1. Health and Safety in
Leadership
Facilitated meeting
Name of facilitator
2. Why Are We Here?
To think about ways to improve H&S
performance, communication & learning
To look at our attitudes & beliefs as
leaders to drive forward change
To secure commitment to long-term
improvement and agree a way forward
3. What’s the Plan?
A mixture of presentations, brainstorming
activities and discussion exercises
[Add in Timings]
Housekeeping
4. Ground Rules
Respect everyone’s contribution
There are no right or wrong answers
Everyone’s opinion is of value
Give everyone a chance to speak
One conversation at a time and no talking over
each other
Be open and honest
Do not discuss what someone has said with others
outside the room
Everyone should feel free to ask questions of each
other – it’s an open-playing field
5. Ice-Breaker (exercise 1)
•Insert a project that went well (from a
safety perspective)
•Why did this project go well?
•What factors contributed towards its
success?
•Any challenges? If so, how were these
overcome?
6. Where do our values lie?
•Exercises to understand our attitudes
& beliefs about health and safety
•What are we good at?
•What do we need to develop?
•Be honest!
7. Exercise 2
What does health and safety
mean to (add company
name), you and your staff?
8. Question 1
What value does the
organisation place on
occupational safety and why
do you think that?
9. Question 1a
What value does the
organisation place on
occupational health and why
do you think that?
13. Question 3a
What do you think that your
staff think of occupational
health and why?
14. Think about….
Were the comments what you
expected?
Any surprises?
Are the comments similar in any way?
Do any differences stand out?
15. Positive Health and Safety Values
Consistently prioritises staff’s welfare over productivity and
profitability concerns.
Ensures both health and safety are top of the agenda in all
decision making.
Insists that staff do not feel compelled to progress a job if
they feel it is unsafe to do so.
Show care and concern for the welfare of all staff
Trust and respect others
Be proactive, not just reactive
Be enthusiastic, open and honest
Remember everyone is responsible for their own and
others health and safety
16. Positive Health and Safety Values
Devote sufficient resource to improving health and safety
Ensure that people have the right knowledge and skills to
undertake work safely
Act upon unsafe working practices immediately
Ensure everyone is fully committed to health and safety
Value staff involvement and ideas for improving health and
safety
Inspire and enthuse staff to work safely
Show recognition for safe working practices
17. Going for Gold
GOLD
The way we
do things
around here
Sometimes do /
show this
Rarely do /
show this
18. Can We Prove It?
Value Can we prove What else can
it? we do?
Prioritise staff H&S is top of every
welfare over agenda.
Staff don’t rush to
productivity
complete their work.
Ensure everyone is Everyone using
fully committed to appropriate PPE,
immediate action is
H&S
taken when an unsafe
act is spotted.
Inspire and enthuse Toolbox talks and
staff to work safely practical
demonstrations
Be proactive, not Informal feedback on
just reactive site (e.g. what staff
think of the toolbox
talks), regular health
checks
19. The Bigger Picture
Company policy
Vision
Business plan
Communication
Visibility
Induction & training materials
Performance appraisals
21. Kick into Action
Develop an action plan that is:
Specific (values & behaviours)
Measurable (monitor and review)
Achievable (prioritise!)
Realistic (in terms of e.g. resources)
Time bound (e.g. next 6 months)
23. Things to add
Action Plan template
Video/DVD on good vs. bad leadership
behaviours?
Make sure this is tailored to single duty
holder set ups
Could observe each other e.g. giving
toolbox talks
Make links to toolkit & for ‘Make Health and
Safety the Top Priority’ chart
The very first activity before introducing the Facilitated Meeting (FM) is to get all meeting members to watch an evocative personal testimony (Deelee DVD or something similar – Provided in the toolkit). Do not say anything to members, simply put on the DVD for all to watch (approximately 20 minute). The idea is to get members thinking about the importance of health and safety at work (using the ‘shock factor’). Showing a true account of an accident that demonstrates how the health and safety of themselves, their family, colleagues can be compromised with severe consequences will more likely have success in getting this message across. At the end of the video you can hold a short discussion with members about their thoughts surrounding the clip. This is a good opportunity for you to put a clear message across to members about your commitment to health and safety e.g. you want to prevent this type of event happening and make sure that all your staff go home to their families safely every day!
