Impacting organizational culture is a long-term, never-ending endeavor. Many companies struggle with maintaining and sustaining cultural initiatives because their impact may not be felt for several years. Culture, as an organizational construct, is a subjective factor not directly measurable by any instrument, survey or metric. Yet, everyone is impacted by culture and can describe when it turns bad.

During the late 1970s, Judy Komaki and her behavioral psychologist colleagues used their methodology in a food manufacturing facility to improve the safety performance by focusing on reinforcing safe behaviors (Komaki, Barwick, & Scott, 1978). This was the birth of behavior-based safety (BBS).

Can organizations learn anything from the simple ant?

To stay relevant, silence distracters and continue to help organizations eliminate death on the job, behavior-based safety (BBS) processes need to experience a “step-change.”