The next four years will be the most chaotic time for business in our nation’s history. Business is going to be cut loose to do business. Rapid technology advances will occur at this same time, too. Get ready for a wild ride in your occupational health and safety (OHS) career. 

Management style

President Trump’s management style is unusual but not unique. It’s a strongman style that has played out in governments and business for eons. The strongman sets out an edict for change. The strongman allows underlings and others to battle for leadership positions to establish change. Winners advance. Losers pursue other opportunities. 

I understand this management style. I support this management style. When this management style works, it may work spectacularly well. If the management style fails, forced change often results in necessary improvements. 

Forced change

In 1997 and 1998, IndustryWeek magazine (800,000 readers at the time) ranked Aeroquip-Vickers, Inc., as one of the “World’s 100 Best Managed Companies.” Under this corporate umbrella, one of its plants was ranked in 1997 to be among the “10 Best Managed Plants in America.” See link below for further information.

Aeroquip-Vickers achieved this lofty ranking by having the strongman of the company, simultaneously holding Chairman, President, and CEO titles, to force world-class thinking among all corporate employees. Change was forced by assigning power to aggressive employees to lead task forces to examine and make recommendations, outside of their expertise, to achieve best corporate practices. If necessary, tear it all down. Then build back better. 

I was an industrial hygienist with no legal training. Therefore, I was appointed to chair the task force to examine legal risks. Lawyers within the corporation were prevented from serving on the task force. The legal department had its roots as a Fortune 200 company. It was layered with legal specialties such as environmental, product liability, government contracts, and corporate governance. Among other things, the legal department lacked mechanisms to prevent lawsuits. In response to this deficiency, our task force established the Risk Identification and Prevention (RIP) section of the legal department. RIP sought out any risk that may prevent the company from achieving its objectives, a definition that ISO’s risk management standard would closely match more than two decades later. RIP opened every door to world-class OHS practices that I sought.

Happy days?

During the years leading to the quest for world-class performance, many people lost their jobs. Within the legal department, two lawyers, one ergonomist, three senior safety engineers, two environmental engineers, and two security managers, all who could not flourish within the aggressive environment, pursued other opportunities. When RIP established the Voluntary Protection Program (VPP) Team in 1995, it forced a massive change in OHS management thinking at the plant level. If a plant did not achieve VPP within set timeframes, plant managers would lose most or all of their annual bonus. This in turn puts massive pressure on some plant level OHS pros to drastically reduce injury and illness rates and build VPP concepts within short time frames. These pressures in turn caused several OHS pros at the plant level to pursue other opportunities. 

End rewards

In December 1998, the VPP Team received the Chairman’s Award, the highest form of employee recognition within Aeroquip-Vickers. Aeroquip-Vickers was so successful with its management practices that it became a prime takeover target. In late 1999, Aeroquip-Vickers was acquired by a larger company. Every corporate employee was then required to seek other opportunities. Senior management protected themselves with Golden Parachutes and other means.

Lessons learned

Several key lessons were learned during my experiences with this strongman management style that I would like to pass along to you. 

First, strategy trumps tactics. I flourished in this management style not because I understood the tactics of OHS. I flourished because I understood the business very well. Products, customers, ROI, who’s-who doing what, what were the strengths and weaknesses of the organization, and how I could use individual and organizational weakness to my advantage.

Second, express your strategies, strategically. Don’t go around pounding a drum and tell everyone how you want things to change. Find the right ears. The all-powerful strongman within Aeroquip-Vickers didn’t pick me out of thin air to chair the legal task force. My keen interest in best business practices reached his ears.

Third, express loyalty. Leaders lead. To effect change, subordinates must faithfully carry out the commands of the leader. The leader in turn must give assurances to subordinates that they will be protected from those that resist change. 

Fourth, be bold. What’s the worst that could happen if I failed as chairman of the legal task force? After a few benchmarks among some leading organizations about how they managed legal issues, the process was simplified. Boldness, however, is finding something that may be used to your advantage. The strongman knew I wanted something like RIP before the show began. Task force findings and recommendations simply legitimized the formation of RIP. Nearly all other processes within the legal department remained unchanged.

Fifth, the Hawthorne Effect. “The Hawthorne effect is a type of human behavior reactivity in which individuals modify an aspect of their behavior in response to their awareness of being observed.” See Wikipedia. The varied taskforces examined nearly every aspect of how corporate practices, were practiced. This activity upped everyone’s game to put forth their best efforts. Putting a non-legal person like me in charge of how legal should be practiced served several objectives. The strongman demonstrated that anyone can be replaced. The cockiness among the lawyers dissipated into a humbler team. That I believed became the best practice.

Sixth, always have a Plan B ready to put into effect when forced into other opportunities. On day one of the public announcement that Aeroquip-Vickers was being acquired by another corporation, I launched my Plan B and became an independent OHS consultant. Everyone is expendable in business.

Conclusion

Nearly every political pundit expects that there will be massive business and public change during President Trump’s second term in office. It will be like Dickens’ novel “A Tale of Two Cities” being the best of times and the worst of times, depending upon one’s circumstances. People may lead critical government agencies with little or no credentials, like an IH leading a legal task force. People within Trump’s inner circle will be encouraged to jostle for power. Loyalty vows will be exchanged. Everyone will be pushing their vision of best practices. Many best practices will have a hidden agenda. All this chaos is designed to force change. Remember, even if the strongman management style fails, forced change often results in necessary improvements. Be strategic. Prepare for change the best you can.

Reference: IndustryWeek Names Aeroquip's New Haven, Indiana, Facility One of 'America's Best Plants'