Creating strong safety cultures in offshore operations faces unique challenges. Offshore subcultures can develop their own norms and values that differ from the parent organization. To foster safety, organizations should build on the positive aspects of offshore cultures rather than try to change them. Safety professionals should avoid shocking offshore cultures with abrupt changes and instead introduce gradual, flexible changes that incorporate input from offshore leadership and hybridize cultures rather than replace them.
This presentation was delivered at the 2008 National Safety Council's National Conference and Expo in Anaheim California, by Phil La Duke (Director, Performance Improvement--O/E) Daryl James (retired--Chrysler) and George Drexel (Local 3520 President---UAW)
selling safety in tough times (Semanario International De Seguridad Minera ve...Phil La Duke
This presentation was made at the XIV Seminario Internacional De Seguridad Minera, in Lima, Peru. It is essentially the same as the National Safety Council presentation of the same name. I updated the notes pages and some of the graphics.
This presentation was made by Phil La Duke (Director, Performance Improvement--O/E), Cal Schalk (Vice President, Cellular Manufacturing--Williams International); Dave Carr (Vice President, Infrastructure--Williams International) and Ron Gebhardt (Safety Manager--Williams International) at the 2007 Michigan Safety Conference in Grand Rapids, Michigan For more information on this topic contact Phil La Duke (Pladuke@oe.com) or visit www.safety-impact.com
Role Of Safety In Operations ExcellencePhil La Duke
This presentation was presented by noted safety and operations excellence expert, Phil La Duke in 2008 at Automation Alley in Troy, Michigan, For more information on this topic contact Phil La Duke (Pladuke@oe.com) or visit www.safety-impact.com
This presentation was made at the National Safety Council conference in Orlando, October 27, 2009 by Phil La Duke. It is an update and expansion of La Duke's Selling Safety In Hard Economic Times, which he presented at the Michigan Safety Conference in Grand Rapids, in April of 2009. For further information go to: http://www.congress.nsc.org or www.safety-impact.com
I also presented an updated version of this at the XIV International Symposium on Mining Safety In Lima Peru
This presentation was delivered at the 2008 National Safety Council's National Conference and Expo in Anaheim California, by Phil La Duke (Director, Performance Improvement--O/E) Daryl James (retired--Chrysler) and George Drexel (Local 3520 President---UAW)
selling safety in tough times (Semanario International De Seguridad Minera ve...Phil La Duke
This presentation was made at the XIV Seminario Internacional De Seguridad Minera, in Lima, Peru. It is essentially the same as the National Safety Council presentation of the same name. I updated the notes pages and some of the graphics.
This presentation was made by Phil La Duke (Director, Performance Improvement--O/E), Cal Schalk (Vice President, Cellular Manufacturing--Williams International); Dave Carr (Vice President, Infrastructure--Williams International) and Ron Gebhardt (Safety Manager--Williams International) at the 2007 Michigan Safety Conference in Grand Rapids, Michigan For more information on this topic contact Phil La Duke (Pladuke@oe.com) or visit www.safety-impact.com
Role Of Safety In Operations ExcellencePhil La Duke
This presentation was presented by noted safety and operations excellence expert, Phil La Duke in 2008 at Automation Alley in Troy, Michigan, For more information on this topic contact Phil La Duke (Pladuke@oe.com) or visit www.safety-impact.com
This presentation was made at the National Safety Council conference in Orlando, October 27, 2009 by Phil La Duke. It is an update and expansion of La Duke's Selling Safety In Hard Economic Times, which he presented at the Michigan Safety Conference in Grand Rapids, in April of 2009. For further information go to: http://www.congress.nsc.org or www.safety-impact.com
I also presented an updated version of this at the XIV International Symposium on Mining Safety In Lima Peru
Presents the core features of how to create a Behavioral Safety process. The process is customizable to suit any type of industry / location and is based on a 20 year track record of success on 5 continents.
A case study examining the actual impact of safety leadership on employee safety behavior in the OIl & Gas construction sector, over a two year period during the roll-out and execution of 'B-Safe', a behavioral safety process.
This was first presented by Phil La Duke at the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) on June 15, 2010 in Baltimore, MD. An mp3 of this speech is available at www.safety-impact.com.
If you enjoyed this presentation, check out Phil La Duke's articles in Facilities Safety Management Magazine, or his column, The Safe Side, in Fabricating and Metalworking magazine. Phil La Duke is on LinkedIN, and you can follow him and SafetyIMPACT! on Twitter
Learn how to implement Behavioral Based Safety system (BBS) at your workplace; what are the benefits of BBS, what are the roles of the employees and more.
