Create Continuous Improvement in Safety Without Adding Risk #60

Jen from Allen Safety addresses the challenges and opportunities presented by rapid changes within workplaces. From turnover to shifts and product changes, she explores how safety managers can effectively navigate these dynamics wand create continuous improvement in safety metrics, safety measures, safety programs, safety training, and overall improve their safety culture all while running more efficient.  

There's often a tension between pursuing continuous improvement and maintaining stability in safety protocols.
Jen shares insights on how new managers can establish their own methods while respecting the legacy left by predecessors, learning why things are done the way they are, how to make improvements without increasing or adding hazards and risks.

Strategic Resource Management

Addressing the controversial topic of resource reduction, Jen emphasizes the importance of strategic safety evaluations with key stakeholders and location content experts before making cuts.
She advises thorough assessment to understand the true impact of cutting resources on safety, operational efficiency, and overall business goals.
Risk Assessment and Mitigation

Before implementing changes or cuts, Jen advocates for a comprehensive risk assessment.
She prompts safety managers to consider potential ripple effects and the implementation of adequate safety buffers and safety nets if changes remove old safety nets and safety buffers to mitigate any new risks created.
Planning and Contingency

Jen emphasizes the necessity of having contingency plans in place for scenarios where cut resources  create unforeseen challenges that could have catastrophic or wide-spread and costly impacts.
She encourages proactive planning to prevent emergencies and associated costs.
Identifying Non-Negotiables

Defining non-negotiables ensures critical safety measures remain intact despite changes and evaluations.
Jen underscores the importance of avoiding unnecessary risks and maintaining essential safety standards.

Conclusion
Jen concludes by encouraging safety managers to engage in critical evaluation and dialogue around resource management. Whether through comprehensive reevaluation or strategic cuts, the goal is to enhance safety and operational efficiency while avoiding unnecessary disruptions and risks.

SEO Keywords:
Safety management, organizational change, continuous improvement in safety, resource management strategies, risk assessment in safety, safety protocols, contingency planning, safety standards, workplace adaptations, safety program stability.

For more insights on navigating workplace changes and enhancing safety management practices, visit Allen Safety Coaching at allensafetycoaching.com. Connect via LinkedIn, Facebook, or Instagram for direct support and further discussions on optimizing safety strategies. Reach out today to ensure your workplace remains safe and compliant amidst ongoing changes.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So this week, on Safe , efficient, profitable, we're
talking about change.
We've had so much change happenwith turnover and shifts and
changes of products.
So how do we adapt in thesafety office and as safety
managers and managers in general, to all of the changes going
around us and how do we keepthat continuous improvement
going?
So let's go, welcome backeverybody.

(00:31):
So my name is Jen and I am oneof the owners of Allen Safety
and today, like we said, we'retalking about change.
So we have had so much change.
This has been on my heart totalk about because I just feel
like we've had an incredibleamount of change with the
turnover I'm having.
My plants have changes in howthey're doing their shifts for
production and maintenance.
They're having changes in theirhours, changes in the days in a
row they're working.
We're having product.
We're having entire plantschange over to running different

(00:53):
products that they never ranbefore.
So there's just change allaround us.
And how do we adapt to thatfrom the safety office?
Because I've noticed that it'sinteresting that all this change
going on around us, butsometimes there becomes this
conflicting thing of we wantcontinuous improvement but we
don't want to change anything,or we want continuous
improvement and we're willing tomake changes, but the changes

(01:15):
we're making create an increasedvolatility and risk.
We've got some tenured managersthat have left us and they left
a legacy.
Got some tenured managers thathave left us and they left a
legacy.
And it's hard to fight thatlegacy sometimes when you're new
in that role and you keephaving to hear how great the
person is that was there beforeyou and how, man, we just miss
them and they were so incredibleand they wouldn't have ever

(01:37):
done it this way.
And so you want to go in andyou really want to make a name
for yourself, and continuousimprovement and showing that you
can do it better, faster,cheaper is one of the ways that
folks go about making thathappen.
And I get that, and sosometimes there becomes this
concept of continuousimprovement by way of cutting
resources.
And I want to be really, reallyclear, because I know that this

(01:58):
can be controversial.
Don't come for me, hang with me, I'm going to ask you to have
an open mind on this one.
So I want to be clear.
We believe in reset points, webelieve in reevaluation.
We do it two times a year wherewe look at everything going on
in the business, everythingwe're spending money on all of
our different systems.
Do they make sense?
Are they adding value?
Is it a good fit?
Should we be doing that?

