DRAFT –FOR DISCUSSION WITH MY NEW BOSS

First steps new job-The actions of a leader.

Quotable Quote

"A health & safety problem can be described by statistics but cannot be understood by statistics. It can only be understood by knowing and feeling the pain, anguish, and depression and shattered hopes of the victim and of wives, husbands, parents, children, grandparents and friends, and the hope, struggle and triumph of recovery and rehabilitation in a world often unsympathetic, ignorant, unfriendly and unsupportive, only those with close experience of life altering personal damage have this understanding"

Guiding principle

Contents

1 Background

2 Introduction

3 Objectives

4 First steps

5 Appendix 1 Force field analysis

6 Appendix 2 Key management concepts

Short term objective

Main objective for the first 3 months is for me to get to understand the business and the people, get the people to understand me and get the people to trust me. Attempting too big a change and / or to change things too quickly can create an adverse reaction and alienate the very people you want to make allies.

1 Background

The first fatality I was associated with saw me comforting the 18 year old, female, office-based victim and as she lapsed in & out of consciousness and she said “George, please do not let me die” She died the next day. I do not mind saying that knocked me about a bit.

One of the most devastating things that can happen to an organisation is for one of its members to receive permanently life altering (Fatal or non fatal) personal damage. There are far too many people who have their life permanently altered (terminated or impaired) in Australia every year, sadly we do not really know how many.

In high risk industries physical trauma is prevalent, in low risk industries issues of interpersonal relationships, mental health, screen-based ergonomics and wellness are important. Driving motor vehicles and electricity are risk factors in most industries. While I have seen my share of traumatic injury the most difficult rehabilitation case I had to manage was in a modern office.

Georg Christoph Licthenstein (1742-1799) is reported to have said “I cannot say whether things will get better if we change, what I can say is that they must change to get better” If we do not change the things we are currently doing in safety in Australia things will not improve.

Learn the context, culture and past before trying to make changes. Unless a crisis situation is apparent realise effective change requires a lot of effort and time.

John P. Kotter speaks of 8 steps for successful large scale change- Increase urgency, Build the guiding team, Get the vision right, Communicate for buy-in, Empower action, Create short-term wins, Do not let up, Make change stick.

2Introduction

The following is written for the purposes of discussion with my new boss and the safety team and for my guidance in establishing a 90 day strategic OHS plan. It is essential that the plan is targeted at the unique identified needs of the organisation, establishment of a project team and a project plan may be necessary. Progress on achieving goals must be monitored. Whatever Safety Management System is developed must be incorporated in the Quality Management system and subject to a continuous improvement philosophy.

3 Objective

Zero class 1 personal damage (Class 1 damage is that which results in permanently life-altering personal damage)

4 First steps

The underpinning theory can be found in Appendix 2 Key management concepts and the paper What Makes a Safety Management System Fly on ohschange.com.au .The aim is to meet and exceed the requirements of A.N.Z.S.4801 and I.S.O. 31,000.

A Discussion and brief from boss on requirements. Modify this document based on input from boss. Learn what others expect of me, particularly what my boss wants, help my boss succeed. Get some runs on the board quickly, particularly what my boss wants.

B Send out brief e-mail self introduction.

C Meet individually and collectively with the safety team before meeting managers (Refer discussion guidelines) I have a detailed set of issues to discuss when I meet with them individually, also discuss this modified document. Develop an enjoyable focussed team building activity in association with the team, adventure based activities should receive consideration. Encourage team members to discuss issues, including work and personal problems with me. Adopt the roles of mentor / coach / advisor as well as team leader. I see an important part of my role is to help those in the safety team to develop their skills. Modify this document based on input from the safety team.

D Meet with business unit managers and their staff as the manager selects (Refer discussion guidelines)

E Carry out a force field analysis (Refer Appendix 1) with the senior management team and a representative number of the business units, this will give some input to strategic and operational OHS management plans.

F Get a feel for safety management system by reviewing recent safety management system audits. If an audit has not been carried out recently carry one out.

G Meet with the government regulator, unions and other stakeholders to get their perspective on implementing required OHS change in the organisation.

