Hey Coach! Is That Your Take-Charge Voice?

David J. Sarkus, M.S., CSP

ASSE Professional Development Conference and Exposition

1999 PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT CONFERENCE

Safety professionals want and need to have their voices heard by industry. But how can such a voice, and the accompanying message be discerned amongst all the distractions and the internal competition for resources and time? What is one way that their voice can be known and effectively used to contribute to ones companys mission? A place to begin may have to be in changing the perceptions that others have toward safety and quite possibly changing the perceptions that others have towards them. Ultimately this will mean designing a vision and deploying a strategy for safety and taking steps to align their efforts with that of their companys mission.

CHANGING PERCEPTIONS
What about changing perceptions regarding safety? Similar to professionals who work within various other functions, safety professionals may have to change perceptions that are held by others towards them and the primary work they support. Individuals who work in the human resources arena have had to fight to change negative perceptions about their functional area. In a way, they have had to reinvent themselves as organizational partners. As an example, in the late 1980s a survey of approximately 1,500 human resources practitioners was taken with a number of questions posed requesting opinions as to why their department should be supported and maintained. In response, and in order of frequency, reasons provided were: (1) to keep the company out of court; (2) creating and maintaining standards, consistency, and equity; (3) improving productivity and profits; (4) developing people; and (5) providing recruiting services. Notice that the first two reasons for maintaining a fully functioning human resources department are largely regulatory-driven with the push coming from outside the company. These same two reasons involve complying with various rules and regulations. Continuing, it seems that the third reason, regarding productivity and profits, and the fourth, developing people are most appropriate and applicable to almost any mission statement. By trying to develop people and by helping to improve productivity, the future of both the company and the individual can be placed on a more substantial foundation. In much the same way, many safety professionals continue to promote safety as a way to avoid penalties or to keep the company out of court. But should those two goals be the heart of our mission as safety professionals? Are those the only reasons for our continued existence within our organizations? Practitioners of safety can often find themselves wrestling with this dilemma. Working towards meeting external demands and penalty avoidance and providing strategies and tactics to move the organization to another level of safety performance. Table 1 highlights various cultural orientations with regard to safety in what is termed a Traditional Compliance-Based Orientation. This orientation describes many companies; their efforts often appear to be driven by the newest regulation or training that must be conducted simply with penalty avoidance in mind. Even the leadership is legally-driven with top-down control and an authoritative, top-down push that is largely punitive. This type of organization is further characterized by a low level of commitment and trust that permeates not only safety but aspects of quality and productivity as well. Safety is often viewed as too costly; or seen as something that doesnt add value and is unresponsive to organizational needs; it is also viewed as work that interferes with the operations and safety professionals are dismissed as individuals who just dont know the business. Even when implementing compliancebased efforts in such organizations, performance standards are mainly orientated towards regulatory law, resources are minimal to meet major legal demands, and finally learning experiences are isolated

to classroom training, physical inspections, and enforcement of rules and regulations through paper imposed rules and regulations.

Cultural Orientation: Comply with external regulatory demands. Objective: Penalty avoidance. Leadership: Legally driven. Approach: Compliance training, physical inspections, top-down control, reactive and largely punitive. Behavioral Assumptions: People are guided by self-interest, safety is an addon, and safety is recognized through a low-trust organization.

Table 1. A Traditional Compliance-Based Orientation.

Step One: Examine Your Personal Philosophy A good step in changing this orientation, if in fact it exists to any degree, is to have safety professionals examine their own philosophy towards managing safety. It can be the case that many safety professionals often do not have a personal philosophy towards managing safety. This can leave leaders around them without a philosophy as well. Many professionals and practitioners would agree that organizations lack a broad overarching philosophy that can be discussed and articulated by leaders in various organizations. Organizations that do have a real need to offer a cogent expression of how safety should be viewed and managed. And it is in ones personal philosophy towards safety that impacts interactions with others at all levels through the organization. In this interaction, safety professionals can positively influence the collective emotions and energy of the group --- the whole of the organization. Safety can and does have a broad impact and is all about productivity enhancement, quality improvement, and relationship building. And working towards achieving safety excellence is a way to embrace and secure the mission of most any company while developing individuals and groups in a very positive way so that each can become more autonomous as contributors while remaining intact as interdependent groups. But once again, this cannot be accomplished without some guiding [personal] philosophy that realizes that excellence in safety performance cannot be legislated but must come from within the organization, moving it away from traditional compliance-based tactics. In contrast to compliance-based efforts, a Value-Based Orientation resolves to go beyond the ordinary. As seen in Table 2, this orientation is one that accepts safety as a value-added part of the company where standards for higher achievement come from within and not from without. Rules and regulations are still known and used, but values regarding safety run deep and lead to actions that are consistent with the companys overall vision and mission. With these thoughts in mind, todays safety professionals have to realize that there is a need to establish and maintain solid and substantial relationships with others in order to effectively contribute

to the companys mission. In distinct ways, people can recognize that organizational leaders truly care about their well-being. In this regard, particularly relevant to safety, leaders may

Cultural Orientation: Value-added beyond compliance mentality, elevated self-imposed standards, strive to walk-the-talk. Objective: Safety excellence, rules are replaced by values. Leadership: Management driven vision, collaboration in developing and realizing that vision, leadership is developed at all levels. Approach: Positive and proactive, shared decision making, workers own the process.

