4. “Behavioral Safety—it’s an employee-driven process,
isn’t it? What’s that have to do with me?”
Quote From A Leader:
a. Has his hands full with other
tasks.
b. Was hoping he could finally
park safety in some other area
besides his lot.
c. Has conflicting
accountabilities.
Leadership Issues in Implementing Change
5. “The days in which we could
come to work, do our jobs and
not think consciously about
safety are over…
Get aboard or you will miss the
train.”
Bob Brennan, President of Manitoba Hydro
Leadership Issues in Implementing Change
6. Our History
• Safety Improvement Initiatives
– Some organizations struggled more than others
• Took longer to implement
• Had greater difficulty getting employee participation
– Resistance highly correlated with assessment
findings
• Poor morale
• Low trust
• Conflict
Leadership Issues in Implementing Change
7. Our Own Studies
• In behavioral safety, the participation of
leadership is critical
– During first year (correlation = .42)
– During second year
• Formal leaders (correlation = .76)
• Informal leaders (correlation = .68)
Leadership Issues in Implementing Change
9. Our History
• Leadership practices seemed to be the best
predictor
• Leaders made two types of errors:
– They were too ‘hands off’
- or -
– They were too directive
Leadership Issues in Implementing Change
10. A Values-Based Culture
Mission/Vision “Walk the talk”
Process Values
Practices
Results
Leadership Issues in Implementing Change
11. “Nothing undermines the
communication of a visionary
change more than behavior on the
part of key players that seems
inconsistent with the vision.”
John Kotter, Leading Change
Leadership Issues in Implementing Change
12. We want to address 3
questions:
• Why we need leaders on board when
implementing Behavioral Safety?
• What actions do leaders need to take?
• How can we help them to do it?
Leadership Issues in Implementing Change
13. What are the effective leaders
doing?
• Interest caused us to go back to the
research literature and our clients
• Included studies that directly examined
behavior and performance
• Involved interviews of
– 9 CEO and General Managers
– 12 Safety Managers/Change Agents
Leadership Issues in Implementing Change
14. Recent Research on
Leadership
• 19 studies (field & experimental studies)
• Examined the differences between
effective and mediocre leadership
• Effective leaders had followers who
– Perform better and
– Had more positive attitudes
• More importantly it showed
– What leaders should do and
– What they should avoid
Leadership Issues in Implementing Change
15. Consistent Results
Literature and Interviews
• Research Data • Interview Data
– Manufacturing – Manufacturing
– Financial institutions – Logging/Sawmills
– US Army – Oil & Gas
– 38 ft racing sail boats – Software Design
– Theater groups – Utilities
• Across different • Across different
cultures cultures
(US, Sweden,& Israel) (US, Canada & Germany)
Leadership Issues in Implementing Change
16. Sample Study
• Komaki, Desselles, & Schepman (1988)
• US Postal Service
• Independent variable - Supervisor trained
to:
– Provide non-specific positive feedback
– Monitor activities without comment
– Monitor activities with specific feedback
• Dependent variable
– Quality of performance
– Employee attitudes
Leadership Issues in Implementing Change
18. Improving Attitudes
COMMENTS ABOUT MANAGERS*
20
% Time spent
15
10
5
0
Monitoring & Monitoring Positive Fdbk
Fdbk
Positive Negative
Leadership Issues in Implementing Change
19. What do effective leaders do?
• Begin monitoring early in social
interaction
• Spend more time monitoring
–Directly observing
–Discussing performance
• Prompt followers to talk about their own
performance
• Give significantly more feedback
Leadership Issues in Implementing Change
20. Less Effective Leaders
• Engage in solitary activities and avoid
interactions with followers
• Talk more about expectations, without
monitoring
• Talk about work, rather than performance
• Provide less feedback
Leadership Issues in Implementing Change
21. What do we need for our
leaders to do? (Interviews)
1. Speak about the safety improvement process
everywhere in meetings and out in the field
2. Model visibly the desired actions—conduct a
observation, make a decision in defense of
safety, “monitor and give feedback”, etc.
3. Develop measures of accountability for
successful adoption of the safety
improvement process
4. Hold supervisors accountable for active
participation.
Leadership Issues in Implementing Change
22. Desired Management Actions
Weekly
Had 3 “hallway” talks
about Behavioral Safety
SUPPORT INSTEAD…
Covered implementation
progress with direct
reports
Conducted at least one
observation
Leadership Issues in Implementing Change
23. Date:
SUPERVISOR’S/CHARGEHAND’S SAFETY INDEX
BEHAVIORS YES NO N/A
Right Now:
1. Pull over to dial cell phone
2. Wearing seat belt
3. Driving the speed limit
4. Wearing portable radio when outside vehicle
5. Wearing the proper PPE
6. Notified operator/crew upon entering work area
Today:
7. Instructed someone on a safety procedure
8. R+ a safe act
9. Gave feedback on someone’s performance
Weekly:
10. Conducted an observation with checklist
11. Held one-on-one discussion with employee about Behavioral Safety
12. Corrected an unsafe condition this week
# YES = % Safe Behaviors
TOTAL YES + NO = TOTAL
Leadership Issues in Implementing Change
24. Safety Index for Manager of Managers
Example of Behaviors w/Different Levels of Importance
Requirements Weight Yes No Score
Discuss/establish safety index w/direct report 10
Approve and fund a safety modification 20
Create a R+ plan 15
Post up-to-date feedback graph 10
Reduce supervisor’s task load by one item to create
time for conducting an observation 20
R+ supervisor for conducting and index 10
Help a peer with their PIP or safety plan 5
Talk about safety progress w/supervisor weekly 5
Hold a hallway “chat” with employee about safety 10
TOTAL POINTS 100 Pts.
possible
Leadership Issues in Implementing Change
25. How do we get the leader to
buy-in?
