LTI severity rating While leaders in organisations may act in a conscious way in carrying out activities associated with leading indicators, it is the non-conscious (and automatic) responses and actions that we in the risk and safety industry should be on the lookout for.
This poses a problem for people in risk and safety. While many may understand that ‘measuring does things to people’, they are bound by the requirement of most organisations who insist on measuring activities to ‘measure’ risk and safety and often struggle with how to deal with this.
So, here are some tips for you to consider in your organisation if it too is focused on measuring:
• Firstly, check in with yourself and take time out to think through each item you want to quantify. The worst thing you could do is just agree with common ideas without thinking through things yourself, more thinking the better!
• Use this paper as a discussion topic with your leaders if you feel they are up for the discussion. Ask them what impact the safety measures you have in place has on your culture. Is the focus on quality or quantity and what does this mean for your organisation and your people?
• Lead the way yourself, how do you go about your ‘safety interactions’, does the measure drive behaviour and does it focus on quantity over quality? What can you do about this?
• Rather than trying to change to whole organisation, can you do it through ‘bite size chunks’ and focus on the better leaders in your organisation and work with them to influence others?
There is a big difference between what we value (outcome and object) and what is a value (principle/ethic) when we consider strategy and thinking in risk and safety. The confusion of the two confuses understanding and blurs boundaries in learning in organisations. We see this when safety is articulated as an organizational ‘value’. The difference between what we value, and a value should be quite simple. I value my children, but my children are not a value, I value my car, but my car is not a value and I value money, but money is not a value. I care and love my children so; care and love are the values. It is important to know what values drive what we value. If we cannot tell the difference between a principle and an outcome, between process and trajectory, we will also confuse ethical and philosophical foundations.