Safety Improvement with a leadership focus

Greg Lazzaro

AHRI – Safety Presentation

4th August 2009

2

Introduction

Safety Improvement

Employee Engagement &

Culture Change.

Personal experience firstly in

operational roles and now at GM

level with an ASX 200 company.

Discuss Safety Leadership and

how to engage and influence the

culture using safety as a lever.

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Summary of topics

Safety Leadership – what does this mean in business change management context ?

Safety Improvement – How do we take business forward in this area ?

Safety Culture – Identifying, Influencing and changing safety culture ?

Practical mechanisms to change perceptions of risk ?

Turning risks to opportunities by leading safety change ?

People – how do we engage our people to believe in safety ?

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1. Safety Leadership

Safety leaders are identified as passionate and visible.

“Leadership is the process of influence in which one person can enlist the aid and

support of others in the accomplishment of a common task”.

Management involves power by position. Leadership

involves power by influence.

Managers administer; leaders innovate.

Managers maintain; leaders develop.

Managers ask how and when; leaders ask

what and why

Managers do things right; leaders do the right things.

Managers imitate; leaders originate.

Managers rely on control; leaders inspire trust.

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Safety Leadership

Case Study – Safety Awareness Change Process (Orica business)

Change process initiated by leader of the site – Site Manager

Resultant culture change took about 12 months – 18 months (realistic)

Site management were convinced in the program ~ 6 month mark

Systems improved as the discipline in safety heightened

KEY Points for change

Needs key leadership sponsor – e.g. Site Manager to lead role

Needs realistic timelines and clear objectives

Communication of outcomes at local levels and in management forums

25% residual4501024

Shift

Supervisor

Site Mgr

discussions

Site

discussions

(year 1)

LTI FR

2.4

LTI FR

<1.0LTI Free days >500

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Safety Leadership

Need to understand the current safety climate in the workplace - Engagement

Develop a high level plan as to what it is the workplace desires to achieve in a given

time – Plan

Work on targeting the areas where there are identified deficiencies - Execute

Measurement of progress to plan and celebration of success - Measure

Learning's on success

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Safety Leadership

Practical Safety leadership comprises of:

Engagement of the workforce

Discovering and empowering enablers

Safety Leader to be seen as the facilitator

Encourage the celebration of success

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2. Safety Improvements

What is Safety improvement within a workplace?

Experience has shown that it is not based solely on traditional key performance

indicators (LTIFR, TRCFR etc..) but a combination of heightened sophistication in the

activity that is demonstrated and heightened awareness of risk and management of

the reduction of exposures at the activity level.

How do we measure this?

Usually when things go wrong, we can narrow it to an event. Therefore focus at the

event level is key.

In the following example, the mechanism of risk was devised by the engineering team at the site

along with the operations staff.

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Example of High Pressure activity

Cleaning of a heat exchanger

Once a month activity

High pressure water cleaning activity

Previous manual cleaning using lance

Ejection of plastic particles were hazards

Equipment was not ideal

Solution

Manual hydraulic ram was engineered and

remote operation as seen in the picture

The process was instigated by a series of safety awareness discussions on the activity and

ultimately the operations group gathered support from management and was seen as a

success for both safety and efficiency.

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3. Safety Culture

What is Safety culture? How do you determine this?

What does the general workforce talk to their friends and family about their business?

What do contractors expect to see when they approach your workplace?

The need to “Walk the Talk”

People within the organisation need to understand that they will be assessed on how they

interact with the safety protocols and subsequent culture of the organisation in every task

they conduct.

Case study: Contract gardeners at a major petrochemical facility. Good safety turned to great

business

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Safety Culture – when things go wrong

Case Study – Influencing by consequence and focus

When things go wrong!

CRISIS MANAGEMENT

Safety Leaders must rely on facts.

Management Systems are key

Crisis Management brings true leaders to the surface.

Prioritising events

Proper management of expectations from a human factors and legal perspective a must.

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Incident 1 – Typical Autumn Saturday morning

Phone call received at 9:00am regarding an incident at a manufacturing site

Details become more detailed of an injured employee taken to hospital

Employee apparently fell about 2.5 meters from a piece of equipment that was being

worked on during a weekend as it was shutdown

Upon arrival at the site, the gravity of the incident took more shape

A 2.5 tonne bearing housing was found within 0.5m of where the employee grounded

When discussed with the site personnel, it was found that the person was standing on

the bearing housing when it dislodged and he narrowly missed being crushed.

