The Manager in the Mirror

Improving your Organization's Safety Culture Begins with You

by Sharon Hilts

Finding an Opportunity

"Another crew member on the oil tanker has been significantly injured," a Senior Manager relays to his newly-hired Operations Manager. The Senior Manager is frustrated and expresses disdain for the crew members and captain for their on-going lack of safety performance. Offering to address the situation, the new Manager decides that this is an opportunity to transform the safety culture.

The new Manager contacts the Captain of the ship and tells him to bring his vessel into port so that they can meet to discuss the incident. Shortly thereafter, the Manager discovers that if the meeting lasts less than two hours, the Captain can still meet his deadline for delivering his shipment of oil.

Making a Point

Upon the Captain's arrival, the Manager instructs him to wait in the conference room. He leaves the Captain waiting for two hours with utterly no contact. When the Manager finally enters the room, he asks the Captain several questions regarding the injured crew member. "What was the injured man's name?" "How long has he been on your crew?" "Does he have a family?" Most of the questions the Captain cannot answer. The Manager responds, "You just don't give a darn." The Manager has the Captain spend the remainder of the day, at least another four hours, documenting how he is going to improve safety performance on his ship.

Results

Does it sound like a fairy tale? Recent events in the Gulf demonstrate seemingly frail safety and environmental policies in the oil industry. It's the last place one would look for guidance with regard to safety. However, one company, Alaska Tanker Company, boasts on its website of having "over 12 million man-hours and over six years without a lost time injury."  The previous story was relayed by a manager from the Alaska Tanker Company who spoke at this year's American Society of Safety Engineer's National Conference. He captivated the audience with his recollection.

By making the Captain forego the deadline for delivering the oil, he sent a clear message regarding his personal priorities as a manager. Productivity performance would never make up for a lack of safety performance. He demonstrated his priorities and didn't just talk about them. Modeling is a powerful way to make a philosophy clear and to, ultimately, impact an organization's culture.

Modeling Traits for Effective Safety Leadership Modeling: “Any person to be followed or imitated because of his/her excellence" – Webster’s Dictionary Modeling with regard to safety means visibly and consistently demonstrating the philosophies and behaviors that you want to see in others. To model effectively, you need to do the following: Attitude: Maintain a passionate commitment to your safety vision and philosophies. Demonstrate: Align your behavior to visibly support your vision. Don't just follow the rules, go beyond what's minimally required. Communicate: Tell others about the vision, philosophy, and objectives. Aptitude: Understand the vision and be able to explain its worth and research ways to improve implementation. Action: Be prepared for meetings and complete action items. Accomplishment: ‘Toot’ your own horn. Recognize the accomplishments of others.

Sharon Hilts is an Insyte consultant. Her leadership focus on safety improvement has resulted in significantly fewer recordable incidents and corporate awards in OSHA's Safety and Health Achievement Recognition Program (SHARP).