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<\/p>\nIn theory, managing safety performance should be easy.<\/p>\n
No leader ever wants to see any harm come to anyone working for them. Nobody working for a living wants to go home hurt\u2014or hurting\u2014at the end of the day. When it comes to safety\u2014where the ultimate goal is to send everyone home alive and well\u2014there\u2019s perfect goal alignment between what the leaders and employees want.<\/p>\n
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This fact should make safety performance and enforcement easy. An industry CEO once affirmed that safety protocols should be, \u201cLike breathing. Something nobody should even have to think about doing.\u201d Indeed, this is a great theory.<\/p>\n
In practice, if safety were as easy as breathing, every outfit in the world would be injury-free and their employers and managers wouldn\u2019t have to spend any time managing safety performance.<\/p>\n
For the last 15 years, I have been asking leaders all over the world why managing safety performance is anything but easy. I\u2019ve posed the question to a wide swath of industrial leaders at clients both big and small, at sites that are the safest in the world, and some that are bringing up the back of the pack. I\u2019ve asked it of CEOs and board members, and members of safety committees and shop stewards.<\/p>\n
Most significantly, I\u2019ve asked that question to a huge contingent of front line supervisors: the ones directly responsible for the safety of those most likely to get hurt doing the work of the company.<\/p>\n
I ask every leader the same simple question: \u201cWhat are the toughest safety challenges you face as a leader every day?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n Fifty thousand leaders have weighed in on the subject. I\u2019ve collected their answers and put them on a list. This list is very simple and in most cases, is populated with single words, familiar to every industrial leader the world over. Their answers, in alphabetical order, include words such as attitude<\/strong>, awareness<\/strong>, behavior<\/strong>, and buy-in<\/strong>. They also include a number of challenges starting with the letter C: compliance<\/strong>, complacency<\/strong>, communication<\/strong>, change<\/strong>, and culture<\/strong>. The list continues on to distractions<\/strong>, environment<\/strong>, equipment<\/strong>, focus<\/strong>, and getting people to follow the rules when the leader isn\u2019t there (sometimes referred to as integrity<\/strong>). Another issue is getting people to report near-misses and ensuring that people tell the truth in an investigation where something went wrong.<\/p>\n Another term that tends to come up is habits<\/strong>\u2014particularly when it comes to breaking the bad ones. The list goes on: pressure<\/strong> from peers, customers, and bosses; priority<\/strong>\u2014what comes first, business or safety? Resources<\/strong>: not enough money or people. Risk<\/strong>: how much is too much? Time<\/strong>: there\u2019s never enough. Training<\/strong> is another ongoing issue.<\/p>\n The list continues all the way down to \u201czero.\u201d<\/p>\n With all these challenges, many wonder how they can actually achieve zero safety incidents.<\/p>\n For those involved in the construction industry, these terms will sound familiar. Everyone involved in this industry knows about this list of challenges, as they are a constant reality for each working day. While leaders may prioritize them differently, or face them at different times, these types of issues remain a constant. There is also the issue of new staff needing training, and long-time staff possibly developing bad habits and getting complacent.<\/p>\n Put simply, this is the list of what\u2019s standing in the way of sending everyone home alive and well at the end of the day. If left unaddressed, these challenges will lead to people getting hurt. The challenge facing leaders the world over isn\u2019t knowing about the challenges, it\u2019s figuring out what to do about those challenges while still having the time to run the business.<\/p>\n As to why leaders the world over face the same fundamental set of safety leadership challenges, there\u2019s a simple explanation: every one of the challenges comes about because of people. As people go, we humans have a huge set of strengths. We\u2019re curious. We see possibilities. We innovate. We love challenges and solving problems. If it were otherwise, we\u2019d still be living in the Stone Age.<\/p>\n On the other hand, we find doing mundane and repetitive things boring. When we get bored, our minds wander. We\u2019re easy to distract. We don\u2019t like someone telling us what to do, because we\u2019re sure we know better. We aren\u2019t inclined to follow rules or bother to read instructions first. If there\u2019s a shortcut to be found, leave it to us to find it\u2014another thing we\u2019re very good at\u2014and then we immediately spread the word, which, social creatures that we are, we love to do.<\/p>\n When it comes to safety, the problem becomes obvious: being safe demands that we do many of the things we don\u2019t like to do and refrain from doing the very things we are naturally inclined to do. Putting people in an environment with hazards\u2014and every workplace has plenty\u2014and challenging them to \u201cget it done\u201d can often lead to certain safety issues.<\/p>\n There is a difference between knowing these challenges and understanding them\u2014and this is an exercise every leader should undertake. As an example, consider the challenge of change: what exactly is the challenge? The answer: \u201cPeople resist change.\u201d<\/p>\n Is this challenge really one of resistance to change? Resistance\u2014people pushing back\u2014simply means making change happen requires more effort and energy. Change becomes a heavier lift for the leader. That is a problem, but a simple problem.<\/p>\n Suppose, because of resistance, people don\u2019t make the change they\u2019re expected to? They\u2019re still doing it the old, less-safe way. In that case the real problem isn\u2019t resistance, it\u2019s execution. When it comes to safety, the failure to change represents a much bigger and more serious problem.<\/p>\n Even in the case of the seemingly simple and straightforward problem of resistance (\u201cI don\u2019t like this change\u201d) there\u2019s more than first meets the eye.<\/p>\n When employees raise objections to a change because it creates new problems with how they do their jobs, is that resistance?<\/p>\n Despite what many leaders perceive, raising legitimate problems about the practical implications of any change is not resistance. Resistance is one thing: \u201cWe don\u2019t like this change.