Fleetcoach were at the Safeguard National Health and Safety Conference last week, and we sure learnt a thing or two! The theme was 'better conversations', which we thought sounded pretty excellent, as Health and Safety isn't always known for its riveting dialogue.
Here's some of what we learnt from the excellent presentations throughout the day:
Keynote speaker and Organisational Human Performance Consultant Dr. Todd Conklin says that we can never make all accidents preventable, but we can manage a way to 'fail safely'. His example was car design: every car is designed with the knowledge that when driving, a crash could occur. So what is the safest way to prepare for this possibility? Things like airbags, crumple zones and a better understanding of the physics of skidding.
We already know that when hazards are identified early, the higher the capacity to manage it. The later the hazard is identified, the more your capacity to manage it is lost.
"Telling people to not crash doesn't work", he said. This really resonated with us, because of course our coaching modules are based around this exact concept: We would never simply say “don't speed” or “don’t get distracted” and expect it to work. We'd rather get you thinking about what makes you distracted, why you choose to speed and so on.
Another talk focused on shifting the conversation from compliance to engagement. There were a series of changes promoted: from reactive to proactive, statistics to stories, cost to investment, blaming to learning, failure to success/positive outcomes. It was Dr Hillary Bennett (Director of Leading Safety) who promoted this way of thinking, particularly in regard to ensuring the leadership mindset was engaged and focused on more meaningful Health and Safety questions. She reckoned (and we agree!) that this leads to an ultimately more powerful conversation.
We also loved the Frucor Beverages presentation. They showed us first-hand how they got their factory staff engaged with health and safety. They called their campaign “See it. Sort it. Safe as.”, and it included videos/imagery of staff and their families, really highlighting what sorts of things are important to their community - and in turn, what is worth protecting. We even got to hear from a storeman and factory operator, which really enforced the feeling that they were 'walking their talk'. Frucor found that the more the staff engaged, the more they felt like they had responsibility to “look after their mates” and do something about unsafe things.
In fact, several presenters made the point that health and safety should start with the 'guys on the ground'. It's not the first time we've heard it stated that 'the rulemakers don’t know actually what’s happening'. It's not surprising that evidence shows that rule-based approaches don't work. Prohibited activities, punishment, and threats of potential injury may help in the short-term, but actually removes autonomy and responsibility from employees. Not to mention, for this approach to work it means continuing this fearful environment constantly in order it to keep working. A better approach is a creative one that asks what employees do, and how the company can help them do it better.
As Daniel Hummerdal (Director of Safety Innovation, Art of Work) said: “Do safety with workers, rather than to workers.” Brilliant.
And finally, right up our alley was the talk on mental health by Shaun Robinson, Chief Executive of the Mental Health Foundation. Ultimately, Health and Safety is of course about Health too - it's right there in the title! He talked about going further than defining mental health as the lack of illness, and the concept of languishing versus flourishing employees. There are many benefits to an employer if his/her staff are flourishing, and Robinson talked about a number of ways employers could help employees thrive.
We loved our time at the conference. We always love talking with our customers, and being reminded that there are a whole network of people who are working in this incredibly important area with us.
See you next year!
The Fleetcoach Team
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