(02:19):
Is it meeting our expectationsin terms of what we thought we
were going to get for the timeand financial investment?
So we genuinely believe in justdoing a reevaluation, but we
want to make sure that we do itcarefully, right.
We want to make sure that whenwe begin, as an organization, to
ask questions in regards towhat we can cut, that we have

(02:40):
all the information and we wantto be very intentional about
understanding what we're cutting.
What value did it bring?
What was it supposed to bring?
And how does that relate to thecost of the item?
Is the item that we're lookingat cutting?
Is it a good fit to cut it?
Is it not meeting expectations?

(03:00):
Is it not doing what we need?
Is it creating more drama?
Is it creating more work?
It's just, this wasn't what wethought.
We were kind of sold somethingand it turns out it wasn't
really for our business, itwasn't really for our industry,
it wasn't what we needed.
And then, if that's the case,then all right, let's cut it,
let's do it, but we want to makesure before we take that action

(03:21):
, that we're asking the rightquestions to the right people,
and what I mean by that issometimes who we ask they
weren't around when the originaldecision to implement that
process, that system, thatspecific PPE style whatever that
thing is you're looking atcutting or making a reduction on
that individual you're askingwasn't around, and so they don't

(03:43):
know why we do what we do, andthey're not sure and they don't
have all the answers on that,and so we really want to make
sure that we gather all thatinformation and we have as much
of it as we can before we makethose decisions.
So why is this permit or thistemplate or this document or
this process that we do or thisorder that we do it?

(04:04):
Why is it this way?
Why do we need the trainingthis way?
Maybe the person that we'reasking do we really need to do
all this for training?
Do we really need to do all ofthis for authorized electrical,
or do we not?
Well, if that person doesn'tattend training, I would
question whether that would bethe correct person to ask that
too.
Should that person be decidingwho is giving the training, what

(04:25):
the qualifications are forwho's giving the training and
what is included in thattraining?
If they're just managing theprogram, they're not a content
expert for that location.
On that subject, should they bedoing it, or should the
stakeholders be doing it?
We want to make sure that we'reclear on what our goals are
before we start cutting things.
So how is that going to affectour goal?

(04:46):
Is it going to reduce risk,increase risk?
Is it going to help us meet ourgoal?
Is it going to derail us frommeeting our goal?
What is the impact?
The next thing that I would askis is it adding other risks that
we hadn't considered, that arenow getting introduced because
of this different methodology ordifferent style or whatever
that looks like, this differentconcept that we're doing, this
different system that we'redoing?
What else is impacted?

(05:08):
Because sometimes we cut thingsand we realize, oh wow, there's
a ripple effect here and thatimpacted so many more things
than I thought it was going to,and so we want to really analyze
and evaluate what are the farreaching effects?
Or are there any?
But could there potentially beany far reaching effects on
other areas or other disciplines, subjects, whatever?
That is, what else is affectedhere?

(05:30):
And then, if I find, by cuttingthis item, I'm also removing
some buffers, then what systemsam I replacing them?

Speaker 2 (05:40):
with.

