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in THE ONE thing: The surprisingly simple truth about extraordinary results by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan, the authors share the work of physicist Dr. Lorne Whitehead demonstrating that a domino is capable of knocking over another domino one and a half times its size. This means that a domino that is only 5 millimeters high can knock over a domino that is 7.5 millimeters tall, which can then knock over a domino that is 11.25 millimeters tall. That way, it would only take 29 dominoes to topple the Empire State Building.
To help readers identify their own first domino, the book suggests asking themselves the following question: “What is the ONE thing I can do so that by doing it, everything else will be easier or unnecessary?”
Inspired by the book, the author surveyed and interviewed safety professionals and company leaders and found several common themes and patterns about their ONE thing in four main categories: 1) their upcoming safety initiatives, 2) targeted safety practices, 3) the role of senior safety management and 4) the beliefs of those on the front line to do the job safely.
Survey results
Respondents represented a wide range of industries, including safety consulting, utilities, manufacturing, government, construction, mining, oil and gas, military and healthcare. Their responses to four questions are summarized below.
What is the most important safety initiative you want to make progress on this year?
Most respondents (Figure 1) reported initiatives targeting behaviors such as improving reporting, critical thinking, planning, or psychological safety. Many answers in this category relate to ownership and culture in general. Next in frequency were behaviors targeting employees’ hazard recognition or risk-taking skills. Several organizations reported that they are focusing on centralizing and streamlining their documentation for employees or for certification purposes. Others had software or training in the pipeline.
What is the one strategy, tool or behavior your team should adopt to improve safety?
While most respondents (Figure 2) reported that they would generally like to target behaviors that enhance ownership or culture, often no specific behaviors were identified that would help achieve this goal. Communication behaviors were the next most common among respondents looking to improve work planning dialogues, storytelling, and information sharing. They also communicated the need to continuously recognize, anticipate and mitigate hazards. Leadership behaviors such as coaching, seeking feedback and strategic thinking were also mentioned.
What’s the one thing you really wish your senior management knew about safety?
Many respondents (Figure 3) report working for leaders who “get it.” Others mentioned how important it is for leaders to understand how much they influence safety. Whether they lead by example or give mixed messages, it drives results and behavior. They also want their leaders to appreciate the complexity of safety: it affects the organization in many ways, has many root causes, is difficult to measure and takes time to see results. So, invest in safety programs and staff.
What’s the one thing the front line needs to know about your safety program?
In short, respondents want front-line people to know that the safety department is not responsible for safety (Figure 4). The front line must own the program, follow the guidelines and seek guidance from the safety department when they need it. Many respondents want to know upfront how much they care about going home in the same condition and that the safety department’s goal is to make that happen. If safety procedures are too burdensome or unhelpful, then work with safety to improve them.
Interview Insights
For a deeper understanding of the ONE thing in these four questions, the author interviews safety professionals and company leaders from the manufacturing, marine, military, utility, construction, environmental inspection, pharmaceutical, and oil and gas industries. Based on these interviews, here are four principles to adopt to take your organization’s safety to the next level.
1. Embrace metrics
Across the board, there was considerable frustration and lack of clarity when it came to metrics that accurately conveyed the level of safety or risk to an organization. The safety professionals we spoke with understood that having statistics for their leaders was important, but they also found it really difficult to do so.
In the past, there has been a lot of focus on lagging indicators around injury rates and lost time, but these statistics do not provide information about what is causing a problem. Nor do they say whether an organization is safe or just that all the holes in their Swiss cheese haven’t lined up yet. However, there is still a lot of pressure on these metrics.
On the one hand, safety professionals consider these lagging indicators to be insufficient, but on the other hand, they cannot let them go. Part of the reason they can’t release them is because there are no good substitutes. During our interviews, we collected over 30 potential candidates for leading indicators.
Despite these difficulties, it is important to adopt metrics because time and money are limited. When invested in one area, they cannot be invested anywhere else. Knowing whether an investment has been worthwhile and should continue requires some way of measuring success.
2. Accept buy-in
Time and again, safety professionals have expressed the belief that workplace safety is not solely the responsibility of the safety department and that everyone in the organization has a role to play. Safety professionals said they want more input from other departments. They wanted employees to take responsibility for their personal safety.
Safety culture, ownership and accountability are driven by participation. Buy-in comes from at least three places. One happens when employees themselves connect the dots about how some change the organization wants to make in a process, piece of equipment, or behavior is important to them. It’s much easier to write a memo or stand in front of a classroom and tell people why this matters. But it’s much stronger when they realize for themselves how it protects something they want to protect or helps them achieve something they want to achieve.
Bribery also occurs when employees participate in the problem-solving process. Adults like to feel a sense of autonomy and want to apply tools and strategies in ways that make sense to them and are consistent with their experiences. Involve employees in the development of solutions and they will be significantly more engaged. During our trainings, employees always develop their own action plan for how they will implement new behaviors in their own work day.
Thirdly, buy-in comes from leadership. Are they taking the time and investing in the structure that allows employees to connect the dots and be part of the solution? Are they sending mixed messages about safety? Do they undermine employees’ sense of autonomy or respect with authoritative or dismissive communications?
3. Take a holistic approach.
Many organizations find that quick wins and easy solutions have already been addressed. To reach the next level of safety performance, they must dig deeper and address multiple areas to make an impact. It requires both developing resilient systems so that employees are protected when mistakes are made, and improving how employees behave within the systems.
When it comes to changing employee behavior, organizations need to appreciate how difficult it is. Human beings are complex. Employees do not leave work at work or home at home. Their physical and emotional well-being matters, so improving workplace safety means investing in programs that help employees create healthy habits for personal well-being. Leadership and communication skills are important at every level in an organization, but are most often overlooked by front-line managers who can have the greatest impact on workplace safety. Getting employees to learn these new skills requires both good training and embracing the next principle: focus.
4. Embrace focus
Returning to the domino analogy, the domino is the initiative to learn a new technology, tool, or behavior that will make the biggest improvement and prepare you to topple the next domino. Unfortunately, knocking over dominoes takes a lot more time and effort than we would like.
One of the biggest struggles mentioned in the interviews was how difficult it is to maintain focus long enough to see results from an initiative. Organizations have so many other priorities to deal with. There’s always the next training to be done, the next initiative it’s time to launch, and the next email to be sent. As a result, organizations have moved on before employees have incorporated new knowledge, tools, and behaviors into their existing habits.
To get long-term measurable results, we recommend that organizations plan to spend at least 60 days post-launch focusing on the knowledge, tools and skills they want employees to retain. Plan ahead for micro-lessons that will revisit key themes and conclusions from different angles or with different examples. Create a structure that helps employees practice new skills until it becomes a natural part of their day.
It makes a difference
Now it’s your turn. What is the ONE thing you can do that, by doing it, will make any effort you make to create a safer workplace easier or unnecessary? As you answer this question, take a holistic approach to look at the entire organization and the many aspects of your employees’ lives. Involve employees in developing a strategy for how to topple the dominoes, identify the metrics by which you will determine the success of the initiative, and then focus on it long enough to make the difference you want to see.
Sharon Lipinski is a Habit SuperHero and CEO of Habit Mastery Consulting, which helps organizations increase their targeted safety behaviors by up to 150%. She is a Certified Educational Game Developer, CBT Certified Insomnia Instructor, Speaker, TV Personality and Coach dedicated to helping people create the right habits so they are happier, healthier and more safe at home and at work.
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