle for maintaining the status quo or managing to fail a little less this year than last.  It is not that they would not like to make a truly transformational improvement in safety.  They simply either don’t think it is possible or don’t have a plan to make it happen.

The beginning of a transformation in safety is to quit trying to control workers and start adding value to them.  Workers may sometimes be the problem but they are also the solution.  Helping workers perform more safely is different than controlling them.  The whole terminology of “safety controls” loses its effectiveness when it moves from conditional controls to behavioral controls.  

Transformation begins with winning hearts and minds over to safety excellence and providing the support to enable their efforts.  Safety becomes a life ambition and not a game that needs rules to keep people from cheating.  The hands and feet of workers only need to be controlled when their hearts and minds are not bought in and fully engaged in the safety effort.  

-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.