Kevin Burns Blog

6 Reasons Companies Will Never Achieve Safety Greatness

Posted by Kevin Burns on Feb 10, 2015 5:43:00 PM

When apathy and mediocrity run rampant, morale hovers near rock bottom - right next to safety.

Without getting into long descriptions, good workplace safety culture is the result of attitudes and personal and corporate values aligning. If apathy in the workplace exists, little care will be given to safety. When the quality of the work is “good enough,” apathy in safety exists. If employees think it's a lousy place to work, then safety will take a back seat. When apathy and mediocrity run rampant, morale hovers near rock bottom - right next to safety. When attitudes suck, good luck being a top performer - either in safety or financial performance. Hence, you have a broken safety culture.

5 Things Managers Must Give Employees In Safety

Posted by Kevin Burns on Jan 21, 2015 9:23:00 PM

The new management reality: staff don’t work for managers - managers work for staff.

There are 5 constants in life: death, taxes, change, Greek folk-songs speed up, and people make decisions that compromise safety. That last constant impacts the first one too often. That impacts the second (taxes/premiums) and creates more of the third, change. I haven’t figured out where the fourth one sits in the scheme of things.

How To Replace Safety Incentives

Posted by Kevin Burns on Jan 13, 2015 5:03:00 PM

Here are the three steps to take employee focus off of money and put it back onto safety

To a union audience at a workshop, I asked the question, “Why do you work safely?” The answers varied from, "it’s the right thing to do" to "money talks."

How To Marry Production And Safety

Posted by Kevin Burns on Dec 24, 2014 1:38:00 PM

Why aren’t production and safety working out of the same office? Here are five ways to marry safety and production.

Production and safety blame the other for either slowing work down or increasing incident levels. Safety blames operations when there is a push on for greater production. Operations blame safety for holding up production. Neither wants to be wrong. Both want to be right. (Note: if you still believe that safety holds up production, you need to resign immediately.)

You Say You Want Safety Culture, But Are You Ready?

Posted by Kevin Burns on Nov 26, 2014 3:30:00 PM

6 minimum standards that are preventing you from establishing a strong safety culture.

No one wants to see anyone injured. To build a safety culture requires more than just viewing safety as an injury-prevention program. It’s more than following rules and meeting minimum standards. To build a safety culture requires employees to be respectful of each other, to display courtesy and care about each other. Safety is a teamwork philosophy.

5 Things You Absolutely Must Know To Shift Safety Culture

Posted by Kevin Burns on Nov 17, 2014 11:35:00 PM

Every single person in the organization has a hand in a strong safety culture. It doesn’t work any other way.

Strong safety cultures are built on character and values like courtesy, respect, sharing, teamwork and personal leadership. They are not built on certifications, hierarchies, self-congratulations, position or tenure.

3 Crucial Strategies To Improve Safety Culture

Posted by Kevin Burns on Nov 11, 2014 4:09:00 PM

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.

5 Reasons You're Not Getting Safety Buy-in

Posted by Kevin Burns on Nov 3, 2014 1:49:00 PM

You have all of the control over your safety program and how many of your good people buy-in to the program.

There are some things you can control and some you can not. What you can control is your participation in the safety program. No one can turn down or increase your participation in safety.

3 Reasons You're Not The Boss Of Me In Safety

Posted by Kevin Burns on Oct 28, 2014 4:34:00 PM

You'd want your co-workers to make the right decisions if you were the boss of them. Well, you are the boss of you. So how about you act like you're in charge?

Stop using the word leadership to describe management. We have all worked for managers who had zero leadership skills. You don’t call them your leader. You call them your boss. Leadership and management have little to do with each other.

5 Conversations That Have Nothing And Everything To Do With Safety

Posted by Kevin Burns on Sep 23, 2014 11:20:00 PM

Improve the individuals and the organization as a whole gets better. Improve personal skills and the collective safety culture improves.

Safety meetings, should solve problems and make the organization better. They are not meant to bore, to disengage or to frustrate. But they do. Meetings don’t have to entertain. But there is nothing wrong with entertaining employees and making work fun, even safety. Fun meetings engage employees and increase uptake.