Achieving sustainable improvements in safety performance often requires a change in the way an organization approaches and thinks about safety. . . a paradigm shift. While moving from a comfort zone can be intimidating, considering three important building blocks can help you make the shift successfully: Perception, system and values.

1. Perception: Responsibility, Teamwork and Ownership

Safety performance requirements are all too often viewed as a necessary evil driven by the risk of liability under regulatory standards from agencies such as OSHA and DOT (Editor's Note: The U.S. Department of Transportation). These requirements should be viewed as organizationally (and individually) directed responsibilities that benefit all parties.

Perceptions are important because working to achieve one's own safety goals is much more motivating than attempting to satisfy the requirements established by some outside regulatory agency. In addition, when employees function as a team to achieve targeted results and self-imposed objectives the working environment is far more positive than it is when individuals see their efforts as an attempt to avoid negative consequences, such as fines, penalties, injuries and safety-related incidents.

As organizations move from a failure-avoidance to an achievement-oriented mindset, employees will have greater involvement in the safety management process and a greater sense of ownership in it. Management's role in this shift is to provide visible support, facilitate the process, empower the workforce and lead by example, versus attempting to drive or control the process and set requirements from the top.

2. The Safety System Process

To succeed, a safety management improvement process must address all three fundamental elements of the safety management triangle:

• Work Environment:This includes equipment, housekeeping and engineered systems;
• People:The knowledge, skills, abilities, values and attitudes of the people in the workplace; and
• Behaviors:This encompasses the performance of assignments, observations, communications, etc.

Safety programs are a key component of the process. Programs add significant value by providing for targeted activities that are designed to support and refresh the process and its objectives.

However, safety programs should not be viewed as the process in its entirety. If the system and the process become ends in themselves, employees and line managers lose sight of the vision and long term mission and what you end up with is a piecemeal approach to safety results, the weakening of commitment and, ultimately, the thwarting of progress.

Accountability is the most critical aspect of the safety improvement process. An accountability system needs to be in place for employees and all levels of line management. The role of the system is to define roles and responsibilities, goals and objectives, targeted activities, measurements for progress and success, reporting mechanisms, assessment methods and consequences for results (both positive and negative).

Effective management of the safety improvement process cannot occur without measurement. Methods can and should be developed to gauge organizational progress for each of the process elements. Goals and objectives, both activity-based and results-oriented, need to be objectively assessed. Line management must be held accountable for the achievement of goals. And, most importantly, success should be recognized and celebrated.

3. Value vs. Priority

We hear organizations state that "safety is our #1 priority." But what does that really mean? Of course, all companies want their workers to be safe and healthy. But priorities shift as urgencies change. What doesn't shift in the face of changing circumstances are values, that is, a group or individual's accepted principles and standards.

Thus, to sustain improvements and achieve lasting results, the organization must make safety not just a priority but a core value. Turning safety into a core value is not easy. Literally hundreds of books have been written on this subject and it's clearly beyond the scope of this article to offer a solution. Still, what I can do is give you as safety professionals a sense of the stakes involved in championing the effort to make your organizations embrace safety as a value.

Conclusion

As in most endeavors, patience is a virtue in safety management. There are no quick fixes. The essence of success in safety is continuous improvement. This does not mean 100% progress or the absence of setbacks along the way. Continuous progress is often a lot like the Texas Two-Step: two steps forward and one step back.

And, if you want to make those two steps forward, you'll need to display the "3 C's" of organizational or cultural change:

• Champions to lead and manage the change process;
• Commitment to and a sense of ownership in the process; and
• Consistency in actions and words.

MEMBER REPLY
Systems Management & Safety

We received the following note in response to Wayne Pardy's recent series on safety systems management:

Systems Management was a buzz word in late 60's (like 6 Sigma is of late) with things like 'black holes', etc. But it disappeared from the radar in ensuing years because of all the other 'new' management techniques. I was in College of Business at the University of Iowa when Systems was made a required part of a business management major. All that said, I have to admit to not recalling seeing anyone applying it to safety. But like Behavioral Based Safety, sometimes it's old ideas in new clothes.

Gerald Edgar

MANAGEMENT-SPEAK

A Glossary of Business Management Terms

By Glenn Demby

I don't know about you, but I get pretty insecure when safety professionals bandy about terms like "6 Sigma," "TQM," "lean manufacturing" and "continuous improvement." Sure, I've heard the terms; but I confess to not knowing what they mean. In case any of you out there are like me, here's a glossary that might help.

Balanced Scorecard: A means of supporting the effective performance management of an organization by focusing not only on financial targets but on the internal processes, customers and learning and growth issues.

Continuous Improvement: The ongoing process/philosophy of doing things better, faster and cheaper, either in dramatic leaps or, in most cases, gradually. In the 6 Sigma context, continuous improvement is often referred to by the Japanese term Kaizen.

ISO 9000: Refers to International Standards Organization ISO 9001-2000, which is primarily concerned with "quality management," i.e., what an organization does to fulfill:

• The customer's minimum quality requirements;
• Regulatory standards;
• The need to deliver continuously enhanced customer satisfaction;  and
• The need to achieve continual improvement of its operational performance.

Lean Manufacturing (Lean Production): A manufacturing/production system that's designed to eliminate waste from all activities and operations. Lean strives to produce products On-Time, using as few resources as possible, better, faster and cheaper than competitors.

PDCA Cycle: Plan, Do, Check, Adjust. A dynamic involving the interaction of the various aspects of an organization's operations for an integrated and shared quality improvement goal.

6 Sigma: A scientifically rigorous discipline that strives to achieve perfection in quality of processes within an organization. The goal is to achieve no more than 3.4 defects per million opportunities for each product or service transaction.

TPM (Total Productive Maintenance): TPM is an equipment maintenance system that proactively addresses maintenance issues before they become major problems and cause equipment downtime.

Total Quality Management (TQM): A Quality Control System that is built into the manufacturing process and which focuses on fixing quality issues before they get passed on down the line for further processing.

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