Speaker 1 (05:40):
So am I putting an equal or improved safety net or
safety buffer in place for theone that I'm taking away?
If I'm cutting something, iswhat I'm putting in place going
to be better or is it going tohelp me avoid risk totally?
Is it increasing risk or is itgoing to help me avoid risk
totally?
Is it increasing risk or is itgoing to help mitigate it
further If I'm taking one safetybuffer out that I'd like to, in

(06:01):
a perfect role, replace it withone of equal or better
functionality and driving downthat risk?
Lastly, when we look at cuttingthings, what are our backup
plans if that thing that wedecided to cut fails?
Consider just very quickly themode that we all go into when
we're in emergency mode, whenwe're having downtime, when

(06:24):
we're losing money.
Every minute that we're down,the budget sort of kind of goes
out the window.
It's like all hands on deck.
I don't care what it costs.
We got to get back up andrunning, we got to fix this
problem, we got to stop thisemergency.
And so, if we consider whatthat looks like, and then for
the subject matter that we'relooking at, cutting, if
something went sideways or bad,what are the steps that we would

(06:46):
put in place to preventreoccurrence.
So we have injuries, maybedowntime, maybe management time
to prevent reoccurrence.
So we have injuries, maybedowntime, maybe management time
to prevent reoccurrence.
We've got the cost of maybesome maintenance, repair work,
fabrication work, thosemaintenance costs, maybe a
citation.
And consider if we incurred allthose costs and we did
everything that we needed toprevent that from ever happening

(07:07):
again, what would it look likeif we did all that on the front
end, on our timeline timeline,instead of having to do it in
chaos mode, all at one timespend whatever and in
disorganized fashion because wegot to get it done now?
How would we manage that if wewanted to just prevent initial
occurrence completely on thefront end, and how would we
manage that differently?

(07:27):
And does that provide benefit?
So just to wrap up, considerreally quickly before you cut
something, what's the value it'sproviding, big picture value,
not just financial one item, butbig picture management costs,
management time.
Just what else is it affectingAll of those things?
And then consider all thebuffers that it may have
provided and then consider if itdidn't provide any at all.

(07:48):
Maybe it was terrible andthat's fine too.
And then what systems are weputting in place, if it did have
buffers that came with it toreplace whatever things that
we're removing.
So if the thing I'm cuttingtakes buffers out of place, what
systems am I adding to andimplementing to replace those
those buffers, so I don't haveincreased risk?
Evaluate if you come out aheadand then, if yes, let's go,

(08:12):
let's do it, I'm all for it.
I love to run lean.
Anybody can ask Joe or I, welove running very, very lean.
But we do have somenon-negotiables and the biggest
thing here is that you want toidentify what are your
non-negotiables and you'll findthat you have some.
And the biggest thing that wewant to make sure is that we
avoid that cycle of now I knowwhy they did that and now we're

(08:37):
back to square one and we hadall this drama, this chaos, and
we actually ended up spendingmore money because we had this
big thing that happened and nowwe had to fix it, and so that's
the biggest thing is that wewant to avoid.
Now I know why they always didit that way.
Now I know why the permit wasthat way, whatever was that way,
why we picked those boots forthe PPE.
We want to never get into that.

(08:57):
Hopefully, this helps you createyour pro con list of what can
we afford to cut, what are ournon-negotiables, and then also
just help you dive in a littlebit deeper to help identify if
there's some things that you'vegot questions on and really just
challenging things.
You'll end up still runningbetter.
So you may not cut the itemsthat you're challenging, but at
least it'll also help everybodyunderstand well, here's why we

(09:18):
do it that way, and that'salways a benefit too.
More education andunderstanding of why we do
things the way we do is always apositive.
And if you're looking for abudget option, you're like you
know what we've got to trainpeople this year?
We don't have it in the budgetAllenSafetyCoachingcom.
It's a great way to train yoursupervisors.
It's a great way to train asafety manager.
That's new, that you're tryingto onboard, that isn't super
familiar with your location, theplant, the business.

(09:40):
If you've got any questions, wehave our LinkedIn, facebook,
instagram, any of that goodstuff.
We're on it all.
So just reach out, let us know,send us a direct message and we
will see you next time.

Speaker 2 (09:51):
Thank you for listening to Safe, Efficient,
Profitable a worker safetypodcast.
If you're looking for morein-depth discussions or
step-by-step solutions on all ofthe different safety and
regulatory topics, please visitus at wwwallensafetycoachingcom
for web-based virtual coachingand training, or at
wwwallen-safetycom to book ourteam for onsite services,

(10:14):
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(10:36):
Thank you so much for yoursupport.
Thank you.