What is the purpose of this session? We want to improve H&S performance and communication in the long run and continually learn from each other’s experiences, so we need to think about how we can achieve these things and I (as the director) value your input and ideas. Could supplement this with examples from your own company of good and poor health and safety behaviours (e.g. business statistics, anecdotal examples without attributing blame). In order to achieve these things we need to look at our attitudes and behaviours as managers/leaders and what value we place on H&S. We need to send out a consistent message to staff if we want to change the way things are done around here. Emphasise that everyone in the room is responsible for their own and their colleagues health and safety. And it’s important that we are all open and honest with each other, being realistic about where we are now in terms of our attitudes towards health and safety. If we don’t become more safety conscious and ‘walk the talk’, nothing will change. Hopefully, by the end of this session we will all be committed to improving health and safety performance and have agreed on a way forward. Make it clear that at will take time to change and for improvements to show and that this is not going to happen over night!
Schedule Go over the schedule for the session Outline to members that it will consist of a combination of presentations, brainstorming activities and discussion exercises. Expected duration of the session? Cover housekeeping (e.g. refreshments – locations and timings, smoking destination, toilets, health and safety)
Ground Rules Go over the ground rules of the day and convey the importance of each. For the last two points: ‘ Don’t discuss what someone has said with others outside the room’ – covering confidentiality is important and members need to feel safe in expressing their true opinion without worrying about others not involved in the meeting hearing about it. ‘ Everyone feels free to ask questions of each other – it’s an open-playing field’ – This is keeping your role as a facilitator, not chair of the meeting. People need to know that they do not need to go through you when asking questions or making comments.
Facilitator selects a good project where safety has gone well and insert the name of this into the PowerPoint presentation Ask members to consider the questions on the slide (you could allow them a couple of minutes thinking time and reflection first) Then using a flip chart, elicit thoughts for each question – As the facilitator note down what factors contributed towards the success of the project (focus on values, behaviours & health and safety) Set the tone that this is what we need to aim for in all our projects! Now we need to think about how to get there….
Where do our values lie? We are now going to look at our own attitudes and beliefs about health and safety (i.e. our VALUES) and decide together where we want to be. We’ll complete some exercises around this. We can think about both the good and the bad, so what we are good at and what we need to develop. We need to be brutally honest and open about where we are now – so if no one cares about safety, I need to know about it. [ Make sure they are comfortable with voicing their true opinion in front of you! ]
This next exercise is to find out your opinion on what health and safety means to [add company name], you and your staff. Process: Hand out a post it note to all members Bring up the next SLIDE for Question 1 - What value does the organisation place on safety and why do you think that?. You may need to elaborate e.g. How do you think the organisation views/thinks about health and safety?) Explain to members that they are to write their answer on the post-it. Encourage people to write a ‘ because ’ statement (‘why they think this’) Once completed, instruct members to stick them on the appropriate poster/flip chart. Repeat the above process for Question 1a and then Question 2 (SLIDE) ‘What value do you place on occupational health and why?’. Encourage staff to t hink about themselves as an individual employee and also in their role as a manager/supervisor (they may choose to write a few answers on the post-it). Repeat the above process for Question 2a and then Question 3 (SLIDE) ‘ What do you think that your staff think of safety and why? ’ You may need to supply prompts e.g. do they comply/follow H&S, do they understand the importance of working safely?, etc. Repeat the above process for Question 3a.
