To improve the culture of safety, take a long, hard look at how you frame communications about safety.
Safety Culture will improve when the communications about safety within the organization improve. Besides increasing the quantity of communication, consider the quality.
There is an over-reliance on using injury, and the threat of it, as a key part of safety communications. Injury is the result of a breakdown of decisions and processes. Safety is an attitude: a way of living life. It is also a key corporate value.
In order for safety communications to be most effective, they must align with and support the corporate values. Employees must also align with and support the corporate values in safety. To improve the culture of safety, take a long, hard look at how you frame communications about safety.
Here are three crucial strategies required to positively affect safety culture:
1Remove the negative motivators from communications. Enthusiasm inspires enthusiasm - negativity breeds negativity. Negative reinforcement may get attention briefly, but it will lose out in the long term. People won’t embrace a list of things not to do. They will embrace an action plan of achievable steps. Photos of severed limbs don’t motivate anyone to be safe anymore than photos of fat people improve motivation to get to the gym. Retirement plans aren’t spurred by viewing photos of homeless people. Negative photos, videos, posters and verbal communications don’t build buy-in. They get short-term compliance which will have to be negatively reinforced. It will need to be stronger and more graphic each time. To build a team that buys-in to safety, you need positive coaching, encouragement and leadership. A team that has those components looks out for each other.
Action step: delete the gruesome photos and injury videos. Don't get injured doesn't instruct you on how to stay safe. Remove the words "don't" and "never" from your safety communications. More importantly, remove them from your own vocabulary. Don't and never are incomplete instructions. Stop exposing people to don’t-do-what-I-did messages from injury survivors. Empower employees to make good choices, not to avoid bad ones.
2Focus on tracking positives. Data is useful in understanding why incidents take place. How you frame the tracking numbers can result in different outcomes. Not all employees comprehend the formula calculations to arrive at LTI numbers. Although the corporate TRIF may be 1.1, only the safety managers fully understand what that means. Meanwhile, there are employees who believe that Zero is impossible to achieve. They believe injury is a foregone conclusion. Each time that Zero is not achieved, it feeds their belief that Zero is impossible. So, use achievable, we-are-almost-there numbers that encourage more effort in safety. Instead of focusing on Zero as a goal, focus on being 100% Safe. The closer to the top a team gets, the more it will give an extra effort to achieve outstanding performance.
Action step: TRIF and LTI tracking can still take place within the safety department. Track daily results but with an eye to being almost there, almost perfect. Instead of achieving Zero for a day, call it 100% Safe (not injury-free). Instead of announcing a TRIF of 1.1, celebrate 98.9% safety effectiveness. Recognize good safety behaviors. Keep employees focused on achievement, not on avoiding failure.
3Remove regret. Reviewing incidents at safety meetings is a legal requirement. But, it is not required that it be the only thing discussed at safety meetings. It is also not necessary to relive the entire incident. What’s more useful are the learnings from an incident. People must focus forward. Yes, an incident may have occurred, but what matters is what happens next. Shake off what has happened and focus on what is about to happen. Should-haves, could-haves and would-haves keep people focused on regret. Regret is not a positive message nor does it encourage resilience. Safety doesn’t happen in the past or the future. Safety happens in the moment. That’s where employee focus needs to be. Exposing employees to past failures only forces them to feel regret that they could or should have done more.
Action step: Engagement falls when an employee feels regret for something they could have done better. Any athlete berated by a coach will doubt themselves and lose confidence. Empower employees to take charge. The most powerful words an employee can utter are, “I got this.” When accountability and resilience are high, regret is low. That’s when the team will operate at its greatest capacity.
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Finding new and unique ways of appealing to employees to embrace safety can prove difficult. Start 2015 the right way. Call Kevin to bring his presentation of personal leadership in safety to your workplace. Kevin’s presentation will support what you’ve been saying to your employees. Kevin will also align with your corporate safety program. Your employees will actually enjoy the safety meeting.
