Saftey

Howdy folks, thanks for dropping by my posting in the middle of the week.  Today's topic I feel is one of utmost importance.  It it safety.  Something that we as leaders have a moral, legal, and ethical obligation to keep our people safe.  This goes from issuing proper PPE, to having daily discussions in the huddle as I do,  to having your safety record posted and using maps to track incidents, accidents and near misses.

It was during a twitter feed that I saw safety come abreast and decided to chime in.  This reinforced my belief that those in the Lean world promote safety and lead from the front with this topic and not the rear.  From an employers perspective it can be overlooked until the fines show up.  From a shop floor employees perspective it could be overlooked until discipline is administered.  BOTH of these perspectives are WRONG!!!!!!!  Safety is the concern of everyone.  Starting from the CFO/CEO all the way down the org chart.  There is no compromise with this.

When we as leaders set standard work in place we do it for a reason.  The same with safety protocol and training doctrine.  This is standard work.  I've written about a handful of topics thus far and never touched on this one as I felt that leaders had a good grasp on this.  Well I was wrong.  When asking other leaders the hows and whys of PPE usage, I'm talking front line leaders here, the answer defaulted to government regulation or company policy.  I didn't hear anything pertaining to, "I do this to ensure that my people go home with all they came in with because it is the right thing to do."  Nothing was ever said about continuing education on safety, or soliciting ideas from their respective teams.

Coming from my former careers, PPE was a way of life.  It wasn't questioned and we were always looking for lighter more effective and durable equipment.  When your life depends on PPE, it is taken rather serious.  This is the same mindset that needs to be cultivated into your teams on the shop floor. Nothing less is to be accepted.  Yeah cowpokes, this sounds like I'm pushing instead of pulling.  Fear not, for the way we do this is thru education and sometimes show and tell.

I have a few souvenirs of where PPE has saved parts of me, one being my eyes during a rather unfortunate incident where my safety lenses shielded my eyes from some high velocity particulate matter that was unplanned and undesired.  Yes, those lenses saved my eyes and performed just like the advertisements and torture tests demonstrated.  I saved those lenses and have them to this day.  Taking these lenses to work with me, I had a genuine and honest discussion with my team about our safety program, what safety means to them, what it means to me and our organization.  By bringing in those lenses and telling the story of what happened coupled with passing them around and allowing a question and answer session, it provided context to the concept.  

There we go with effective communication again, and engaging our people to improve our processes and advance our culture.  Ahhh yes, people/process/culture where it all starts.  There are some things that we as leaders can't compromise on, safety is one of them.  Whether we be at the top of the org chart, somewhere in the middle, or the greenest greenhorn on the cattle drive.  Safety is the responsibility of all.

I'd like to thank you for stopping by the campfire and reading this post.  Hopefully it lands with you and can have the take away of collective mindset when going to work the next day and actively engaging your team and honestly looking at what you as a leader are doing to help promote a culture that values safety.

Cowboy