1. Speak their language.
Leadership Issues in Implementing Change
26. WORKER LOST DAYS*
200
180 183 Total
1999 207
160
2000 111
140
120
100
90
80
60
40
20 15
9 12
0 3 5 1
1999Q1 1999Q2 1999Q3 1999Q4 2000Q1 2000Q2 2000Q3 2000Q4
*Almost equivalent to losing one person for entire year
Leadership Issues in Implementing Change
27. WORKER LIGHT DAYS*
500
468
450
Total
400
1999 540
350 2000 636
300
250
215
200
150 147
116
100
83
50 62 63
22
0
1999Q1 1999Q2 1999Q3 1999Q4 2000Q1 2000Q2 2000Q3 2000Q4
Equivalent to more than 2 people not “on task” for entire year
Leadership Issues in Implementing Change
28. INDIRECT COSTS*
Variability = Safety System Out
$250,000
Of Control
$200,000 Total Range
1999 $116 - 289K
2000 $135 - 337K
$150,000
$100,000
$50,000
$0
1999Q1 1999Q2 1999Q3 1999Q4 2000Q1 2000Q2 2000Q3 2000Q4
Average employee costs $55K – Cost of 2 – 7 people a year
*Using 5 to 12 times direct costs based on NSC & DOL statistics
Leadership Issues in Implementing Change
29. SALES TO RECOUP COSTS*
2500
2272
Annual Range
1999 1.8M - 4.0M
2000
2000 2.1M - 4.6M
1633
Dollars in 1000’s
1500 1337
1364
746
1000
1033 591
742 255 402
500 620
608
339 269
116 183
0
1999Q1 1999Q2 1999Q3 1999Q4 2000Q1 2000Q2 2000Q3 2000Q4
*Assuming a 10% Profit Margin, i.e., company keeps 10% of every dollar in sales.
Leadership Issues in Implementing Change
30. Resources for Calculating $’s
• Occupational Resources Council
www.orc-dc.com
• www.osha.gov e-tools, download
$afety Pays
Leadership Issues in Implementing Change
31. How do we get the leader to
buy-in?
1. Speak their language.
2. Understand what are their
consequences.
Leadership Issues in Implementing Change
32. Pinch Points for Leadership
(Interview data)
• “Too many initiatives to support at once
= dilution”
Leadership Issues in Implementing Change
33. Communication for Change
• Over 3 months- Total
2,300,000 words or
Change
numbers
• Kick-off meeting =
13,400 words
• 13,400/2,300,000
Total
words = .0058
Leadership Issues in Implementing Change
34. “Help…I can’t
keep up!”
Leadership Issues in Implementing Change
35. Pinch Points for Leadership
(Interview data)
•“Too many initiatives to support at once =
dilution”
• Limit competing programs during the
Safety Improvement implementation.
•Talk about the safety initiative
everywhere—meetings, shop floor,
informal hallway chats.
Leadership Issues in Implementing Change
36. Pinch Points for Leadership
(Interview data)
• “I’m being squeezed daily for
production performance from
corporate”
Leadership Issues in Implementing Change
37. Site
Manager
Leadership Issues in Implementing Change
39. Pinch Points for Leadership
(Interview data)
• “I’m being squeezed daily for production
performance from corporate”
• Educate all those who carry consequences
for the leader on what to expect in outcome
measures during the implementation
process.
• Have corporate management use the “tell
me about it” approach.
Leadership Issues in Implementing Change
40. Pinch Points, cont.
• “No matter how much we point out what
the leader needs to do, he/she won’t do it.”
Leadership Issues in Implementing Change
41. Pinch Points, cont.
• “No matter how much we point out what
the leader needs to do, he/she won’t do
it.”
• Determine whether it is a “CAN’T DO
or
WON’T DO problem.
Won’t Do----Change the consequences.
Can’t Do----Change out the person.
Leadership Issues in Implementing Change
42. Pinch Points, cont.
• “I don’t have enough time.”
Leadership Issues in Implementing Change
43. It’s amazing what a little water and sunshine can do!
Leadership Issues in Implementing Change
44. Pinch Points, cont.
• “I don’t have enough time.”
• Help create the accountability
measures, write the speeches, help
create the management checklists, and
whenever possible orchestrate
reinforcement for the manager.
Leadership Issues in Implementing Change
45. CEO’s To Do List
• Communicate, communicate, communicate.
• Check the pulse weekly (monitor/feedback).
• Be willing to go out on a limb.
• Look for champions.
• Don’t wait for people to “feel comfortable.”
• Model visibly that safety is the priority every
day.
• Have metrics to reflect short-term gains.
Leadership Issues in Implementing Change
46. “A bad leader can kill a good
process.”
Rixio Medina
Corporate Safety Manager
Citgo Petroleum
Leadership Issues in Implementing Change
