Creating a Culture of Safety Through

Effective Leadership

Question

What are some examples of cultural issues in your organizations that make it difficult to ensure the safety of your employees?

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Questions

What are the critical ingredients in a culture that has an excellent safety record?

What must leaders do to develop and maintain that culture?

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Critical Ingredientsof Safe Cultures

1.Aligned and Engaged Employees

2.Effective communication3.Reinforce what you want4.Challenge what you don’t

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Validation of this Program

• This program was developed and taught to a large construction company in Ohio as a part of a commitment to improve safety after a fatality.

• Result: That company and one of its subsidiaries have both recently won national awards from the Associated General Contractors of North America as having the best safety record in their class in the United States.

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1) Creating Alignment

Questions:1. Does your company feel more like

the figure on the left or right? Why?2. How can you create a greater sense

of alignment?6

The way many companies feel The way the most effective companies feel

This concept was introduced by Peter Senge in his book, “The Fifth Discipline”.

Flip the pyramid to align and engage employees

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Old school view of organizations New school view of organizations

Ideas for these diagrams taken from Tom Peters, “Thriving on Chaos”

Leader

Middle managers

Front line employees

Customers

Customers

Front line employees

Middle managers

Leader

Management Mentality: Keep employees in line

Management mentality: How can we help you succeed?

Douglas McGregor’s XY Theory

Theory x (‘authoritarian management’ style)• The average person dislikes work and will avoid it when he/she

can.• Therefore most people must be forced with the threat of

punishment to work towards organizational objectives.

Theory y (‘participative management’ style)• Effort in work is as natural as work and play.• People will apply self-control and self-direction in the pursuit of

organizational objectives, without external control or the threat of punishment.

• Commitment to objectives is a function of rewards associated with their achievement.

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Examples of old school and new school management

Old school: Ford River Rouge plant in 1930s• Ingots and rubber to a car in 3 days• 100,000 employees. Make each task so simple anyone can do it.

• 10,000 subs every day of the week!• If you shut down the line you risk being fired.• You are paid to do, not think.• Quality is expensive. Focus on quantity. • No need to improve the process. Look at the results!

New School: Toyota was amazed by River Rouge in 1930. Went back in 1950. Nothing changed.

• Dignity of the individual worker is respected.• We will never stop trying to improve the process of making the best cars

in the world.• All employees invited to be on quality improvement teams.• Everything is measured. All employee suggestions for improvement are

taken seriously.• Quality becomes inexpensive.

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2) Effective Communication

How we communicate:• Three main elements in face-to-face

communication: words, tone, body language.

• Listeners understood our message by:• Body language – 55%• Tone of voice – 38%• Words we say – 7%

Study done at UCLA by Albert Mehrabian, Ph.D.10

The Communication Process

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receiver

noise

noise

noise

responsefeedback

sender encoding

media

decoding

Putting thought into symbolic form

Process by which the receiver assigns meaning to the message.

message

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What employees say motivates them Ranked in order of importance:

1) Interesting work2) Full appreciation for work done3) Feeling of being in on things4) Job security5) Good wages6) Promotion and growth opportunities7) Good work conditions8) Management is loyal to employees9) Tactful discipline10)Sympathetic help with problems

This information is based upon the research of Kenneth Kovack, Ph.D.

3) Reinforce What You Want

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What their bosses thought motivated them

1) Good wages2) Job security3) Promotion opportunities4) Good working conditions5) Interesting work6) Management is loyal to employees7) Tactful discipline8) Full appreciation of work done9) Sympathetic help with problems10)Feeling of being in on things

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Some Thoughts on Recognition

According to research byDevelopment Dimensions International, Inc.

•Highly engaged employees have far fewer quality errors than disengaged employees (52 errors per million pieces made vs. 5658 pmp!)•Two big factors in engaged employees is that they feel that their work is appreciated, and they feel that their opinion counts.

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More Thoughts on Recognition

For optimal motivation:

• Supervisors should compliment their employees about four times* as often as they criticize them. People want to cooperate when they are being encouraged. When they get discouraged they disengage.

• As Kenneth Blanchard has said, “Catch someone doing something right.”

*According to research by John Gottman

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More Thoughts on Recognition

According to Marcus Buckingham*:

• The most important factor in whether or not employees liked their jobs was their relationship with their supervisor.

• Turnover was most explained by a poor relationship with that person’s supervisor.

• If employees felt appreciated, they were more engaged and had lower turnover and fewer mistakes.

*First Break all the Rules

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More Thoughts on Recognition

When you compliment someone:

• Be specific about what they have done.

• Look them in the eye.• Let them know how much you

appreciate what they have done.• If possible, do it in public.

