Do you agree with this “safety leadership” quote?
“A system or a procedure never achieved anything, it is people being committed to implementing the system that achieves the performance needed.”
It comes from the Safety Leadership Group (SLG) of which I am a fan.
Personally, I see many great safety professionals trying to be “safety leaders” without a platform to lead from!!!
We MUST have the procedures/safe work practices and management systems FIRST and then we lead the culture to see the VALUE in safety. Just imagine a used car salesperson trying to sell you a car before you have even seen the car – I bet you would be a tough sale; now put yourself in the shoes of your co-workers and try and sell them on safety when there is no visible/tangible safety process for them to engage in. There is NOTHING WRONG with having an SMS in place! And yes, eventually, our efforts have to shift from “building the SMS” to “being the leader within the SMS”. But the SMS comes FIRST! We have to get into the mindset that we are in our role to work ourselves out of the job in 3-4 years, as once we have the SMS built and we have established safety as a facility VALUE, our work is done. We move to being a consultant/subject matter expert and management drives the safety movement via the SMS.
