To create a strong company culture of safety with a sense of urgency, you must think about what you say and how you say it. Once again, we must strike a balance between being perceived as overreacting or indifferent. Our message needs to reflect recognition when things are moving in a positive direction and when people practice good safety. At the same time, we want to be cautious, so people don’t believe things are fine the way they are.
For instance, if a company suffered ten accidents last year and only six this year, the improvement would be easily praised. You can simply commend everyone for this progress. Perhaps your purpose to distinguish the individuals for their achievement is to encourage them to continue developing safety ideals. However, this may unwarily lead to relaxed reflexes, workers feel that everything is fine. This is a dangerous situation because people are likely to resume unnecessary risk and nosedive into familiar bad patterns.
The idea of risk compensation is that people tend to gauge their own safety level and act accordingly. If they feel that they are safe, they are less likely to guard themselves. Nevertheless, if they feel the circumstances are less safe, they act more cautiously. Have you ever seen someone use a smartphone to text while moving in the crosswalk? The person would never do that if there wasn’t a traffic device that it was safe to walk. The reason that the person takes such a chance without looking is because she or he feels safe. Obviously, it is completely a false sense of security. How many drivers have we observed disobeying red lights?
Likewise, if our messaging concentrates on the great safety strides made and causes workers to consider that they are doing well in safety, they are more apt to engage in perilous work behaviors. I’m not saying that we should not applaud people for implementing safety protocol; we should. However, our tone should resonate the necessity of everyone’s sense of urgency.
We can state that we are pleased to announce that some improvement has been made. However, in the past year six human beings were likely unnecessarily injured: six of our colleagues, six of our coworkers. What is your acceptable number of injured family members each day? That number is probably zero. Therefore, although it is vital to appreciate a 40 percent improvement, it is imperative that no other worker suffer harm. I can fathom nothing worse than to explain why someone’s family member was injured on our watch. Such a statement is emotional, heartfelt, and acknowledges growth. Yet, it demonstrates the task at hand to maintain a sense of urgency. In our attempt to create and maintain a sense of urgency within our safety culture, ponder over what and how you say things. The next blog will reflect on how we measure and report unsafe conditions to preserve a sense of urgency.
