My interest in safety began when I experienced a “near-hit” incident early in my engineering career, and when I realized how many of the equipment operators I had known were missing some of their digits. At that time of my life, I was enjoying playing piano and guitar, and I couldn’t imagine what it would [...]
A little thought can make all the difference
Tag Archive: workplace
An Obligation to Be Safe
Years ago (I seem to use that phrase more and more often) I worked for a manager who talked about safety as an obligation. But his unique spin was that the obligation was with each employee. Yes, we had to do all we could to provide a safe environment, good tools, the right personal protective [...]
Frequently Given Answers – 8 Reasons to Take Short Cuts
Short cuts. As a kid this meant cutting through a neighbors yard, or through a path in the woods at the park. I don’t know when I first heard the word used to mean “anything that shortens the time it takes to accomplish a task”, but that is the way the term is used most [...]
6 Moments When I Wished For a Do-Over
Safety is one of those things that has a fair amount of chance involved. Once a chain of events begins, it can be a matter of several factors that determines the severity of the outcome. For example, I once helped a good friend build a greenhouse in his back yard. He was on a 6′ [...]
The Moment of Choice
In this blog I try and present ideas that would give people an opportunity to discuss options, to make choices. Everything we do is decisionable, and we are frequently on autopilot. But if we learn to make the best decisions with each action we take, when the moment of decision is quick we will have [...]
You ARE the Culture!
Company Culture. Our safety culture. The culture of the team. These are all frequently cited as the reason programs succeed or fail. And yet many safety programs are aimed at affecting the culture. Changing attitudes and actions.
Culture is, in a way, a misleading word. It is a collective noun. It represents a collection of attitudes, [...]
A Motive For Safety
A friend of mine recently complained that the phrase “Our employees are our most valuable asset” is among the most overused in business today. After thinking about that, along with the references to “human capital”, I had to disagree. It appears overused, but in reality it is misused. Too many bosses think it is an [...]
Please Pack Your Knives and Go Home
In over thirty years, I have conducted my share of termination meetings. Some due to layoffs, some as a result of shutdowns, some disciplinary, and some due to failure of fit. I think that’s why I seem to be drawn to some of the current reality shows. I feel drawn to the process by which [...]
Forced Ranking – Who’s the Best?
I’ll start with my HR hat on – I do not like forced ranking or required distribution of employee ratings. If you don’t know what that means, well, you are fortunate. Basically, it is a system of taking large groups of employees and ranking them from first to worst. If I was in a half-full [...]
Exploration is Never Done
About a week ago I brought up the idea of the safety warrior. This is the safety guy who works tirelessly against all things that threaten the safety of the employees he is charged with protecting.
The fact is, he can’t do it alone. He needs help.
One of the people who can provide help is the [...]
