Safety Professionals as Agents of Change

EVERYTHING a Safety Professional does is About CHANGE

As a safety guy, have you ever been accused of being a “fault-finder” (or some other epithet) when all you did was offer a change you thought would improve safety performance? Many organizations do not yet recognize that the basic calling of all Safety Professionals is to be agents of change.

Some kind of change is always the objective, whether developing programs or procedures, conducting investigations or audits, tracking metrics or conducting hazard assessments - even training is intended to elicit a change.

This is not to say safety professionals are interested in change for change’s sake – quite the contrary. Change is at the heart of all improvement, regardless of it being needed in any particular business operation - including safety.

In my experience, business leadership is often unaware that the safety professional is so focused on change. This is often due to a basic lack of knowledge about what a safety professional does. Other times, I have found that although many leaders embrace the concept of change, they are reluctant to follow through with it for a variety of reasons.

After all, change is hard. In fact, it is probably the single hardest thing for people to do individually or collectively. That being said, studies show organizations with the strongest cultures, and often the most competitive position in the market place, are organizations that enthusiastically support change.

Ask yourself, how does my organization approach change? Reluctantly and with suspicion, or with curiosity and a critical view toward improvement. A clear understanding of this basic question can reveal much about your organization’s safety success or lack of it.

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