Procedural Justice in Safety

From time-to-time, every organization struggles with procedural justice and safety.  And I’ve begun to anticipate such challenges when various safety climate scores indicate such a concern which may be further highlighted through interviews and focus groups.

When it comes to procedural justice in safety, every organizational member needs to know that fairness and consistency with safety-related discipline is necessary to uphold the integrity of the organization and to sustain employee safety engagement.

Procedural justice is often more clearly framed and tested when there is a serious incident and it is found that an important safety procedure or principle was not adhered to or were bypassed in some manner.  Sometimes there are gray areas that were not clearly defined within the procedure, weaknesses in the way it was communicated, or because of challenges in applying or executing the procedure due to various environmental obstacles.  Even more, scheduling issues may have pushed decisions that lead to various failures. 

The bottom line, when it comes to a difficult decision with regard to procedural safety justice:

1.  Listen to as many people as possible to fully understand what has occurred and why; 2.  Show respect and concern for everyone involved; 3.  Strive to be fair and consistent; and 4.  Make decisions based on what is most right for the organization and explain why such decisions were made.

At times, it may be a challenge to be consistent and fair when safety procedures may have been breached.  In the long-term, difficult decisions that use fairness as a guiding principle help to define your culture for safety and bring people together in more sustainable ways.  Finally, always be fair - do what is right and just.

Father's Day Connections - Advancing Safety Requires the Same

It's easy to become sentimental following Father's Day.  My father was a wonderful man by many accounts – and he loved being with people. He loved being around other families, friends, and soon-to-be friends.  To this day, nearly 15-years after his passing, people still want to talk about my dad and how much they enjoyed being around him. 


   With Dad in Florida, Circa 1985

I miss my dad.  He showed me how to connect.

Dad was a record-setting salesman in the 1970s.  Looking back, there’s little wonder why he did so well.  Dad knew how to connect with people.  Dad knew how to find common ground.  He didn’t read about it or train for it, he just had it.  He was interested in other people and really enjoyed helping them. 

There was hardly a moment that passed when dad didn’t have the time to stop and talk with one of his clients, a friend, or an acquaintance.  And dad often had a simple gift ready for those he’d meet.  It might be a piece of candy, a pen with his company name on it, or a silver spoon for a newborn child.  On occasion, at dad’s request, mom would even make some homemade goodies for one of his special clients.

 
Contacts and Conversations That Connect

While we were growing up, dad's contacts and conversations lasted way too long for his anxious children who stood nearby.  My sister Tina and I wanted to go and be with our friends, to do our own thing.  And sometimes these conversations were too long for mom who got anxious because of a roast in the oven or another household matter.  But nothing seemed to bother dad enough to cut his conversations short.  He was simply being Johnnie Sarkus – the guy who loved people and loved to talk!

Dad knew how to connect – he had a BIG infectious smile.  He knew how to joke and have fun.  He knew how to laugh.  He had empathy. And he had a BIG handshake that kept on shaking – sometimes throughout the first minutes of a conversation.  Looking back, that “perpetual handshake” was so funny – the handshake that just wouldn’t quit!   “Ok dad – I think you can let go now!”  I still remember someone saying those words.

Dad always showed concern about a person’s health, their family, and loved ones.  And he was genuine.   That’s what made him special.  That’s what set dad apart.  He seldom talked business unless the other person brought up business first.  Often, I don’t think he really cared about business.  From those encounters, referrals and future business would keep coming – it just seemed to flow.


Your Leaders and That Connection

In my motivational talks, training seminars, and consulting practice, I often discuss the need to connect with others.  It may be with your boss, other managers or supervisors, or individuals who work for you.  These contacts and connections are imperative if you want to have lasting success – if you want to get to safety excellence and move beyond it!

Do you know how to connect with others and stay connected?

How about your managers or supervisors?  Do they know how to connect with those around them – with individuals who need to be moved and motivated?

Do your supervisors know how to strike-up a conversation that helps to show care and concern for someone and ultimately their health and safety?

Do your supervisors and key employees know how to speak (one-on-one) in ways that will leave a lasting impression – helping individuals want to work safely?  And not just when they’re “being watched” or when they’re “on-the-job.”

Dad created a lasting impression within me and upon many others.  During his lifetime, dad built-up a little legacy of his own.  What kind of legacy are you and your leaders building within your own organizations?  What kind of legacy are you building and leaving when it comes to employee safety?

The Jelly Doughnut Principle and Safety

We need metaphors to make our points and principles more memorable.  In safety, I don’t feel we use them nearly enough.  Around 1992, I first used the term “Jelly Doughnut Principle” to make a point about hierarchical influence – top-down – by force and will.  When we primarily rely upon force, and press down to move a jelly doughnut, we get a mess.  Initially we had two doughnuts that could have been moved more freely, and with less resistance, if engaged horizontally, and in the same plane. 

Think about when the jelly doughnut principle comes into play and is more prominent within your organizations.  Is it when there is an injury and panic sets in?  Could it be when you are behind in production and leaders resort to positional power rather than personal power and goodwill?  Sometimes it’s a bit more subtle and insidious, but nonetheless, it's there and so are its effects.

The outcomes of the jelly doughnut principle are fear, anger, resentment, and frustration – all of which eventually lead to increasingly larger degrees of discouragement, resistance, and broken confidence.  Trust is damaged, relationships are stressed, and accidents are more likely to follow.

Before you and your leaders turn to a top-down approach to influence, think about the jelly doughnut principle and the mess it typically leaves behind. The doughnut’s not all that healthy or tasteful anyway, so whenever you can – just leave it alone.