How does this incident then translate to the need for culture change?

Safety Leaders are confronted with a decision on how they would deal with this very serious event.

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Consequence translated to action

Safety Leader has path of action to take:

1. Fully understand the facts

2. Engage the stakeholders to ensure that all factors

leading up the incident are accurate

3. Root cause analysis

4. Communication within stakeholder groups to agree

that the causal analysis is correct

5. Establish a communication and action plan

Where do safety leaders now need to influence?

1. Identify and establish key accountable parties

2. Take the parties through the investigation

3. Ensure senior management attendance

4. Identify the worst case scenario and work back

i.e. fatality and related repercussions

5. Ensure that all parties are given the consequence feedback and “what if” scenario

6. Obtain commitment form all to ensure that the

actions will be implemented and that senior mgt

demand that the findings are closed out

CLARITY of CONSEQUENCE

will ensure

ACTIONS completed to REMEDY

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Safety culture – Building from crisis

Safety Leaders influence culture by demanding expectation of system and process

Influencing systems compliance by the use of validation checks and audits

Enabling stakeholders to understand and identify precursors to hazards

Influence “what’s in it for me” approach to safety management

Enlisting enablers to carry the messages and stimulate involvement in process’s such

as investigations and action plans

Decide on the improvement approach that best suits the culture change required

Translate the learnings into process

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Incident 2 – Not so typical winter weekday nightshift

Major petrochemical operation

Shutdown activities into 2nd week spirits

high but physical factors of N/S showing

3am Chocolate run and safety discussions

underway with shift supervisor

A number of safety discussions conducted

When walking down pump alley, the most

horrifying scenario was discovered

Flammable gas – pungent smell and

realisation something seriously wrong

Emergency called, evacuation of activities

and MFB called

What happened then was the most

terrifying experience I have ever had

Managing Crisis

Managing people safety

Life & Death scenario

Unknown cause

Emergency services

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What Happened

In a nutshell:

Maintenance was being conducted to Liquefied gas the storage area of the plant

Work on particular vessel that took water from the storage vessel

High pressure flammable gas pressurised and infiltrated the steam system (reticulated to the whole plant) due to faulty one way valve

This delivered flammable gas to nearly the whole plant via steam traps

Approximately 4 tonne of gas was lost to atmosphere (390:1 expansion ratio)

Only the actions taken that night prevented a major community disaster with potential for multiple fatalities.

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Systems & Crisis

Evacuation procedures worked well

MFB response – reliance on site leaders

Safety Leadership was seen as the re-

enforcement of real trust to the group

Actions taken were methodical and relied

on systems

MFB command elected to take

instructions from site once they confirmed

that the control strategy was sound

Plant alarms were saturated

Remedial works were carried out with

precision and controlled by expertise

Site engineers were on site within 30

minutes of alarm

Response was systemic clockwork

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Summary

System and process being defined, validated and practiced is crucial

Safety leaders to ensure that they are facilitators

Engagement of stakeholders is essential for holistic change

Emphasis on crisis management and expertise to be used for varying task

Results

Well understood expectations when people enter the facility

Desire to comply to rules and procedures if they are checked

There is a level of respect given to systems is they are seen to be useful

Senior management involvement is key to success

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4. Turning risk into opportunities

Safety Leadership revolves around the

need to manage risks

People regularly are put off if the risk

assessment is too conservative

Safety leaders influence the balance

between value add and diminishing

returns which needs to be very well

gauged. Appropriate experience

should guide this process

The key message for safety leaders is to ensure factual and balanced information is

presented to ensure that there is effective risk mitigation coupled with opportunity to conduct

activities.

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Conclusion

Safety leadership relies on a passion to influence real change

Enablers within the facilities are crucial to spread the word

Culture change comes with a shift in behaviours and a belief in expectations

Engagement of the workforce takes time but is predicated on trust

Senior management MUST be involved and seen as sponsors

It is the Safety leaders responsibility to seek and influence / coerce support

Sometimes, scare tactics work but use wisely!

“Safety leadership is more than just management, and

refers to not just what, but how a person influences and motivates others.”

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Q & A

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