The Security Practitioner of the FutureResolver Inc.
In the face of changing business needs and threat environments, companies, organizations and individuals will continue to encounter increasingly diverse and sophisticated risks from an equally broad range of adversaries. These adversaries are equipped as never before supported by education, experience, publicly available critical information and the technology to bring their efforts to realization. Tomorrow’s security practitioner will need an array of integrated tools to effectively prepare for and counter tomorrow’s adversary. These “tools” will always include some traditional tried and proven practices; however, the need for practitioners to think critically, make risk-based decisions, implement leading practice solutions and define security optimization is required.
Presentation by:
Dennis Shepp, MBA, CPP, CFE, Consultant, Security Expert
Phillip Banks, P. Eng, CPP. Director, The Banks Group
A Keynote speech by Dr Domininc Cooper CFIOSH C.Psychol examining the 'true' success factors of Behavior-Based Safety from the 1970's to the present day.
Behavio-Based Safety is still evolving to the point where it is effective in all workplaces, all of the time. Many implementations have been successful, but many have failed or faded away over the years. What can we learn from the past and the present to optimize future BBS implementations for the good of all? This tour of BBS examines the evolution of BBS, implementation strategies, and remaining challenges. Issues to be addressed include (but are not limited to):
[1 Where BBS fits in an organizations Safety Culture
[2] Who owns BBS?
[3] The role of employees and managers
[4] BBS design Issues
[5] Integrating BBS into mainstream safety management systems
This is a freshened version of my presentation, A Culture of Myths. This particular iteration made it's first appearance at the Great Plains & Safety Wellness. For more from Phil La Duke see his blogs www.philladuke.wordpress.com and www.rockfordgreeneinternational.wordpress.com
Presents the core features of how to create a Behavioral Safety process. The process is customizable to suit any type of industry / location and is based on a 20 year track record of success on 5 continents.
A case study examining the actual impact of safety leadership on employee safety behavior in the OIl & Gas construction sector, over a two year period during the roll-out and execution of 'B-Safe', a behavioral safety process.
This was first presented by Phil La Duke at the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) on June 15, 2010 in Baltimore, MD. An mp3 of this speech is available at www.safety-impact.com.
If you enjoyed this presentation, check out Phil La Duke's articles in Facilities Safety Management Magazine, or his column, The Safe Side, in Fabricating and Metalworking magazine. Phil La Duke is on LinkedIN, and you can follow him and SafetyIMPACT! on Twitter
Learn how to implement Behavioral Based Safety system (BBS) at your workplace; what are the benefits of BBS, what are the roles of the employees and more.
The Security Practitioner of the FutureResolver Inc.
In the face of changing business needs and threat environments, companies, organizations and individuals will continue to encounter increasingly diverse and sophisticated risks from an equally broad range of adversaries. These adversaries are equipped as never before supported by education, experience, publicly available critical information and the technology to bring their efforts to realization. Tomorrow’s security practitioner will need an array of integrated tools to effectively prepare for and counter tomorrow’s adversary. These “tools” will always include some traditional tried and proven practices; however, the need for practitioners to think critically, make risk-based decisions, implement leading practice solutions and define security optimization is required.
Presentation by:
Dennis Shepp, MBA, CPP, CFE, Consultant, Security Expert
Phillip Banks, P. Eng, CPP. Director, The Banks Group
A Keynote speech by Dr Domininc Cooper CFIOSH C.Psychol examining the 'true' success factors of Behavior-Based Safety from the 1970's to the present day.
Behavio-Based Safety is still evolving to the point where it is effective in all workplaces, all of the time. Many implementations have been successful, but many have failed or faded away over the years. What can we learn from the past and the present to optimize future BBS implementations for the good of all? This tour of BBS examines the evolution of BBS, implementation strategies, and remaining challenges. Issues to be addressed include (but are not limited to):
[1 Where BBS fits in an organizations Safety Culture
[2] Who owns BBS?
[3] The role of employees and managers
[4] BBS design Issues
[5] Integrating BBS into mainstream safety management systems
This is a freshened version of my presentation, A Culture of Myths. This particular iteration made it's first appearance at the Great Plains & Safety Wellness. For more from Phil La Duke see his blogs www.philladuke.wordpress.com and www.rockfordgreeneinternational.wordpress.com
Shifting the Paradigm for Workforce ManagementSirenum
Today’s organisations, regardless of industry, rely on IT to manage business processes more than ever before. But this has become especially true regarding workforce management (WFM) and the technology solutions used to manage its key processes. The previous paradigm for WFM solutions was to collect information about workforce activities and produce a simple analysis. But the complex work environment for gig economy workers have rendered this solution useless--it's time for companies to shift the paradigm.
