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!

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?

Beware of The Golden Boy Effect and Safety

“Oh – he’s Lou’s 'golden boy.'  You better stay away and pick your battles.” 

I was 25 years old and working for one of the largest airlines in the world when I first heard the term golden boy.  I quickly understood and experienced what it meant.  Today I see the harmful effects of the “golden boy glow” in clearer ways especially when it comes to improving safety performance.

A golden boy is someone, often a senior leader, or favored individual who is protected from closer organizational scrutiny because of their education, knowledge, position, or special relationship to others in positions of authority.  I have seen first-hand the harmful glow of the golden boy that blinds people, pushes individuals away, limits important communications, and insulates them from others.

The flow of information through and from the golden boy is limited and protected often for personal reasons.  In turn, others work in guarded ways around the golden boy where openness and candor are damaged. 

Openness, candor, trust, and collaboration are critical to the health of any organization, especially when it comes to safety.   And the damaging effects of leaders who exhibit the “golden boy glow” are best resolved by other leaders who ask for multiple forms of input from other trusted organizational members.  In this way, the golden boy’s opinion becomes one of many.  Specialists in safety or other areas who have particular forms of expertise must also be aware of the golden boy effect and ensure that their expertise is open to scrutiny and evaluation. 

Wise and purposeful leaders understand the favored and harmful glow of the golden boy.  They know it isn’t healthy for the organization and causes division and detachment rather than engagement and alignment with the vision for safety.

When it comes to protecting people and their lives nobody should be "hands-off" regardless of title, position or role.  Everyone needs to be engaged and involved with improving safety.  And everyone should be on the same page - humanity amongst humanity! 

Beware of the golden boy effect and look for multiple forms of safety-related input.  Keep asking questions, and allow the golden boy glow to highlight, not harm your safety-related communications and ongoing performance improvements.  

Safety Consistency Is Critical and Takes Support

Since I've been on a bit of a baseball theme I need to re-visit my thoughts on one of baseball's finest.  Stan "The Man" Musial is considered one of baseball's greatest players ever. He's from my hometown of Donora, Pa. We both attended Donora High School and Stan was a good boyhood friend of my father. Stan's the pride of Donora, Pennsylvania! 

Stan was elected to Major League Baseball's Hall of Fame in 1969 and is recognized as one of baseball's finest gentlemen.  He's also one of the most consistent players ever to step on a baseball field. 

Several years ago, I had the honor and pleasure of having lunch with Mr. Stan Musial after delivering an opening keynote speech for a regional Voluntary Protection Program Participants' Association (VPPPA) meeting in St. Louis. Throughout lunch, he again showed his consistency, graciously handling interruptions for autographs and posing for photos from nearby admirers.  A wonderful privilege to spend time with baseball's "perfect knight" as he's been aptly named. 

Let's take a look at a few of his career batting statistics.  He had a .331 career batting average which ranks 30th; he hit .336 at home and .326 on the road. He batted .340 in day games and .320 at night. Stan Musial had exactly 1,815 career hits at home, and 1,815 hits on the road. When he retired, Musial had the most career home runs for a player who never won a single-season home run title. According to Wikipedia, "In his September 1941 debut, Musial had two hits; after he got two hits in his final game, 22 years later, a sportswriter jokingly wrote, 'He hasn't improved at all'."

Consistency and Expectations

Great numbers and great consistency - but what's it have to do with safety? 

A lot, especially when it comes to your middle managers and supervisors who have to affect continual change in both attitudes and actions. They must set consistent expectations and establish positive norms for your safety culture.

Think about the ways in which your managers and supervisors need to establish and maintain consistency:

1. Do they schedule time for regular observations and coaching sessions?

2. Are they regularly involved in physical inspections?

3. Do they set ongoing expectations for exceptional housekeeping?

4. Do they hold regular safety meetings which are well prepared and well delivered?

5.  Is safety established as the highest priority value on any given agenda? Or is safety an afterthought, just about any day of the week?

6. Are these same leaders held accountable for the kinds of consistencies that will make a difference as part of your leading indicators?

7. Do you support these leaders and recognize their accomplishments?

A Requirement - Not an Option

I continue to think about the kinds of consistencies required of supervisors, managers, teams, and organizations in order to establish and maintain world-class safety performance. I also continue to think about the consistencies that Stan Musial was known for consistency on and off the field.  And over the long haul it takes support.

In an age marred by fads, fickleness and fantasies, Stan Musial remained married to his high school sweetheart since the age of 19 up until his death at age 92.

Twenty-two years of outstanding performance in major league baseball is a lot to comprehend. In a similar way, it takes focus, persistence, teamwork and support to evolve your safety culture. Your managers and supervisors need your support and recognition to get there. They need your help to ignite a part of the safety vision and keep it alive. 

After lunch in St. Louis, I was helping Mr. Musial down a short set of steps when he stated:  "I don't get around too good anymore."

I said, "Oh no, you get around pretty well!"

"Ah no,"  he responded in jest.  "I think I hit too many triples!"

I had to laugh, 177 triples and an incredible amount of consistency over two decades requires a good bit of running and a bunch of ongoing support. More consistency and more support than most any "one man" can muster all alone.