H A priority is to ensure, as a minimum, that safety legislation is being conformed with.

I Examine the adequacy of current OHS learning and if necessary carryout an OHS learning needs analysis with the view of developing a Corporate OHS Learning Plan.

J In association with management and selected members of the safety team develop a strategic OHS management plan. Once this is developed work with the business units on developing operational OHS management plans. In doing this we must be cognisant of the requirements of A.N.Z.S. 4801 and I.S.O. 31,000.Developed documentation must be succinct and simple and easy to understand.

K Ensure managers / supervisors / informal leaders understand and practice OHS Leadership. Run a series of short workshops.

L Introduce the concept of “Safety Champions” and see how it is received. Need a corporate safety champion and one at each major business unit, the more management horsepower these people have the better. Existing health & safety representatives and OHS staff are not necessarily the best safety champions.

M Put the various OHS Management Plans into action and monitor their effectiveness through regular internal audits. If there are relevant commercial drivers and / or the perception it will increase effectiveness consider external accreditation to A.N.Z.S 4801.We need to ensure there are demonstrable benefits to the external accreditation option.

N Do not forget Wellness, Employee Assistance and Fleet Safety programs.

5 Force-Field Analysis

Force-field analysis (similar to S.W.O.T. analysis) is a simple, yet powerful technique, useful at the beginning of a project to define the nature of the beast you are dealing with. It is particularly useful when seeking to develop new Management Systems or revise old ones.

If you are new to an organisation it is an excellent way to get to know the people and the issues, it is also an excellent way to have others get to know you and get the message across that you are interested in their issues.

A group of much more than 15 gets difficult to facilitate .Often a mixture of managers, supervisors and workers is appropriate but be conscious that the presence of senior people may inhibit the workers, if this is the case it is better to have a separate worker session as well.

Defining the scope of your deliberations is important-Put some boundaries around your discussions. In larger organisations a number of facilitation sessions will be appropriate.

The process goes something like this-

1 Revise the brainstorming rules

BRAINSTORMING RULES

Say the first thing that pops into your mind

Do not be judgemental of your or others ideas

Contributors do not have to justify their ideas

Do not interrupt the other person

The wilder the idea the better the idea

Do not be constrained by convention

Think out of the square

Quantity not necessarily quality initially

Every person and every idea has equal worth

Build on the ideas put forward by others

Sometimes you may wish to have a fun exercise to practice the brainstorming technique to start with. One exercise I did had a number of OHS professionals one of whom ran a take-away shop as an extra business. We brainstormed how to increase the sales of fish & chips at “Buck’s Greasy Spoon” (That was the name the group came up with for the take-away shop, the owner took this in his stride) One of your members may have a hobby or activity they are trying to improve and you can brainstorm how to help them improve. Main thing is light-hearted & not too serious.

2 Brainstorm an objective or objectives for the Management System .

3 Brainstorm the promoting / facilitating forces acting towards the objective

4 Brainstorm the constraining / restraining forces acting against the objective

5 Develop an action plan to boost the facilitating / promoting forces and negate the constraining / restraining forces.

Discussion needs to be recorded on butchers paper, on a recording whiteboard or on the fly with a lap-top & data projector. Always have butchers paper, black & blue markers and blu-tac available in case the technology fails or the power goes out. One of the outcomes of the above discussion is that you will define a number of the good things you are already doing in the area being considered, in itself, not a bad thing.

Always make sure you feedback the results of the discussions to the participants and, once decided, what actions resulted from the discussions.

Required actions may need dividing into those the business unit has responsibility for and those corporate has responsibility for.

The deliberations above may assist in the development of strategic and operational management plans.

Advantages of force-field analysis

Involves a wide cross-section of stakeholders in meaningful discussions about the topic

Places a high profile on the topic

Helps with defining and documenting the things you are already doing in the area

Helps to identify the deficiencies in the current Management System

With a highly skilled facilitator helps to develop innovative solutions and improvements

Note

Requires a highly skilled facilitator to develop trust with the participants and “surface” the issues, people often “spill their guts” on a whole range of previously unsurfaced issues. It can, to a certain extent, be a healing process where those aggrieved get a chance to unload their problems.