Table 2. A Value-Based Orientation. need to re-learn todays form of CPR: Caring-Leadership, Professionalism, and Respect for the individual. In regarding oneself as a change-agent, professionals will come to understand that ... much of our influence today is based not so much on the power associated with the positions they hold within a box on an organizational chart, but the place they occupy in the hearts of those who work for and with them. There must be a realization that relationships are as important as any process and people have a need for achievement, affiliation and collaboration, independence, praise and recognition, and also have a desire to influence others in a very positive way. Leadership established from a cogent philosophy, derived from a personal philosophy, will drive our success as professionals. Step Two: Evaluate Your Climate and Culture Since culture is an archeological concept, a certain amount of examination and digging for artifacts will have to take place. It is necessary to understand how others feel and think about safety, why they act in certain ways, and what beliefs must be changed or maintained. By examining the culture and climate with regard to safety, we can begin to actively involve others in improving safety performance, helping to bring out ideas and initiating trust. Climate surveys, large-scale brainstorming sessions, employee interviews, and observation of work practices can and should be used to gain a greater understanding of what individuals and groups think and feel about safety. The goal: to gain a more objective view of the culture, whats really going on around the company. By doing so, professionals and organizations can begin to close the climate-culture gap that may involve a number of critical dimensions such as: opportunities for training, the need for increased employee involvement, supervisory support, and improvements needed with respect to tools and equipment. By assessing the organization in one or more of these ways, professionals will realize that there will be a need to act, and there will be various reactions to any change process depending on the depth and breadth of change that may be required. Four different types of reactions can be characterized by different types of organizations and can be highlighted on a continuum. The first is the organization

that wants to remain still believing that things will return to normal if they simply wait long enough. The second reaction to change is for the organization to wait till it hits them and then react to what is necessary. The third reaction is to realize that they do have a strategic plan but its been lost as has been the creativity to initiate new and positive organizational changes. Finally, there is the fourth reaction characterized by the value-added initiative and strategy, where people agree there is a need and desire for change and work together to make the best of every opportunity that will move them closer to a very desirable future state. Again, the philosophy of the safety professional must bring the organization to a greater realization that change may be necessary and is vitally linked to the companys mission. Step Three: Defining Guiding Principles or Values Just as your organization may have defined various choice values that they desire to embrace, so should safety have its own set of values to guide and evaluate actions to ensure alignment with the vision for safety. Values are those things about which one has strong convictions --- things that one does not like to contradict. They may involve trust, teamwork, open communication, and respect for each and every individual. Values should be defined by a steering or design team so that they capture the core principles of the organization; principles that can be adopted as values that guide thoughts, attitudes, and actions. Table 3 provides the beginnings of a set of personal and collective values that can be further defined in behavioral terms, helping to keep an organization focused on their particular vision for advancing safety. Step Four: Creating a Vision for Safety Just as many companies have well-defined mission and vision statements, so too should there be a vision and mission for safety. But what is a vision and what does it look like? A vision is a valued image of the future --- drawing upon the energy of the group it represents. A vision cannot be created in a vacuum but needs to be contributed to and embraced by the workforce --- the people who will ultimately help bring the organization closer to that vision by animating the established values in ways that truly uphold safety as a valid and valuable organizational partner. The vision should: (1) be easy to understand; (2) capture the emotions and sprit of the organization; (3) be a stretch yet achievable, and 4) describe a healthy future state of safety excellence.

Step Five: Defining The Safety Mission Organizations and groups confuse mission and vision when in fact each should be defined and used differently. The mission is a groups or organizations reason for being or existing --- the plans, programs and process aimed towards this existence. A companys mission helps to define why it exists and the ways it can help improve performance. The mission may involve ongoing education, training, strategic alignment, and the collaborative force of the organization. A sample of a safety mission might be: Our mission is to create and sustain a culture that produces world class safety performance and in so doing will lead to improved morale, productivity and quality. We will meet the demands of our mission through ongoing education, training, and active involvement. Along with the mission for safety a strategy must be developed and eventually deployed.

Vision on Values: Todays leaders help create a sound vision for advancing safety which is placed in the hands of other leaders to improve the safety process. A vision is the ideal for safety --- something to strive for but which may never be fully realized. The vision helps to create and maintain excitement and is developed from defined values as they relate to safety, i.e. trust, cooperation, etc. A vision is built upon the desire to go beyond compliance because safety makes good business sense and because its the right thing to do.