The Challenge of Safety Leadership - Steve Skarke, Kaneka Texas Corporationmarcus evans Network
Steve Skarke, Kaneka Texas Corporation - Speaker at the marcus evans Manufacturing COO Summit 2012, held in Las Vegas, NV, April 16-17, 2012, delivered his presentation entitled The Challenge of Safety Leadership
Brief Information about the social and Eco-friendly practices of Indian companies.
It is to be noted that "The companies may not be in a proper rank. It is just a random order."
Implementation and application of a Process Safety Management System. This presentation will focus on the history, purpose and scope of a Process Safety Management (PSM) system. Topics covered include:
-Distinctions between personnel and process safety
-Framework and elements of PSM
-Importance of Safety Culture in the implementation and application of a PSM system
-Relevance and importance of regular audits and assessments of PSM systems
In business, 'Gemba' refers to the place where value is created and improved. The 'Gemba Walk' is an activity that takes management to the front lines to look for waste (non-value added activities) and opportunities. The objective of Gemba Walk is to grasp the situation by involving everyone touching the process to understand the Purpose, Process, and People. It is only when the situation is understood that improvement is possible and more likely to succeed.
CONTENTS
1. Introduction to Gemba Walk
- What is Gemba?
- What Gemba is Not
- Why Gemba?
- What is the Gemba Walk?
- Why the Gemba Walk?
- Who's Doing It?
- Three Keys to Lean Leadership
- Objective of Gemba Walk
- Your Approach is Key
- Four Steps to Gemba Success
- Go to the Gemba - Don'ts
2. The Three MUs
- What are the 3 MUs?
- Explanation of the 3 MUs
- Approach for the 3 MUs
- What is Muda (Waste)?
- What is Mura (Unevenness)?
- What is Muri (Overburden)?
- How Seeing the 3 MUs Helps our Kaizen Eyes
3. Kaizen Eyes: Ability to See Opportunities for Improvement
- Ways to Devlop Kaizen Eyes
4. Taking the Gemba Walk: Tips for Observing
- Implementing the Gemba Walk
- Tips for Observing
- Getting Started
To download this complete presentation, please visit: http://www.oeconsulting.com.sg
BUILDING A SAFETY CULTURE
A safety culture is an organizational culture that places a high level of importance on safety beliefs, values and attitudes—and these are shared by the majority of people within the company or workplace. It can be characterized as 'the way we do things around here'.
It is a subset of the overall organizational or company culture. Many companies talk about 'safety culture' when referring to the inclination of their employees to comply with rules or act safety or unsafely.
A positive safety culture exists when employees understand the importance of safety and exhibit positive safety behaviors. Examples of positive safety behaviors include wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) without being asked, completing risks assessments for all jobs and reporting all incidents.
According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), developing a strong safety culture has the single greatest impact on accident reduction of any workplace practice. Therefore, developing a safety culture should be a top priority for the managers and supervisors at your organization.
OBJECTIVES OF A SAFETY CULTURE
Safety culture is the set of shared attitudes, beliefs, and practices demonstrated by workers at all levels of the company. A positive safety culture connects everyone in the company around a common goal to measurably reduce near misses and incidents. It goes beyond following safety procedures and rules.
In a positive safety culture, all employees are accountable for maintaining standards and procedures. This means management enforces safety standards and understands the requirements for a safe workplace, while on-site employees follow those standards and ensure their colleagues follow them, too.
Safety Culture is about People, Practices and Environment. As organizations and workplaces we should endeavor to be strong culture based.
What does strong culture-based safety mean?
Let’s take a look at each word in turn…
• Culture: the shared values, beliefs and attitudes of a given group, which show themselves as behavior.
• Based: the main principle or starting point.
• Safety: people not getting injured or killed.
A safety culture consists of shared beliefs, practices and mind-sets that exist at an organization and form an atmosphere of attitudes that shape behavior in a positive way. An organization’s safety culture is a direct result of the following factors:
• Management and employee norms, assumptions, and beliefs
• Management and employee attitudes
• Values, myths, and stories
• Policies and procedures
• Supervisor priorities, responsibilities, and accountability
• Production and bottom line pressure versus quality issues
• Actions, or lack thereof, to correct unsafe behaviors
• Employee training and motivation
• Employee involvement and buy-in during the process
A company’s safety culture is a direct reflection of the organization’s overarching culture and the people who work in it. As a result, most employees will gen
Carrot or stick is a whitepaper exploring safety management issues in the workplace for the APAC region.
