Managing Safety and That Nasty Trickle-Down Effect

“Joe, I’m so tired of this ___________ , ______________, __________!  I just met with Lou and he ripped me a new __________ hole.  I don’t care about you, your people, or anybody else – get it done!”

You fill in the blanks. If you’ve been working long enough, you realize that it happens and I’m sure you’ve been a part of it in one way or another.  Yep, the trickle-down effect and the spill that spreads all around.  In part, I call it the Jelly-Doughnut Principle.  When you push down on two stacked doughnuts, you get a mess.

Managers and supervisors are sometimes used to getting dumped on from above.  Maybe an undeserved emotional outburst from their boss or a mean-spirited decision that somehow trickles down – it can be ugly.  What happens next?  Well, the manger or supervisor who just got knocked down by the outburst or anger-driven decision starts to take on that affect.  These individuals now push down on their workers with similar emotional force, mean-spirited decisions, or unfair decision-making.  Did the workers deserve that outburst?  Were they aware of what was happening above them?  Often, workers do not deserve it, and the trickle-down can be harmful.

Managers and supervisors have to be made aware of their negatively imposing, trickle-down behaviors and how their actions might affect those they supervise.  They have to help ensure that the trickle stops with them and their workers don’t unnecessarily receive the wrong signals, that can lead to increased exposures and poor decision making, which may lead to errors and accidents.

Supervisors are a direct conduit to their workers when it comes to both the good and bad.  At times, front-line leaders take on the persona and behaviors from those above them.  All individuals in this chain have to be made aware of the trickle-down effect, learn to manage it, compartmentalize it, and to de-personalize it.  Sometimes that takes training, and open and honest communications.

Gettin’ Dirty for Safety’s Sake - Where’s Your Dirt?

Culture is an archaeological construct and it stands to reason that you have to dig a bit in order to find out what’s really going on in your organization. When I conduct various types of culture assessments for safety, people often get nervous.  Many feel that they might be unnecessarily exposed.  However, if you aren’t getting dirty and going deeper and broader, you’ll never get better!  If you don’t bring up some “dirt” and find out about the “bad stuff” - why begin to contemplate conducting a culture assessment for safety in the first place?

Here’s six ways to get dirty and begin to improve your culture for safety.

1. Anonymous pencil and paper perception surveys provide a wealth of comparative information about our cultures for safety which needs to be embraced and acted upon, when appropriate and necessary.

2. Open-ended questions placed near the end of the survey provide valuable information that needs to be further explored.

3. Safety focus sessions give homogeneous groups a chance to voice their opinions.  This type of upward feedback can be ranked and sorted in order of importance and provide further insights not revealed in the perception survey.

4. On-the-floor or in-the-field interviews provide a valuable means for open two-way discussions for EHS improvements.

5.  Properly executed employee safety suggestion boxes are a very simple and straightforward way to bring up some dirt that can be used for ongoing improvements.

6. Safety maturity matrices and grids offer groups of people further insights and strategic road maps for improvement, but you need to have the right cross section of participants.

Any way you look at it – you have to bring up some dirt on your organization if you want to get better.  Better yet, your leaders need to get dirty, a bit naked, and more transparent with your people too!

And if you want a quick and dirty snapshot of your culture for safety, take this brief survey.

Steve Harvey and Learning Safety Leadership

If you didn’t see or hear about the Steve Harvey blunder at the most recent Miss Universe contest you may have been travelling. Oh well, when Steve inadvertently called and crowned the wrong winner, many people shuddered and reacted wildly.  Some say his error was inexcusable.  I say it’s not a perfect world.

But if we reflect, we can all learn from his mistake.  Steve Harvey immediately recognized his error and stated “I will take responsibility for this. It was my mistake … horrible mistake.” In this case, I’m not sure what responsibility is or what consequences will occur, but I do know the leadership lesson we can learn.  Own up immediately.  Don’t spin off your mistake to someone else.

This is a great time of year to forgive, reconcile, repair, and re-build relationships.  Own up if you have to – let go and move things forward.

Consequences pertaining to safety-related mistakes can be quite severe and egregious but owning up helps.  It’s not a perfect world and safety leaders are a part of it.

Have a great Christmas and Happy New Year!

The Popeye Principle and Your Safety Information

As a child, I loved watching the cartoon show and character, Popeye.  Most memorable are the fits Popeye would take when he lost patience with someone or was frustrated by something.  But before he took extreme action, he'd typically say, in his own peculiar way, “Enoughs is enoughs and I can’t takes it no more!” 

