The Emerging Role of the Safety Professional, Part 3
- By Donald R. Groover, CIH, CSP, Jim Spigener
- Jun 06, 2008
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The safety professional’s primary
role is to help the organization
move toward an injury-free environment.
Transitioning from “technical
expert only” to versatile change agent
gets us part of the way by helping us reorient
ourselves around a bigger-picture view
of the causes and influences of safety. This
article takes the next step with a look at the
heart of the safety professional’s activity in
the organization: setting—and keeping—
improvement mechanisms in motion.
Evolving business realities affect the
safety professional’s job in very important
ways, not least of which is heightening the
polarities among resources, profit, and risk
management. How we approach new systems
and resources will have a direct impact
on how well change efforts perform
and whether or not we advance the safety
profession in a way that makes it not only
relevant, but essential, to the organization.
Why Method Matters
Becoming a change agent means that we develop a
broader view of safety and its causes. We step above a
narrow, technical focus in a way that helps us contribute
to strategy and make a case for safety’s role in
the organization beyond mere compliance. So how
does this role manifest itself in the actual practice of
managing change systems? While our thinking as a
change agent becomes more broad, our practice of
safety at the implementation level must become more
precise. Increasing organizational complexity means
change efforts face increased risk for error and, should
they fail, heightened potential for damage to the culture
and the safety objective. It is critical that we understand
and avoid those pitfalls that pertain directly
to change systems, chiefly:
Getting intimately involved in the discipline or punishment
process for rule or procedure infraction. We
cannot afford to remain the safety cop or to enable the
line to abdicate accountability.
Advocating or implementing a program because
“everyone else is doing it.” We cannot afford to attach
our reputation, or the safety of employees, to programs
we have not fully vetted for effectiveness or for
its alignment with our organization’s needs, values,
and objectives.
Being so technically focused that we give the line organization
neatly wrapped solutions without regard to
culture and behavioral reliability. We cannot afford to
expend resources on solutions that do not match organizational
realities and limitations.
To be effective, and remain relevant, the safety professional
must look at his or her role from a leadership,
rather than managerial, perspective. In addition to identifying
effective tools and systems, we must consider how
successful those solutions will be given the configuration
of our organization’s culture, vision, and resources. In
other words,we must not only consider the “what” (e.g.,
this system for this objective),we must also consider the
“how” (e.g., how this system supports our goals and who
we are as a company). This mindset informs how we
identify, implement, and manage safety systems.
Effective Change Management:
Five Essential Elements
As a change agent, the new safety professional must
know the focus (exposure reduction), understand behavior,
and understand culture and climate. These competencies
are the starting point for creating change. The
actual work of implementing and managing change efforts
requires additional tactical considerations. In our
experience, the safety professional who wishes to lead
performance must pay attention to five key areas: the
organization’s present state, the vision for the change effort,
the implementation strategy, organizational resources,
and maintaining the organization’s focus on
the safety objective.
Assessing the Present State
For a new safety system to be successful, there not only
needs to be acceptance of the new way of doing things,
but also there must be alignment among behaviors, programs,
and systems throughout the organization. Creating
this alignment requires that the safety professional
develop a clear picture of the landscape he or she is stepping
into. The safety professional needs to develop a
clear understanding of several key things, including:
The present state of the culture, namely, what beliefs
and values determine how things are done right now in
the organization? How will those beliefs and values help
or hinder a new initiative?
The aspired values of the organization in behavioral
terms. For example, an aspired value of “being a workplace
that does not accept injuries” might be stated in
behavioral terms as, “ We rigorously look for and address
exposures and their causes ahead of injuries.”
This article originally appeared in the June 2008 issue of Occupational Health & Safety.