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More Thoughts on Recognition

According to the book Positive Discipline:

Recognition is most effective when it is:• Timely – Don’t wait until the review. Do it now!• Specific – Tell the person exactly what they did

right.• Personal – Delivered in a way that person finds

meaningful.• Proportional – Is appropriate to what they did.

• What is the difference between these three terms?

• passive/aggressive• assertive• aggressive

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4) Challenge What You Don’t Want

Passive/Aggressive Assertive Aggressive

Confidence level

Low High Low

Motivation

Approval

Seeking

Connection

With others

Control over others

Self-talk “Tell me I am okay.”

“People are good, and so am I.”

“The world is a dangerous place.

I must protect myself.”

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The Assertiveness Continuum

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Control(Aggressive)

Dependency(Passive/aggressive)

Behavior: passive, passive-aggressive, disengaged

The Control-Dependency Loop

Behavior: Loud, domineering, angry, not listening

Replacing Control/Dependency with

Partnership

• If you want partnership, you should rarely, if ever, lose your temper.

• That always causes disengagement. Learn to listen more effectively if you want feedback on “near misses” you seek.

• If this behavior is accepted in your company it’s worth considering making it unacceptable. 22

“One of a leader’s main responsibilities is to constructively listen to bad news and then to fix the problem immediately.As soon as employees feel you are not listening to what is wrong everything unravels in a hurry.” Bill Gates

Shared ownershipPartner(management)

Partner(employees)

• Describe the behavior• Explain how it makes you feel• Explain the changes you would

like

• Do not:• Sound accusatory• Label the person’s behavior as wrong• Call the person names• Lose your cool

• Do:• Be gentle. Try not to make the person

defensive. Listen, but stay focused.

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"There are small Hitler's around us every day." Robert Payne

The "How To" of Assertiveness

Performance Problem Discussion Checklist: Harvey

and Sims*1. Identify desired and actual performance in specific behavior

terms. 2. Determine impact of the problem. 3. Identify realistic consequences. 4. Check past practices for consequences.5. Determine type of discussion. Coaching, counseling, formal

discipline?6. Seek feedback from others, especially for formal discipline.7. Document

*Positive Discipline

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Conducting a successful accountability discussion

with an employee: Harvey and Sims

Steps:

1. Understand that the goal is to gain the employee’s agreement and make the desired behavior change.

2. Describe the actual and desired behavior.3. Ask for agreement on the problem. If they won’t

agree, you set consequences.4. Discuss possible solutions. Be very specific about

behaviors and time frames.5. End on a positive note.

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• How do we "win" a confrontation?

• What is the reason we confront someone else?

• Whose approval are we after when we confront someone?

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More Thoughts on Confrontation

Decision Making Leave:According to Harvey and

Simms

Consequence that is different from time off.•Tell them to “Take the next day off and make a final decision to correct the problem or resign”•This demonstrates that the employee is responsible for their behavior.•Employees take this seriously.•It is more effective than time off, which just feels like punishment.

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Have a progression

1. First confrontation: Please don’t do this again.• Start here most of the time.

2. Second confrontation: If you do it again, this will be the consequence. • If the behavior is serious you may need to start here.

3. Third confrontation: Deliver the consequence. • If the behavior is egregious, you may need to start

here.• This omits the need to get angry. Let the consequence combined

with positive reinforcement create the behavior change you seek.

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• If you do not understand and manage your emotions they will undo every bit of your efforts at assertiveness.

• Emotions are powerful indicators that you need to assert yourself.

• They can also be a powerful part of the solution, or your undoing.

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"Every time you meet a situation, though you think at the time it is an impossibility and you go through the tortures of the damned, once you have met it and lived through it, you find that forever after you are freer than you were before."

Eleanor Roosevelt

Dealing with Your Emotions: How to stay cool in a confrontation

To manage your emotions in a confrontation instead of being managed by them, you:

• Acknowledge them• Accept them• Assess them and• Act upon them.

• If you do not make a plan beforehand to assert yourself, you will probably regret what you have to say in the moment.

• Useful tip: Bring notes into the confrontation. This will keep you focused if they get defensive. 30

Productively Dealing withYour Emotions

“Speak when you are angry and you will make the greatest speech you will ever regret.” William Ury

Case Study

• Company that won AGC safety award did the following to increase accountability:– Quarterly audits with a checklist of safety

areas– Top management present for audits– Results of audits published for everyone to

see.–Managers look forward to these audits to

prove they are complying with guidelines.

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Reading Material

Embracing Rebellion: If you can raise teenagers you can lead anyone

Steve Anderson

Positive Discipline: How to Resolve Rough Performance Problems Quickly…and Permanently

Harvey and Simms

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Questions?

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