Often, in an organisation, so much energy goes into being legally compliant that one hopes the practice will follow. Surprise: it hardly ever does. And certainly not by itself.
How can you make a substantial change, even in more challenging situations? How can you make security a "want" rather than a "need" without making a drastic change? How do you take people with you into a world of conscious safe behaviour?
Successfully leading the way
As an internal prevention advisor or manager, you take the lead in ensuring the safety and health of your colleagues. You coordinate safety plans and take measures according to their well-being. But how do you ensure that your colleagues also accept your plans and follow them?
Your success here depends to a large extent on the acceptance and motivation of those you work with.
Below, we highlight a number of decisive but above all conscious choices. Choices that, according to Seekurico, can make the lasting difference you strive for. We implement them at, but especially together with our clients.
1. Defining the safety culture: where do you aim to go?
Start at the beginning. What does a real safety culture mean to you?
You want to change behaviour permanently, so you must first clearly define what the desired behaviour is. If you don't do this, you won't be able to judge afterwards where your employees stand.
To do this, bring together the people who play a key role in improving safe behaviour. Ask them the basic question that leads to the final definition: "What is our desired safe behaviour?"
Do not forget anyone in this phase. For example, also address the informal leaders within a team. People who have prestige, without fulfilling a leading position.
Try to find the common thread in all the input and phrase it positively. You will probably hear something along these lines:
- everyone should be able to report safety problems and suggestions
- managers take these reports seriously without exception
- people are encouraged (and not judged) to report incidents
- the whole organisation takes safety for granted (and so it is not an obligation)
It is crucial that you start working in a positive way and thus start from what is already good. Keep this in mind at all times, because this positive attitude is the basis of your growth mindset.
Do you experience that the current company culture is stuck in a fixed mindset? (e.g. only reporting when things go wrong and preferably not doing so because reports are not well received) Then that's a good focus point to start with.
2. Know where you stand: this is how behaviour works
Good to know
There are different types of behaviour.
Observable behaviour consists of all actions that can actually be seen, such as walking or talking, but also coughing.
Then there is unconscious behaviour, driven by the reflexes. This is also the so-called spontaneous behaviour, for example when someone panics or starts crying.
There is also inner behaviour which is not always observable. For example, when someone is thinking, he or she exhibits inner behaviour. Both heredity (nature) and environment (nurture) influence our behaviour. Some even state that all behaviour is learned, giving the environment a determining power. (www.ensie.nl)
The latter means that if you succeed in changing something in the environment, your behaviour will change too. Super important.
3. Changing the environment without drastic interventions
By "environment" we do not mean the physical location where you can put up posters or apply new markings, but the human environment.
In other words, consciously dealing positively with your colleagues.
This will undeniably help you do so:
- lead by example
Leadership is a very powerful motivator and is the resonsability of everyone in a key position. Einstein once said: "Example isn't another way to teach, it is the only way".
In practice, we don't always see that happen, but how do you convey a safe attitude if you don't take it seriously yourself?
If managers do not wear their PPE because they are "only there for a short time"? Or do not remind others of certain safety measures "because that takes too much time and would jeopardise the planning"?
By doing so, you teach people that in your company rules do not apply to certain people or in certain situations and that shortcuts do no harm.
Whereas in the world of safety there is no hierarchy: something can go wrong at any time and with anyone.
Leadership can also be observed, for example, in how you motivate people to keep working safely in more difficult conditions, such as extreme heat, where gloves and protective clothing make people sweat even more. So why not take short breaks more often and provide cool drinks or even ice creams?
Join in the search for appropriate solutions and don't shut yourself away in your air-conditioned, cool office.
- extract the knowledge where it lies and seek the deeper layer
Because imposing rules bluntly or without consultation is generally counterproductive, it is better to start from the knowledge and experience of your employees. So turn the process around when you want to avoid resistance. This will give you the right basis to get people on board in the long term.
