Developing A Best Safety Culture Change: Challenges, Pitfalls,

1
Developing A Best Safety Culture Change
Challenges, Pitfalls, Maintaining Success

• Eldeen E. Pozniak
• BA, BSc, CEES, CHSC, CHSMSA, CRSP
• Director Pozniak Safety Associates Inc.
• President Canadian Society of Safety Engineering

2
WHAT AFFECTS OUR DEFINITIONS,

• Dependent on your personal thoughts,experiences,
  history, attitude,.. what you have been exposed
  to,what you value,..
• Our definitions how we see the world affect how
  we act or react,what we choose to do or not do

3
Safety Management System
Safe Sustainable Business
CULTURE
STRUCTURE
POPULATION
SITUATION
4
Structure without Culture
5
Example 1 OIMS Operations Integrity
Management System at Esso.

• Essos Gas plant explosion near Melborne in 1998
  sited as having a complex management system
  that maybe was too complex that concentration
  on the development maintenance of the structure
  of the system diverted attention from what was
  actually happening in the practical functioning
  of the plant (Dawson Brooks 1999).

6
Example 2 South Africa Mines 1988

• Eisner Leger 1988 sought to correlate the
  number of stars achieved by the mines who had
  been assessed using the International Safety
  Rating System (the five star system), with their
  fatality reportable injury rates. It found no
  correlation.
• In other words, companies which has perfected
  their structure who achievement had been
  recognized with the five star rating were no
  safer than companies whose safety management
  structure were judged to be inferior.

7
Conclusion

• Sobering findings that reinforce the view that
  safety cannot be assured simply by introducing
  the structural side of a safety management system
  only.

8
Align Structure With Culture Wanted

• Organizations rely on a number of formal
  processes procedures to manage risk, such as,
• The structure each of the program components
  or elements has an important contribution to make
  in terms of not only improving workplace safety,
  but also positively impacting an organization's
  safety culture.

9

• At best, when the structure is poorly designed or
  operating ineffectively, its ability to affect
  beneficial change is compromised.
• At worst, a poorly designed, badly implemented,
  or ill-functioning structure can have a
  destructive influence on an organization's safety
  culture.

10

• Culture improvement is inhibited, for example,
  when
• incident analyses create an air of mistrust
  fault-finding,
• safety incentive programs discourage injury
  reporting ,
• accountability processes fail to recognize
  individuals for their accomplishments,
• performance evaluations focus on outcome number
  rather than process accomplishments.

11

• Organizations serious about changing their safety
  culture must critically analyze modify the
  structure to be certain it fosters the desired
  Actively Caring culture.

12
Culture without Structure
13

• if you gave a culture where everyone cares has
  the best intentions but they have no tools, or
  processes, no structure, then they will only get
  so far.
• What brings the structure the whole system to
  life, to make them work, is the culture.
• The culture must be appropriate for the tasks,
  hazards risks, for the organization.

14
So What is A Safety Culture?

• It is the way we do things around here.

15

• the product of individual and group values,
  attitudes, competencies, and patterns of
  behaviour that determine the commitment to and
  the style and proficiency of, an organizations
  health and safety programs. Organizations with a
  positive safety culture are characterized by
  communications founded on mutual trust, by shared
  perceptions of the importance of safety and by
  confidence in the efficacy of preventative
  measures. UK Health and Safety Commission
  (1993)

16

• A pattern of shared basic assumptions that the
  group learned as it solved its problems of
  external adaptation internal integration, that
  has worked well enough to be considered valid and
  therefore, to be taught to new members as the
  correct way to perceive, think feel in relation
  to those problems. ( Schein 1992)

17

• While not all behaviour patterns may be based on
  shared values, shared values undoubtedly give
  rise to patterns of behaviour. Some behaviour is
  based on biological reflex reactions, not by
  ideas values.
• So then a safety culture - a special case of
  culture, one in which safety has a special place
  in the concerns of those who work for the
  organization. (Hopkins 2005)

18
How is that different from a Safety Climate?

• Procedures rules that govern safety within an
  organization are at the center of a safety
  culture will serve to construct a perceived
  image of hazards, risk safety of the
  organization.
• This image forms the safety climate, which
  outlines the perceived importance of safety how
  it is operationalized within the working
  environment.

