Is there really a need for a radical safety revolution? Andrew Sharman assesses the apocalypse.
Every day for the last couple of months my Inbox has been bombarded with the ‘latest updates’ from safety journals and online forums, on receipt of each I have felt a little more dejected.
It seems we face the apocalypse. Time has become timeless.
Our world is spinning too fast. On the one hand, this speed is attractive, in the sense that it drives progress and affords us convenience (workplace projects, performance scorecards, 24-hour supermarkets, and self-service gas stations, for example, all work blindly in the face of time passing). But this timelessness affects our work in safety too.
Just this week a large global multinational client called for support to implement a culture change, stipulating that the change ‘had to be fully embedded before Christmas’. Organisational culture change, done and dusted in 3 months?
There’s a point missed here, right?
Organisations are driven by time, that’s clear. There’s always a milestone, always a deadline. The common question linked to any enquiry we receive now is ‘How soon can you get here?’ – swiftly followed by ‘How quickly will it have an effect?’.
Turbo-driven beyond belief, it seems many people have missed the point – that safety culture comes by evolution, not revolution. I guess they are not to be blamed – the proliferation of negativity in safety can only inspire panic and fear.
Counting up a total of 97 articles coming into my inbox this week, my analysis shows that a full 96% of them lead with negativity. From massive fines, to prison sentences, from safety being ‘broken’ to the necessity for doing safety ‘differently’ there’s an abject urgency that’s clearly hard for many to resist.
These calls for revolution in safety are not only unfounded, they’re misguided too. For many nations around the world now enjoy unprecedented levels of safety – whether you measure accident rates, legislative compliance, employee engagement, organizational investment or indeed any other metric.
Darwin’s theory of evolution spoke of the importance of adapting to change. We don’t need to throw everything away and start over. The apocalypse is not upon us. I prefer revelation to revolution.
We don’t need to revolutionize the way we do safety, rather we must reveal the good habits, practices, leadership and cultures that surround us – and emulate, adjust, apply and implement these.
Learning surrounds us!
Confidence in safety, it seems, has been rocked. And the media hype continues to rattle the cage. But true confidence can never be instantaneous. It must be built, earned, over time. Instant confidence – like instant faith – never works.
Philosopher and learned professor Jean-Pierre Dupuy suggests that “Our power to act infinitely exceeds our power to feel and imagine.” I can’t help but agree.
Do we really need an apocalypse, now?
The New Rule of Safety #18: Don’t believe the Hype
When we stand back, we see that the urgency to act in safety is driven by the media-spun rhetoric. This fear is a deadly assassin: whilst it does not kill it prevents us from living.
We need to stand up and be counted in safety, push back the tired tide of dismay and celebrate the victories we achieve day after day around the globe. Yes, there will always be more to be done, but by constantly being open to the evolution of our art, our science, our practice we will get there.
Here’s how:
Step 1: Don’t believe the hype, it’s not the apocalypse now.
Step 2: Stand up and share a good news story today.
Step 3: Hashtag #SHPonline @RMarshSharman on Twitter and LinkedIn and we’ll reward you with a free book for every positive story you post.
Andrew Sharman’s global best-selling book From Accidents to Zero: A Practical Guide to Improving Your Workplace Safety Culture is available to SHPonline readers with an exclusive 25% discount.
His new book Mind Your Own Business – co-authored with Dame Judith Hackitt is also out now. Use the code SHP25 at http://www.fromaccidentstozero.com to order your copies of both books. But be quick!
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Andrew – I am so glad I read this!
You echo my feelings exactly. I have been saddened by the tidal wave of media hype and this urgency for the need to change all that has gone before.
We don’t need revolution – we need to adapt and be agile and work with the changes and challenges our organisations are experiencing. We need to learn the skills of communicating about safety meaningfully and engage people effectively. We need to share and celebrate successes and support our organisations to learn from both positive and negative experiences rather than sniping from the side lines about failures. We can’t change the world urgently and all at once – any good practitioner worth their salt recognises that to go through change you need to grow through change!
Liz, thanks for your comments here. Pace, agility, flexibility, positivity – all absolutely what we need!
Absolutely agree – the bulls**t, drivel and complexity coming from some purporting to be H&S experts is becoming truly dreadful, negative and complicated. It is definitely turning otherwise interested and passionate people off. Keep it simple – simple uniform language – simple concepts – simple solutions: relevant | specific | valuable | proportional (RSVP) – the way health and safety should be….
In relation to, and in the context of working people, doing a work activity, in a work place, using work assets (i.e. at work), there are 7 H&S words and phrases whose meaning in the ‘at work’ context should be learned by heart by everyone – from that start point the whole issue and genuine understanding of H&S at work becomes really easy….
1) what is a hazard?
2) what are the two prime hazard categories?