In this paper, we examine the reasons why every organization should:
- Build a safety culture, that´s relevant to them;
- Understand how core values relate to safety; and
- Know what kind of leadership drives safety performance
Type your short title here 1Running head Safety at work.docxwillcoxjanay
Type your short title here 1
Running head: Safety at work1Levels of Safety in Organizations and how to Deal with Acceptable RisksStudent’s nameUniversity Affiliations
QUESTION 1
Due to the collapse of a building during its construction arising from negligence my previous company ascended to NORM (naturally occurring reactive management) from SWAMP (safety without any management process). Before the catastrophe the construction company had no safety policies at all apart from wearing required safety gear by employees. The working conditions were not safe. Quite a number of employees had been involved in accidents. The company thus had begun to suffer losses. As usual the blame was on the employees for their lack of insight and safety protection during working hours. The complaints were everywhere. The employees thought that the management had squanderedall the money instead of thinking of better ways to keep them safe. There was even an attempt to boycott work until the working conditions were improved. Instead of a positive response from the management what the employees got were threats to end their contracts if they ever thought of boycotting work. Left with no option the employees returned back to work reluctantly. On top of the growing bill of insurance costs the company was also handling a number of unending law suits filed by former employees seeking compensation after being involved in accidents. The management was feeling the pain. It was then the major accident happened.
After the collapse of a whole building the company had to act fast. Nearly every employee was suing the company. The company was forced to start abiding to safety regulations. Safety managers were employed to ensure that regulations weren’t broken. Every employee was being virtually supervised. Their every move had to be watched. There were numerous programs and training sessions to inform the employees of the best safety regulations. At this point the insurance costs reduced but most of the costs were now being redirected into training and payment of the safety managers. Thus the focus shifted from the hazardous working environment to employees who were breaking safety rules. These employees were considered to be the sole cause of all the lack of safety in the company. Thus disciplinary action became a common norm.
For the construction companies to reach the EXCELLENCE level a lot of change has to occur. First the focus should shift from discipline and adherence to safety rules to what the roots of the accidents are. Safety should not be an abstract topic only discussed in meetings and displayed by huge banners in every corner of the business premises. It should be a serious thing practiced even by the management. When this happens it will be easier to have safety as a culture and not as a rule. Safety would have been integrated to become one of the success factors of the company. When any accidents happen the management would immediately deal with it and try ...
Join in building a culture of prevention on occupational safety and health.
Steps on how we can prevent and encourage a culture on prevention on occupational safety and health risk, hazard, incidents and injury in our workplace.
(CDC IT Security Staff BCP Policy) ([CSIA 413,).docxjoyjonna282
(
CDC
IT Security Staff BCP Policy
) (
[
CSIA 413,
) (
Professor Last Name:
) (
Policy Document
)
(
IT
Business Continuity Plan Policy
)
Document Control
Organization
Center for Disease and Control (CDC)
Title
CDC IT Security Staff BCP Policy
Author
Owner
IT Security Staff Manager
Subject
Business Continuity Plan Policy
Review date
Revision History
Revision Date
Reviser
Previous Version
Description of Revision
No Revisions
Document Approvals
This document requires the following approvals:
Sponsor Approval
Name
Date
Approved
Document Distribution
This document will be distributed to:
Name
Job Title
Email Address
All CDC Security Staff
Information Security Specialist
Contributors
Development of this policy was assisted through information provided by the following organization:
· CDC and Department of Defense, Health and Homeland Security
Table of Contents
Policy Statement4
1Purpose4
2Objective4
3Scope5
4Compliance5
5Terms and Definitions7
6Risk Identification and Assessment7
7Policy8
Policy Statement
The Center for Disease and Control mission is to protect America from health, safety and security threats, both foreign and in the U.S whether the diseases starts at home or abroad, are chronic or acute, curable or preventable, human error or deliberate attack, it fights disease and supports communities and citizens to do the same. It is this sensitive mandate that makes CDC infrastructure critical. CDC is both a source and repository of information.
It is thus critical to secure the information and control access to it, not to mention what information departs the organisation. CDC has to contend with IT regulations and laws that control how sensitive information is used. Given the sources of some of this information, CDC has to contend with the threat of this information being compromised since not all its operations are in one place. Thus CDC conducts critical science and provides health information that protects the nation against expensive and dangerous health threats and responds when these arise.
