‘People make mistakes all the time sometimes it leads to bad things and sometimes it doesn’t’
People are encouraged to make decisions and nearly all the time, nearly all our employees are good people who want to do a good job for the business but we are all human and mistakes happen, building systems and capacity are key elements and will change your business. In this episode, Colin explains how you can do this effectively using your employees as the problem solvers.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
When management look at errors they view them in 2 different ways;
Errors that don’t lead to a problem - they might not even be aware of.
Errors that lead to an incident or accident - Management view these differently they tend to have perfect hindsight and often the worker is blamed very early on.
We encourage our employees to keep things going, to make decisions and sometimes they make wrong decisions.
Good safety is not the absence of accidents it’s the ability to have the capacity for people to make mistakes and not get hurt from it.
Review the systems and processes, How does your system handle people making poor decisions?
Build a system that has the capacity for mistakes.
The near-miss and near-miss reporting - In lots of businesses there is complacency about this system.
Changing and adding to the question on the report means you can use the system to effectively move your systems forward.
Look at your near misses differently, as an opportunity to learn. Talk to your employees find out what changes they would make.
Our employees are not the problem they are the solution, the problem solvers. Listening to them will help improvements and create more effective systems.
BEST MOMENTS
‘If we filled our workplaces with robots you would not get those instantaneous improvements’
‘If you can identify what people were doing when things are going well then you can replicate it’
‘People don’t go to work to get hurt but decisions they make can sometimes lead to bad consequences’
VALUABLE RESOURCES
The Interesting Health & Safety Podcast
ABOUT THE HOST
Colin’s Biography
‘Making health and safety as important as everything else we do.’
This is the belief that Colin is passionate about and through his consultancy Influential Management Group (IMG) is able to spread into industry.
Colin works at a strategic level with company owners and board members. He helps business leaders establish and achieve their health and safety ambitions.
He has developed a number of leading competency improvement programmes that are delivered across industry and his strengths are his ability to take a practical approach to problem-solving and being able to liaise at all levels within an organisation.
Colin also runs a company that vets contractors online and a network that develops and support H&S consultancies to become better businesses.
Colin chairs the Construction Dust Partnership, an industry collaboration directly involving many organisations, including the Health and Safety Executive.
He is a Post Graduate Tutor at Strathclyde University and a highly sought-after health and safety speaker and trainer.
He has a Post Graduate Certificate in Safety and Risk management, an engineering degree and is a Chartered Member of the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH).
