Safety innovator !

This story is written by a guy called Wayne J. Harris. - He really hits the nerve - read it !

 

In several of my previous articles I opened up the question of leadership and being creative. If there is one tip I would like to stress to everyone, it would be not to jump on the band wagon of using the same old schemes that have kept popping up over the years. Yes I’m talking about things such as; Zero Harm, Zero Preventable Injuries and that old chestnut from the 1970’s “Zero Damage Zero Injury”. All these buzzwords have been around for over 30 years, and yet people still think they will be the answer to all their problems.

 

I wonder what a board of directors would think if the Chief Financial Officer (CF0) stood up at a board meeting and said, ‘I have a fantastic new idea on how to improve our turnover’. Then with great enthusiasm, announced the scheme is called “Let’s make Money” or “Only profit not Loss”.

To make sure everyone knows about the scheme, the CFO launches a poster campaign, awards scheme and staff briefing sessions etc. Now, do you think that everyone in the company will all of a sudden start to change how they work?

 

As soon as people start to separate any part of business management into schemes you are on a very bumpy and slow road to minimal compliance. One of the comments I always make is “I do not use the word Safety to try and make people and companies change”. The approach I take is about working differently and efficiently, which ultimately ends up with improved performance.

 

So what about this for an idea lets drop the title of safety and those poisoned acronyms of HSE, EHS OHS, and why not see if we can get people to accept the basic principles of completing a job or task correctly. Why not have a simple work guideline which states how to do a job, rather than a ream of shelve filling safety procedures, or OHS guidelines.

 

Now I know many will read this article and jump to the first point that safety is a legal obligation, or without safety accidents will only increase. But this is not what I’m raising here; it’s about changing our approach in helping people to work efficiently, and by default achieving an improved safety outcome.

 

So do we really need to have a slogan or crazy scheme to make things happen, I would say no we do not? So thinking caps on everyone, maybe there is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, or do we just keep on acting like dinosaurs and hope that the profession survives to the next ice age.