Unfortunately in life, things do not always follow the ideal and predictable path. Actions may conspire to affect the smooth running of CDC and at the worst case, the relocation to a new site and the continuation of the work that was being done. With the increased security threat, CDC finds itself not able to avoid having to plan for instances where its operations may be disrupted. The plan in intended to achieve efficient and effective operational continuity in order to have all data recovered and restored thus firewalling critical operations. This plan is referred to as the business continuity plan.Purpose
Given the identified risks referred to above, the document is developed for the sole purpose of offering a roadmap to be followed by CDC to recover and restore its operations. The business continuity plan is to be activated should the center be hit by a natural disaster, emergency or delibera ...
Hospitality industry is a major economic mover for many countries. People travel at great length and it is important to ensure all the guest staying in our hotels / resorts are safe. All the facilities provided for guest use needs to be constantly maintained to ensure a seamless experience for the guest. Technicians in the hotel industry are kept on their toes to ensure and provide a safe place of stay for the guest. In the process, the engineering team are often exposed to various hazards and it associated risk. It is important for them to accept the hazards and it associated risk, plan the risk mitigation process and execute on time. This will save the industry in terms of cost and reputation as well as having a motivated work force. Happy work force provides excellent service. The training material covers basic safety for the engineering department team by taking into consideration the hazards prevalent in their daily task and its associated risk. Process of risk mitigation is discussed to ensure the risk is managed to an acceptable level.
Statistics Report on Human Behavior Imrovement Process[1]Amrik Singh HSEQ
A short duration safety survey on such particular work crew to predict and compliance safety norms based on Behavior-Based Safety (BBS)" A process that creates a safety partnership between management and employees that continually focuses people's attentions and actions on theirs, and others, daily safety behavior. "focuses on what people do, analyzes why they do it, and then applies a research-supported intervention strategy to improve what people do".
CISSPills are short-lasting presentations covering topics to study in order to prepare CISSP exam. CISSPills is a digest of my notes and doesn't want to replace a studybook, it wants to be only just another companion for self-paced students.
Every issue covers different topics of CISSP's CCBK and the goal is addressing all the 10 domains which compose CISSP.
IN THIS ISSUE:
Domain 3: Information Security Governance and Risk Management
- Security Governance
- Security Roles and Responsibilities
- Personnel Security
- Screening and Background checks
- Employment Agreements
- Employment Termination
- Security-Awareness Training
1.5 Pages are required
You have been hired as a security specialist by a company to provide methods and recommendations to create a more secure environment for company data.
Write a 1- to 2-page recommendation paper outlining methods the company should consider to protect access to data, including recommendations for policies to be enacted that will increase data security.
Submit your assignment using the Assignment Files tab.
Security Policies
Investing time and money needed to work on developing security policies to better protect information systems is a crucial aspect of business continuity, yet many companies attempt to cut corners and spend little time on this until a critical event occurs. In this scenario, data is compromised while key stakeholders begin to point fingers and blame others for lack of a solid security plan. Implementing security policies and procedures can increase data security thereby decreasing the threat of potential security breaches. This paper will highlight security policies that can help protect data and information systems.
Security Policy #1
The first recommended Security Policy to help protect access to data is to implement a requirements-based access control policy. Requirements-based access control helps specify the level of access a user has, and can control what he/she has access to. The easiest way of doing this for example, would be to create groups/group policies in Active Directory Domain Services that will specify the groups level of access. This way, when new employees are hired, once they are added in Active Directory, they can be assigned to the department or group they are in to have a basic level of access. Moving forward, a user can be modified to gain or have access removed on a user level, but will at least have a baseline of what they can access. This is a very important concept as this helps with keeping lower level users from accessing more confidential documents that they have no business accessing. The users will be able to login to the workstations by using a provided username and require that a complex passphrase be set up to gain access to the system.
Security Policy #2
To help better our data security, there will be limited access to the main server and equipment room. Access by key card will only be given to approved Network Engineers. This allows for better security rather than allowing all users with a card key the ability to access the room. Implementing a system that allows us to control user’s individual access to certain rooms from their card keys allows for better all-around security. This also helps prevent unauthorized users gaining access to rooms without a key card. Currently, the main server room remains unlocked during and after business hours. It is too accessible to unauthorized employees, visitors, vendors, and customers. While we do have video surveillance inside and outside of the building, the cameras currently do not record footage of any.
Employee Morale and Workplace Safety: A Two Way Streetruthwoodworth
Workplace safety and morale have always been closely linked, but their exact relationship is subject to debate at times. Does higher job satisfaction lead to better safety, or do fewer accidents make everyone happier and more effective? Many experts believe that the answer is “both”. The two factors feed off of each other, and end up amplifying the overall effects.