Articulating Goals: Todays leaders give purpose to what they say and what they do. They walk the talk. Their presence and direction is clear and coherent. Safety related goals are concrete and the types of desired actions are soundly communicated and acted upon. Executives commit to relevant safety performance standards and their own accountability for safety. Supervisors and managers believe safety isnt just the safety officers responsibility, but a part of each and every job.

Listening is Critical: Leaders of every sort want to listen first because they value each and every person, especially their differences. And people are always treated with dignity and respect. Many of todays leaders want to be identified with the group, not placed above them by title or position. Accordingly, health and safety concerns are first responded to by listening.

Understands the Importance of Trust: Leaders possess good judgment and have a spirit that supports established goals and objectives. They are serious about maintaining their character and view safety in no other way than value-added and values-bound. Workers know their voices are heard and the company truly desires to improve safety and protect them in ways evidenced through the support of safety in ways identified with quality, productivity, and profit.

Enlists Themselves as Servant First: Leaders have a natural, heart-felt desire to be a servant first. Serving first means helping others who ordinarily provide service and support to them. Because of their strong desire to care for others, they have to make a conscious choice to lead.

Table 3. Establishing a Vision Based On Values.

Step Six: Establishing a Strategy Developing a concise written strategy is inextricably linked to the safety vision. A senior committee needs to be regularly involved with developing a plan of action that continually evolves in ways that will support the safety vision and mission thats been established. This plan will help to keep events, programs, and processes on track. The plan itself should include the committees or teams charter, the vision and mission for safety and then the strategic and tactical elements that will move people in the right direction. The strategy should cover the next 12 to 15 months with possible challenges, barriers and alternatives being cited. The plan will likely have to cover activities such as training, performance metrics, physical and ergonomic improvements, and other issues that support the advancement of safety. Step Seven: Deploying and Enacting Your Strategy Since working safely and reinforcing safe behavior is a primary goal in many organizations, a vision and strategy for helping people to work more and more safely is necessary. Management needs to express value and concern for its workers. And as Robert K. Greenleaf has stated, ... caring for persons the more and less able serving each other is the very rock upon which a good society is built. Accordingly, behaviorally-oriented approaches are becoming a crown jewel for benchmarking, and as one prominent way to realize excellence in safety. Behavior-based approaches, either peer or supervisory-driven, provide an excellent way to form community with safety recognized as a central part of the work culture. With such an intensity of focus on safety, behavioral applications dont merely lead to feedback but help improve safety in a systematic way by increasing leadership and direction, improving procedures and practices, evaluating the quality of education and training, implementing physical changes and ergonomic technologies, and by also improving incident investigations and follow-through. Since feedback is an essential component, a robust strategy needs to be deployed that will impact the person as a whole. This means positively influencing actions or the behavioral domain, the affective or emotional domain, and the cognitive or thinking component. Influencing each of these areas of attitude formation can be achieved through a process that will help instill sound principles that can eventually lead to positive changes in both attitudes and actions. The following Cs can be used to initiate and sustain such changes by training individuals how to use these principles within a process. These principles include caring as a foundation, coaching, confirming, correcting, collaborating, clarifying, and conciliating. Step Eight: Evaluating Progress If progress is to be made, measurements have to be taken. As was addressed near the beginning of this paper, evaluating the climate and culture of the organization can serve as a starting point. Once again the climate, culture and other metrics need to be reassessed in order to determine the degree of movement and direction from the baseline evaluations. Pencil and paper surveys, employee sensing sessions, measurement of safe work performance, and 360 degree reviews can all be used effectively to measure gains related to the vision for advancing safety.

IN CLOSING
Understandably, some groups or organizations may want to use the steps provided in a varied sequence, depending on their needs; nonetheless, the order and steps that have been addressed do outline a valid way to move safety forward in a deliberate manner. Simply having a vision or strategy for safety in no way suggests a guarantee for success; however, hard work, gaining

commitment, maintaining good relationships and deploying proven strategies and tactics, will help to initiate a successful path towards enviable results. What are the expected results within all of this work? For one, safety professionals can be recognized as a collaborative partner rather than a combative force in helping to build productive relationships. And the take charge voice of the safety professional must be heard so that organizations of all sorts can realize a vision for safety whereby it is viewed as a competitive advantage. Through this vision, a future can be created that helps to contribute to the companys own vision and mission. A vision and mission that establishes safety as a declared value, because it is an expression of concern for its people --- the companys most important resource. A resource that is bound to the companys own worth.

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Fitz-Enz, J.; Human Value Management. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1990. Kilman, R. H., Saxton, M. J., & Serpa, R.; Gaining Control of the Corporate Culture. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1986. Sarkus, D. J.; Seven Principles of Social Influence: How to Express Care and Concern; Industrial Safety and Hygiene News. 1 (1996) 35. Sarkus, D. J.; Servant Leadership in Safety: Advancing the Cause and Practice; Professional Safety. 41 (1996) 6. Nagle, B. A. & Pascarella, P.; Leveraging People and Profits. Woburn, MA.: ButterworthHeinemann, 1998.