I believe it’s time for a change, a change in the way Health and Safety is delivered and perceived.
Why? Because conventional Health and Safety systems clearly aren’t working!
At present, there is a tremendous pressure for companies to seek quick wins in Health and Safety and as a result, firms find themselves shooting first without truly taking aim!
This ready, fire, aim approach has led to many of our current linear systems, developed by so called experts being implemented without the involvement and backing of the workers at the coalface.
Deming once said “People support what they create”. Having worked in Health and Safety in many different countries around the world for over 20 years, I can tell you, worker involvement (particularly at the planning stage) still isn’t happening!
It’s a known fact that people don’t really buy into a decision if they don’t weigh in first.
For companies to create a dynamic culture of safety, we strongly believe they need to create a spirit of the game which workers want to play. This can only be achieved by promoting active involvement from day one through continual support and setting good examples.
Firms need to acknowledge that the job depends on everyone’s passion and will to contribute, as people will only really perform when they believe that they can shape their own future.
The challenge is for companies to set values, which match the teams shared core beliefs.
Being able to unite values and beliefs is difficult because humans are all different and no absolute formula could ever work. We have devised a series of simple systems, which we feel make sense and can be integrated into daily routine business.
All our products focus on three essential ingredients:
Awareness – Knowledge and belief of the strategy is real and powerful.
Acceptance – It gets buy-in whereby teams accept the concept as second nature.
Action – it is visual, vocal, active and often has an element of fun.
Mark Taylor
New Zealand
www.iconicsafety.com