The role of technology in safety traininngPhil La Duke
Featured at the Society for Applied Learning Technology this presentation identifies ways in which companies can leverage technology to deploy safety courses to the widest possible audience quickly and effectively
You get what you measure tips for establishing safety metricsPhil La Duke
Some believe that if you can't measure something it doesn't exist. Other people believe in Big Foot and crop circles. But I believe you will get improvements in the things you measure.
All the best Ideas in the world don't mean much if you can't manage to roll it out into a system that is sustainable and for that you need a safety infrastructure
The secret to workplace organization lies in the 5 s', Sort, Set in Order, Shine, Standardize, and Sustain. This is a tool used in lean manufacturing and has been adapted to numerous discipline.
ERM occasionally sponsors free seminars in Southeast Michigan. In this particular short presentation I explore how injuries are really just process failures.
Changing culture means changing valuesPhil La Duke
Your company culture, in the broadest strokes, is defined by the shared values of the population of the organization. These values have to be much more than what is plastered in the posters on the walls, but must guide every decision that every worker makes. So if you are unhappy with your culture and wish to change it you will have to examine your values, your REAL values not the ones to which you aspire.
Complacency, that is, a familiarity with a process so in depth that workers take it for granted that they will not get hurt while performing a routine task
Too many companies feel like it will cost way too much money to keep workers safe. This presentation was made at the Lakeshore Safety Meeting and demonstrates how a company can decrease risk without breaking the bank
Whats wrong with safety training and what to do about itPhil La Duke
This article first appeared in the on-line edition of Fabricating and Metalworking Magazine. It did not appear in print however, and the on-line version is no longer available from the magazine. It will appear in both the print and on-line editions early next year.
This article appeared in the Spring 2011 edition of HR Pulse, the official quarterly of the American Society of Healthcare Human Resources Administrators (ASHHRA)
I was asked by a colleague to kick off the Michigan Chapter of ISPI with a 5 minute speech. I chose to talk about expanding the view of Performance Improvement beyond training and organizational development.
Internationally noted speaker , safety expert and performance improvement expert, Phil La Duke is available to make this presentation at your site. For information, call 248.860.1086 or email Pladuke@oe.com
And if you enjoyed this presentation you might also enjoy Phil La Duke’s worker safety blog www.philladuke.wordpress.com or his monthy column, The Safe Side in Fabricating and Metalworking magazine premiering in May 2010.
Leveraging Technology In The New Employee Orientation ProcessPhil La Duke
This presentation was first made by Phil La Duke (Director Performance Improvement for O/E Learning) on August 19, at the Society for Applied Learning Technologies (SALT) Washington Interactive Technologies Conference in Washington DC. For more information on this topic contact Phil La Duke (Pladuke@oe.com) or visit www.safety-impact.com
The Role Of Technology In Safety TrainingPhil La Duke
This presentation was first made by Phil La Duke (Director Performance Improvement for O/E Learning) on August 21, at the Society for Applied Learning Technologies (SALT) Washington Interactive Technologies Conference in Washington DC, For more information on this topic contact Phil La Duke (Pladuke@oe.com) or visit www.safety-impact.com
Using Safety to Drive Lean ImplementationPhil La Duke
This presentation was made during the Society of Manufacturing (SME) EASTEC Conference as part of the Lean and Green Symposium. May 19, 2008 by Phil La Duke. For more information on this topic contact Phil La Duke (Pladuke@oe.com) or visit www.safety-impact.com
1. Creating Safety Cultures In Offshore Operations
13th International Symposium on Loss Prevention
Philip La Duke
15569 Cleveland Avenue, Allen Park, MI 48101 USA Philipladuke@comcast.net
1. Introduction
Fostering a safety culture is a daunting task, but this onus can be even greater when one
tries to enhance the safety culture of an offshore operation. Offshore locations often differ
distinctly from the parent organization and therefore those tasked with exporting a safety
culture to a remote location are likely to face challenges that can greatly impede progress
toward a universal safety culture.
2. Culture, Safety, and the Human Brain
The human central nervous system is designed to identify threats to our well-being and
trigger physiological reactions to danger faster than would otherwise be possible if cognitive
thought and conscious decision-making were necessary. Sensory organs gather millions
and millions of bits of information of which our subconscious mind must instantaneously
assess the risk of harmful outcomes to our bodies. The brain is able to assess theses risks
only because it has had previous experience with these stimuli. Because the subconscious
mind relies on past experience to predict whether or not a stimulus is harmful, any time an
individual acts unsafely without suffering a negative consequence the individual erroneously
registers that act as safe despite having put him/herself at significant risk of injury. This
predictive behaviour is mimicked by cultures, the role of a culture is to keep populations safe
by keeping behaviours and reactions predictable and manageable. To truly understand how
cultures work, it is useful to review how the central nervous system works.
