Positive People – Positive Outcomes – Safer Organizations

Just about two weeks ago, I attended the Pittsburgh Pirates home opener.  I’m talking about Major League Baseball for our international readers.  I love home openers because there’s so much excitement, energy, and positive emotions.  And it’s everywhere - the bars and restaurants, vendors, fans, and of course the baseball organizations being jeered and cheered.  

Early in the game, I began to wonder why we couldn’t harness more of that kind of excitement and energy when it comes to safety or the continual push for improvement.  And then I happened to speak to Bill.  He’s pictured to the left with me.  Bill has worked at Pirates’ games, as an usher or in some other capacity, for more than 60 years.  He worked at three ballparks, Forbes, Three Rivers and now PNC Park.  He’s 86 years young and he smiles, laughs, and greets fans with respect, kindness, and enthusiasm.  But what allows some people to easily exhibit these types of behaviors while others struggle?  Good psychology and science have shed light in this arena of health, happiness, and resilience.  And it can be taught, learned, modeled, and shared by your leaders to help make your organization healthier, happier, safer, and increasingly fit.

Two months ago, I watched and listened to Dr. Martin Seligman at a live event.  He’s a giant in psychology, particularly positive psychology.  Seligman has spent his career better understanding resilience and happiness.  Seligman’s happiness work and research is highlighted in the acronym PERMA.  When we practice PERMA it has a positive affect on our ongoing health and happiness.

Positive Emotions.  Positive emotions are not characterized through pleasures found in our basic human needs such as eating, drinking or sleeping.  Positive emotions are generated through action-oriented interests like being involved with a hobby, reading, playing games, or some exercise that stretches ones thoughts and mind.  These types of pleasure producing activities bring us back to do more of the same, which produces more of the same – happiness or pleasure.

Engagement.  Engagement is about getting caught-up in an activity to the extent that we lose all sense of time. Higher levels of engagement keep us focused, challenged, and interested.  These activities may involve watching live entertain-ment, reading, writing, or participating in a hobby or sport.  Being caught-up and staying in the moment is healthy and provides part of the foundation for health and happiness.  Being caught-up in our thoughts to the extent that we lose track of time is a marker for such engagement. 

Relationships.  Much of my happiness has come about through strong and lasting friendships.  I’ve had great and long-lasting friendships with depth and breadth.  Having a bond with others, reaching out to help others, and making them more fulfilled, does much for both parties.  Being involved with others and having personal connections leads to greater happiness.

Meaning.  Leading a life with purpose and meaning beyond one’s smaller circle of influence is very important.  Having a life of faith and purpose is a large part of embracing meaning in our lives.  Studies have shown that individuals with faith-filled lives, experience something greater than themselves and that leads to a life worth living.  People who find their personal mission and purpose have found meaning outside of our earthy existence. 

Achievement.  When we have short-term and longer-term goals, each adds to our purpose.  When we work hard to achieve and reach particular milestones and work through setbacks and challenges – that’s an important part of our resilience and happiness.  Stretching, reaching, and pursuing important goals gives us pleasure, builds our confidence, and adds to our overall health and happiness. 

I continue to find great insights within Seligman’s work.  And when used on a regular basis, PERMA helps us find greater purpose and happiness.  Leaders in our organizations who practice and model PERMA can positively impact others in a number of ways.  Happy and healthy individuals make for a safer and more productive culture.   Give PERMA a try.  

Five Safety-Related Benefits of Getting Naked

Today, April 20th is my birthday, and I came into this world with nothing but my birthday suit, butt naked, just like you.  And many of you are realizing that some of your organizations need to strip away the unwanted layers of false protection and get naked too!

In my last writing, I addressed the need for organizational leaders to get naked and become more transparent in order to continually improve safety performance (Get Naked for Safety - It's Critical for Advancement).  However, I did not begin to identify the many positive outcomes of becoming more open and honest.  Here are five very straightforward benefits that are well worth your efforts in becoming increasingly transparent.

Greater Candor.  When there is greater candor there is more openness in communications that relates to concerns, hazards, precursors and related warnings. All of this helps to reduce incidents, risk, and accidents, especially serious incidents and fatalities (SIFs). 

Greater Trust.  When leaders and followers begin to open-up more appropriately, trust will increase and we all know that trust is essential.  Trust affords more opportunities for learning and engagement, as well requiring less time and effort for supervision and regular monitoring. 

More Leaders.  When transparency increases, individuals who remained in a comfortable follower-leader role will step-up and begin to lead from within their own groups.  An increase in the number of safety leaders and the quality of safety leadership is nearly always a plus.