Once all members have written answers for each question on the three post-it notes and stuck these on the appropriate poster, allow them a 5-10 minutes to wonder around the room and digest the materials, thinking about the questions on the SLIDE. Discussion Round up the group and start an open-table discussion about the questions / their thoughts. Making clear what the underlying values are As the facilitator note down (complete one list spanning the 3 areas): [Refer to ‘ Make Health and Safety the Top Priority’ guidance for a guide] What are the key values that people think are really good and want to maintain? Which values are important to have and need developing? It is important at this stage to turn any behaviours mentioned by members into values, ideally elicit this from them – ‘What is the underlying attitude or belief?’ For example, if ‘ staff will cut corners where possible’ emerges, elicit what the underlying attitude/belief e.g. ‘ staff do not understand the importance of following H&S procedures’ . If this statement is negative, turn it into a positive statement (important for developing a positive safety culture). This statement could become e.g.‘ Everyone understands the importance of H&S’ .
Facilitator: Go through the typical values that characterise a positive safety culture (signifies best practice). Make clear to members that this is a guide and not an exhaustive list. It is up to you all to decide which values will be taken forward and are realistic and achievable in your company. Discussion Initiate a general discussion about how the previous list generated on the flipchart as important to maintain/develop compares with this best practice values list. As a group, generate a final list of values and give an appropriate to these safety values and standards (e.g. ‘going for gold’) – this needs to be agreed by all as what the company is going to aim for.
Pyramid Exercise On a flip chart draw the outline of a pyramid (as per SLIDE). Together decide where to place each value (from your final list) on the pyramid in terms of how much they reflect ‘the way things are done around here’ (how embedded these values are). The values placed towards the top will signal those which need to be maintained. The ones near the bottom will signal those which need to be developed. To help you as a group decide where each value should be placed/written on the pyramid, refer to the ‘ Can We Prove It? ’ guidance (in the Toolkit and see the example on the next SLIDE). As a team, complete the first two columns only at this stage. The amount of evidence will help to determine how embedded the value is (if much evidence is presented and people feel the value is fully embedded place the value Bear in mind that all values are of equal importance and are essential for developing a positive safety culture. near the top and vice versa). Then transfer/write the values onto the appropriate place on the pyramid.
It is important to bring to everyone's attention that these values need to be incorporated into all areas of the business, including your company’s policy statement, business plan and vision. You might find it useful at this stage to discuss ideas on how this can be achieved using the prompts on the slide and others that you come with together. The values need to be communicated to all staff and displayed throughout the organisation (e.g. ‘going for gold’ posters of key health and safety behaviours) Incorporating the values in induction materials for new staff and training materials for current staff as well as appraisals (e.g. an objective for all staff, including yourselves, around meeting the values) will also help to turn them into ‘the way we do things around here’.
Refer to the ‘ Making health and safety the top priority chart’ (in the toolkit) and provide everyone with a copy. Identify which values you want to improve from the pyramid exercise and look across at the leadership behaviours needed. Bear in mind this is not an exhaustive list. Efforts should be made to consider other relevant behaviours. Following discussion, refer back to the ‘Can we prove it? ’ chart and complete as a group the ‘ What else can we do ?’ column. This refers to behaviours and actions that you are not already doing but are essential to develop the values you wish to aspire to as an organisation.
Develop an action plan (see Template in Toolkit) with SMART targets – think about what is achievable in e.g. the next 6 months and who is responsible for each action. This will include the new behaviours/actions that you have identified in the previous exercise and may also include behaviours that you are already doing as leaders and need to continue or build on. Remember it is a working document and should be referred to on a regular basis Think about what measures you can use to determine if values have been embedded in the organisation (e.g. observation checklist, staff survey and/or discussion with a representative group of staff). Link to Evaluation Assessment Tools in Toolkit. It is your judgement as to which values and behaviours can be achieved in the short-medium term and which ones will take longer. Given that you are ultimately changing the underlying culture, it is likely that most actions will take time to achieve. It is therefore useful to include some quick wins to sustain motivation e.g. start issuing safety awards, providing other necessary safety equipment ASAP.