The real danger is people with hobby horses, it requires some skill to be seen to be interested without having particular issues take over.

For complex issues and / or a large group 2.5-3 hours may be required. The process can be hard work and tiring, monitor how people are going and possibly schedule a second session. Have regular short, sharp breaks.

Very important-Have water & glasses on the table, fruit if possible, aids concentration.

6 Key management concepts ( These concepts have come from books, formal and informal study, working with wise leaders on major change projects and critical reflection on personal experience)

Management focus is the key to quality safety performance. Like all other management functions highly effective leadership is essential in OHS.

A compelling vision creates a culture of greatness.

Challenging the status quo is very satisfying but needs to be approached with sensitivity in some environments.

Learn the context, culture and past before trying to make changes. Unless a crisis situation is apparent realise effective change requires a lot of effort and time.

The motto of the Australian Special Air Services Regiment (S.A.S.R.) is “Who Dares Wins”

The greatest motivator is not money. It is the opportunity to learn, grow in responsibilities, to contribute and be recognised

Trying is just a noisy way of not doing something.

Use the advantages of a quality approach, particularly the continuous improvement philosophy.

It is just as important to manage up and sideways as down.

Be tough on the task but gentle on yourself & others

People judge you by what they see you doing not by what you say you are doing.

Reward loyalty or you will lose good people.

People do not need to be managed, they need to have their potential unleashed.

Admit your mistakes.

Strategy is important but make sure you spend sufficient time in the field that you do not lose sight of the reality of how the organisation is being managed.

Theory is important but constantly ask yourself if this will work in the real world.

It is often the relationships you build not your technical skills that determines success, network for success.

Catch people doing good and make a fuss of them, routinely thank people for their efforts.

Build your support coalition including informal leaders and influencers and the old timers.

Learn the skills of reflective listening and appropriate self-disclosure, will help with interpersonal relationships.

Use face to face communication whenever possible. Produce and expect succinct documentation When reading your correspondence the reader must say “Wow” in the first third of the page. When listening to your presentation the listener must say “Wow” within the first 3 minutes. COMMUNICATE, COMMUNICATE, COMMUNICATE in a way that inspires.

A major sin in business is long, overly complicated policy, procedure and other written documentation. Busy people do not have time to write it and busy people do not have time to read it. Keep it simple and ask yourself if it is too much like hard work to read. Use 1 page max. for routine correspondence.

Have huge but realistic goals.

Do the simplest thing that will work.

Remember the 6 P rule-Prior Preparation and Planning Prevents Poor Performance.

Be a life-long learner and encourage those in your team to be the same

Ask for and give regular feedback.

Communicate your expectations.

Good amounts of quality time for you, family and friends is essential for high performance at work.

Concentrate on the things that give the biggest bang for your buck.

Get out of your comfort zone. When you are out of your comfort zone you are already growing by default.

Persist until it pays off. Never give up.

Excellence is deliberate, not something we stumble onto.

Be conscious of “catastrophising”. Some people put undue weight on the bad aspects of their life and let that overcome the good aspects of their life. This makes it difficult to develop strategies to move forward.

Use learning needs analyse to guide development of targeted learning. Use Action and Experiential learning models and avoid lecture style presentations unless very short.

Develop objectives and goals for what you do, if you do not know where you want to go you cannot go there.

Concentrate on the MUST DO’s.

When initiating change remember “People support what they create” Initiating change is difficult at the best of times, if you do not involve those affected by the change in the change process it is unlikely to work.

It does not hurt to relax and do something silly occasionally, include your team.

Celebrate success.

Identify and separate customer needs from want, the customer is king.

Whatever you do must be based on a needs analysis.

Project teams with defined deliverables, timelines and milestones can be a great way to drive change.

Carefully define the scope of any project you take on

Attack is often the best form of defence if attempts at negotiation fail

As a leader it is more important to be respected than liked.

Hard work brings luck

Leadership is the often forgotten key to excellence in everything we do, the number one job of a leader is to transmit and embed high value standards

Remember when thinking about leadership-Ducks quack, Eagles soar