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If you expect workers to care less about safety,
they will likely care less about safety. If you expect safe work
habits, safe work habits is what you'll get.
Peter Drucker, author and management consultant, tells of a company
president who was trying unsuccessfully to improve the company's
safety record.
For years he had lectured employees to offer new ideas and make
suggestions
to enhance safety, or create safer work procedures. The company
ran a suggestion program and apparently offered encouragement in
the form of
monetary rewards for ideas to improve safety.
But precious few came forward.
When Drucker's team looked into what was actually happening, they
had little difficulty fingering the president and his management
team as the cause
of their own problem.
The president had risen through the sales field, and was pre-occupied
with sales and marketing—areas in which he felt more comfortable.
While interested in safe work procedures in principle, he had little
patience for the detail involved. He rarely took notice of workers
who performed safely. Safety was relegated to the plant engineer,
a forty-year company veteran who was much more concerned with getting
the work out than troubling himself with safety issues.
This was not lost on employees. They had long concluded that the
company did not expect them to be overly concerned with safety,
did not expect them to come up with new ideas, and wasn't interested
in innovation.
Drucker's team made a "walk through" presentation to the
President to show him machine guards that had been left
off for months, workers who were ignoring PPE rules, desultory housekeeping.
Happily, the president recognized and accepted the Drucker team's
diagnosis, and decided to become more actively involved in promoting
safety. He appointed a new safety officer, who conducted safety
audits, and recommended upgraded equipment, changes in some work
procedures and insistence on compliance with safety rules. The president
directed that suggestions for safety improvement were to be routed
to himself, and he wrote notes of appreciation to employees when
he reviewed them, before passing them on to the safety officer for
evaluation. He also encouraged active participation by everyone
in safety meetings.
More important, over the ensuing twelve months, the president showed
by word and deed that he expected employees to work safely. He spent
time in meetings with staff at all levels, talking about safety,
discussing safety improvements, and seeing that
many were implemented. Recognition was heaped on employees who made
safety suggestions through the company newsletter and at award ceremonies.
As employees rose to meet the president's expectations, the safety
record improved. Employees gradually recognized the fact that the
president's expectations truly had changed.
Expectations—good or bad—cast long shadows
Many supervisors and team leaders have found that expectations,
good or bad, tend to become self-fulfilling prophecies. Most of
your expectations turn out to be just about on target!
If you expect your team to carry on more or less as they have done
before, chances are they will.
If, under pressure to get work out, you turn a blind eye to safety
lapses, you can expect more of them.
If you expect your team to be inconsistent in wearing PPE, chances
are PPE will be worn less and less.
But if you expect your team always to consider safety first, you
can expect to see fewer safety violations.
If you expect your team to strive continually for improvement, and
consistently support your expectations with action, team members
will rise to the occasion.
Want to engineer change?
Expect it!
Everyone looks to those with leadership roles all the time. They
notice a great deal more about your work habits—and what you
give priority to—than you may realize. If you tell your crew
that you want complete compliance with safety rules, while you concentrate
on some other aspect such as reducing the scrap rate, you might
be disappointed to find that everyone gives their enthusiastic support
to reducing the scrap rate—but safety lapses remain the same.
Walk your expectations
Team members may listen with half an ear to the instructions
you give them, but the subject that is pre-occupying you, absorbs
their total attention: "What's our team leader interested in?
Who's
he talking to? How come Jane got a pat on her back for her work,
but not Stan?
"He was on about quality last week, now it's safety. But we
know it won't last. For all the talk about quality, safety, the
scrap rate, what he really wants is to get the work out the door,
come
hell or high water."
Spend (visible) time on safety compliance
Take time to look over work in process and point out safety violations.
Talk to team members about safety all the time, not just during
safety meetings. Ask them to tell you the problems they encounter;
ask for suggestions to improve safety.
Measure it!
Post compliance—and non-compliance—with safety rules:
- This month everyone has kept their machine
guards in place.
- Last month I caught 6 associates working with
solvents
without respirators. This month, so far I have caught 2.
We're getting better!
Remember the management precept—
What gets measured, gets accomplished.
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