In this short safety moment, Todd Conklin challenges leaders to look at how they talk about their organization's capacity to do high risk work. You can describe how bad things are or how good they could be, and each framing produces a different response. When leadership only hears about accidents, problems and injuries, they start to believe they lead an organization full of problems.
Key takeaways
- The words leaders use to describe the organization become how people think about the organization.
- There is a continuum between talking about how bad things are and how good they could be; leading well means choosing where you sit on it.
- Executives often only receive exception data: accidents, injuries and problems, because that is what safety reports up.
- A plant manager told only about worker screw-ups comes to believe he leads a plant full of screw-ups, which is not true.
- Strategic safety communication is a cultural signal, not just an information transfer.
How you talk about your organization colors how people feel about the organization. It's actually a really important cultural piece of data.
If all they do is tell me my workers are screw-ups, then what I believe is I lead a plant full of screw-ups.
You can either talk about how bad it is, or you can talk about how good it could be.
The SafetyTalker take
Before your next safety report to management, count how many items describe failure versus capacity. If everything you send up is incidents and violations, you are training leadership to see the workforce as the problem. Balance the picture with what went right and what the crew handled well.
Full transcript
Read the full transcript
So let me give you an opportunity. Is that the way to say that? It feels like when my boss says that to me, that means I’m going to get an assignment I don’t want. So I don’t mean it that way. But let me actually introduce an idea that I think is pretty important. And I think now’s a good time to have that conversation. So let’s have it. Hey, everybody. Todd Conklin, PreAccident Investigation Safety Moment. How are you? I hope you’re doing really great. This is our opportunity to get together and hang. And I told you earlier, I’m going to give you an opportunity. But what I’m really going to do is ask you to think about the strategic communication you do with your organization.
Because how you talk about your organization colors how people feel about the organization. It’s actually a really important cultural piece of data. And so the words we use to describe the world are how we think about the world. That makes sense, right? And what I want to share with you, at least for today’s safety moment, and maybe we should talk about this more in greater detail, is how we talk about the capacity our organization has to do high-risk work in a rapidly changing, highly variable, risky environment. And you really have two choices. I mean, that’s kind of simplified, but you have a continuum of choices, and on one end is one choice, and on the other end is the other choice.
Maybe that’s a better way to say that. You can either talk about how bad it is, or you can talk about how good it could be. And the continuum between those two, that’s where the art and nuance of you as a good leader falls in place. But what happens is we tend to talk often about how bad it is. In fact, I had a plant manager in a large automotive plant, a big one, in fact, a really big one, who told me, you know, if all they do is tell me my workers are screw-ups, then what I believe is I lead a plant full of screw-ups. Well, that’s not true. Of course that’s not true. That’s goofy. But I can see we’re at the highest level of the organization.
The information they’re getting about actual workers doing work is oftentimes based upon exception. It’s accidents. It’s problems. It’s injuries. It’s all the things that we don’t want. But when you think about it, part of that is because that’s what we tell them. We could talk about how bad it is, or we can talk about how good it could be. And they’re going to elicit different responses because that’s what they do. So think about that when you think about how you talk about your organization. Because how you talk about your organization is how people think about it. It’s how you think about your organization. How bad it is, or how good it could be. That’s the safety moment for today.
Learn something new every single day. Have as much fun as you possibly can. Be good to each other. Be kind to each other. Check in on one another. And for goodness sakes, you guys, be safe.
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