19
Both Climate Culture are Important

• While identifying values is an important first
  step, building these values into the fabric of
  the organization requires transforming the
  culture.
• As we developed the implementation plan to
  address the culture, we need to consider the
  climate.
•  

20

• Is the current climate for safety in your
  organization very strong and favourable? It needs
  to be if you want successful culture change.
• If it is, you may only have a limited-time
  opportunity to introduce new principles that
  could lead an organizational-wide cultural change
  initiative.

21
Dr. Dominic Cooper

• Article Measurement of Safety Climate A
  Component Analysis, written for the Institute of
  Occupational Safety Health (IOSH) states that
  the following eleven dimensions provide the main
  focus for ascertaining an organizations current
  safety climate, each of which has been shown to
  be clearly related to an effective safety
  culture.

22
Management Commitment

• Crucial importance of leadership commitment.
• We need to asses if there is a discrepancy
  between the typical vision mission statements
  which state that safety is a top priority
  management actions.

23
Management Action

• Effective manager is seen as an effective leader
  who is both caring controlling.
• Engagement of individuals in decisions affecting
  the safety of their jobs, discussing with
  workgroups ensuring all are clear about
  responsibilities expectations, with consistent
  follow-up.

24
Personal Commitment to Safety

• at an employee level an individuals
  identification with involvement in safety
  activities,
• often enhanced with involvement in decision
  making processes engagement that affects safety
  in their jobs.

25
Perceived Risk Levels

• The safety culture is partly based upon the
  perceived risk level of a particular job or task.
  
• Ability to determine risks associated with
  definitions of individual - experience,
  history, training communication, amount of
  control individual feels they have,to the
  criteria they use to judge the situation.

26
What do you see?
27
The Effects of the Required Work Pace

• The heart of the productivity safety
  conflict.
• High demand low control

28
Beliefs about Accident Causation

• Important element because it guides peoples
  thinking actions when trying to recognize or
  solve safety problems.

29
The effects of Job Induced Stress

• Relates to concepts such as fatigue attention.
  

30
The Effectiveness of Safety Communications

• Organizations with good cultures can be
  characterized by good safety communications
  systems that flow in all directions.

31
The Effectiveness of Emergency Procedures

• Confidence versus panic behavior.

32
Safety Training

• Fundamental method for attempting to effect
  self-protection against workplace hazards.

33
Status of Safety Personnel

• Facilitator versus Safety Police.
• Responsibilities to Safety outlined, understood,
  workable.

34
Contextual Features

• All the above indicate an effective safety
  culture climate, however other prevailing
  features such as organizational changes,
  de-manning, job-redesign insufficient
  resourcing may affect safety as well.

35
Culture is it Values or Practices or a
Combination

• Back to the way we do things around here this
  highlights collective practices we.
• Carries connotation that this is the right or
  appropriate or accepted way to do things with in
  the area, organization, based on assumptions or
  values.

36

• So how does this affect us within the safety
  topics if we just focus on behavioral systems
  that work to change values directly, how far can
  we truly get.

37

• Can you change a persons values extremely
  difficult to practically impossible.
• But collective practices, dependent on
  organizational characteristics like structure,
  can be influenced in more or less predicable ways
  by changing the structure or systems.

38
Example Driving / Seat Belt Use

• Awareness?
• Posters condemning bad driving habits encourage
  people to think differently about it
• Gory accidents?
• Leadership backing up a change in practice,
  then repetitive education, enforcement,
  encouragement.

39

• Change in culture requires consistent leadership
  repetition.
• Not a new priority that comes goes with funding
  priorities.
• Psychology -tension when behavior is out of
  alignment with values - work to bring the two
  into alignment.