3) what do we mean by harm in this ‘at work’ context?
4) what is risk?
5) what do we mean by risk assessment?
6) what is an accident?
7) how do we plan for and control risk?
A little training to gain a proper grasp/understanding of the interrelationship between each of the above 7 items is the ‘EUREKA’ moment – I’ve seen it happen literally thousands of times in my H&S career over 30 years. It doesn’t matter if the delegate is of school age, an apprentice, an experienced technical craft person, a manager or an executive, anyone…. – the reaction and feedback is the same – “why didn’t anyone ever explain safety like that before?”.
Get in touch if you’d like to know more.
http://www.rsvpsafety.com
Vince, great additions thank you! Really like your question set – thanks for sharing.
Andrew, I like your article, but I must say I think you are wrong (or am i being too negative)
You state “We don’t need to revolutionize the way we do safety, rather we must reveal the good habits, practices, leadership and cultures that surround us – and emulate, adjust, apply and implement these”
I disagree, we do need major improvement;
1, companies are told in order be a safer company they need to implement safety management schemes and smaller companies follow the lead from above and feel as they have that badge they are safer, a ridiculous perception.
2, the world today, we must try a different approach, leadership, good habits, practices are so vague, we need a to create an holistic approach.
3, we need to use technology to get industry wide filtered information directly to the workers via their smart devices, not through leadership teams sending information they have to a worker via an email and posting a copy on a notice board
4, we need to create an audit trail, need to ensure workers actually understand and we need to stop being told what to do and get help in doing it.
I would like to close by stating I have sent multiple articles over to SHP, spoke with representatives and still nothing is printed and they are all backed with good feelings (negativity sells) and positive solutions, but hold on, If I pay SHP, they will publish an advert no matter of its content.
Lastly, is the SHP ‘in courts’ page not one of the top pages visited by on-lookers?
Hello Karl, thanks for your comments. I’m a little confused with your disagreement when you say ‘I disagree, we do need major improvement’.
To be clear, I believe we still have a way to go and need to continue to make improvements – both major and incremental. But let’s not cast aside the fantastic work that’s been achieved in many countries – especially in the uk – in recent years. Let’s look at your 4 points now:
Point 1 – about companies getting ‘safety badges’ – i agree with you here, not something I endorse.
Point 2 – the world is different – yes, that’s true every day I wake up. But we have a depth of excellent leadership models, theories and tools that can really make a difference. I truly believe that we allow ourselves to be overwhelmed by them and the societal need for information and ‘the next best thing’. If we stop and look carefully we will see we have the tools and thinking we need. After all, people haven’t changed that much!
Point 3 – I’m not advocating generic emails, nor noticeboard posters. I AM talking about real0life, person-to-person leadership. REAL LEADERSHIP! That ENGAGES real people! In many of our clients mobile devices are not permitted on shop floors – let’s be sure that communications are vibrant, appropriate and using channels that are relevant and effective.
Point 4 – Sure there are managers who feel they need to spend lots of time generating paper trails in order to ‘show the regulator when they call or if an accident occurs’ – but in practice there’s a disproportionate amount of time spent covering backsides instead of leading forward and creating safe workplaces. It’s an issue that my friend Dame Judith Hackitt feels strongly about (and she’s seen plenty of it in practice as Chair of the HSE for 8 years. We have written about this extensively in our new book: Mind Your Own Business – What Your MBA Should Have Taught You About H&S (see http://www.FromAccidentstoZero.com for details)
And now, your final point. I can’t comment on why SHP are not publishing your articles. I can tell you that I receive no payment for anything I have ever down for SHP in the last 12 years – whether in the magazine or online, and I have never paid for any advertising space in order to get something published. Good luck with your writing efforts,
Best wishes, and thanks again for sharing your thoughts, Andrew
Andrew
So many thanks, sorry, maybe my heart takes over my head, I am not the most grammatical when writing.
I do not disagee with Leadership, its just not enough, still problems will and do occur.
A worker before signing in to a job needs to be checked they are competent, they understand the task in hand and they have specific training suitable including skills decay. If any of the elements are not correct, then they cannot sign in to that job.
Managers and leaders need to get essential safety and wellbeing alerts to their workers.
Currently a very high level of companies will receive alerts via email mechanisms, groups etc, the manager will group alerts together in an email and send out to supervisors, to then be passed on to shop floor / site level via print or pinned on notice boards.
Where is the audit trail, who checked they understood, did they have any options to request further training, was the document available in all languages?
The answer will generally be No!, as companies simply cannot afford 5 managers per 20 workers in order to really filter an alert to suit the workers requirement, to check the worker understands, to provide any further training to ultimately create an audit trail and manage work schedules.
An industry wide alerting tool which allows any alert from any industry to be filtered directly to the worker on their smart device creating a full audit trail and links to training if required is essential.