Less Cognitive Bias.  An increase in openness and transparency helps to create objective feedback.  Objectivity in communications lessens perception gaps between how leaders view safety-related issues and how workers identify the same or similar safety-related concerns.  This helps everyone look through a clearer and more accurate safety lens.  It also allows everyone to stay on the same page – and move forward together with greater forms of agreement and strength. 

Increased Alignment.  Increasing organizational transparency affords an unobstructed view of your organization’s vision and values for safety.  When everyone begins to see your safety vision more clearly and concretely, that’s BIG!

It’s not easy to get naked in front of others and it takes hard work and lots of deliberate effort and planning.  However, as your organization becomes healthier and increasingly fit, getting naked becomes more comfortably ingrained and your culture for safety will ultimately embrace its nakedness.   Are you willing to add to this list of positive outcomes? I hope you do!

Get Naked for Safety - It's Critical for Advancement

Several years ago, I was having lunch for the first time at a new and now very popular Pittsburgh restaurant. Before lunch was served, and out of necessity, I visited the restroom.  As I proceeded, I moved my head upward to look at the wall in front of me (as guys usually do).   I soon realized that I wasn’t looking at the wall but through it.  I could see much of the waitstaff and visitors in front of me and I panicked - “these people can see me half-naked and they’re watching!” I quickly understood this was a one-way barrier that allowed only for one-way viewing.  I breathed a sigh of relief and laughed as others did too.  I was now hoping they weren’t just chuckling at me. I’m kind of paranoid!

When we think of our organizations as being intellectually honest and appropriately transparent, how do we begin to think about safety advancement?  Do we feel comfortable being naked from an organizational standpoint?  Do our leaders really want to know what they and their organization look like when the veneer is stripped away and the thinly veiled layers of false protection are peeled back?

Healthier organizations want to understand what’s really occurring and how people feel.  Their leaders openly and honestly solicit feedback.  They conduct focus group sessions with their workers and evaluate their culture for safety through perception surveys and other cultural tools.  Some leaders want to hide from these types of evaluations and remain completely clothed for fear of personal exposure.  They don’t want to be caught with their pants down or to be seen naked for the sake of safety or for the greater good of the organization.  

No organization can improve safety, quality, or productivity, in any sustainable manner, without being intellectually honest and transparent.  It’s about getting organizationally fit.

Getting fit means getting organizationally naked.  When we do, we often see things that aren’t very appealing, which in turn motivates us to get healthier. With our organizational leaders, that takes honesty, transparency, and subsequent changes that will make the organization increasingly fit for duty and overall performance.  Eventually it can take the organization out of its danger zone.  Yes, staying in the danger-zone can lead to unacceptable risks, serious incidents, and fatalities.

I believe that being objective and honest about how we look naked drives us to healthier outcomes.  But it takes courageous and selfless leaders who want to get naked in order to improve safety and the organization as a whole. How naked is your organization willing to get?

Safety - Where's the Rigor?

Earlier in my career, I was fortunate enough to have worked for a few organizational giants like NASA, TRW, and United Airlines.  Within these organizations, I was exposed to the rigors of systems thinking, Total Quality Management (TQM), and the Baldridge Award efforts of the 1990s.  Each of them helped improve our efforts, efficiencies, and outcomes.  And each of them taught us to keep looking upstream for ongoing improvements.  These types of efforts also taught me the importance of leadership, vision, and engagement.  I could go on but many of you already know a great deal about systems thinking as it applies to safety.  However, one facet of these movements seems to strike a chord, and that's “rigor.” 

As our world of safety evolves, I continue think of improvements in terms of my TQM and Baldridge experiences.  Are we continually looking upwind for ways to rigorously improve materials, tools, equipment, facilities, processes, and people?  But wait, I also get stuck on the people element.  People and rigor resonate.  People and rigor seemingly provide the largest challenges and payoffs. Is there a constant form of organizational questioning that drives individuals to go deeper and look continually upstream, with good tools, for resolutions and abatement tactics that will lessen your risk for failure and loss?  Who’s making sure your people apply rigor to near-misses and incident-producing events?  Do you have the right organizational leaders pushing others to look upstream, always questioning how the organization can protect, mitigate, prevent, and preclude? 

We shouldn’t make all of this more complicated than it has to be.  But we should look for leaders who set a great example by applying rigor to our failures and opportunities.   And we should look for leaders who set high expectations and hold others accountable to do much of the same. 

At times, we have to deal with complex systems but please don’t complicate what’s not necessarily complicated. Rigor needs to be applied to standards of excellence, with a simple but straightforward tenacity, and out of concern to help and protect others. 

