I Can to We Can - A Big Part of Safety Advancement

Dan, a safety leader with a major utility company on the west coast was preparing to introduce me. I was about to speak to one of his groups regarding the need for everyone to step up and be a leader — a safety coach. Suddenly, I realized that Dan was talking about something very important. No, it wasn’t my background as a consultant, coach, or speaker. Dan was talking about teamwork, community, and the belief that alone, no one individual could help the group reach higher levels of safety achievement. But together, if they believed in each other, looked after each other as a unit and family, and took the correct steps toward building the right kind of culture, they could embrace their vision for success!

In psychology, “self-efficacy” is the individual belief that influences a person’s ability to reach a certain goal. It’s important, but current research suggests that “collective efficacy” — the belief that “we can do it” — is more important than the belief, “I can do it.”

Recent Experiences

Albert Bandura and others have done significant work in this arena and it’s relevant to your safety performance. Bandura is best known for his work regarding the ways in which people learn by observation, personality development, and the whole “cognitive revolution” in psychology during the 1960s. However, additional research regarding "collective efficacy" is relevant
to improving your safety culture. Here are a few key components that will help you and your organization move forward.

1) Where’s Your Plan?  You need to have a plan that will enable you and others to walk-the-talk about specific safety goals. Everyone needs to believe your safety-related goals are achievable and you have a plan to reach them. This is especially true within today’s team-oriented organizations that are working toward ongoing success in safety and leading indicators that highlight the path forward.

2) Hold people accountable.  Managers and supervisors need to be held accountable to do what’s necessary to create the right team spirit and safety culture. You need good proactive safety performance metrics for your leaders. And if you don’t have them, make a business case, an ethical case, or a company values-related case — do whatever you must. Performance objectives must hold key people accountable to conduct physical inspections, coaching and feedback sessions, accident investigations, and everyday safety communications that involve good listening.  All of these activities will move your EHS needle in the right direction.

3) Build Upon Your Past.  Be sure to discuss, recognize, and even celebrate the kinds of actions that are being mastered and those that are improving. I’m not simply talking about compliance issues like lockout-tagout or PPE use. I’m talking about positive communications, teamwork, and actions by those who go the extra mile to help others through a difficult task with complex safety issues. In many regards I'm talking about measures that go beyond the leading indicators you utilize.  Create a sense of winning to build momentum for where you want to go.

4) Model the way.  From housekeeping to the most risky operations — people learn by watching, and your actions and the actions of others may be the only procedures someone will ever “read.” Your leader's actions speak louder than words and leave an indelible impression that can’t be easily erased.

5) Communication is Critical.  Feedback and coaching sessions about specific safety actions and goals need to take place regularly. Good safety communications cannot occur only when formal observations are taking place within your behavior-based or other safety related processes. Good safety-related communications from trustworthy peers and supervisors help to connect the heads and hearts of others. This leads to long-lasting changes that eventually move people to work safely even when nobody’s around.

As part of your communications, don’t forget to share stories regarding close calls or serious incidents. People get emotionally stirred by the past and sometimes it takes an undesirable event to drive leaders to take actions that will vastly improve your safety cultures.

Keep The End in Mind

Take some time and think about these five keys and some of today’s most successful sports teams and organizations. Each has a game plan for success; they hold people accountable for a given job; they build on and celebrate successes; they communicate well and at times, they’re emotionally charged — they get pumped-up to meet special challenges!

Oh, back to Dan. His organization and others I work with are realizing the importance of developing a sense of team, community and family - all of which is paying off in big dividends and the realization that reaching much higher levels of safety achievement is possible.  They’re moving closer to extreme levels of success — they’ve gone from “I can” to “We can” — they believe it, plan for it, and act upon it! Do you and your people believe it?