Hear What Your Employees Have to Say About Safety!

Managing-Consensus

In the process of developing safety programs, it is critical that the long view of program development be taken. Managing by consensus is by far one of the most effective tools for developing ground or shop level support for improving safety standards. This process allows all voices to be heard and the information contained in those voices to be acted upon to better the overall result. However, consensus building can be messy. Voices that are loud and insistent can drown out others that might actually contain mission critical information. Coaxing these quiet employees out of the shadows requires skill and considerable patience.

It is true that it is easier to gather consensus around an issue when there is less effort required in terms of behavior or belief change. If people don’t actually have to alter their behavior or engage in gathering new information, then they will often comply just to stop the conversation. However, what happens when the required behavior or knowledge is great as in setting high standards? Often the result is that consensus is much more difficult to get and to sustain. The approaches to gather consensus in this setting are limited only by the Safety Managers imagination but they all require patience and unwavering commitment to the following factors.

  • Identify and become thoroughly knowledgeable about the high standard you want to impose. This requires a complete understanding of WHY you wish to have others comply. Regulatory compliance alone tends to work poorly and amounts to “do it because I said so,” which is not a practical approach to take with adults.
  • Understand the setting and the avenues of possible support. Is it quarter end? Are employees covering vacation time, illness, etc.? Is one department more agreeable or more exposed to the hazard than another? Are there others who could, should and want to take a leadership role in this standard?
  • Understand that change can be evolutionary and take time. This does not mean years and you will want to be clear in your own mind about what is reasonable and also matches the level of hazard you have observed.
  • To do the item above, you must find that level that is a stretch goal but perhaps not yet fully compliant – what I call an 80% solution. This does NOT mean that you are backing off from high standards but DOES mean that you are pausing to be sure that your crew is still with you, that necessary changes in what has happened can be made and a thorough review occurs.
  • Communicate constantly. In this, I’ve found it useful to establish regular reporting channels that I know will intrude on the workers ‘space’ enough to be noticed. These might be electronic message boards, supervisory presentations, pop quizzes with small rewards for knowing the current status, or having the senior management team speak for the program status on your behalf. Remember every time someone speaks your message for you, the program is broader, more inclusive and consensus is being built while maintaining high standards.

Finally, I suggest you find joy in the cacophony of voices that are raised both for and against an approach. The engagement is what you are looking for and you must find joy in that people engaged in this process can accomplish amazing things even though it can be messy. They might even go higher than your expected standards.