The Safety Culture Myth

The "Safety Culture" Myth

Every organization, regardless of size or industry has a culture.  It may be good, bad, mediocre, mature and well established, or just getting started and trying to find itself; but every organization has one.  Much has been written and discussed about safety culture and the various ways it affects business and people; but, in fact, the term “safety culture” is misleading.

When we think of safety culture, among the first things that pop into our heads is safety performance – is it good or bad?  Are people getting hurt, and how is the organization dealing with it?  Do they seek to prevent occurrences with meaningful and sustainable corrective actions and controls, or do they slap a band aid on it and wait for the next one? 

The truth is, “safety culture” is merely a component part of the overall culture for the organization.  Measures intended to improve safety performance cannot be sustained unless there is a concerted effort to implement them in the context of how they will impact the organization as a whole.  Safety ultimately affects every department and division of an organization, and the skills necessary to make meaningful changes in safety are generally the same one’s that lead a company to higher levels of market and financial performance.

Don’t think of safety culture as a stand-alone marker of your business that is somehow independent of everything else you do.  Rather, think of it as one of many components taking its rightful place in the overall makeup of your approach to success – however you define it.

Influence and the Safety Professional; Part 1

For most safety professionals, the days of wandering around the job site or workplace clipboard in hand are largely over.  Today’s safety professionals are increasingly engaged in the process of positively influencing behavior and culture to protect lives and property.

Influence is a part of life whether we know it or not. The thing is, everyone has influence, and everyone is influenced by someone.  But influence is never about manipulation or controlling people.  To have successful influence on the strategic direction of safety in an organization, the safety professional must draw from his/her well of knowledge on building relationships, trust and mutual respect over and over again.  There are very few occasions when this doesn’t involve exerting their influence to “sell” safety to stakeholders, but also applying those skills to understand the stakeholder’s perspective and concerns.

I agree with the concept that “leadership is influence.”  I also recognize that most safety professionals are control freaks to one degree or another.  However, there are those who have come to the realization that you really can’t control people, you can only control process.  You influence people.

Are Climate and Culture the Same Thing?

Do you want Culture Change, or just a Change in Climate?

A lot has been said over the last decade or so about culture growth and how to create it, or change it. Safety Professionals often find themselves in the middle of the struggle trying to define it and map a plan to accomplish whatever the current thinking is on an organization's individual culture. Unfortunately, what sometimes occurs is a mistaken focus on climate instead of culture.

What's the difference you say? Simply put, climate is tied to worker perceptions about engagement and how they "feel" about the company (many safety culture perception surveys actually measure climate and call it culture). This is driven by immediate supervision's leadership style, workload, policies and how responsive they are to employee needs and well-being. Supervision's attitude about this tends to change - often on a dime - according to what is either urgent or important at the moment.

Culture, however, is the shared beliefs and assumptions about the company's expectations and values. It is reflected in what workers do automatically because the prevailing expectation is accepted by the worker. If behavior inconsistent with culture occurs, it is corrected by the influence of the expectation; not the direction of supervision.

Whereas both are critically important to the end goal - positive culture improvement - if they are misaligned, climate will almost always overshadow culture and act as a barrier to reaching the goal. Culture should always drive climate because culture is enduring and transcends changes in leadership, organizational challenges and changing goals. Climate is a matter of priority.

When you look at your culture, is what you're seeing actually climate? The answer should reveal some key points about what your organization believes and values.