40
Culture Leadership

•  This focus on organizational practice places the
  responsibility for culture squarely on senior
  management, for it is the leaders of an
  organization who determine how it functions, it
  is their decision making which determines in
  particular whether an organization exhibits the
  practices which go to make up a culture of
  safety.
•  

41
True or False

• leaders create change cultures, while managers
  administrators live within them (Schien)

42
How Then do Leaders Create Culture?

• Leaders create cultures by what they
  systematically pay attention to from what they
  notice comment on to what they measure control,
  reward in others ways systematically deal
  with. (Schien 1992)

43

• Too often leaders think that they can achieve
  safe operations by stating publically that safety
  comes first that no job is so important that it
  cannot be done safely, then leaving it to
  others to ensure that the organization runs
  safely while they get on with investment, company
  restricting marketing.

44
Example

• Organization ABC has a variety of continuous
  monitoring systems.
• One of these systems monitors production.
• A second system monitored gases displayed the
  results on a different computer screen.

45

• The key to changing culture is through
  leadership.
• what they do what they dont do,
• whether intentionally or unintentionally.
• Leaders with the right knowledge skills can
  move the culture in desired ways do so with
  accelerated results.
• The key is for leaders to become most effective
  though use of various tools approaches.
•  

46
Leadership Influences Culture

• 5 leadership Practices that will affect the
  Culture ensure extraordinary things get done,
  leaders must
• Model the way
• Inspire a shared vision
• Challenge the process
• Enable others to Act
• Encourage the heart.

47
Model the Way

• Translating shared values into actions deeds,
  being accountable to one another, influencing by
  example, breaking projects down into achievable
  steps so that small wins can be accomplished
  along the way.
• Walk the walk, talk the talk,.

48
Model the Way

• Characteristics of Modeling the Way
• Sets a personal example of what is expected
• Makes certain that people adhere to agreed-on
  standards
• Follows through on promise and commitments
• Asks for feedback on how his /her actions affect
  peoples performance
• Builds consensus around organizations values
• Is clear about his or her philosophy of
  leadership

49

• What are you Modeling?
• Clear about your principles, values, beliefs or
  definitions,
• Talking about them, living them,.
• Being involved taking action
• Active monitoring inspection, job
  observations,....
• Safety meetings communications
• If you let someone go around a rule or a standard
  once,... then they will wonder what else they can
  forego in other areas of concern,..

50
Model the Way - How does this apply to safety

• Find your voice
• What are your personal safety values?
• What are your team safety values?
• How does it compare or fit with SGI Values?
• Set examples
• How will or do your set the safety example?
• How do or will your team set the safety example?
• How do or will SGI set the safety example?

51
Inspiring a Shared Vision

• Means developing a common understanding of what
  the team is trying to accomplish, realizing how
  the teams efforts are aligned with larger
  organizational goals using values to guide
  future actions.

52
Inspire a Shared Vision

• Characteristics of Inspiring a Shared Vision
• Talks about the future trends influencing our
  work
• Describes a compelling image of the future
• Appeals to others to share dream of the future
• Show others how their interest can be realized
• Paints big picture of group aspirations
• Speaks with conviction about meaning of work

53
Inspire a Shared Vision

• Leaders share their vision with others need
  then to accept follow
• Must speak their language to do this they need
  to know other peoples dream, hopes, visions,
  values, definitions

54
How does this apply to Safety?

• Envisioning the future
• What is your personal credo for safety?
• How are you modelling this
• What is your teams statement on safety?
• What is SGIs vision for safety?
• What do you do or are going to do to communicate
  Purpose Ignite Passion?

55
How does this apply to Safety?

• Enlist others
• Why is this vision benefiting all of us?
• Why is it a good future? Why should everyone
  cooperate?
• Who else can help us?

56
Communication

• How is Understanding different from being
  understood?
• Why can 93 of what we say be misunderstood?
• 7 - Words
• 38 - Tone of Voice
• 55 - Body Language

57
LISTENING 5 Levels

• Ignore
• Pretend
• Selective
• Attentive
• Emphatic

58
Challenge the Process

• Challenging the Process entails being willing to
  take risks, exploring new alternatives,
  experimenting, learning from mistakes,
  supporting one another in these efforts

59
Challenge the Process

• Characteristics of Challenging the Process
• Seeks challenging opportunities to test skills
• Challenges people to try new approaches
• Searches outside organization for innovative ways
  to improve
• Asks what can we learn
• Makes certain that goals, plans milestones are
  set
• Experiments

60

• Leaders are never satisfied
• with the status quo,
• they see how much
• better things can be.
•  
• Leaders inspire people
• to a better future!