To do this, you need to talk to them and ask them more detailed questions: where are the bottlenecks and how would they tackle them? Don't jump on quick fixes that often only help temporarily. Go to the heart of the matter and tackle that. Such self-initiated measures have a greater acceptance than imposed ones.
Unique opportunities for this can be found in situations where a mistake or mistakes were made. Don't conclude too quickly whose "fault" it is, but ask more deeply: why was this human error made?
Who knows, maybe the person in question was put in a position by the organization that made it almost impossible for him/her to make a mistake? Something that we at Seekurico discover more often in the root cause analysis of industrial accidents...
Unieke kansen hiervoor vind je in situaties waarin een fout/fouten gemaakt werden. Concludeer niet te snel wiens “schuld” het is, maar vraag door: waarom is deze menselijke fout gemaakt?
Wie weet, is de persoon in kwestie door de organisatie wel in de positie gebracht waardoor hij/zij bijna niet anders kon dan in de fout te gaan? Iets wat we bij Seekurico trouwens vaker ontdekken in de root cause analyse van arbeidsongevallen…
In that case, keep asking until you don't get any new answers, for example with the "5 times why" technique. With this method, the Japanese Sakichi Toyoda wanted to avoid relying on known causes (e.g. lack of time, money or personnel). The repetition of the why-question forces people to cite all possible causes and not to stop at a first cause without exploring other levels. This keeps you alert to all factors.
Keep asking questions long enough and listen without judging and you will get a much better view of the practice.
- take all input seriously...
Show what you do with the input of those conversations. This also shows your appreciation. If you hear ideas that cannot be realised immediately, give feedback to the employee and explain why. If you forget that, then the employee will give up on solution-oriented thinking.
Why not include structural feedback in your toolbox talks? And appropriate and positive appreciation help to change behaviour positively and yield even more creative contributions in the future.
Reward rules that are at the same time practical and maybe even make the work easy with the most plusses. The trick is to turn the obstructive nature of rules around and make safety commonplace.
Here you will find practical tips to get more out of your toolboxes. Something that can be perfectly combined with humour, by the way... People are much more likely to come to positive meetings than to be merely told what to do.
- ... while building a positive reporting culture
When people see that their contributions make a difference, their fear of reporting something wrong also diminishes.
An important cause of a negative safety culture is the reporting culture. Reporting unsafe situations, incidents and accidents goes hand in hand with making suggestions for improvement.
There is enormous power in creating a positive reporting culture.
The basis is to make people feel safe and confident to report incidents such as accidents and near misses or situations where there is a sense of uncertainty.
Always receive reports positively. This is not the same as minimizing the fact or laughing at it. Show that the report contributes to a greater goal: reducing accidents with serious injuries. Thank the reporter and ask questions without judging.
Since people are very susceptible to positive reinforcement, chances are that you will very quickly be approached by a colleague who also wants to contribute or report something. Some companies even give awards for the most useful contributions or include them in the company magazine.
For example, you might also put a team in the spotlight because they have completed a project safely rather than within the allotted time.
This form of rewarding with attention works even better than bonuses that sometimes cause envy and thus create a negative aura around safety.
- look in the mirror once in a while
Not to see if your hair is still in place after wearing your safety helmet, but to take a critical look at your own approach. It is quite normal for someone to develop professional blindness to their own situation over time. Not being able to see the forest for the trees, that's what it is.
Bringing in an external party who looks at the organization objectively can be very valuable. Someone with a fresh view will give you an insight into turbid situations or unhelpful patterns and at the same time bring to light insights for improvement.
Above all, choose a partner that fits your organization and objectives, but also yourself. Look for references and relevant knowledge in your sector. The main thing is that this potential partner agrees with the desired culture of your company.
Find the mirror that fits you
Perhaps you yourself have not had a very pleasant experience with external audits or you were left hanging after the auditors had passed. We often hear this when we first visit a business.
There is another way. Why we think this is so important and how we go about it can be found here. What people like Piotr say about our approach is why we do it time and again.