Imagine a company who on Monday had a incident with a digger skewing his cab round after re-fueling and trapping a man. The Safety alert is very quick and sent out to all mangers to send onto supervisors for site wide distribution and pinned on the company Safety Board in head office. Good leadership, great standards and excellent procedures!!!,
What about the other million digger drivers around the world, why didn’t they get this alert, why can’t they learn from the other companies mistakes???
The above scenario was part of an article I wrote which was sent to SHP (good news story)
The Safety Consultant on the aforementioned site used ‘Safety PAL’ http://yoursafetypal.com/documented-safety-alerts/
The next day after the incident, the consultant posted the alert on Safety PAL under the category ‘heavy machinery” and sent to everyone who uses ‘Safety PAL’ Thousands of workers who ticked the category ‘heavy machinery” instantly received that alert (everyone else who didn’t tick ‘heavy machinery” didn’t receive the alert, as it wasn’t relevant to them) , they could not sign an acceptance or understanding of this document until they actually opened the alert and scrolled down, only then were they presented with a read/understood button or request further training button, the worker then clicks which ever button is relevant and their manager has a full audit trail of the alert his worker received.
2 weeks after this accident, I spoke with a digger driver and the afformentioned company and shown him this alert, he replied “I haven’t seen that”, a further 2 weeks later, the same worker called me “Karl I have now seen that alert after getting a coffee and looking at the main company safety board”. This company has multiple awards in Safety behaviours and achieving performance goals.
Its not that leadership is bad, its just not enough when technology can engineer out the problem instead of companies engineering in solutions
Karl
+44 (0)7702 832102
Hello Karl, Thanks for coming back on this one. And please don’t worry about ‘heart taking over head’ (it’s probably another post sometime, but I feel strongly (heart!) that we need more passion in safety!)
Your example is helpful – though my view is that there is a mix of leadership and management in the story that you share here. In simple, quick terms I see leadership as setting the tone, direction and standard – and management ensuring that what needs to happen happens.
I agree with your final point about technology – there is some terrific stuff coming out in recent years that adds great value to safety at work. I don’t think we are at risk of the machines taking over just yet, so, for now at least, we’ll still need a vibrant mix of leadership, management and technical safety advice that collectively engages and encourages workers to think about the safety of themselves and their colleagues and empowers and enables take appropriate action each and every day. (Great) Leadership plays a vital role here – and sharing the good news stories is a solid example!
Very best wishes, let’s keep talking!
A
Having spent 30 years in the health and safety world. I don’t think there is a health and safety apocalypse occurring.
The information we receive in various formats, which let’s face it, is doom and gloom is no different from any other period in the last 10 years. The difference is we have more exposure to this data through internet, e-mail and social media. That is if we choose to subscribe! This situation isn’t unique to health and safety. Unfortunately doom and gloom grabs attention and makes headlines more than positive news. Where health and safety is concerned, it’s the fear factor and consequences that commentators use to grab people’s attention. But that only occurs in the health and safety media, mainstream media only takes an interest when incidents like the Grenfell tower fire occur.
It’s likely the speed of the workplace and our 24-7 nonstop lives and the bombardment of negative information (from all sources, not just safety) and the demands placed on individuals which have contributed to workplace stress becoming the major cause of occupational ill health in the UK. Perhaps as individuals we are partly to blame, as nobody puts their smartphone down for more than a few minutes. Nobody switches off to relax anymore, so we must assume that people are hungry for information and fear missing out on something.
It’s true to say, that organisations increasingly want everything ASAP. Which is why production and service delivery still takes a precedent over occupational health and safety management and risk reduction.
Achieving safety change and making progress, isn’t going to happen in a few months. Most companies seeking the safety culture they’ve read about haven’t usually achieved the basics of legal compliance.
We could do with a moral revolution, as there are plenty of companies out there who could do much more to look after their workforce, but choose to do the minimum. Why? Well I suspect that if production and service delivery aren’t impacted by the present situation, then why do more? In my experience, everyone in an organisation is aware of their current health and safety issues, what is or isn’t being done. James Reason would call them holes in the swiss cheese and they would certainly make up Bill Heinrich dominos.
I also don’t believe that the urgency to act in safety is driven by the media-spun rhetoric. There isn’t a deal of health and safety in the media, unless you wish to hunt it down or are in the profession. Workplace accidents don’t make big news unless it’s a very quiet day, a major catastrophe occurs or Mr Trump hasn’t tweeted.
I agree, we don’t need to revolutionise the way we do safety, as everything has been risk assessed, we have an abundance of information on risk control measures, we have advanced safety technology, in fact we have everything we need to achieve a wonderfully safe and healthy workplace. All we need now is for organisations to gain an appetite to use apply all that knowledge.