61
How this applies to Safety

• Challenge the safety process
• Search for opportunities
• Allow creativity in safety
• Engagement involvement is key
• Rewarding 5 small safety ideas is better than 1
  big one
• Learning from 5 small mistakes is better than
  from 1 big one
• Admit mistakes honestly

62
Enable others to Act

• This involves assuming an action role in setting
  goals planning projects, establishing
  cooperative objectives, sharing information
  keeping one another informed demonstrating
  mutual respect for one anothers ideas
  competencies

63
Enable others to act

• Characteristics of engaging
• Develops cooperative relationships
• Actively listens to others points of view
• Treats others with dignity respect
• Supports decisions other people make
• Gives people choice about how to do their work
• Ensures that people grow in their jobs

64
Enable others to Act

• The real test is
• How often do you use the word
• I or use the word we.
• Leadership safety is a team effort

65
Attraction, recruitment, retention,

• Past command control,
• Present enable others, provide with
  responsibility, authority, recognition
  engagement, trust

66
Recognize when your team is ready to receive
important information or messages

• Forming
• Storming
• Norming
• Performing

67

• There is no limit to what can be accomplished
• if it doesnt matter who gets the credit
• Ralph Waldo Emerson.

68
Engage others

• ask for their ideas, comments,....
• Connecting it is not always about what we say,
  but sometimes what others hear.
• Open lines of communication correct perception
  enhance the Culture
• It is what you do before, what you do,
• that counts.
• Unknown - Eldeen

69
How does this apply to safety?

• Foster collaboration
• Target and measure faces meeting faces
• Setting the goals more important than the goals
• Processes vs results, joint rewards

70
Strengthen others

• Focusing on team gains
• Player Fan Activity

71
Encouraging the Heart

• entails feeling emotionally connected to the
  team, providing timely feedback, pointing with
  pride to team accomplishments celebrating
  together the achievement of milestones

72
Encouraging the Heart

• Characteristics for engaging the heart
• Praises people for job well done
• Expresses confidence in peoples abilities
• Creatively rewards people for their contributions
• Recognizes people for commitment to shared values
• Finds ways to celebrate accomplishments
• Gives team members appreciation support.

73
How does this relate to Safety?

• Recognize safety contribution
• The goals are high, clear and informed
• Catch the right things
• Share care
• Attractive, attainable, soon
• Personal thoughtful
• Review of positives
•  

74
How does this relate to Safety?

• Celebrate safety values victories
• Schedule safety celebrations, not failing to fail
• Create an award
• Small many better than big few
• Actively look for victories tally them.

75
Leadership is Relationships

• Credibility is the foundation of Leadership
• Honest
• Competent
• Inspiring
• Consistent

76
Commitment, Leadership Participation

• Senior leadership,..
• Mid Management,..
• Front lines,..
• Workers,..

77
Leadership
Intent
Behaviour
Adjustment
Effect
Most people see leadership as the act of leading
others. What if it is really the act of leading
ourselves? Peter Urs Bender
78
The Importance of Telling a Story

• How have we communicated for centuries?
• How have we expressed values approaches
  shaped definitions?

79
Measurement of Good Health Safety Performance
from the Cultural Standpoint

• What are some of the tools that you are using at
  the moment?

80
Safety Perception Surveys
81
A Good Reference

• Scorecard Approach to Benchmarking Organizational
  Safety Culture in Construction
• J. Constr. Engrg. and Mgmt., Volume 129, Issue 1,
  pp. 80-88 (January/February 2003)
• Sherif Mohamed1 Senior Lecturer, School of
  Engineering, Griffith Univ., PMB 50 Gold Coast
  Mail Centre, Queensland 9726, Australia.

82
Active Monitoring

• Work Observations
• Inspections
• Ratings

83
Questions Comments