Safety is a team effort
Diversity is a gift that should not be left on the shelf to gather dust. It is meant to be used. By doing things together, we learn from others. By doing things together, we get more done than alone.
In my previous blog, I described how we measured the level of the security culture. On the basis of the results, we identified areas for development and set targets. Numbers tell something, but the real safety culture is created through action. If we do the right things, the numbers will change to match the target.
Because safety culture is created through action, we have to take action. Encounters are important, because we believe in doing things together. This is why we decided to invest in encounters and how we act during them.
One accident is too many
Nobody is perfect, but luckily, deficiencies are a good opportunity for development. We decided to invest in learning and to involve all the best experts. After all, who would be a better expert at something than the person doing it. This is why learning from deficiencies is best done at the source, in other words in encounters with the people doing the job. We went through encounters and selected a few of them at different levels of the organisation.
We created a model for handling safety matters and deficiencies in these encounters. Instead of pointing out problems, the main emphasis is in identifying the root causes and in fixing them. First, the issues with the biggest impact are fixed. What is important is an open dialogue, learning together and remedying things together. This is a team effort.
You matter
At the beginning, I relayed an old saying. "There's one for every train". We are all different and everyone is at his or her own level. All of us together form an entity, one culture, one safety culture. This is why we do not leave anyone alone in the fire but help in every way we can. Instead of just training, we selected coaching. The basics are simple. First we train, then we go through the changes needed and practise. After practising, we go through the feedback with the coach and make the necessary changes. And practise again. And this we repeat until things go well. In this way, nobody is left at the station but everyone has a chance to succeed and develop.