Safety’s Not a Value Unless It’s a Value

I already knew part of my answer and you likely do as well.

I just took a quick look at the websites of some the largest oil and gas organizations in the world.  These are organizations with high risk EHS profiles.  And at times, they have the most to lose and gain when it comes to safety or EHS performance. 

Based on revenue, the top 20 were reviewed in order to determine whether or not “safety” or some form of it was recognized as a core value or guiding principle.  If I had to search for more than 10 minutes to make such a determination, I gave up.  But here’s what I did find.  Out of the top 20 firms, 10 clearly stated that safety was a core value or part of their guiding principles.  With the remaining 10 organizations, safety was not stated as a core value, or their values or guiding principles were somewhat ambiguous, or not readily found.

What percentage of organizations outside of my top 20 list, in other sectors, clearly espouse safety as a value?  I would think a much lesser rate than 50%.

Often we hear groups of individuals discuss “safety as a core value” and a “deeply integrated part of their organization” or their culture.  How about “safety’s not just a priority but a value?”  We can go on from here.

If we can agree on a starting point, let’s agree that if our organizations don’t think or feel strongly enough about safety to clearly state that it is a core value or guiding principle, then it’s likely not highly valued.  I’m certain that many organizations would attempt to argue against my point in various ways.  And I’m sure that many organizations have pretty good safety performance outside of the realm of this values discussion.  But that’s not quite my point. 

If safety is a value, why not take the time to state that it’s a value and act accordingly?

Creating More Dissonance for Safety Advancement

I want to revisit the topic of dissonance.  You know about dissonance – that uncomfortable feeling you get when you believe strongly about one thing, but think, say, or do another.  You may have strong personal and professional convictions about an issue; however, you feel you have to act in another way, and that way, doesn’t align with your beliefs or values.   The result is a bad kind of feeling in your head and in your heart.  Ultimately, there’s guilt or regret - but that’s not always bad thing.


Dissonance With Your Workers

Skilled managers and supervisors know how to initiate conversations that help their employees realize when they’re not working in ways consistent with their beliefs or values.   These kinds of productive safety communications create uneasiness and motivate employees to work safer.  And when worker-actions become consistent with their personal values, the discomfort leaves or dissipates.  A number of other possibilities can occur but this type of positive employee change is one of the more ideal.  As a speaker and coach, I often work to bring about this kind of dissonance through storytelling and other tactics.  But there’s another kind of safety-related dissonance that’s not talked about nearly enough - one that needs to happen somewhere else within the organization.


That Somewhere Else - Dissonance at The Top

Many leaders experience their own forms of regret following a catastrophic event or fatality.  Sometimes these undesirable events cause executives to embrace safety in ways that align much more strongly with their personal and organizational values.  However, executives may also rationalize their lack of ongoing safety support due to various other pressures.  Subsequently, leaders take less than formidable steps to improve their cultures for safety. 

In working with a wide range of executives over the past 30 years, I’ve come to realize that hardly anyone is immune from dissonance.  And as professionals, practitioners, and consultants, part of our job is to help produce organizational dissonance (rather than limit it) so that good things will be initiated and accomplished.  But let’s face it, leaders typically push to get what they want – more productivity, more quality, or more safety.  However, it’s often up to us to help them realize that they should want and need more safety!


Leveraging Dissonance

There will always be complimentary and competing beliefs that force executives to prioritize and justify their support and actions.    And we can’t pull back just because of a little competition.   We also realize that leaders are typically driven by profits – that’s just the way it’s going to be.  However, the business landscape has been changing and the scorecard has expanded in ways that now include the environment, and employee health and safety.   You have to leverage that scorecard and expand your own in order to create a little more dissonance. 

If all of this is creating a little frustration and dissonance within you, that’s a good thing.  It just may cause you get off your assets and take some action.   Here’s a few ways to create some dissonance near the top and leverage additional EHS support.

1.  Utilize climate and culture surveys as opportunities to further discuss challenges and barriers to EHS excellence and how inherent cultural weaknesses impact morale, productivity, and quality.   Safety culture surveys help not only to qualify what’s going on but also to quantify key cultural dimensions and place numbers / results on issues and concerns that can serve as your baseline for ongoing improvement.

2. Going hand-in-hand with safety culture surveys is the use of safety sensing sessions.   When employee safety sensing sessions or focus groups are conducted well, you can gather an amazing amount of objective employee opinions that are weighted and prioritized for use.  This kind of objective feedback from the workforce can be an eye opener for your leaders and help move them to action.

3. Get your leaders out and about.  Your key stakeholders and organizational leaders need to listen to the people who are doing the work.  In this way, they can hear directly from individuals who have the most to lose when it comes to weaknesses found within your safety culture.    It also allows your leaders to see workers as “real people – the face of the organization, humanity amongst humanity.”  Your workers have families and lives that need to be enjoyed and shared, in some ways, just like your leaders.  Your leaders need to have direct contact with your workers and listening to them is a great way to put them in close contact and get more of the safety pulse.  If your leaders don’t know what to ask, you need to prepare a short list of questions for them.

4.  Benchmarking with similar companies that have EHS cultures as good or better than your own helps to create some tension that can move leaders to action.  Good benchmarking can provide valuable insights and a form of peer pressure that may not have previously existed.

If your leaders have any kind of emotional tie to people, it has to drive them and others to action. We can play a part and help to move their hand.  Let’s make the most of the dissonance we’re able to create near the top!