Video: Four steps to a better safety culture – SHP Safety Talks with Tim Marsh

Hi Tim,

I really enjoyed this short video and agree with your comments. We are on a great journey towards a positive safety culture and are seeing many of the things you talk about although most people think training is the answer to everything!

Your video has encouraged me to buy your book and the fact that you are Welsh means it must be true!

I agree that engagement with the risk and dynamic risk assessment is best but how do you do this and still ensure you have demonstrable compliance with the requirements of the management of health and safety at work regs i.e. you are required to have a written risk assessment for all activities undertaken. Is advising the regulator in the event of an unlikely, (but still possible) incident where the individual hasn’t taken all risks into account and has unfortunately injured themselves that they had been trained and empowered to complete dynamic risk assessments likely to be sufficient?

I work with an extremely competent bunch of people who do engage and dynamically risk assess the work that they complete. I still get them to create job safety analyses which they tend to reject as they are already doing this but I feel that we need the record.

I would be interested to understand how other people manage the requirement for proof when you know your people are adequately risk assessing and working safely the majority of the time.

Thanks

Vicki

It is correct that improving the workplace safety culture of any organisation is considered a transformational leadership process. However, this is unrealistic, and indeed just too simplistic as two very important and extremely critical arguments are made over transformational leadership being the be all and end all of improving workplace safety culture. These are:

(1) That all transformational leaders are operating at the same effective and efficient level, and all have the necessary skills to achieve the desired performance outcome, such as; conceptual skills, conflict management skills, interpersonal skills, decision-making skills, political skills, and influence & motivation skills, this is clearly not the case. In addition and perhaps most importantly…

(2) It is not clear whether the internal, and or external situational variables present will have either a negative effect, and or a positive effect in increasing the likelihood of achieving the performance outcome. This uncertainty is understandable, and could be argued that it is completely justified. If there were no internal, and or external situational variables influencing the transformational leadership process when attempting to improve the workplace safety culture of the organisation then we would have the unrealistic scenario of straight-line success from the current situation to the performance outcome being achieved.

To achieve the purpose of improved workplace safety culture today’s safety leadership professional will require a more flexible, and adaptive response, indeed they have to have a much broader style of leadership that encompasses not just one but many styles to help support the desired performance outcome.

This is a very engaging article and I would recommend using 5 minutes of your time to listen to some interesting and thought provoking ideas which are very well promoted

Hi Tim,

Many thanks for the information on the short video. Safety Culture / Behavior is something that to be honest we are just starting to look into and your short video has certainly helped in our upcoming journey.
Keep up the great work and I look forward to the next video.

absolutelly right!

Excellent short clip, very informative and easy to relate to.
I would add that to assist with Culture, if people within any organisation can answer yes to these three questions, then the company is in a great place:

1) Is Respect and Dignity shown to everyone within the organisation across all levels – i.e. By the most senior person to the most junior or contractor etc?

2) Do you have meaning in your life – i.e. So that your work means something to you?

3) Do you regularly receive recognition for your contribution at work?

Tim – also congratulations on the recent book which I have read – Safety Savvy – a great little read and very thought provoking.

Look forward to the next short clip in this series.

Steff

As always excellent and thought provoking – many thanks Prof Tim. One of the biggest cultural challenges our profession (and any other for that matter) face is getting communications right.
In the emerging workplace we need to focus less on HS professionals communicating the message and more on how we engage with people so that they become more receptive to the messages. For me this is an important distinction and analogous to Tims four steps in that more and more we find that people want to and indeed need to get involved, being mindful.
Before we invest our time in something we need to get a feel for its value, we can only do this if we feel involved, we need to feel relevance; as such creative and innovative methods of communication are more and more important.
These four steps provide a solid foundation for an immersive approach to compliance and sustainable behaviours from initial induction to routine education; if we get this right not only do we create a culture of transformational leadership, but more importantly a culture of transformational followship.
Many thanks again
S

Hi Tim – great job as always. Delighted these are flying. It isn’t just down to the idea – your execution is outstanding as always. You really make safety engaging. Which is the point after all!

Its a pleasure hearing someone say what you want to say all the time, but haven’t got the same intellect. Totally professional

presentation which makes so much sense, thank you Professor Tim !

Regards

Lee

Excellent! going to present this as a snapshot at our annual company conference. Good work old chap