1. Safety Improvement with a leadership focus
Greg Lazzaro
AHRI – Safety Presentation
4th August 2009
2. Introduction
Safety Improvement
Employee Engagement &
Culture Change.
Personal experience firstly in
operational roles and now at GM
level with an ASX 200 company.
Discuss Safety Leadership and
how to engage and influence the
culture using safety as a lever.
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3. Summary of topics
Safety Leadership – what does this mean in business change management context ?
Safety Improvement – How do we take business forward in this area ?
Safety Culture – Identifying, Influencing and changing safety culture ?
Practical mechanisms to change perceptions of risk ?
Turning risks to opportunities by leading safety change ?
People – how do we engage our people to believe in safety ?
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4. 1. Safety Leadership
Safety leaders are identified as passionate and visible.
“Leadership is the process of influence in which one person can enlist the aid and
support of others in the accomplishment of a common task”.
Managers administer; leaders innovate. Managers do things right; leaders do the right things.
Managers maintain; leaders develop. Managers rely on control; leaders inspire trust.
Managers imitate; leaders originate. Management involves power by position. Leadership
involves power by influence.
Managers ask how and when; leaders ask
what and why
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5. Safety Leadership
Case Study – Safety Awareness Change Process
(Orica business)
Change process initiated by leader of the site – Site Manager
Resultant culture change took about 12 months – 18 months (realistic)
Site Site Mgr Shift
discussions discussions Supervisor
(year 1)
1024 450 25% residual
Site management were convinced in the program ~ 6 month mark
Systems improved as the discipline in safety heightened
KEY Points for change
Needs key leadership sponsor – e.g. Site Manager to lead role
Needs realistic timelines and clear objectives
Communication of outcomes at local levels and in management
forums
LTI FR LTI FR LTI Free days >500
2.4 <1.0
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6. Safety Leadership
Learning's on success
Need to understand the current safety climate in the workplace - Engagement
Develop a high level plan as to what it is the workplace desires to achieve in a given
time – Plan
Work on targeting the areas where there are identified deficiencies - Execute
Measurement of progress to plan and celebration of success - Measure
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7. Safety Leadership
Practical Safety leadership comprises of:
Engagement of the workforce
Discovering and empowering enablers
Safety Leader to be seen as the facilitator
Encourage the celebration of success
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8. 2. Safety Improvements
What is Safety improvement within a workplace?
Experience has shown that it is not based solely on traditional key performance
indicators (LTIFR, TRCFR etc..) but a combination of heightened sophistication in the
activity that is demonstrated and heightened awareness of risk and management of
the reduction of exposures at the activity level.
How do we measure this?
Usually when things go wrong, we can narrow it to an event. Therefore focus at the
event level is key.
In the following example, the mechanism of risk was devised by the engineering team at the site
along with the operations staff.
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9. Example of High Pressure activity
Cleaning of a heat exchanger
Once a month activity
High pressure water cleaning activity
Previous manual cleaning using lance
Ejection of plastic particles were hazards
Equipment was not ideal
Solution
Manual hydraulic ram was engineered and
remote operation as seen in the picture
The process was instigated by a series of safety awareness discussions on the activity and
ultimately the operations group gathered support from management and was seen as a
success for both safety and efficiency.
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10. 3. Safety Culture
What is Safety culture? How do you determine this?
What does the general workforce talk to their friends and family about their business?
What do contractors expect to see when they approach your workplace?
The need to “Walk the Talk”
People within the organisation need to understand that they will be assessed on how they
interact with the safety protocols and subsequent culture of the organisation in every task
they conduct.
Case study: Contract gardeners at a major petrochemical facility. Good safety turned to great
business
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11. Safety Culture – when things go wrong
Case Study – Influencing by consequence and focus
When things go wrong!
CRISIS MANAGEMENT
Safety Leaders must rely on facts.
Management Systems are key
Crisis Management brings true leaders to the surface.
Prioritising events
Proper management of expectations from a human factors and legal perspective a
must.
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12. Incident 1 – Typical Autumn Saturday morning
Phone call received at 9:00am regarding an incident at a manufacturing site
Details become more detailed of an injured employee taken to hospital
Employee apparently fell about 2.5 meters from a piece of equipment that was being
worked on during a weekend as it was shutdown
Upon arrival at the site, the gravity of the incident took more shape
A 2.5 tonne bearing housing was found within 0.5m of where the employee grounded
When discussed with the site personnel, it was found that the person was standing on
the bearing housing when it dislodged and he narrowly missed being crushed.
