How to Join the Safety Culture Movement: Part 7
Review and Repeat the Process
The final tip in our “Join the Safety Culture Movement” series is to review and repeat all other steps detailed in this series. It’s a simple but integral part of the process. The pursuit of greatness has no point of arrival or final destination and those who seek out places to rest idle will not find the outcomes we all desire.
Continuous improvement can, at times, seem like a thankless endeavour. However, this high standard is most certainly recognized. Much the same as a person’s personal professionalism – they commit to a specific manner of decorum, and when it is stringently honoured, it garners serious respect. And, just like people are drawn to that ardent professional, so, too, will they be to organizations that continually prove their ego is checked and their sole obsession is improvement.
Bravado and hubris are not traits you want attributed to your organization. Sure, be proud of your team’s accomplishments – but within reason. Don’t let your pride become you. Instead, transition those accomplishments into further improvement and success. Every win is just another stepping stone to more of the same – if you allow it to be.
Mind the potential for complacency to set in when you enjoy success. All too often, organizations fail to continue embodying the same beliefs, attitudes and practices that resulted in their success and prestige.
The most impactful way to ensure your Safety Culture is setting the pace of best practice and that your workforce is keeping those elements which resulted in your organization’s success top of mind is to continually review your process for implementation. Don’t lean on the trusted method. Always be critical of it. Doing this allows your people to push the boundaries of their Safety Culture and identify areas that can strengthen its resolve. And, in the off-chance that few areas are identified for revision, at the very least, by being critical of the Safety Culture implementation process, your people have thought deeply about what it means to have a strong Safety Culture and why it’s important – thus, revalidating and solidifying the ideals it imparts.
After repeating the steps in this series a few times, it no longer can be referred to as a repetitious exercise. It will just become the way things are done – a facet of your organizations engrained identity. You’ll wonder how you ever got a good night’s sleep prior to ensuring your Safety Culture was strong, responsive, adaptive, and continuously improving.
Along the path toward whatever our goals are, we must always remember the belief and the reason why we do everything within our power to ensure a strong Safety Culture – everyone wants to go to work, do their job well and get home safe. If we truly accept this belief and are willing to support it, we’re already half way there.
Let’s empower all our training, safety systems and, most importantly, our people by setting the precedent for a strong Safety Culture. We must all join this movement to realize its vision. Every society, economy, industry, organization, worker and their loved ones depends on it.
There are many ways to measure an organization’s success. In our books, the best method is the presence of a smile on a child’s face when their parent walks through the front door at the end of the day.
To read this entire series, click on the links below:
