Leading Safety in a Global Recession

Volume 5 Issue 2
As all Subscribers shall
APRIL 2009
be aware by now, on Oc-
tober 31st 2009 I was
riding my bicycle to work
when I was struck from
behind by a motor vehi-
cle. Twenty four plus
(24+) fractures later and a
Titanium shoulder has
been a bit of a shock. As
a result I have been “off
the tools” now for six (6)
months. In that time the
world has turned.
Whilst many politicians in
different countries have
done all they can to avoid
using the R word
(recession), those of us at
the pointy end have seen
things deteriorating for
some time. The purpose
of this discussion is to
TRANSFORMATIONALSAFETY.COM
“order book”, and income
streams, for many busi-
nesses are taking un-
precedented hits. It
stands to reason that
there must be a response,
or the business shall fail.
We have already seen
some very well known
businesses throughout
the world fall over. Many
of these were thought to
be bastions of their mar-
ket space. Clearly not!
My concern here though
is strategies to determine
where to carve up busi-
ness expenses are very
poorly defined. What we
are seeing is sector man-
agers being told “you
need to reduce your costs
geoning unemployment,
and that is always sad!
Not an easy place to be
for anyone! The “correct”
people are not always
retrenched by the way.
Not when the bias for
decision making is cost-
cutting; rather than opera-
tional need.
Another area that is tak-
ing a huge hit appears to
be anything to do with
“training and develop-
ment”. Not all that surpris-
ing, it is so easy! Unfortu-
nately it similarly demon-
strates a sizable lack of
vision for what is required
in harsh times!
There are some big busi-
nesses taking this path.

by 15%” etc. There is Such short sighted deci-

explore some of the likely
impacts of the current
situation on safe work-
place behaviours.
The most immediate im-
pact is going to be rapid
retraction of spending
within all aspects of busi-
ness operations. That is
to be expected. The
rarely any science associ-
ated with these “cuts”.
What I am hearing is that
some sector managers
are telling their direct re-
ports to cut by 20% etc. In
other words they are try-
ing to build “fat” into the
cuts.
This is resulting in bur-
sion making continues to
reinforce, to me anyway,
the lack of relationship
between the number on
the boot/trunk of the
BMW and the leadership
acumen of the driver.
Why do I offer such a
provocative comment?
Here’s Why!
(Continued on page 3)

Common Sense: Is there any such thing in Safety?

What a debate!
TransformationalSafety.Com
maintains a presence within
many of the global safety
networks. One of those is
the ListServ maintained by
the University of Vermont.
This is a safety community of
several thousand, from all
corners of the globe. There
are some serious safety pro-
fessionals who lurk around
this ListServ. If you are not
part of the ListServ con-
sider joining. Anyway one
of the most intriguing dis-
cussions for some time has
been around the question
of “common sense” and its
application to workplace
health & safety. There is
some very thought provok-
ing stuff here so I have
decided to share some of
that material with Trans-
forming Safety subscribers.
For the purposes of pri-
vacy I have removed the
authors reference from
these thoughts. If you find
your own comments here
I express my own thanks
to all who take the time to
add value to the safety
journey of we all who live
within this “safety world”.
(Continued on page 2)

Inside this issue:

Leading Safety in a Global Recession
Common Sense: is there any such thing in Safety
David G Broadbent’s road to recovery
On the tools again!
Special points of interest:
1  Read how David is travelling after his near-
fatal accident on 31st October last year
 Common-sense is dangerous. Read the
1
“thoughts” of some leading safety guys.
 Come on a brief journey of pain and recovery
9 with David G Broadbent
 David is presenting the Keynote Addresses at
the Safety Institute of Australia Conferences
11 in Brisbane and Sydney (Australia) for 2009
Common Sense: Is there any such thing in Safety? (cont)
(Continued from page 1)
I think those who state there is no such
thing as common sense are continuing the
pattern of making excuses for people.
Granted, you take someone out of the jun-
gle and they probably will not know what a
toilet is or how to use it. But for the majority
of us, with similar social, cultural back-
grounds we do have a common sense.
Remember those things we learned in kin-
dergarten?
For a long time, educators have told stu-
dents not to pre-judge anyone.
That the outside appearance may not re-
flect the inner person. To avoid stereo-
types. Then several years ago, there was
an article in a Psychological Journal stating
we should listen to our "gut feelings" or
"first impressions." That this warning sys-
tem goes back to the old days of our first
encounter with a tyrannosaurus and our
urge to run from it.
That it is instinctual and a form of self de-
fense.
Yes, some things must be learned. But I
will bet, that with the exception of those
who cannot feel, that the majority of us over
18 years of age, including that person fresh
out of the jungle, all know that a hot surface
will burn. Or if you hit your hand with a
hammer it is going to hurt. Or that standing
in front of a moving object will ultimately
hurt when it hits you.
To deny common sense is to imply that we
all have to be told everything by someone
smarter. Give us a little credit. There are
basic instinctual things that we all have and
basic things that we all learn as we grow up
that give us a common understanding, a
commonality, a common sense.
To deny common sense is to deny our
common humanity. (Ooooooo! That
sounds good!!).
Don't get me wrong in my first statement.
Yes, of course, we still have a responsibility
to educate and demonstrate information--to
continue to teach workers how to do things
correctly and safely. But, the basis of eve-
rything we teach is an assumption of a
fundamental understanding, a common
sense.
My two cents. Common, everyone, it is
common sense.
Nice try...name one thing you know without
learning it. Wait, if it's so common this
sense you speak of feel free to make a
LONG list of all those common sense
things we all know.
By the way, if a wood duck is hatched in a
T Rex den it will imprint on it as its
Mother...until it gets eaten by Mom! So I
guess even T Rex's aren't on your list as
those things we should ALL know. We learn
our sense of danger and what is safe by
watching. It's a learned behaviour which
VOLUME 5 ISSUE 2
things are good and which things are bad.
If human beings know things by instinct --
and it's reasonable to suppose we might,
as animals generally do -- it's experimen-
tally difficult to prove. The suckling action
would seem to be a prime candidate, but
somehow my distant memory is that it was-
n't universally agreed even that suckling is
instinct.
For present purposes, it matters not a
whit. Common sense would include any
instinctual knowledge, but primarily it refers
to the vast body of knowledge that we learn
just from the experience of living in the
world and which does not require any sort
of training as such. It would not be difficult
at all to compile a long list, but it would take
time. And if you can't see it for yourself,
nobody owes it to you to compile a
list. Nobody in fact teaches us to walk or
talk, though an adult may hold us in a walk-
ing position and support us as we learn the
skill. Or not. We walk the same way in
either case. And once we do, we know that
we must keep our legs underneath us while
walking, if we wish to continue walking.
And as we gain size and weight, we learn
that it's quite uncomfortable and unpleasant
to hit the floor or the ground in a fall. Very
early in that process, we learn that falling a
greater distance to the floor or ground,
hurts more.
We learn that colliding with an object very
rapidly is very unpleasant, and we soon
build on that knowledge to an understand-
ing that there's a limit beyond which we
don't want to go.
We learn that we can see something better
by getting closer to it. We learn that we can
grip an object with a hand, then that we can
sequentially grip and pull and then very
soon we know how to climb. The scope of
common sense is very broad, far broader
than the scope of what any of us have
learned through training.
I wanted to wait and let this conversation
die, hoping I wouldn't be tempted to put my
two cents' worth in, but here goes.
Those of us who have been around a while
have possibly been exposed to the concept
of "informed consent" - when a surgeon or
other medical practitioner offers a patient a
mini-educational seminar about alternative
treatments, for some or all of which com-
mon sense alone is not an adequate judge.
Just as the human body's liver does not
have an enzyme in its template library to
digest chlorinated biphenyls, the naive
human does not have in his/her library of
innate "common sense" any behaviors to
deal properly with ionizing radiation, shock-
sensitive explosives, invisible fan blades,
any number of chronic and acute hazards
of chemicals or other hazards never before
experienced or even heard of. I have used
the term "informed common sense" or
"educated common sense" for these situa-
tions where native "common sense" is not
enough.
Where I work, we sometimes hire city kids
fresh out of college, expecting them to
somehow intuitively know how to drive a
four-wheel drive vehicle in the mud, or
launch a boat off a trailer into a raging river,
or gather biological or chemical samples in
some unique environments - and then we
express surprise when they fail, sometimes
spectacularly. Common sense fails them
because they are ignorant (and I really do
mean that in the nice way). And whose
fault is that?
I have read a number of these posts and I
saw a few that touched on this, but I am not
sure it was said very plain.
It is not common sense versus training or
learned behavior. Rather, it is a complex
relationship of these with a risk/reward
profile and other factors.
Common sense can be overcome by train-
ing and rewards. I believe the individuals
that built the first skyscrapers are proof of
this.
For many of the complex tasks that we do,
we rely on our common sense and training
and understand that there are risks and
rewards for our actions.
Many of us exceed the speed limit when
we drive. Why? There is a common un-
derstanding that increased speed equals
increased risk to ourselves and others.
However, we have learned through re-
peated events that we can handle the ex-
cess speed without "too much risk" to our-
selves and others. And maybe the reward
of saving a few minutes is worth the added
risk.
Some of us do not exceed the speed limit
when we drive. Why? We have the same
understanding that increased speed equals
increased risk to ourselves and others.
However, our experiences may have taught
us that the risks are "too high." And the
reward of saving a few minutes is not worth
the added risk.
The bottom line for me is that this is a com-
plex relationship of common sense, train-
ing, risk, rewards, and many other factors.
To argue one factor versus another in any
given situation would be blinding yourself to
the full story.
At the risk of starting yet another string
(then again, what risk? this is all about
discussion and exchange, right??), here's a
thought on the common sense question. I
skimmed over a few of the messages in the
last string, avoiding the detail (it's easy to
see there are two strong sides to the issue
without reading all the dirty details).
So here's my nickel's worth (yeah, I think
it's worth more than two-cents :)
Consider this: would you think that it is
(Continued on page 6)
Page 2
Leading Safety in a Global Recession (cont.)
(Continued from page 1)
If your business is going through a
tough time, as we all are at the mo-
ment, and you are forced to signifi-
cantly reduce your workforce; what
shall your remaining workforce be
doing. The evidence is suggesting
that the majority of businesses are
continuing to try and “produce” at
the same or a marginally less rate.
By reducing the “costs” they are
reducing the “unit cost”, which may
or may not allow them to reduce the
sale cost; whilst still maintaining
margin. This is all well and good.
Where though does the primary sys-
tem pressure fall? Not on the
mechanistic processes generally, as
they appear to be operating at about
the same, or slightly less rates. It is
clearly placed upon the human ele-
ments within the equation.
The above observations have a sig-
nificant impact upon the likely safety
outcomes that shall begin to be
seen.
For a start, people are not silly. They
know they are working within opera-
tions under pressure. Many have
seen friends and colleagues, of
many years, find themselves without
employment. They may already be
vicariously experiencing some of the
very real impacts of these outcomes.
Watching, from the sidelines, they
see kids not able to play their sports,
houses going on the market
(sometimes repossessed), once
seemingly strong relationships fail,
and in rare cases suicide. Make no
mistake these are some of the very
real outcomes from the corporate
need to adjust operations, in the
current climate.
So what shall your people do if they
are required to operate in a stressed
work environment. Remember, they
can see the downside of being “out
the door”. It stands to reason that
the psycho-behavioural response is
likely to follow one of two (2) paths.
Firstly there shall be the “head down
and hide” approach. These are “The
Hiders”. There shall be people who
believe that if they just get on with
things and do not “rock the boat”
then they shall survive. If things be-
come evident that might bring them
into the “light” they shall invariably
obfuscate, dodge, and make them-
VOLUME 5 ISSUE 2
selves scarce.
They do not
want to do any-
thing to be
“seen”. They
believe that in
the current
climate being
seen is tanta-
mount to show-
ing yourself to
the next round of lay-offs. They may
well allow processes to continue that
are unsafe because correcting them
would require “identification” and
might label them as a “problem”. In
extreme cases they will disappear
and go and do something else.
The second broad category of re-
sponse has been labelled “The Pro-
ducers”. These bods think they
know what the “bosses” want, and
they are the ones to deliver. They
shall make themself appear to be
highly productive and the worth of
two of their peers. When the tough
decisions have to be made they be-
lieve they shall be retained because
of the amount that they are able to
produce. What is scary here is what
these people are willing to do in or-
der to be seen as a “Producer”.
Shortcuts are one of the most insidi-
ous things that occur in our work-
places and they occur at every level.
Producers shall model there own
decision-making based upon what
they deem to be acceptable to the
business. They are prone toward the
shortcut as it seemingly allows for a
more efficient outcome. If the Pro-
ducers' shortcut is identified they are
likely to be disciplined. Occupational
shortcuts are often dangerous
things, and there always needs to
be an appropriate organisational
response.
Consider this though! Some of the
worlds largest companies have re-
cently implemented global bans on
various forms of “spending”. Many
companies have cancelled all train-
ing (other than regulatory required—
or at least that's what their suppliers
have been told), others have imple-
mented global travel bans, some
others have implemented global
delays on all CAPEX spending
above a certain amount.
Can you see an issue here? Where
is the basis for these decisions?
Where is the risk-based decision
making evidenced? On the one
hand, the organisation is forever
asking their people to apply their
mind in a risk based approach to all
tasks they perform at the pointy end
of the operation. Which is appropri-
ate, by the way. On the other hand,
what is their current experience.
When the going gets tough though,
what they see is the leaders in the
organisation doing exactly the oppo-
site of what they are expected to do.
They experience the business taking
all sorts of corporate shortcuts,
which directly effect their ability to
perform their own work.
To place a ban on all travel demon-
strates a knee-jerk reaction to an
unexpected event. This style of re-
sponse does not take into account
the individual requirements that may
be associated with that travel, the
context in which it may have been
required etc. What it shows, very
loudly, is a willingness on the part of
the business to apply a very simplis-
tic linear method of thinking, to a
very complex process.
The next time they are confronted
with a challenge, why not take some
form of shortcut. After all, that's what
they are experiencing within the cur-
rent culture of the business.
Of equal concern are the global
bans on training and development.
Organisations hopefully are provid-
ing at least minimum standards of
training (often determined by regu-
(Continued on page 4)
Page 3
Leading Safety in a Global Recession (cont.)
(Continued from page 3)
larity authorities), although we
know that quite a few are not
even maintaining that level. This
should be very frightening!
What we are seeing is the human
elements of the operational proc-
ess being required to operate
under greater strain. This alone
shall increase the likelihood of
higher error rates. When we then
remove the supplementary sup-
port that is available to support
those human elements, we find
significant failure events increas-
ing. It is therefore a highly dan-
gerous position to take when one
“assumes” that training and devel-
opment are “optional extras”. Of
course, in times of financial crisis,
there are programs that might be
considered the “cream on the
cake”. It would be unreasonable
to suggest that we should be
maintaining those in the wake of
what our organisations are cur-
rently confronting. Such would be
irresponsible in the extreme, and
result in far greater numbers of
employees finding themselves
without safe and meaningful work.
Having said the majority of or-
ganisations, who would appear to
be applying these generic training
and development bans, are not
spending any time identifying
what is the “cream”. It's “training”;
so we can do without that.
Here’s the dilemma. As the stress
and strain on human beings in-
creases, the level of support, en-
couragement, and other elements
increases. This observation is
actually not rocket science. If you
consider different periods within
your own life, you shall quickly
draw similar conclusions.
Training and development pro-
grams, properly targeted and im-
plemented by appropriately quali-
fied and professional service pro-
viders, have the advantage of
providing that level of support
within times of intense “strain”.
They also act as buffer toward
error and add a level of
“continuation” and “normalisation”
to the remaining workforce.
Again I shall make the point that
the provision of training, particu-
larly safety related training, pro-
VOLUME 5 ISSUE 2
vided to reach minimum standards
defined by the regulators, is critically
dangerous. This is a difficult enough
issue at the best of times. When we
are confronting the worst of times (in
many peoples memory) it becomes
even more tragic.
There is little doubt in my mind that
our workplaces are currently con-
fronting some of the most significant
challenges for many a year. This is
made all the more so by somewhat
ineffective safety leadership. The
damage that the current circum-
stances, and particularly organisa-
tional responses to it, shall likely
impart to underlying safety cultures
could be highly hazardous. This
damage may well be longstanding.
Let me present this situation from a
slightly different perspective.
There are many businesses around
the world who have embraced an
approach to safety which has be-
come known as Behavioural Based
Safety (BBS). Whilst BBS is a highly
simplistic approach to safety man-
agement, it has shown itself to have
merit and value within many opera-
tions. The BBS approach is ex-
tremely heavily focused upon worker
performance, employee observation
and error rates. In short BBS pretty
much places little emphasis upon
the internationally recognized Hier-
archy of Control, and sees the be-
haviour of the individual worker as
the key element within all accident
causation. The DuPont organisation
is on record as suggesting that ap-
proximately 98% of accidents are a
consequence of human error. Many
safety professionals find such an
absolute statement irresponsible
and misleading. Nonetheless it re-
mains attractive to business leaders
as it “appears” to minimise the com-
plexities of the workplace to “errors
made by workers”. Long time sub-
scribers to Transforming Safety shall
well be aware that Transformational-
Safety.Com does not subscribe to
that view. For the purposes of this
exploration though let us assume
that the “employee” is the single
biggest contributor to accident cau-
sation within your workplace (you
don’t know how hard it was for me to
say that!). That being the case, then
anything that is done, or indeed not
done, within the business that is likely
to affect the performance of
“employees” within this equation, is
only going to directly impact on the
accidents occurring within your work-
place. The same may be said with
reference to quality errors and all
sorts of other performance metrics
(where the employee is involved).
It is clear that as a business leader
who is genuinely concerned about
achieving a “zero injury” workplace;
you cannot achieve that aspirational
goal whilst you are applying generic
cost control measures to a very com-
plex organisational process. There
can be no doubt that many busi-
nesses are confronting challenges
around credibility, far exceeding those
that existed anyway. The single big-
gest error that businesses make is
purporting to locate “Safety” as their
“No 1 Priority”. My issue with this sort
of approach is that everybody knows
that “priorities change dependant
upon this circumstances and context
within which they find themselves
competing”. When we conduct Trans-
formational Safety Culture Reviews
we regularly hear this observation. At
the present time the actions that are
consistently being demonstrated by
the majority of business leaders have
clearly demonstrated that “workplace
safety” has slipped within their priori-
ties. Using the argument that
“employees are the key contributor to
accident causation”, then it is clear
that investment in employee related
safety programs should actually in-
crease during times of “strain” not
decrease as is being practiced
Other powerful examples of this en-
veloping situation surround the World
Engineering Congress held in Bang-
kok, Thailand. I was asked to conduct
a Transformational Safety Leadership
Workshop at that forum, billed as the
largest single meeting of Engineers
anywhere in the World (that in itself is
a frightening thought). Flyers were
printed, flights booked, etc., when we
were advised that the Congress had
been cancelled. Further investigation
determined that the Congress had
indeed not been cancelled. The
“workplace safety” component of the
Congress had been cancelled. Not
because there were not good speak-
ers; the speaker list read like a “who’s
(Continued on page 5)
Page 4
Leading
Leading Safety
Safety in
in a
a Global
Global Recession
Recession (cont.)
(cont.)
(Continued from page 4)
who” in the world of occupational
health and safety. The primary rea-
son was that businesses were un-
willing/unable to send delegates to
attend the Safety Stream. I am sure
you are already ahead of me, all
other streams of the World Engi-
neering Congress were able to pro-
ceed.
Within Australia another leading or-
ganisation had an excellent pro-
gram. This was an annual forum
where all the businesses to whom
they contracted came together and
shared Best Practice with regard to
safety. That forum has been can-
celled. This is a common story.
A major petrochemical safety confer-
ence in Australia has, at this stage,
reduced their programme by half.
Some of the countries largest petro-
chemical producers have said they
shall not be sending delegates, or if
they do it shall be a minuscule con-
tingent.
The above are what we call
“lighthouse” events. They are the
beacons against which people gain
knowledge and best practice toward
improving safety in their workplaces.
When people see this happening at
the “lighthouse” level they certainly
know that things are not well at the
operational level.
What we are seeing, over and over
again, is that safety is not even tak-
ing a backseat at the moment; it is in
the trailer. Some companies are
actually forgetting safety is part of
the journey. What distresses me is
that these attitudes are going to con-
tribute to greater injures and fatali-
ties in our workplaces.
I have spent a lot of time this Edition
highlight the challenges being con-
fronted. As you can see they are
significant and have the potential to
damage an organisations culture for
years to come. So the key question
is what can be done to minimise the
impact of these events.
I have to acknowledge that our
safety programs are going to have to
take a “hit”. What we are compelled
to do though is ensure that the funds
that we have available are appropri-
ately targeted. That means organi-
sations are now in a place where it
is a corporate requirement to ensure
VOLUME 5 ISSUE 2
that what they are doing is based
upon sound “evidence based prac-
tice”. Anything less is irresponsible
toward their stakeholders and/or
shareholders. I am sorry to say that
a large amount of what is being pro-
moted has little “evidence” behind it.
Sadly there are significant numbers
of “safety consultants” who, in my
own view, spend much of their time
providing messages that their client
base wants to hear. This might be
good for business, and make people
“feel good”. It does not do a lot for
the real world of safety though.
So what evidence based interven-
tions can safety leaders pursue in a
time of extreme challenge, strain,
and turmoil?
Well we have acknowledged that
availability of resources has been
severely compromised. So, as sug-
gested above, we have to strategi-
cally target any intervention/s to pro-
vide maximum ROI. In short we
need to target the safety leadership
competencies of first and mid-level
supervision - senior leaders need to
be familiar with the constructs and
provide absolute support. I would
encourage all readers to review prior
Editions of Transforming Safety,
read the Conference Presentations
at www.transformationalsafety.com,
or just Google “safety leadership”
and “outcomes”. In other words do
some research, do not just take my
word for it.
What we know, from the peer re-
viewed safety journal databases, is
that consistent safety leadership has
the single biggest influence on the
variance associated with safety out-
comes than any other intervention.
The reason is that consistent safety
leadership has an experiential im-
pact at the “relationship” level, and
subsequently has a measurable
influence on all associated safety
interactions. In other words consis-
tent safety leadership is the glue
which holds all of these different
safety focused interventions to-
gether. By the way, did I mention
there is a huge amount of literature
that also shows a direct relationship
with productivity increases as well.
Now here's the kicker! Productivity
increases without the increased ex-
posure to injury rates. Why? Be-
cause the consistent safety leadership
acts as a “buffer” to that entropic ef-
fect, due to the positive relationship
effects. This is not “rocket science”
people. It is the application of “known”
psycho-behavioural experimental psy-
chology to the global safety commu-
nity.
Incidentally when we talk about con-
sistent safety leadership, we are talk-
ing about a very specific approach to
Safety Leadership. We are talking
about Transformational Safety® Lead-
ership (TSL). TSL has been devel-
oped around the worlds foremost out-
come oriented leadership model; spe-
cifically the approach taken by the late
Professor Bernie Bass and Professor
Bruce Avolio. That approach to trans-
formational leadership has become
known as the Full Range Leadership
Model (FRLM). TSL shares a syner-
gistic relationship with the FRLM, and
as such, is able to leverage much of
the research base relating behaviours
to outcomes.
In these particularly trying times the
value that consistently applying TSL
competencies to the various opera-
tions within the workplace is signifi-
cantly magnified. Indeed, with the
level of rationalisation that is currently
occurring, I would suggest that to do
anything other than integrate evidence
based safety leadership competencies
within operations is bordering upon
being irresponsible.
At this point I shall conclude by telling
a true story, that I suspect is far from
unique. A year or so ago I was asked
to give a presentation to a group of
senior leaders within a large nationally
recognised organisation. The nature
of the “song ‘n dance” was to be about
“leadership”. That was fortunate, I
happen to know more than a little bit
about that subject and the various
impacts it has upon business outcome
etc. Anyway after the introductions I
asked the room (12 very senior bods)
what approach or method of leader-
ship they each applied with their direct
reports. Would you believe we had a
few that did acknowledge using a stra-
tegic approach to leadership that they
picked up during studies (MBA etc) -
they happened to all be using structur-
ally different approaches by the way.
We also had a few that said they had
(Continued on page 6)
Page 5
Leading Safety in a Global Recession (cont.)
(Continued from page 5)
developed their own style. Then
there were others who suggested
they did what felt right at the time.
That one I call the “pinball” ap-
proach to leadership; entirely ran-
dom and confusing for direct re-
ports etc.
The point here is that the leaders of
the business did not apply any
strategy to how the business was
led. There were almost twelve (12)
different approaches to leadership,
all being seen to be coming from
the “engine room”. Such leads to
significant levels of confusion and
randomness within the business. It
is counter-productive to operations
at all levels. People within the busi-
ness, e.g. middle managers and
supervisors, model their own lead-
ership behaviours based upon what
they experience from their own
leaders.
This haphazard approach to struc-
tural leadership within the business
contributes to failures within quality
systems, decision making etc at all
levels. Direct reports make deci-
sions, not based upon sound princi-
ples; they make them based upon
how they think the “leader” is going
to react/respond. This then contrib-
utes to different decisions depend-
Common Sense: Is there any such thing in Safety? (cont)
(Continued from page 2)
"common sense" to leave a room that
is filled with the odor of propane?
(odorized, retail grade propane). If you
smelled propane in your workspace,
would you investigate the source? If
you discovered a continuous leak,
would you leave the space until the
leak was fixed? Would you consider it
"common sense" in the American cul-
ture (or any other developed country)
to leave that area until the problem
was corrected?
If you disagree that common sense is
a learned response , you might be
interested in this video.
http://www.chemsafety.gov/index.cfm?folder
=video_archive&page=index#
It was shown recently at a safety meet-
ing I attended, and my first thought
was "for anyone who thinks 'common
sense' is common, here's proof that it
isn't." That is, if you consider it
"common sense" to evacuate an area
filled with a stinky, flammable gas, then
what happened to these folks? Why
VOLUME 5 ISSUE 2
ant upon different leaders. People
work out who and how to deal with
different leadership. This then be-
comes a focus of attention, rather
than the sound forward momentum
of the business itself. We all know
this stuff happens! Businesses sur-
vive in spite of it. Imagine though,
how well a business could perform,
even now, if they actually confronted
these issues. If you would like to
read a study of some of these chal-
lenges read Jim Collins seminal
work “Good to Great”.
Having made those points it is abso-
lutely critical that organisations deal
with the cancer of entropic interac-
tion within their businesses. We
know that systems, if left unat-
tended, are prone toward system
failure. When we provide confusion
around leadership, we then add fur-
ther infection to the disease itself.
When it comes to safe operations
within the business, we find that
shortcuts are being taken, incorrect
decisions are being reached, etc
and the factors that contribute to
many of those outcomes can well
be, and often is, a failure of safety
leadership.
Therefore if you wish to lead safely
didn't they have the common sense to
evacuate? Because it's not as common as
you think...it really is a learned response.
It seems that most of this discussion, inter-
esting as it may be, has been about how
people acquire common sense and whether
common sense is critical to safety. So,
here's my two cents worth:
I do not want to fly in a plane, ride in an
automobile or take a cruise on a ship, etc.,
unless it and particularly its safety systems,
have been designed by highly trained and
educated engineers and craftspeople. Com-
mon sense is not good enough.
I don't want to work in research or produc-
tion utilizing hazardous chemicals or proc-
esses unless the project or system has
been designed by people who are techni-
cally trained and educated in the use of
those materials and processes. Plain old
common sense won't cut it for me. I want
the kind of technical expertise that my uncle
who managed to live through a lifetime of
jobs from logging to construction just does-
n't have. He has never even heard of tur-
within this period, when we know
system failures are going to be more
prevalent, you must consider apply-
ing consistent safety leadership to
your strategic armoury.
I recommend you take the time to
explore Transformational Safety
Leadership (TSL) as the model of
choice to achieve greater stability ,
consistency, and resilience within
your organisation.
Right now is the right time! Right
now is when organisations’ expo-
sures to injury and disaster scenar-
ios are actually increasing! Right
now is when organisations need to
be doing something to reduce the
likelihood of these things happening.
To just stop spending on safety,
training, and employee development
is NOT the way to lead a business
through the tough times. To just can-
cel ALL travel is not the way to lead
through the tough times.
To lead safety through the global
recession we must have leaders
who are going to consistently dem-
onstrate transformational safety
leadership competencies.
There are just so few!
bine blade fatigue cracking and certainly
would not know how to establish a blade
safety inspection procedure or replacement
criteria. Maybe we could put him in charge of
space shuttle safety?
I get paid presumably because I have some
technical expertise to offer, not to tell people
that sticking their hand on a red-hot surface
will result in a burn. And I don't expect people
to use their common sense to write lockout
procedures or set up a laboratory for a re-
search project. Common sense won't get you
through your first day in a whole lot of work-
places, including some where I have worked.
So, I guess I don't really care if people are
born with common sense or acquire it from
life's experience. From a safety perspective it
is irrelevant because it is not sufficient for
anything but the simplest of tasks with minimal
and obvious hazards. For the rest, I'll use job
hazard analysis by trained/educated people
and the usual hierarchy of hazard controls.
First ... dogs and barking. I was just home on
leave and we have Grandkids who live down
(Continued on page 7)
Page 6
Common Sense: Is there any such thing in Safety? (cont)
(Continued from page 6)
stairs with their parents. Sarah, not
quite age 3, was standing in our
kitchen and was pointing and shak-
ing her finger and really giving Haken
the business and telling him to hush
up and go and lay day and behave
himself. Haken is a 125 pound Ger-
man Shepherd and she had to tilt her
head up just a little bit to look him in
the eye and let him know she meant
business. It was a hoot! None of
the grandchildren experience
any fear or apprehension when the
dogs bark ... we also have an English
Mastiff and Sarah has a Husky in her
family. She learned to discipline
them all by watching her parents and
grandparents.
Second ... falling trees. I met a guy
when I was living on the economy in
Fairbanks, Alaska in 1969, and this
youngster was on his way from Bar-
row (where he grew up and
where there are no trees and he'd
never seen a live tree before in his
lifetime ... except, of course, on the
Tube which was probably a rare
experience back in remote Alaska 40
years ago) to report to physical
exam at Fort Wainwright as
he'd been drafted in the Military Ser-
vice. He was dumbfound or awe-
struck to see trees really growing out of the
ground. For him he would likely have had
no "common sense" whatsoever about how
far he needed to stand back to not get hit if
the tree fell over. I wonder to this day how
it went for him overseas ... namely ... in
Vietnam ... with his broad sweeping
"common sense" but strong sense of patri-
otic duty.
Every year there are accidents in the forest
with people harvesting their own wood and
experience trees that fall the wrong way
than they had intended. Or ... better yet ...
a breeze causes a giant pine to slip off the
stump and the axeman is unable to get out
of the way when suddenly there are several
tons of tree overhead that presses the
trunk downward through their leg/foot and
possibly even through their torso into the
ground within a fraction of a second due to
gravity . An Unsafe Condition? An Un-
safe Act? or a Lack of Common Sense?
Third ... bullets. Two years ago at Bagram
Air Field, in Afghanistan, we had an inci-
dent that illustrates my position about
"common sense" which is that it doesn't
exist at birth and is only common to two
persons who have had identical upbringing
and life's experiences. To wit: A young
man working as a wheeled vehicle me-
chanic (he worked on HUMVEE tactical
autos) and had been there for nearly two
years and demonstrated himself to be a
solid and capable employee ... found a 60
caliber bullet in a vehicle he was servic-
ing.. He'd been taught that all munitions
and rounds and ordinance be dealt with by
informing the supervisor and/or deposit-
ing them in a special "Alibi Box" desig-
VOLUME 5 ISSUE 2
nated for just such purpose ... this training
is well documented ... so when he failed to
take that action he violated a SOP and
committed an "unsafe act" as I will illustrate
which will also demonstrate that he
lacked what we who are raised in the
States around guns and especially in the
West (I'm from the high mountains of
Utah) would regard as "common sense."
He took the round and mounted it in a vise
and then he placed the business end of
a punch directly over the primer and struck
the punch hard with a hammer! Yes, it
exploded and a great deal of energy was
released with a loud frightening bang ...
some of our recent prior military work-
ers had immediate reaction to start check-
ing themselves to see if they'd been hit ...
but luckily no one was injured and the
mechanic only sustained some minor
wounds where he was struck with small
pieces of shrapnel that blew off from
around the rim of the casing. This young
man had been raised in India and had no
clue how a bullet functions. He'd thought
he was going to get a nice souvenir to send
home or to hang on his lanyard as he per-
ceived the brass plated primer and the
brass jacketed bullet to be one piece and
was going to remove it from the shell so he
could pocket it. He knew how a gun oper-
ated ... it was loaded with a round and the
trigger squeezed so that the bullet would
come out of the end of the barrel ... but no
idea what the connection was between the
primer and the round itself.
Fourth ... Ancestors. Jung theorized that
we are products of our ancestors experi-
ences and I believe those neurons that
automatically connect up to give us
some basic judgment are as close as
you can come to being born with any
sense whatsoever ... everything else
is learned and there is no "common"
sense because everyone's experi-
ence is different. Personalities ...
anyone with more than one child
knows that everyone of their kids are
entirely different people. Each of us
may have stood in the line and had
our talents passed out to us before
we were born ... but undoubtedly the
children of an all-American athlete are
likely to be natural athletes by
the physical attributes they'll have
inherited ... but then may have no
interest in throwing a football and
would far rather work on a puzzle or
spend some time with their stamp
collection or reading a good book. My
Dad is not only 10 inches shorter than
I am but never tossed a ball around
much while growing up while year
round sports was all I lived for as a
youth and as an adult he counted pills
and pounded paste in prescriptions
while I carried a gun and drove
around aggressively looking for trou-
ble makers. His Dad was even of
smaller stature and seldom left his
doctors office .... either downtown or
within the home.
Opinion: We came into this life with nearly
nothing but the legacy of our ancestors and
the instinct to suck and swallow ... nearly
everything else we had to learn includ-
ing not pooping in your pants. Those of us
who have been reading and sharing ideas
on this thread ... or who have attended a
workshop or seminar where it was dis-
cussed ... can built lots of definition and
description about what we mean when we
say "common sense" but when anyone in
the general populations speaks of it is after
they have learned of someone doing some-
thing that to them was obviously stupid and
so they comment ... "what, didn't that per-
son have any common sense whatsoever"
... or "everyone knows that! it is just com-
mon sense."
I aint buying it and will not make excuses
for people from making mistakes either...
they will be identified and trained and hope-
fully that occurs before they are seriously
injured ... and if they repeat then repeat
the mistake it is then that they'll catch the
full weight of sanction. But standing under
a falling tree, smacking a bullet with a
hammer and punch, or driving over some-
one on a forklift are all still unsafe acts.
The previous comments demonstrate
some excellent thinking in regard to
common-sense. We hear it used all
the time when systems failure occurs.
Things like “if only he showed some
common sense” etc.
(Continued on page 8)
Page 7
Common Sense: Is there any such thing in Safety? (cont)
(Continued from page 7)
Common-sense, like many aspects of
safety, is frequently misunderstood. I
would suggest that reliance upon com-
mon sense is fraught with danger.
Consider referring to Transforming
Safety (Vol 4, No 2) - where we review
the existence of shortcutting cultures.
Certainly not common-sense, I would
have thought.
If you want to develop a “common
sense” for your business, it is about
developing a “commonality” with re-
spect to the culture that operates un-
der the surface of your business.
If there is such a thing as “common-
sense”, it is about shared understand-
ings beliefs, etc which have developed
over time. They have developed as a
product of intrinsic and extrinsic proc-
esses. They have developed as a
product of overt and covert processes.
They have developed as a product of
things we still can’t put our finger on.
This thing called “common-sense” is
very deeply grounded within cultural
histories though.
Consider how many words you know
for the collection of frozen particles
that fall from the sky.
I come from a culture that is largely
desert, except for the coastal fringes
where the majority of the population
resides.
My vocabulary for the above consists
of:-
 Hail
 Snow
 Ice
 Powder, & that’s it I’m afraid.
If you come from a culture that has far
more brutal winters etc., then I have
no doubt you have a much larger
snow vocabulary. Take the test? See
how many words you can come up
with. It has been said that the Es-
kimo’s have words for this phenomena
that number in the hundreds. Makes
my four (4) pretty poor indeed. Take
that a step or two further and we can
be reasonably certain that if I hap-
pened to be vacationing in Australia’s
winter wonderland amongst the snow
capped peaks, and became lost; I am
probably done for. My level of com-
mon-sense as regards survival in the
“snow” is probably closely correlated
to the number of words in my vocabu-
lary. Not all that promising.
VOLUME 5 ISSUE 2
Yes, this is a very simplistic example, When we analyse an organisations
which is supported by many of the Safety Culture, what we are doing is
comments etc from amongst the exploring the extent that workplace
ListServ members. I am sure you can has commonality of belief, and follow-
think of many areas where you might ing on from that behaviour, with re-
think that you have “common-sense”. spect to those predictive understand-
Spend some time really trying to work ings that we would like to see within
out where that “understanding” came that workplace.
from. For the most part, I suspect you
Why do we really want to do this? We
will conclude that it came from learnt
want to do this because failure to un-
behaviours.
derstand and appropriately address
those things that we “know" may con-
If we wish to delve a little deeper I am
tribute to a random approach to events
going to suggest that this thing we like
within a workplace, is at the very mini-
to call “common-sense” might be also
mum irresponsible.
tending toward what might be re-
garded as something akin to “instinct”. Our research into the predictive ele-
ments around Safety Culture identifies
The moment I use that language, large seventeen (17) areas where we want
numbers of you are likely thinking to develop “common-understandings”.
things like: These are:-
1. Communication
 “Of course we can’t reply upon in-
2. Personal Priority/Need for Safety
stincts to keep us safe”.
3. Supportive Environment
 “Birds know where to fly to, people 4. Priority of Safety
don’t”. 5. Competence
 ........................................... 6. Personal Appreciation of Risk
7. Managing Change
Most of us have no issue accepting 8. Work Environment
that any instinct that might remain
9. Co-operation
within the human genome is very
small indeed. 10. Involvement
11. Safe Behaviours
Whilst the newly born honey-bee is
12. Systems Compliance
able to interpret the intricacies of the
“dance” in order to calculate the loca- 13. Management Commitment
tion of a food source, the human baby 14. Shared Values
would be said to have retained the 15. Management Style
instinct to suckle. Effective communi- 16. Safety Rules
cation between human mother-baby 17. Accidents& Incidents
takes a lot longer.
What this tells us, and there are nu- Now let me tell you, this thing we hear
talked about called “common-sense”
merous examples, is that instinct has
no place within the safety equation.
shall not get you anywhere near opti-
mal performance in any of these ar-
I would put it to you, in much the same eas. They all take consolidated devel-
way, common-sense belongs some- opment, implementation, and integra-
where similar. tion; with ongoing and consistent pro-
active reinforcement.
Allow me to return to a comment made
a little earlier.
The real trick is knowing where the
We do know, and this is borne out by business sits against these parame-
bucketloads of empirical research from ters. That is where the Transforma-
within the academic safety community, tional Safety Culture Assessment can
that there are commonalities predictive give real clarify to these often abstract
of effective and safe workplaces. This understandings.
is not “common-sense” at all. It is
So maybe it is about time to apply
about “common-understandings”
some real common-sense to how you
though. About “how we do things
operate the workplace safety system.
around here”. This comes from the
world of cultural research, or more Find out about the commonalities of
particularly in regard to this discus- understanding and behaviour within
sion, the world of “safety culture”. your business. Anything less just
would not make sense
Page 8
David G Broadbent's Accident and the Road to Recovery
On Friday October 31st 2008, I was
participating in my regular morning
exercise program. As a very keen
cyclist I would regularly get up early,
dress up in the yellow lycra, jump on
the Shogun Team Issue road bike
and pump out a few K’s. Generally I
would do at least 30-40 although on
some occasions, if I was really keen,
I’d kick out somewhere around the
hundred. For the trivia buffs
amongst you there is a term in Cy-
cling called a Centurion. When you
are a Centurion that means you
have ridden 100 Km’s. This is quite
an achievement in cycling circles
and I was really quite chuffed the
first time I achieved this mile-
stone….until someone told me that it
is a term which originated from the
US. Are you ahead of me? Yep….. It
is actually 100 miles. Don’t know
what the term is for “not quite a Cen-
turion”.
On this particular morning I had ar-
ranged to pick up some mono-
grammed shirts to be used in Con-
ferences I was conducting the fol-
lowing week in Johannesburg and
Capetown. At the last minute I de-
cided I would incorporate a 90K bike
ride into the pick-up.
At around 7:20 am I was happily
cycling toward Newcastle, about
25k’s from home, and decided it
might be good to just call into
Macca’s for a skim milk cappuccino.
Whilst moving toward a right hand
turn I heard a “skid”. That is ALL I
heard! My mind had time to con-
struct only one thought!
Oh Shit! Where did that come from?
How long does it take to say that
silently in your head. Literally a sec-
ond. Go on, have a go………Maybe
two at the very most. So what is the
timeframe between becoming aware
that something bad is about to hap-
pen, and potentially not being here
any more. Not long is it? Anyway as
soon as my mind hit the question
mark, the car hit me! I am fully
aware of pretty much all that hap-
pened.
At the literal point of impact I was
unconscious for a second or two. I
say that because I still actually recall
being struck, though my next mem-
ory is of being airborne. I was look-
ing toward my left arm and instinc-
VOLUME 5 ISSUE 2
tively knew that some significant
damage had been done. The arm
was in a very unnatural state and I
knew it was broken. The only con-
scious thought, was more of a la-
ment. One word. “Anne” – the name
of my much loved wife. At some
point I would have obviously hit the
ground. Clearly that knocked all the
wind out of me.
I recall laying on the roadway, flat on
my stomach, with my left arm out in
front of my body. My head was lay-
ing on the road looking also toward
the left hand side. There was no
pain, which I found curious, as part
of me somewhere knew “things are
not good”. I found myself staring at
my left hand fingers, as they were
only about six inches from my face. I
just kept “wiggling” the fingers and
was experiencing a profound level of
confusion. “How could my fingers be
working on command, when my left
arm is stuffed – I think I used a dif-
ferent word”? I recall actually work-
ing through the fingers, one by one,
just watching them do as they were
told. At around this time I became
aware I was a bit short of breath?
The curiosities came to an end
when I started to hear quite loud
voices around me. The most intrud-
ing was some guy, in what seemed
like a quite frantic voice at the time,
saying “hurry, we have to get him off
the road”. There then began a bit of
a debate as to this; with the majority
seeming to side with “removal”.
It just so happens that at that time of
the day there are lots and lots of
commuters doing the run between
Maitland and Newcastle. We would
be talking tens of thousands. It is
actually the most direct route be-
tween these two centres. Even to-
day, six months down the track,
when local people become aware of
the accident, there are exclamations
of “was that you”. It seems every-
body was complaining about it. They
were all late for work! The number of
people I know who actually “saw”
me laying on the road, without
knowing who it was, at the time is
staggering. My wife’s hairdresser
was visibly upset when he found out
it was me; he had seen ma laying
there. Another case was when I had
to instruct a Solicitor, as it want to
happen in situations like this. The
Solicitor came to our home and after
introductions were made began to
ask a few questions about the acci-
dent. Quite micro stuff, such as
which way I was laying on the roads
etc. As it turned out, I had also de-
layed his trip to work that morning,
although in this case he actually
drove past quite slowly and man-
aged to have quite a “good look”.
Anyway these bods are chatting
about getting me to the side of the
road. I have worked in the health
system long enough to know DON’T
MOVE. Somehow I managed to find
enough breath to express firmly
“don’t move me and wait for the am-
bulance!” Had to say this a few
times and it seemed the message
got through as that discussion
seemed to cease. All sorts of things
are being said around me and I
have “zoned out”. Staring at and
wiggling my fingers again and know-
ing that there is something seriously
wrong with the chest. At this stage
not enough insight to put that bit
together. That came later.
Again I was drawn out of my Zone
by hearing one word “Anne”. It
seems that somebody on the side of
the road had decided to take at a
look at my bicycle. Clearly on the
frame is the image (ICE 0411-
252534 – Anne). For those of you
who are unfamiliar this means; In
Case of Emergency. Somebody on
the side of the road was about to
use my ICE number. All I could think
of was I did not want Anne getting
this sort of news from a stranger on
the side of the road. I pretty much
thought there was no “good news”
here. Again I managed to puff out an
instruction not to ring Anne; but to
ring my sister-in-law, Leanne (who
just happens to be a Nurse). This
was done and the Nephew – Isaac,
answered the phone. It seemed
Leanne was having a shower. Isaac
knocked on the door and said to his
mother “Uncle David’s on the
Phone”. Apparently the response
was something like “Is it important ,
I’m having a Shower”. Isaac came
back and told me this (remember I’m
lying on the side of the road with
some guy holding the phone to my
head – that head is filling up with
endorphins). I told him something
(Continued on page 10)
Page 9
David G Broadbent's Accident and the Road to Recovery (cont)
(Continued from page 9)
like “It is pretty f…ing important and
give her the phone”. Isaac (who is
about 15) marched straight into the
bathroom, pulled back the shower
curtain, and said “He said its f…ing
important”. Mission accomplished –
and I was stuffed. By now at least
one penny had dropped – there was
something very seriously wrong with
my lungs – finding it increasingly
difficult to breathe.
Who knows how much time has
passed. I am back in the Zone –
wiggling the fingers. Ambo’s have
arrived and the helmet comes off,
the mobile phone is located etc.
There are some chats amongst the
Ambo’s about getting the Chopper.
Clearly they are in a hurry to get me
off their hands. It is decided that
“lights and sirens” could do the job
in ten minutes or so. Somewhere
during this confab there is the usual
chat about drugs. It seems the drug
of choice is Medazolan. Known to
be a quality muscle relax-
ant/analgesic and also have an am-
nesic effect. A pretty good combina-
tion given these circumstances.
There is though a small group of
patients who have an opposite ef-
fect. It improves memory and in-
creases vigilance. Guess which
prize I won!
For me that is about the time I was
transferred to the Gurney and the
lights went out.
So far, my friends you have, at least
to some small degree, vicariously
experienced some of what was hap-
pening to me as I lay on the side of
the road, knowing I had been seri-
ously injured. At this point unsure
how much?
The next memory though is one that
shall be with me forever. Not be-
cause it was particularly good or
bad, or even painful (though is most
certainly was!). More to the point it
demonstrated a level of compassion
that was exceptional beyond belief.
With all that is going on in a major
trauma centre, the fact that a medi-
cal doctor bothered, shall forever
touch my Heart. Oh, and I should
mention by this time I am uncon-
scious (or am I). I was still aware,
and could hear, what was happen-
VOLUME 5 ISSUE 2
ing around me. Despite the eyes
being closed, not talking or moving.
You hear about those awful situa-
tions where patients say they were
awake during operations. That’s all I
was thinking about. I was wanting to
tell the attendings; “Hey, I’m here”. I
could not even blink an eyelid!
Anyway I clearly recall a youngish
male doctor lean down beside my
head and whisper something to me.
What he said was “I have no idea
whether you can hear me or not.
What I have to do now is going to
hurt a bit. I’m sorry but we have to
do this now and cant wait for the
drugs to kick in”. Well, he was sure
right about that. I then experienced
the most intense pain of my life, and
I could not even blink an eyelid!
What was happening? It may be that
some of you might be ahead of the
Story. The attending was cutting into
my chest wall, and then with his fin-
gers separating the muscles, and
finally inserting a tube all the way
though to the bottom of the left lung.
Boy, did it hurt! That young guy did
not have to say what he said. To all
intensive purposes I was way past
caring. Seemingly unconscious. At
about that time the “fog” began to
envelope me; that fog being phar-
maceutically induced. The fog five-
ten minutes earlier would have been
helpful.
The remainder of the day is pretty
much lost. It is interrupted by visits
from my wife, and other members of
the family. Apart from Anne, every-
body else is lost in the fog some-
where. At this point I have no real
awareness of how bad things are, or
are yet to become.
Having been directly involved in the
applied injury management field for
much of my clinical career, I did
have an awareness that things were
“bad”. One of my first conscious
fears was that I was going to be-
come a “rehab client”. That fear re-
mains today. I am the first to admit
that may not necessarily be highly
rational; nonetheless very “real”.
Fortunately for me, as an accredited
injury management provider, I have
sustained the highest successful
RTW rates of any jurisdiction around
the world. So I suppose I know how
this world spins.
Anyway, let us move on! Some time
early Saturday morning I became
aware of someone leaning over the
bed talking to me. As it turned out,
this was an Orthopaedic Surgeon
(Dr Smith) whose first words to me
were “look at what you’ve done to
yourself now”. Oh, the power of first
impressions. This guy had some
ground to make up – I had not done
this to myself. It had been done by a
car travelling at over 70km/hr. This
orthopod then went on to say that
the damage was significant, and
whilst he would try to save the
shoulder, he may have to replace it.
As far gone as I might have been, I
knew that this was an outcome that
would not be great.
Here’s where things got real inter-
esting. I asked him if he could get a
hold of Dr Jones for me. He looked
surprised and asked how I knew Dr
Jones? The response I gave was
that we shared patients in the past.
Dr Jones is a highly regarded ortho-
paedic surgeon. This guy then went
on to tell me that he’d trained Dr
Jones. Bit of a mistake. My under-
standing, be it right or wrong, was
that Dr Jones had received much of
his training in some of the large US
teaching hospitals. At about this
point I was getting quite concerned
about this guy, and asked for a
phone. I am told I was quite ada-
mant on this point. I proceeded to
ring Anne at home and ask her to
open my database and supply two
phone numbers. These were for a
couple of emergency service work-
ers who were known to me. One of
these (Fred), had recovered from
shoulder surgery himself. Anyway I
rang Fred and before I’d said a
dozen words he was on his way to
the Hospital. I like to think under
“lights and sirens”, but I suspect not.
Fred stands at about 6’5’’ and can
be a little imposing. In an emer-
gency services uniform, with all the
bells and whistles, the effect is even
greater. I am told that Fred walked
in to the cubicle, took one look at my
inflated left shoulder, and then
looked at Dr Smith and said “..and
who might you be”. Response was
“I’m the Orthopaedic Surgeon”. Ap-
parently a bit of a chat ensued which
culminated in a question of sorts.
“Are you a shoulder specialist”. Re-
(Continued on page 11)
Page 10
David G Broadbent's Accident and the Road to Recovery (cont)
(Continued from page 10)
sponse: “No, I’m a general ortho-
paedic specialist”. “This guy clearly
needs a Shoulder Specialist. Can
you arrange that?” Conversation
over.
Despite all that had happened in the
previous twenty four hours this was
when the Good Lord decided to
smile. It just so happened at that
time there was a regional orthopae-
dics specialist conference occurring
somewhere in the Hospital. Appar-
ently Dr Smith entered the Confer-
ence and offered me up on a Plate.
A quick glance at the X-Rays and
the queue quickly shrunk. That is
how I became introduced to an ex-
ceptional orthopaedic shoulder spe-
cialist, Dr Ed Bateman.
I suppose now might be the best
time, there is never a good time by
the way, to share with you the extent
of the injuries.
On the Tools again!
Well, It all stopped on October 31st
2008.
I went from being quite busy to being
quite still in the blink of an eye.
Frantic calls were made to South
Africa as I was due to present at the
Murray & Roberts global safety sum-
mit. That was to be only a week after
my Accident. Can you believe I was
actually asking the Surgeon if I would
still be able to go to South Africa.
I have been off the tools until April
and currently my medical team has
agreed to allow me to work part-time.
The magic number, at the present
time, is sixteen (16) hours week.
Let’s face it. That's actually not too
bad. Every doctor I have seen in the
last six months expresses disbelief
that I am actually still alive. Of course
the goal is to return to much more
than that.
During June of 2009 I shall be giving
the Keynote Address at the Safety
Institute of Australia (SIA) Confer-
ence at Brisbane.
VOLUME 5 ISSUE 2
First off I suppose you already
guessed I had a punctured lung.
Next were the fractured ribs – all of
them by the way. Some were flailed
(broken both sides) and it was one
of these that decided to visit my
lung.
Next was the fractured humerus.
This is the big bone in your arm be-
tween the elbow and the shoulder
capsule – They counted eight frac-
tures here (whilst suspecting more).
On top of that is what is called the
Upper Tuberosity. Think of this as
the ball on the top that sits inside the
shoulder socket. This bit had about
a half dozen fractures and was
sheared off.
Next was the fractured clavicle
(collar bone) – They counted four
fractures there.
Next was the fractured scapula
(shoulder) – They counted 2-3 here.
In July of 2009 I shall be returning
to India to further explore the devel-
opment and integration of The
Safety-Net technologies, within one
of the Worlds foremost foundry
businesses. This intervention may
also leverage Quality and Environ-
mental systems as an integrate
whole.
Toward the end of July the 4th An-
nual Total Safety Culture Confer-
ence shall be held in Sydney, Aus-
tralia. I have been asked to facilitate
a Workshop specifically exploring
the competencies around Transfor-
mational Safety Leadership. At this
forum we shall introduce the NEW
TSL360 - a recent development
which allows for the most effective
self analysis of safety leadership
competencies available anywhere in
the World.
August shall hopefully allow the feet
to touch the ground as I continue to
invest in active physiotherapy and
other forms of treatment to try and
regain as much function as possi-
ble. At the present time the left
shoulder is probably at around ten
All in all, there were more than twenty-
four (24+) fractures. They just said
they stopped counting after that. Many
of these were identified “on the table”.
The surgical procedure went on for
almost six (6) hours. To put that into
some sort of perspective, quadruple
bypass surgery often takes less!
Having done the “repairs”, Ed Bate-
man comes to me in recovery and ex-
plains what he has done. I retain parts
of that conversation only. What stands
out was his saying “you’re going to
come across a lot of people telling you
this is what you need to do for a shoul-
der; do the opposite. I had to be bit
tricky in there, so it’s going to take
time”. As it turned out some of the frac-
tures had to be “sewn” in place. There
was not enough stable bone to provide
a platform for any hardware.
See Vol 5 (No 3) to continue with the
“road to recovery”.
percent (10%). So there remains a
lot of work to do, and we shall see
how much I get back.
September shall be me returning to
South Africa for a few weeks.
There are a few comments I need to
make here. The understanding and
loyalty of the South African compa-
nies has been, and continues to be,
exceptional.
Only a few weeks after the accident
I was speaking with the MD of
SAFEmap Africa, who is not only a
professional colleague but someone
who I consider a friend. He invited
both my wife and I to come to South
Africa to have some “time-out”. Such
was completely unexpected and has
been very humbling indeed. Fran-
cois, my friend, your kindness and
generosity of spirit shall remain with
me for as long as I walk this planet.
I also have to mention Murray &
Roberts in South Africa. My accident
severely damaged their arrange-
ments for the global safety summit.
When I became aware that I would
(Continued on page 12)
Page 11

TransformationalSafety.Com
A Division of Strategic Management
Systems Pty Ltd
Unit 3, 12 Ken Tubman Drive
MAITLAND, NSW, 2320
AUSTRALIA
Phone: 61-2-49342351
Fax: 61-2-49343651
E-mail: broadbentd@transformationalsafety.com
Skype: d.g.broadbent
WE EXIST TO
ASSIST
We’re on the Web at
www.transformationalsafety.com
On the Tools again! (cont)
(Continued from page 11)
be returning I offered my time again
to M&R. Now given I stuffed things
up last time (even though it was an
accident) I would have understood if
the response had been a bit “cool”.
Far from it! I shall be spending some
time with an M&R during September
and am truly looking forward to intro-
ducing the constructs of Transfor-
mational Safety to one of South Af-
rica’s leading businesses.
During the ‘09 South African safari I
shall be facilitating Competency
Based Safety Conferences in Jo-
hannesburg, Capetown, and Dur-
ban. If you would further information
on the CBS Conferences, let me
know and I shall be sure that infor-
mation is forwarded to you.
VOLUME 5 ISSUE 2
David G Broadbent is presenting an
Experiential Workshop
at
The 4th Total Safety Culture Conference
JULY 31st 2009
SYDNEY, Australia
David shall be speaking about:
Transforming Safety Leadership within
High Reliability Organisations.
Come to Sydney and be part of this Event.
David's engaging style is sure to educate and entertain. See just
one of the comments from David's presentations last year,
"I would never have believed anybody could have a room full of pas-
sionate South African rugby supporters singing 'Waltzing Matilda' to
images of the Wallabies scoring tries; and during the World Cup. UN-
BELIEVABLE! Truly shows the power of transformational leadership
within a training session. Well Done!"
To Register Contact:
Natalie McLeod [NatalieM@liquidlearning.com.au]
October has a week or so away qui- Safety community also continues
etly with my wife for the first time to grow. During the remainder of
since the accident. 2009 all members of the Trans-
forming Safety community shall
Toward the end of the month I shall
receive a twenty five percent
be giving the Keynote Address at
(25%) discount on booked ser-
the SIA Conference in Sydney
vices (up to a maximum of
(Australia).
$5000—pretty generous we think).
We have also used the period of my
We have also created a number of
convalescence to redevelop the
Flyers which summarise some of
Website, which now uses a CMS
the discreet services available.
structure.
They are available via the Web-
The Transforming Safety distribution site.
list now is approaching three thou-
Feel free to contact me at any time
sand (3000) subscribers. Every time
and we shall explore how Trans-
we publish the numbers go up.
formationalSafety.Com can add
Many subscribers forward Trans-
value to where your business
forming Safety to friends and col-
needs to be.
leagues, who then subscribe them-
selves. Our NEW Transforming STAY SAFE
Page 12