2.1 The Need To Be Safe
Abraham Maslow postulated in his Hierarchy of Needs that as one need is met new and
more advanced needs emerge. According to Maslow, physical and emotional safety is a
basic human need but once these needs are met they cease to motivate an individual. This
cessation of the need to feel safe greatly impedes one’s ability to improve the safety culture
of an offshore location. The worker’s need to feel safe is quickly met as the worker gains
experience in the workplace and completes tasks without injury. This cessation of need is a
primary reason for an environment where seasoned workers are more frequently injured than
new hires. Additionally, while a newly hired worker’s need for safety can only be met by
following safety procedures to the letter, eventually work experience will lessen these needs
while social needs, i.e. the need to be seen as tough or seasoned, may outweigh the
worker’s need for physical safety.
2.2 Establishing Order and Conflict Resolution
Maintaining an orderly workplace is essential to the success of any organization, and
ensuring that the organization effectively resolves conflicts is a key role of the corporate
culture. Conflict resolution is typically informal and is largely shaped by peer groups. The
offshore subculture tends to value its own informal rules and superstitions over the official
procedures dictated by the corporate outsiders. The distrust of outsiders greatly impedes the
maturation of the offshore safety culture.
2. 3. Steps For Cultivating a Strong Safety Culture in Offshore Operations
The challenges associated with strengthening an organization’s safety culture are amplified
as one moves farther from the core organization. Nowhere is this more obvious than when
one attempts to strengthen the safety culture of remote or offshore operations. Offshore
operations, branch offices, and similar remote locations lack the constant reinforcement of
behaviours (both positive and negative) that are more prevalent in populations that are
concentrated in a central location. Because norms and values are not continually reinforced,
subcultures develop. To strengthen the safety culture of an offshore operation, organizations
must:
3.1 Concentrate on Culture Change, not Climate Change.
There is much confusion among safety professionals between the terms “culture” and
“climate” and many efforts to change the culture instead change the climate. A culture is the
codified body of ethical and moral values that govern an organization. Where climate is the
organizational environment of a workplace. The short-term effects of a climate change are
virtually indistinguishable from a culture change, but a climate change is typically short lived
and unsustainable. Every element of culture has a corresponding element in climate:
3.1.1 Rules (written and informal.)
Ostensibly the rules that govern worker safety are universal across an organization and are
identified in employee policy manuals. Unfortunately, many of the rules that actually govern
an organization are informal—for example, whether or not it is acceptable to report unsafe
behaviours of another worker. These informal rules are typically deeply ingrained and are
seldom articulated. Newly hired workers are taught the formal set of rules in a training or
orientation but learn informal rules from other workers. Informal rules are even more deeply
entrenched in offshore operations because they tend to grow out of exceptions necessary to
address ad hoc circumstances or conditions that the parent organization failed to foresee and
address. Rules are typically ingrained in the culture, but climate changes (falling behind in
production, for example) can profoundly change enforcement of the rules. If one focuses on
discipline or behaviour modification, one is making climate changes not culture changes.
3.1.2 Norms.
While safety rules remain static, norms, (i.e. the regularity with which the rules are followed)
are often fluid. Logically, the formal rule of any company will require a worker to follow the
safety rules without exception, but informally, workers may be discouraged from reporting
injuries, following safety protocols, or observing regulations because peers or even
supervisors ridicule them as overly cautious. While rules are the behaviors to which an
organization aspires, norms are the behaviours that the organization tolerates as
acceptable—irrespective of whether or not the behaviour is against the rules. Norms differ
from rules in that norms result from the daily reinforcement of behaviours where as rules tend
to be developed by a small coterie of individuals that may be geographically and
organizationally distant from the offshore operation. Here again, focusing on changing the
norm through strict enforcement of the rules will only effect a climate change, not a culture
change.
3.1.3 Shared Values.
Organizations with a strong safety culture tend to share seven values that distinguish their
organizations from those with weaker safety cultures:
• All injuries are preventable
• Compliance is not enough
• Prevention is more effective than correction
3. • Safety is everyone’s job
• Safety is owned by operations
• Safety is a strategic business element
• The absence of injuries does not denote the presence of safety
Shared values are the truest measure of whether or not a culture change has occurred, and
that the results will be sustainable. But merely putting these values on posters and hanging
them on the wall is a climate change, not a culture change.
