Stop Trying to Create a Safety Culture??
This discussion has started up again on LinkedIn: (Link to published article – http://proactsafety.com/articles/stop-trying-to-create-a-safety-culture ) I was initially excited by the headline and thought the author was going to agree with me in that Safety Culture doesn’t actually exist. But………..
Why cant us safety people realize that we are part of the big picture. Take out the word “Safety” out of the suggested actions and just say “Culture” and things make a lot more sense. You don’t stand a chance of success with a new safety initiative if people are consciously or unconsciously pissed off because of some other inherent problem in the organisation or next level of management. You may have limited success because most people are too scared or blasé to argue about safety initiatives – but how is that sustainable?.
People trying to lose weight may have short term success due to some fad diet and claim success with their new “weight loss culture” but then experience long term failure as they don’t make sustainable changes to their overall lifestyle.
The simple definition of culture is “the way we do things around here”. A workplace does a whole lot more than just safety. If the the overall culture is inherently good then safety is a natural output or result (along with quality, profits, staff retention etc) not something you have to ram down peoples throats on bits of paper or have a stupid slogan for.
Do you have any thoughts? Please share them below