PAPod 615 - Leaders First: Why Safety Starts at the Top

yeah you okay So two things.

One is I think ultimately the things that work the best is the realization that the group that needs the biggest facilitation through change is the leadership team.

And that if you don't really spend your time, energy, effort, money, and resources changing the way leaders think, you will not be successful in changing the organization's approach to safety and reliability.

You just won't.

That's how key they are as really the gatekeepers to the ability to create a culture that can learn from itself.

And sustained, right? Yeah.

And so if you don't spend your time with the leaders, in my opinion, I mean, just from doing this a really long time, you will not succeed.

The problem is, is that the leaders bring to the table a busy schedule.

So they're too damn important to, you know, take time away from their busy stapling of stuff to actually come and have this discussion.

Yeah.

But that's not nearly as severe as B, which is the fact that they believe they already do all this stuff.

And so the problem is the enemy of the question is always the answer.

I mean, I don't know if you guys have thought about that in your study for counter-errorism, which I really like your title.

But as soon as the bosses think they know the problem, there's no longer any necessity for them to learn about the problem.

Because once you identify what the problem is, then as a leader, you immediately switch gears into fixing.

We want to fix, which is one of the biggest issues, like at a place like Los Alamos, we can tell you this, is that an investigation oftentimes is really pushed towards finding a fix, but that's not really an investigation's job.

An investigation's job is to investigate.

That's kind of why we call them investigations.

So what we want to identify really is a word we use in the Department of Energy called a judgment of need.

So you investigate to find a problem, and then the program owners own the solution.

But the difference between problem and solution is really profound.

And that same thing kind of leads to leaders.

Leaders are tough because, first of all, I've said this a bunch of times, but every organization is one senior leader away from starting again with all of their programs.

Not just human performance, but pick them in lean, whatever programs you're doing, especially around operational excellence, operational effectiveness.

You know, a new leader can sync a program in a second.

yeah you okay So two things.

One is I think ultimately the things that work the best is the realization that the group that needs the biggest facilitation through change is the leadership team.

And that if you don't really spend your time, energy, effort, money, and resources changing the way leaders think, you will not be successful in changing the organization's approach to safety and reliability.

You just won't.

That's how key they are as really the gatekeepers to the ability to create a culture that can learn from itself.

And sustained, right? Yeah.

And so if you don't spend your time with the leaders, in my opinion, I mean, just from doing this a really long time, you will not succeed.

The problem is, is that the leaders bring to the table a busy schedule.

So they're too damn important to, you know, take time away from their busy stapling of stuff to actually come and have this discussion.

Yeah.

But that's not nearly as severe as B, which is the fact that they believe they already do all this stuff.

And so the problem is the enemy of the question is always the answer.

I mean, I don't know if you guys have thought about that in your study for counter-errorism, which I really like your title.

But as soon as the bosses think they know the problem, there's no longer any necessity for them to learn about the problem.

Because once you identify what the problem is, then as a leader, you immediately switch gears into fixing.

We want to fix, which is one of the biggest issues, like at a place like Los Alamos, we can tell you this, is that an investigation oftentimes is really pushed towards finding a fix, but that's not really an investigation's job.

An investigation's job is to investigate.

That's kind of why we call them investigations.

So what we want to identify really is a word we use in the Department of Energy called a judgment of need.

So you investigate to find a problem, and then the program owners own the solution.

But the difference between problem and solution is really profound.

And that same thing kind of leads to leaders.

Leaders are tough because, first of all, I've said this a bunch of times, but every organization is one senior leader away from starting again with all of their programs.

Not just human performance, but pick them in lean, whatever programs you're doing, especially around operational excellence, operational effectiveness.

You know, a new leader can sync a program in a second.