Have you ever thought that your managers and supervisors sometimes feel the same way when they receive various kinds of safety-related information from you?  Maybe it's dashboard content related to leading and lagging indicators.  Possibly it’s a newsletter or lessons learned.  Maybe it is a policy or procedural change.  Whatever the source and content of your safety information, begin asking these types of questions:

Volume. Is this too much information or is it getting lost among other information of equal or greater importance?

Value.  Is the information you’re providing of value or is it getting in the way of helping your people lead and perform better?  Maybe you’re simply in love with your own information or trying to fulfill an objective.

Timing.  Is the frequency of information appropriate and is the timing right?  Can you release the information at a more appropriate time and manner, when and where you know it can be better processed, accepted, and utilized?

Clarity.  Is the information clear enough in its present form? Can it be made simpler, clearer, and better?  Are there conflicts in what the data or information reveals versus the way leaders feel, act, and speak when they're with your workers?  Does the information require meeting with others face-to-face?

Popeye stayed strong and lasted long, “because he ate all of his spinach.” Like Popeye, help your leaders stay strong to the finish by providing the right type and amounts of safety-related information or you just might hear your people say, “I can’t takes it no more!”

Help them digest all of their spinach and safety information, too!

Respect as a Key Dimension of Safety Leadership and Culture

Visiting different parts of the world is one of the many benefits of my work. Right now, I am traveling through Italy and having a great time. In Italy, the cultural aspects and variations of a country much older than my own, helps me to see things through a broader lens, which I appreciate. Processing what I am seeing and hearing is sometimes difficult, but it’s an important part of gaining newer insights. But, much of this begins with respect for others.  

In terms of managing and improving safety within our own organizations, it is important to step back, and take on the broader perspectives of others in order to open our minds to greater outcomes.

Varying perspectives and ongoing dialogue offers greater possibilities that can advance the cause and practice of improving safety in our world. However, I believe there is an important starting point to obtaining these perspectives and creating ongoing dialogue. That starting point is respect.

Being respectful to everyone within our organization can’t be overlooked because respect leads to increased dialogue and tolerance, and greater tolerance leads to greater acceptance.

Showing limited respect leads to minimal dialogue and acceptance of others at various management levels, which in-turn limits broader views of strategic thinking and the ability to move forward, at or near the top where it’s absolutely critical. Both respect and a lack of respect trickle down.

When there’s a lack of respect, dialogue, tolerance, and in-group acceptance, it becomes most visible at the worker level. It’s here where its absence and lack of tolerance for individual differences leads to poorer communications, a lessening of care and concern for others, confusion, and ultimately accidents.

A low degree of respect and acceptance shown to others will not help to build teamwork and cohesiveness. A low degree of respect is evidenced by bad-mouthing, gossiping, ostracizing, and purposely limiting the thoughts, opinions, and usefulness of others. The problem with initiating, accepting, or perpetuating these types of limiting actions is that the table can and will turn for anyone, at anytime, especially within these kinds of groups. You might be considered a valuable part of the “team” one week, and cut off from that group by the following week. In these groups, do you ever know who has your back or who’s looking out for your safety?

Work groups that have great leadership don’t accept exclusion but promote inclusion. Groups that create ongoing dialogue will take time to hear each other out, practice patience and tolerance, fight fairly, and work toward acceptance of each other. These particular groups are also better able to move through barriers, changing and challenging hazards and work conditions, and they draw from the collective knowledge of the group and its broader forms of inclusive decision-making.

It makes good sense to listen to the newer worker, and individuals who come from different industries, and from varied backgrounds. These kinds of groups also tend to help the supervisor who has limited experience and needs the patience of others so he or she can hear from the entire group. In turn, this leads to more informed decisions for the safety and benefit of his entire team. But it begins with respect.

Within this writing, I could have addressed respect for the profession of safety or one’s role within safety. I could have also highlighted respect for many issues and concerns within safety but all seemed so impersonal. But showing respect for each other throughout the hierarchy in our organizations and within our professional relationships, now that’s a different story!

Bottom line, greater respect leads to greater dialogue and greater tolerance, and greater tolerance leads to greater acceptance. And greater acceptance leads to better decisions, which ultimately brings people together as safer and more productive work units.

Most all of us have observed how a lack of respect hurts the individual and the organization in a multitude of ways. But you’ve got to start somewhere, so don’t trivialize the importance of respect. It’s a great starting point and part of your foundation to higher levels of safety achievement.