Delivering Safety Excellence. Michael M. Williamsen
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and large problems would save an incredible amount of money and improve net profit? These fixes would also eliminate the intense amount of pain experienced by frontline workforce employees as a result of last year's 39 lost time injuries. Additionally, these fixes that result in many fewer injuries would also greatly improve employee morale. Why cannot the union leadership pitch in and fix some of the issues that face them every day, instead of making up next month's “no‐action list” and rubbing it in the face of their opponents? Aaron begins to realize a sports analogy: there is an intense offense and an intense defense, but no team work. Consequently there are no victories to celebrate because status quo is all that is expected. The organization continually lives a WYSIWYG culture (what you see is what you get) as the two dysfunctional organizations routinely lock horns in an ongoing rutting contest, which just keeps rolling on at a miserable Recordable Injury Frequency (RIF) of 10+.
Aaron decides he must do something different to get out of the culture of insanity, but what is it? They follow the OSHA rules and guidelines, yet the painful RIF plateau of 10+ never gets better. Out of frustration Aaron reaches in and pulls out the Doc's business card which has collected dust for a number of months in the dark inner reaches of his desk. He hears himself mumble “But what use is this? I don't have any dollars I can spend on this kind of help.” “Never give up, or ugly tomorrow? What have I got to lose?” as he dials the Doc's number.
It is a long and intense phone conversation between Aaron and Doc. As it ends, Aaron comes away with some personal revelations and a simple model that should help him begin the teamwork necessary to deliver real solutions to the monthly inaction list. Aaron looks at the notes he took during the call. He scratches out “notes” and gives the list a new title, “Revelations”:
People do not care how much you know until they know how much you care. That said, management does not need to be the smartest people in the room. We need to use everyone's abilities if we are going to have any chance of being a team.
Culture trumps process. It costs nothing to show genuine appreciation for the good things people do every day. When a person is asked to look into an issue, their actions need to be followed up with genuine appreciation and reinforcement of their doing the right actions which move toward a solution. This kind of positive feedback helps reinforce a new culture of action; one of complaint equals goal, which is far different from the current culture of complaint equals BMW (Bellyache Moan and Whine).
Act on employee concerns. Acting on the many small issues which crop up over a month does not really cost enough to affect the monthly bottom line accounting numbers. However, this kind of frequent action of fixing what is bothering your people does genuinely affect your employees' attitudes and behaviors. There is a simple tool, an Action Item Matrix (AIM, Chapter 13), which easily and effectively helps people track what needs to be worked on and what has been accomplished. The first AIM needs to go to the maintenance team union employees with a monthly bogie of required hours to be spent on safety items. Look at the safety back log and pick a number of hours we can begin with: more than 10 and less than 100 is a good guideline for the launch of this initiative.Figure 2.1 Action item matrix.
Trust and credibility are mission critical; there are no secrets in any organization.Your employees at all levels know what the truth is and that affects their performanceWhen your employees feel empowered, they do not want to let you downWhen you do what is right, your employees will do what they can to do what is right in return for your effortsIf you do not fix what is needed, they will provide no help in return for your lack of efforts, and the organization becomes one of RIP (Retired In Place). This kind of culture acts like one that does not really care, and that kind of attitude is the death knell to any kind of improvement possibility
Aaron looks at the list and the Action Item Matrix (Figure 2.1a and b) the Doc emailed during the conversation. After a few minutes of additional conversation, he mentally begins to fill in action items he knows they can complete. And then he stops, prints some copies of the draft AIM and goes out to talk to the employees he knows who are willing to participate in the required teamwork. Without exception, those who are willing to engage give him items which are sticking in their craw. Some are difficult, like changing the tooling on the bucket truck booms and some are so simple, like additional lighting. He remembers another comment the Doc made; “The minimum level of expectation becomes the maximum level of performance.” Aaron realizes all that was needed was his proactive leadership. Aaron and the Doc started the AIM (Figure 2.1a and b). There will be many more items added as the “Find it, Fix it, Move on” initiative progresses. As Aaron drives home he is looking forward to taking his wife out to a dinner. While in the background he considers the beginning of a plan to improve the safety culture and stop the inexcusable injuries.
3 The Tyranny of the Urgent
Aaron sits down in his office after a week of talking to employees at all levels of the organization about what needs to be done to fix their safety culture. It is no surprise that his action item list includes about 90% condition fixes. After all, the regulations focus on unsafe conditions. There are some cultural issues dealing with the huge disconnects between management and labor, and even a few suggestions as to where and how to begin the needed fixing and healing work. But, the 150+ condition shortfalls are truly overwhelming as to where to begin considering the limited resources available. This approach seems to be what the people want, and hardware issues seem to be a logical starting point, but how to prioritize the many items in order to override the tyranny of the urgent and provide direction for Aaron's small team to begin its needed work. He next goes to his own tried and true soul searching method; puts his head in his hands on the desk and thinks for a few minutes. He then straightens up, flexes his muscles and calls the Doc.
They schedule another two‐hour time block that, when it occurs, kicks off another practical teaching. This one‐on‐one event is all about how to improve a dysfunctional culture which has too much to do, for too few people, with too little time available for fixing all the needs.
The Doc shared his many years of experience working as someone who came into a company or organization which was in serious risk of going under (bankrupt). It seemed strange to the Doc that, almost without exception, there was a significant resistance to making change/improvement in a culture that most people thought to be terminally sick. Since he was the change agent, he experienced lots of resistance from these organizations which had become comfortable with their weak status quo. After a few rounds, the Doc came to a personal conclusion that most of these struggling cultures fit a 5‐5‐90 model:
Five percent of the people would do whatever they could to help you make the necessary improvements, the “developers.”
Five percent would do whatever they could to fight any changes, the “resisters” (or CAVEmen [Citizens Against Virtually Everything]).
Ninety percent would go in and out with the tide as organizational ebbs and flows occurred. This 90% group had a common motto: “Just tell me what to do so I can do my job.” They were a picture of sheep following whichever shepherd was in charge.In the beginning of such a turnaround assignment the vocal, aggressive, negative group always had the upper hand in a weak organization with poor leadership. Thus, the turnaround leader seemed to always engage in an uphill battle, kind of like the legendary Greek mythology character, Sisyphus, who was condemned to an eternity of rolling a boulder uphill, then watching it roll back down again. Only in our safety culture scenario, there are 95% of the organization's people pushing back against the needed uphill battle against change.
The vocal and aggressive “resisters” seemed to never let up. The Doc shared about the time he told his wife that he was like an elephant on a tightrope performing in a circus. The bad news was that there were people in the stands paid to snipe at him and that being a big target he took hits on a regular basis.