Although some organizations have extensive safety standards, processes and procedures in place to keep us safe; Serious accidents and dangerous events can occur at anytime unless we continue to maintain consistent focus. To achieve a further step change in safety performance, every one of us must accept a greater level of responsibility, for our own safety and the safety of others and harmonisation of key safety processes is needed within an organization.
Personal Responsibility for Safety is about all of us, working safely, and caring for the safety of our colleagues, family, friends and everyone else we come into contact with and always intervening when we observe unsafe behaviours or conditions.
The following behaviours are critical to ensure this step change.
- Clear Expectations – Make safety important, promote and follow the rules and procedures and ensure you understand what is expected of you and your colleagues.
- Effective Communication – Where possible use face to face communication. Always listen carefully, ask open questions, check understanding.
- Personal Leadership – Lead by example and praise safe behaviour. Have courage to do the right thing and do not tolerate unsafe behaviour whether at work, home or leisure.
- Personal Risk Awareness – Stay aware of your surroundings, remain alert to changes and never put yourself or others at risk. Contribute to discussions about risks on the job.
- Planning – Take time to fully familiarize yourself with the safety aspects of the job and question any areas that are not completely clear to you.
- The Right and Duty to Intervene – Challenge any unsafe acts or conditions and praise positive and safe behaviour. Welcome intervention from others.
- Accountability – Accept responsibility for your actions and their consequences and offer solutions to prevent accidents….Follow the rules, they are there to keep you safe, take responsibility and ownership for safety in the environments that you live and work in, take action and offer solutions to prevent accidents, take time to think about the positive and negative consequences of the actions of yourself and your colleagues
- Self Evaluation – List your personal commitments to safety and share them with your colleagues. Regularly request feedback.
- Develop, Encourage and Sustain Safe Behaviour – Start every day by thinking of how you can keep yourself and others safe.
- Practice hazard recognition – Consistently do things the safe way at work and at home
- Share good practice and intervene to change bad practice
- Give and act on positive and negative feedback
- Continually look for opportunities to learn from others
- Keep communicating the benefits of sustained safety
If we all apply these techniques today, then the right results will come our way.
“One very important aspect of motivation is the willingness to stop and to look at things that no one else has bothered to look at. This simple process of focusing on things that are normally taken for granted is a powerful source of creativity…” Edward Bono
Many thanks to Bob Cornett @ MSHA and his safety sharing group for sharing this us.