Safety Culture Excellence®

Hello, welcome to the Safety Culture Excellence podcast, brought to you by ProAct Safety, the world leader of safety excellence.

Hello, welcome to the Safety Culture Excellence podcast, brought to you by ProAct Safety, the world leader of safety excellence.

During a safety observation, workers were observed using the wrong tool for a job, which created a risk.  When a safety committee saw the report, they petitioned management to buy the proper tool for the work station.  The committee member who received the tool took it to the work station and presented it to the worker on shift with an explanation of what had happened and the action taken.  The worker admitted that he really had not been taught what the proper tool was for the job and had used the home-made tool since he began his job.

The next month’s observations reported that workers were still using the wrong tool for the job.  Follow-up revealed that workers on the other shifts had not received the communication and were not aware of the new tool.  The safety committee made sure that every worker was made aware of the proper tool in safety and tool box meetings and felt sure the next month’s data would show the problem solved.

The next month, the observations showed the workers were STILL not using the right tool. Follow-up revealed that workers had formed the habit of using the wrong tool and that the habit was not changed.  The safety committee developed a plan to remind workers and, within the next few months, the problem was truly solved.

Lessons learned: 

•             Safety problems can be multi-layered and require multiple fixes.

•             Solving problems requires follow-up.

•             Influences need to be addressed in order to change the behavior.

-Terry L. Mathis

For more insights, visit 

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 three consecutive times. 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).

Rule of thumb:  Any quantity goal without a quality requirement will encourage “pencil whipping”.  This is especially true of safety audits and observations.  Organizations that require everyone to do two observations per month or two audits per week are misstating what they truly want.  Quantity is ineffective without quality.  There are thousands of studies that support the idea that a certain quantity of contact or assessment is necessary for improvements.  But they all go out the window if the numbers are filled with fake, or otherwise poor-quality, components.

What drives change is the right number of quality contacts.  Going through the motions and getting the numbers just to check off a box is not what organizations really want.  So why do they set these goals, omitting the quality requirements?  Largely because the quantity is easily and discretely measured while the quality is more complicated and subjective.  It is easier to create accountability around numbers than quality, but doing so can completely compromise the effort.  State both quantity and quality requirements in all goals and do your best to hold workers accountable for 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 three consecutive times. 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).

1. Develop a solid understanding of a safety excellence strategy
2. Learn the leading causes of safety program ineffectiveness and failure
3. Examine a standard methodology used by excellent safety organizations to identify virtually any type of safety issue or problem
4. Learn to use statistical tools to prioritize issues by their potential impact
5. Learn to develop action plans to solve safety problems
6. Explore innovative ways to measure success and progress
7. Discover how one process can replace multiple programs and allow for seamless transition of focus without causing a flavor-of-the-month culture

• Electronic Materials (Templates) to return to their organization and facilitate discussions for the creation of their unique safety excellence strategy.
• A 60-Minute Recorded High-Level Webinar outlining the key STEPS to Safety Culture Excellence methodologies. This will help convey the messages and build support and understanding for the necessary path forward. Moreover, this can also help during on-boarding of future leaders to provide an understanding of why the strategy was created, furthering the future support necessary as the organization continuously improves safety performance and culture and acquires or promotes new leadership talent.
• Access to Shawn M. Galloway or Terry L. Mathis from 8 am to 5 pm CT during the week by email and phone for one month following the workshop, to help support efforts by coaching and advising through the initial creation of the strategy. If not immediately available, calls and emails will be returned within 24 hours.
• A personalized autographed copy of the book, STEPS to Safety Culture Excellence.

Greetings everyone, this podcast recorded while in Toronto, ON. I’d like to share an article Terry Mathis wrote that was published June 2014 edition of EHS Today 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