The staff of Industrial Safety & Hygiene News wishes everyone a happy Independence Day. To help ensure that it’s a safe one, we pass along the following tips from the American Red Cross:
This year will be the twelfth annual Executive Summit. The Summit, which takes place on Wednesday, brings the perspective of industry and corporate leaders to occupational safety and health (OSH) professionals. Understanding this perspective significantly benefits OSH professionals and improves their effectiveness in directing safety and health programs in their organizations.
Suppose you want to accelerate the safety performance of your organization, but you have limited resources to get started. You can only invest in one of the following strategies to improve safety: You could build a stronger safety culture, improve your safety management systems, build an inherently safer facility, reduce at-risk behavior, or strengthen safety leadership.
Oftentimes, many of us like to discuss safety influence at the supervisory level where much can be accomplished to keep workers safe. But like you, I’ve seen what subtle actions can do when it comes to influence from the top – both good and bad.
We know that “leadership creates culture;” any leader will tell you that. But oddly enough, “knowing” in this case doesn’t reach very far. What is required is finding the connection between what I do as a leader and the kinds of cultural attributes I would like to change. Here is an example from my experience:
We’ve never met a leader who didn’t want a better culture for their organization. Statements like, “we need to change the culture,” are heard every day in the life of a consultant. What is odd is that the leaders who make these statements usually think they are talking about other people, when in reality they are talking about themselves.
It’s New Year’s morning and I’ve just finished my local newspaper. The front page is about a 25-year-old Rochester man arrested in a reported ISIS-inspired plot to abduct or kill patrons in a neighborhood bar on New Years Eve.1