I would hope that any competent safety practitioner would not believe the hype, risk managers should research and draw their own conclusions.
I would also hope that many would celebrate achievements, as some good news is always welcome.
Phil, thanks for your comments here. The idea of a ‘moral revolution’ made me smile – indeed I can think of several organisations that could be in line for this!
I agree that speed plays an issue – the ‘everything now’ mentality that has grown in recent years – at work and beyond – is perhaps not such a good thing…
Please to hear that you agree that it’s evolution not revolution we need – I talked about this in my recent TED talk (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7-DQFvD5ck).
Cheers, Andrew
Andrew, I can’t say I’ve heard any of these so-called revolutionaries calling to scrap the old in order to bring in the new. I’m hearing that we need to evolve our thinking, our mindset, build on & improve what we’ve already done and there’s plenty of credible people providing valid arguments from within & out of the health and safety profession.
Thanks for chipping in Tony. How do you think we bring in more valid arguments from outside the profession? Where do you see the biggest opportunity for us to learn (positively)?
Hi Andrew
I completely agree that we need to be more positive about health and safety and I fully endorse your view that it relies on real leadership. However, that will mean different things to different people (I’ll explain later).
Just as one example of negativity, there was an article/video not so long ago warning us that positive people were dangerous! (https://www.shponline.co.uk/culture-dispelling-the-myth-positive-people-are-not-safer-people/) . The take home message for me was that we ought to ignore workers’ mental health, wellbeing, resilience, optimism etc. which had the effect of leaving me quite flat (but apparently much safer as a result!).
I also agree that there doesn’t need to be a revolution. We can see different ideas about how to get the very best out of people in writings and philosophies that go back millennia. I’ve sometimes quoted Cicero (Roman Philosopher). It’s difficult to see anything that is genuinely brand new, but I do see safety professionals taking ideas from organisational psychology etc. and applying it to the realm of health and safety.
For example, much of what I see in Safety Differently is a repackaging of ideas about transformational leadership, that have been around for decades, mashed up with core concepts about human motivation and capability taken from positive psychology. It may be helpful if the health and safety community was clearer about where their theories and ideas were coming from, but that can get very academic.
I’m not sure I can agree that the core message of safety differently is “doom and gloom – everything is broken”. I think that it is actually very upbeat and revolves around listening to and empowering workers and encouraging companies to move beyond ‘command and control’. In fact, you (quite rightly in my opinion) gave a very positive review of a book that encourages organisations to move beyond a culture fixated on compliance. For me, safety differently is really just endorsing the idea that we need real leadership – it just gives one view of what that looks and sounds like. Someone else’s idea of real leadership may be micro-measuring and micro-managing workers’ every behaviour.
Karl is, in my opinion, right that negativity catches people’s attention. I wonder what the reaction would be to a headline which reads “Shock News: 99.99% of UK companies did not get prosecuted today”!! It’s also my observation that companies can learn from – and be motivated to change – by things that have gone wrong (although that only serves as a temporary boot up the backside and I would personally want organisations to have a deeper sense of ethics guiding their decisions).
I get really frustrated and tired when I hear stories of workers, for example, purposefully dehydrating themselves to avoid getting sanctioned by their organisation for having too many breaks. Just yesterday I was investigating an incident where an 18 year electrical apprentice, by sheer fluke, was not blinded or killed.
I then need to remind myself that it’s OK to have some sort of Utopian vision of what the world should be like, but every day I have to swim in the gulf between the shores of Utopia and Reality. Some days they seem closer together, some days further apart. It’s OK to tread water for a bit and take 5 to talk to the other swimmers.
Nick
Hi Nick, thanks for your thoughts here. I’m not sure Tim was meaning to say positive people are dangerous, and I’m certainly not saying that a the core message of safety differently is all doom and gloom, but i certainly am reacting to the myriad negatives news stories – and the general assertion that we need revolution in safety. I’m glad you agree we don’t!
Like you, I’m also seeing safety people trying to look more broadly beyond the domain to bring in fresh thinking and that’s great to see – more please!! A question I’ve been asking H&S practitioners recently is about which other professional bodies they are members of. The Institute of Leadership & Management and the Institute of Directors both offer great value-adding memberships band certainly help broaden thinking.
Your final metaphor is solid, and I agree – sometimes we need to carve out some berthing / thinking / treading water space for ourselves – chatting to others – whether online here, or in the ‘waters of the gulf’ is always worthwhile!
Cheers, Andrew
Hi Andrew. It would help if the powers that be (i.e HSE) would stop exaggerating the size of a problem based on dodgy data, especially when the contrary data to their public positions is on their own website in the form of actual records. It is about time they stopped with the doom and gloom hype and focused on reporting the real data in a matter of fact way.