Safety, Stat!

When should Safety intervene on site when it’s not our business? Should we just support our teams by sticking to fixing hazards and unsafe behaviors? Here’s what I mean… 

Not long ago, a director lamented, “I want that lead-man to take the foreman position so that he’ll be in line to manage shops, but he says he’s happy where he is.” 

It’s no secret here that I’m an active busybody; I owned and ran two businesses and was a reliable rock for my partner and our employees. When I got my Certified Health and Safety Technician certificate from BCSP fourteen years ago, I pledged to honor public safety. When I see unsafe practices anywhere, I get involved and try to stop them. (That’s a Tik Tok if you ever saw one.) So, why wouldn’t I help our teams? You know, for them to excel.

If you’re still reading this then you know how many sides exist in Safety. At the core, it’s about nurturing and engaging workers in our message, building trust like an owner would, if you were one.  And like an owner, we are out here to affect better working conditions.

Bosses look for born leaders, employees who know their job and do it well. It doesn’t mean every leader wants to move up, though. They may not see their future like you do. Here’s what they might see in your company’s leadership instead, so take heed.

• Managers work overtime unpaid. They might be asked to give up holidays, family events, and their kids’ games. The reality is, today’s foremen are “time poor.” 
• Sure, foremen get paid more money, but Lead men and women make their own overtime. When extra money is needed a lead can choose when to work it.  
• Good leads are hard to come by. A good lead has job security. They don’t get fired.
• To some people a foreman is low on the management rung. It seems that every day, someone blames them for some new issue, no matter what.  
• What is inexcusable is that most foremen get blamed for every injury affecting their crew. It’s lazy stuff – the quickest resolution for ‘time poor’ managers to make. 
• Foremen, managers and directors regularly get fired, sometimes for the smallest offense. To a lead man, when they see it, foreman is a weak position to aspire to. 

What is honestly happening here? The answer is there is no unity between the field and management. There should be one team – one purpose — and there are two. In fact, you might say being a foreman is thankless and prone to being dumped on. Why would any sane person take it?   

In previous articles I have talked about advancing a business structure called, ‘the trinity business.’  A trinity business has three equal parts that fit well in large, medium, and small construction, manufacturing, and Utility companies. It ends workplace dysfunctions. 

Think of the ‘trinity’ as a thick rubber coupling between metal pipes carrying a very precious liquid. Bury these pipes, add frost and heat that expand and contract them; then some heavy vibrations and loads roll over them, even toss in a few low earthquakes.  The trinity business still holds, never spilling a precious drop. 

There are many reasons why a trinity business succeeds; mainly because the trinity is built on three equal parts: Production, Quality Control, and Safety.  Secondly, it is run with respect to each of the three. And finally, it is based on common sense; the kind of common sense and respect for people that can come out of the field. 

A trinity business doesn’t cost anything to begin and run, and yet it makes money and keeps your talent from moving on.  

The trinity is a field/management system sharing control of the three most crucial drivers, but the glue that binds these together is Psychological Safety. This growing trend is a perfect fit for any business built on mutual respect and common sense.  Go to psychsafety.com. Located in Nottingham, UK, Jade and Tom run a very busy shop, full of great purpose. The purpose is how expertly they cut the grizzle and fluff, teaching you what counts in business. They are sensible people; they know that growth, safety or otherwise, comes from well-developed skills like patience and common sense.  Based in respect, here is their abbreviated mission statement:

• To make the world of work a safer, higher performing, more inclusive and equitable place.
• Empower people across the world to foster psychologically safe environments in their organizations and teams.
• We’re building a global community of folks who want to create and maintain psychological safety.
• A core goal is to amplify the voices of those who are less represented in this field. This includes (but is not limited to) voices of people of color, neurodiverse people, LGBTQ+ people, women in leadership and tech, and more.
• We believe knowledge is worthless unless it’s accessible. A key principle of this (Friday) newsletter is to only share content that everyone can access.

Honestly, there is no gimmicky product here for sale. 

By now, we all know that our own universal safety missions are a ‘moveable feast’.  Safety methods come and go; some with gadgets, some without and all are designed to make us safer. Unfortunately, we deal with sentient human beings.  Well-worn ideas top imperfect content, while promised patented products crush careers every season.  With all those unpredictable, unsafe choices we humans make every day, success is made in baby steps.

This is why Psych Safety is so attractive to me — it focuses on how we think and function, our physiology, the role of dopamine, hormones, and other natural chemicals, and how our archaic brains reward us when we choose unsafe actions.  Those one second calculations we make to bring home the bacon are totally unpredictable. Psych Safety practiced in a trinity structured company may very well be the incoming wave to choose. 

Jade and Tom know that it takes ‘a village to raise safe people.’  That’s why they share what they learn with others via their platforms, their training, on LinkedIn, and by mouth.  I’ll tell you what a colleague told me recently. He said that in a few years AI will figure us all out finally and chart a course that will make us safe…  Is this what you’re waiting for too?

Robert Slocomb CHST, Safety Specialist and book author, works for the water wastewater industry in metropolitan Washington, DC.