Rigor certainly helps to keep our organizations robust, flexible, and open to ongoing success.  And when it comes to safety, our transparency as leaders can go a long way, especially when aligned with rigor.  Transparency and rigor will stop the rigor mortis from settling in, because if it does, it could make sustainable safety excellence just about impossible to embrace.

The Nerd Factor and Safety

In the National Football League (NFL), there’s a term bantered about by owners, management, coaches, and scouts - it’s “the nerd factor.”  In the NFL, it’s a positive term because it often translates into success.  Athletes who have “it” are dependable, smart, and strong.  I won’t mention names, but some of the best players in the league are labeled as nerds.

In safety, we need to tap into workers who are both followers and leaders.  Many can help us take safety performance to a new level.  And many of these workers have the nerd factor and simply need a little support, like everyone else - but they also have a distinct edge. 

Over the course of my career, I’ve worked with my share of great employees who embraced safety and their role.  A number of them had the nerd factor and were a joy to work with, especially when it came to safety.  These particular workers were insightful and bright.  They had a passion for safety and needed little support once their roles were defined.  Many were mentally strong and did not cave to negative peer pressure, especially when they dug into their work and got traction.  And most importantly, each of them was dependable.  They showed up, got the work done, they’d grind it out, and many kept you informed of barriers, progress, and the path forward. 

The term nerd should not have negative connotations when it comes to safety or improving organizational performance.  The term should largely be positive. 

All things being equal, I'll look for the nerd factor.  Some of your best performers have “it” so tap into it and use it. Nerds make our safety world better!

Are Your Safety Efforts Like Watching a Movie Trailer Or Casting the Plot?

I live near a special effects school.  Every time I pass, it reminds me of the dramatic movie trailers we often watch at theatres before we view the show we paid to see.  Trailers are full of great visuals and entice us to watch the entire movie.  

On the outside, and from a distance, many organizations are like movie trailers. They’re attractive, but full of warts and wrinkles and challenges on the inside.  This becomes especially true the longer we hang around.  As a safety professional, throughout my 32-year career, I've seen many organizations and their movie trailers, but also hung around to watch the plot unfold.  Oftentimes the plots were not nearly as exciting as the trailers.  I’ve also stayed to watch the introduction with various roles that were cast and the actions that followed.  In safety, we need to ensure that our leaders take on appropriate roles and are held responsible for the types of actions that will form the right culture for their supporting cast – so they can work as safely as possible. 

If we remain throughout the rising action of our own organizational plots, we have to weave our way through political and organizational barriers so we can align it with the vision we’ve placed out in front.  This is hard work and many are not willing to grind it out.  After the rising and climax, the resolutions of our organizational efforts should be made clearer.  It’s here where we have to deliver the right programs, processes, interventions, and systems that keep the organization moving forward, closer to the vision for excellence in safety.

The challenge I've seen in many organizations is that people fall in love with the trailer and special effects without digging deeper, to smooth out the warts, wrinkles, and barriers throughout the plot, specifically within the resolution phase.  Many individuals don’t want to re-cast roles so leaders champion the rise and resolution in favor of safety and... 

It takes a tremendous amount of effort to move beyond what we see in the glitz and glitter of our brands, vision, and values.  It takes discipline and a disciplined-grind to re-cast leadership roles and work, so the plot is carried out in a way that moves our needle in the right direction, to get the "safety numbers" we’d like to see.   

I’ve also learned that we can get the “right numbers” when we don’t fall in love with the trailer but embrace the process and the plot.  And embracing a proven process leads to a much more appealing cast, movie, and rating that even the harshest of critics might have difficulties arguing against.  

Safety Influence in Tight Windows

I was in Atlanta last week for a conference and was having breakfast off the lobby area.  The omelet man working nearby was doing what he does best.  At a glance, I saw that he started talking to a young woman who was getting breakfast to go.  The omelet man was obviously attracted and he quickly moved the conversation from small talk to asking for her number.  He wasted no time and his efforts made for some hilarious banter between the three of us.  Really funny stuff! Our parting comments revolved around the fact that you have to move quickly, through "tight windows" whenever the opportunity presents.  And so it is when we're presented with opportunities to influence the attitudes and actions of those around us. 

Never pass on opportunities to correct and redirect at-risk behaviors.  Always look for ways to reinforce and confirm safe actions.  Don't miss opportunities to collaborate and clarify why working safely is so important and relate your communications through stories and your company's values. 

We often miss opportunities of influence because we feel the window is too tight. There may be a fear of rejection or some form of deflection.  We may feel we're too busy or don't feel comfortable talking about safety on a particular occasion. 

Your people want to hear from you especially when you're genuine and helpful.  Don't look away - walk through every window of opportunity and coach your people up.