How does this incident then translate to the need for culture change?
Safety Leaders are confronted with a decision on how they would deal with this
very serious event.
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13. Consequence translated to action
Safety Leader has path of action to take:
1. Fully understand the facts
2. Engage the stakeholders to ensure that all factors
leading up the incident are accurate
3. Root cause analysis
4. Communication within stakeholder groups to agree
that the causal analysis is correct
5. Establish a communication and action plan
Where do safety leaders now need to influence?
1. Identify and establish key accountable parties
2. Take the parties through the investigation
3. Ensure senior management attendance
4. Identify the worst case scenario and work back
i.e. fatality and related repercussions CLARITY of CONSEQUENCE
5. Ensure that all parties are given the consequence will ensure
feedback and “what if” scenario ACTIONS completed to REMEDY
6. Obtain commitment form all to ensure that the
actions will be implemented and that senior mgt
demand that the findings are closed out
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14. Safety culture – Building from crisis
Safety Leaders influence culture by demanding expectation of system and process
Influencing systems compliance by the use of validation checks and audits
Enabling stakeholders to understand and identify precursors to hazards
Influence “what’s in it for me” approach to safety management
Enlisting enablers to carry the messages and stimulate involvement in process’s such
as investigations and action plans
Decide on the improvement approach that best suits the culture change required
Translate the learnings into process
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15. Incident 2 – Not so typical winter weekday nightshift
Major petrochemical operation
Shutdown activities into 2nd week spirits
high but physical factors of N/S showing
3am Chocolate run and safety discussions
underway with shift supervisor
A number of safety discussions conducted
When walking down pump alley, the most
horrifying scenario was discovered
Flammable gas – pungent smell and
realisation something seriously wrong
Emergency called, evacuation of activities
and MFB called
Managing Crisis
What happened then was the most Managing people safety
terrifying experience I have ever had Life & Death scenario
Unknown cause
Emergency services
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16. What Happened
In a nutshell:
Maintenance was being conducted to
Liquefied gas the storage area of the plant
Work on particular vessel that took water
from the storage vessel
High pressure flammable gas pressurised
and infiltrated the steam system (reticulated
to the whole plant) due to faulty one way
valve
This delivered flammable gas to nearly the
whole plant via steam traps
Approximately 4 tonne of gas was lost to
atmosphere (390:1 expansion ratio)
Only the actions taken that night prevented
a major community disaster with potential
for multiple fatalities.
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17. Systems & Crisis
Evacuation procedures worked well
MFB response – reliance on site leaders
Safety Leadership was seen as the re-
enforcement of real trust to the group
Actions taken were methodical and relied
on systems
MFB command elected to take
instructions from site once they confirmed
that the control strategy was sound
Plant alarms were saturated
Remedial works were carried out with
precision and controlled by expertise
Site engineers were on site within 30
minutes of alarm
Response was systemic clockwork
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18. Summary
System and process being defined,
validated and practiced is crucial
Safety leaders to ensure that they are
facilitators
Engagement of stakeholders is essential
for holistic change
Emphasis on crisis management and
expertise to be used for varying task
Results
Well understood expectations when
people enter the facility
Desire to comply to rules and procedures
if they are checked
There is a level of respect given to
systems is they are seen to be useful
Senior management involvement is key
to success
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19. 4. Turning risk into opportunities
Safety Leadership revolves around the
need to manage risks
People regularly are put off if the risk
assessment is too conservative
Safety leaders influence the balance
between value add and diminishing
returns which needs to be very well
gauged. Appropriate experience
should guide this process
The key message for safety leaders is to ensure factual and balanced information is
presented to ensure that there is effective risk mitigation coupled with opportunity to conduct
activities.
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20. Conclusion
Safety leadership relies on a
passion to influence real change
Enablers within the facilities are
crucial to spread the word
Culture change comes with a shift
in behaviours and a belief in
expectations
Engagement of the workforce takes
time but is predicated on trust
Senior management MUST be
involved and seen as sponsors
It is the Safety leaders responsibility
to seek and influence / coerce
support
Sometimes, scare tactics work but “Safety leadership is more than just management, and
use wisely! refers to not just what, but how a person influences and
motivates others.”
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