Safety & General Management -Lessons Learnt
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"
Other guiding principles
Use real world approaches not theory
All paperwork must be succinct
Whatever is done in OHS must be based on a needs analysis
Need to get some runs on the board quickly
Concentrate on the things that give you the best bang for your buck
Aim for simplicity not complexity
Minimise the bureaucracy and bull-shit
Face to face communications should be used wherever possible
Be guided in what you do by taxonomies of Class 1 damage in your industry
As the facilitator of the process I will use the skills of appropriate self-disclosure and reflective listening
Safety Management
1 Focus on Class 1 personal damage and use this in considerations of analysis. Class 1 damage is that which permanently alters the future of the individual. Minor injuries are not a good predictor of more serious personal damage.
2 Remove the term “accident” from your vocabulary, instead use the term “personal damage occurrence”.
3 Look for “Essential Factors” not “causes” in ‘accident” investigations. An essential factor is one without the final damage would not have occurred. Use the Analysis Reference Tree-Trunk method of investigation.
4 Look to Hazard Identification / Risk Assessment / Hazard Control processes for rough rather than definitive guidance on what to do. The reality is that without a National Class 1 data base a lot of these deliberations are subjective. Too much emphasis is placed on risk assessment scores.
5 The number one job of a safety leader (and any leader for that matter) is to transmit and embed high value standards.
6 When initiating safety change (and any change for that matter) remember “People support what they create”.
7 When facilitating safety learning for adults use Action & Experiential learning models that promote critical reflection. Minimise the use of lecture-style presentations.
8 Management focus is the key to quality safety performance.
9 Use Haddon’s 10 Countermeasures rather than the Hierarchy of Controls when developing countermeasures.
10 Do not take yourself too seriously as if you do you will have difficulty coping with the fact many will not share your passion for safety.
11 Use personal damage occurrences, not emotion, to guide your preventative efforts.
12 Be a life-long learner in a variety of fields, not just OHS.
General management
1 Nothing is more central to an organisations effectiveness than its ability to transmit accurate, relevant & understandable information amongst its members.
2 If it is not face to face it is not communication. Frame communications relevant to the receivers work environment rather than to corporate goals & mission
3 Build trust through appropriate self-disclosure.
4 Use humour to reinforce your messages.
5 It is often the relationships you build, not your technical skills, that determines success.
6 Everything you do must pass the real world test.
7 Challenging the status quo is a lot of fun and very satisfying, much better than putting up with fools and mediocrity. Being a bit of a stirrer is an admirable approach provided it is done in a sensitive manner.
8 Do not get too focused on work, your family should come first.
9 Learn the skills of reflective listening, they can make your life much easier
10 Value and produce succinct written communications
A ex-manager of mine, who has a way with words, says the trouble with safety is that management and safety professionals sometimes engage in acts of public masturbation! I apologise if anyone finds the foregoing offensive but my belief is it is an admittedly crude, but accurate, way of describing some of the things I have seen happen in both safety and general management.