\u201d Raising real problems is an entirely different thing and can be useful. Sooner or later, those problems are going to crop up. It is better to acknowledge these issues sooner, so a good leader will be grateful when potential issues are brought to their attention.<\/p>\n Additionally, it is important to recognize the difference between the problem of resistance to change and the challenge of executing change. It\u2019s no small difference. Complacency is often similarly misdiagnosed. A manager might think that his employees aren\u2019t thinking or that they\u2019re on autopilot and label them as complacent. The brain, however, does not have an on-off switch. It\u2019s processing information constantly, whether awake or asleep. It\u2019s a virtual certainty that the person being described as complacent is actually thinking about something, just not what they\u2019re doing at the moment they\u2019re doing it. Thus, the true problem is that the brain is not on task. When it comes to safety, that is a huge problem that gets all kinds of people hurt.<\/p>\n As to why someone would not be paying attention to what they\u2019re doing, boredom or distraction is generally a good explanation. When a worker has done something a hundred times and not gotten hurt, it\u2019s easy to think attention and focus are not needed.<\/p>\n Therefore, the real problem is about the perception of risk. An employee may think that nothing bad will happen to them, and thus move on to thinking about something else that is more interesting to them and not what they\u2019re doing at the time.<\/p>\n Even leaders can suffer the symptoms of complacency. When a leader believes they have safety under control, they may believe that they can move onto other things. However, since safety is never straightforward, this can be a critical error.<\/p>\n Even a challenge as simple as training isn\u2019t that straightforward. New people don\u2019t just need training\u2014they need effective training, which costs money. Additionally, not everything the new hires need to learn can be taught in a training class, which costs additional time\u2014sometimes from leaders.<\/p>\n Engaging with the issues of change, complacency, and training can give you a better understanding of how difficult these challenges are\u2014and help you come up with potential solutions.<\/p>\n Every day, leaders all over the world take on this familiar, but formidable, array of totally familiar challenges. Their success can be measured, simply, in the safety of their workers.<\/p>\n Despite all the challenges, on most days every single crew member working for the vast majority of supervisors goes home uninjured. Statistically, injuries\u2014at least the more serious injuries\u2014are relatively rare. As to how rare, the answer is found in the injury frequency rate.<\/p>\n As metrics go, the injury frequency rate takes a lot of criticism. It\u2019s not forward looking, it doesn\u2019t measure severity, and it doesn\u2019t measure near-misses or\u00a0 process problems that don\u2019t produce injuries. These criticisms are all true.<\/p>\n However, the injury frequency rate has one great thing going for it: everybody uses it. Thus, the rate can to be used to compare performance between companies, sites, departments, and even individual leaders. Industry groups do that on a regular basis; whenever they do, the distribution curve reveals the value added by leaders through their process of safety leadership.<\/p>\n As to how, that\u2019s simple. Every company starts with the same set of tough safety challenges. All are in business, and within any industry group (mining, metal fabrication, construction, maintenance, chemical manufacturing, etc.) they\u2019re in the same business. That means they have the same hazards and employ the same processes. Everyone starts out with the same inputs; in terms of output (result), however, that\u2019s not at all where they end up.<\/p>\n For example, consider one industry\u2019s benchmark of injury rates:<\/p>\n \u2022 \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Company A: .2 In the United States, according to government safety statistics, Company B is average. When it comes to sending people home safe, they are right in the middle of the distribution curve: half of their competitors\u2014not just in their industry, but in all industries\u2014do a better job, while half don\u2019t.<\/p>\n This judgement is based on simple math\u2014but this math makes a vitally important point: in the process of managing safety performance, some leaders do a far better job than the rest of their peers. It\u2019s not companies who compete, but their leaders.<\/p>\n Consider the good leaders at Company A: collectively, they are getting 15 times better results than their peers at an average company. Of course, as they\u2019re great leaders, they\u2019ll probably give the credit to their followers for the results. The math reveals the real story.<\/p>\n Leaders the world over know intuitively exactly what their toughest challenges are. Give any busy leader the time to pause and reflect on those challenges, it won\u2019t take long for them to understand the nature of the challenge: the combination of people, hazards, and the goal of production. It really is that simple.<\/p>\n Understanding the challenges is one thing. Doing the right things as a leader to actually ensure good people are working safely is what matters. What should they do to make a difference? That\u2019s the question leaders all over the world are searching for an answer to.<\/p>\n One option is to do more. Create more policies, procedures, programs, and standards. Come up with the next big thing for safety. These are the types of things leaders love to do. In a world full of ideas, there are always plenty of new and different options to choose from. While these actions might prove somewhat helpful, the most critical thing is to It\u2019s certainly not easy. Leading better requires the leader to change, which can be difficult. Improving leadership starts with buying in to the need to change. The next step is to figure out what other leaders are doing that enables them to be successful at leading. Trying to do things differently is a challenge, and there is always the fear of failure, <\/p>\n <\/p>\nMore than Meets the Eye<\/h2>\n
Measuring Success<\/h2>\n
\n\u2022 \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Company B: 3.0
\n\u2022 \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Company C: 10<\/p>\nThe Process of Leadership<\/h2>\n
\ncommit to leading better.<\/p>\n
\nbut acknowledging the value of change and then changing is critical. Ultimately, managing safety performance is the leader\u2019s work, and sending everyone home safely at the end of the day\u00a0 is the most important work every leader has to do.<\/p>\n