3.2 Expect and identify cultural differences.
Cultural differences go far deeper than language and sometimes these differences are
necessary to adequately protect workers from dangers that were unanticipated when the
home office created the formal policies. In fact, sometimes the offshore location will have a
better perspective and often, the offshore culture may have made process innovations that
can be implemented by other locations.
Because the offshore subculture values predictable behaviors, local and informal rules, and
its local values over those of the parent corporation, trying to change this culture will be
immensely difficult. Instead of trying to change the offshore culture, one should identify the
best practices of the offshore location and build a foundation on these positive
characteristics.
3.3 Be flexible
Corporate managers often design safety procedures such that they are applicable to the
widest possible population or that address the broadest spectrum of situations that require a
safety policy. It is often easy for the corporate safety manager to dismiss the offshore
location as having little to offer the parent organization. In other cases corporate safety
managers may tend to overemphasize the need for a standard approach to safety across all
locations. Instead, the corporate safety manager should create flexible templates that meet
the corporate safety and legal department’s requirements for safety policy and allow the
locations to create local versions of these safety measurements.
3.4 Build on the positive elements characteristic to the offshore location
The distance from an organization’s headquarters to the offshore location can create subtle
differences between the cultural characteristics of the headquarters and the satellite
operations. The greater the distance between locations, the greater the differences between
the two cultures; and it is easy for one to view the variation between the headquarters and
the satellite as intrinsically undesirable, but that need not be the case. Instead of trying to
force a culture change on the satellite location, one should seek to validate the local customs
and incorporate them as best practices, where appropriate, into other areas of the
organization. Because the remote locations are isolated, the local norms and shared values
are likely to be deeply entrenched and fiercely defended. While many corporate safety
managers view this dynamic as dangerous and undesirable, these managers miss an
important opportunity to capitalize on and promote best practices and safety innovations.
3.5 Foster Ownership of Safety by the Offshore Location Leadership
Offshore locations quickly develop their own subcultures that minister to the unique needs to
establish predictable patterns in the local climate. Often the rules, norms and shared values
that govern the organization’s headquarters are inadequate for governing the environment of
the local culture. Forced to choose between a culture that does not adequately protect them
and creating a new culture, a population nearly always adapts and creates a subculture that
4. meets its needs. The creation of a subculture can pose a significant threat to worker safety,
however, as the tendency to ignore safety rules and procedures is far easier once other
mores have been violated.
Instead of fighting this dynamic, safety professionals should actively foster it because this
dynamic is the heart of ownership of safety by local leadership. In determining its own
approach to worker safety, local leadership will fiercely defend and truly own its safety. But
this situation, while highly desirable, must be carefully managed and guided by the corporate
safety professional to ensure that the workers truly are protected and that the local safety
culture espouses the values of an organization with a strong safety culture.
3.6 Avoid Creating Culture Shock.
As much as one may encourage the development of a strong safety culture that is led by the
location, some change will likely be necessary. Introducing change too quickly or too
dramatically will frequently result in a backlash of resistance to change. The change is too
sweeping for the organization to absorb and the population will resist the change vigorously.
Instead, safety advocates should make every effort to introduce gradual and incremental
change.
3.7 Recognize that exporting a culture results in a hybrid.
Change agents don’t always understand that when they attempt to export a culture, the final
product is a hybrid of the two cultures involved rather than a clean replacement of the
offshore culture. It is far easier to build a culture that capitalizes on diversity and differences
than on homogeny, and organizations that seek to incorporate the best elements of all
locations into the central culture are far better served than organizations that attempt to
extend a central culture to all locations..
4.0 Closing Remarks
Many safety advocates make the mistake of assuming that the culture of the offshore
operation must change, when in fact the offshore culture may have adapted and evolved to a
state of heightened vigilance that is far greater than that of the parent culture. In those cases
where cultural incongruence truly do present a problem that must be remedied, it is important
that one respect the origins of the taboos and norms that have evolved in the subculture and
preserve, as a foundation, those elements that are true best practices.
5.0 References
Axtell, Roger E. Do's and Taboos Around The World John Wiley & Sons
Barker, Joel Arthur. Paradigms: The Business of Discovering the Future Harper Business,
1993
Berne, Eric. Games People Play: The Psychology of Human Relationships 1963
Maslow, Abraham. Farther Reaches of Human Nature. New York: Viking Press 1971
Missildine, W Hugh M.D. Your Inner Child of the Past, New York: Pocket 1963
Missildine, W Hugh and Galton, Lawrence Your Inner Conflicts and How to Solve Them. New
York: Simon and Schuster 1974
Morris, Desmond. The Naked Ape London: Cape 1967
Morris, Desmond. Manwatching, a Field-Guide to Human Behaviour London: Cape 1977