Beyond Compliance: Building a True Safety Culture

I'm glad you asked that question, Alex, because we use the term safety culture.

Even in my book, I use the term safety culture to talk about safety-specific aspects of a culture.

But if we take a step back, in my mind, there really is no such thing as a safety culture that's somehow independent from the company's overall culture.

So when we think about company culture or safety culture, it's driven by the same thing.

It's driven by leadership.

It's driven by employee engagement.

It's driven by very clear, robust systems and understandable processes.

It's driven by accountability.

Those things are the elements of a healthy company culture, and a safety culture is just a subset of company culture.

I mean, can you imagine... a company operating safely on a consistent basis if the company culture is broken.

I think it's impossible.

By the same token, a very healthy company could have some safety problems.

That's part of being in business.

But that company can overcome the problems, address them, and become smarter and stronger because of them, because all the aspects of the culture are in place.

So when I talk about safety culture, and I do, I'm really talking about the same aspects that drive overall company culture because safety, productivity, and ultimately profitability are all one and the same.

Yeah, absolutely.

Very interesting view.

In your book, Making Safety Happen, you make a point that safety is often not a priority.

Why is the distinction between safety being not a core value so important?

Yeah, you know, I don't get hung up a lot on words, but in this case, I really do think words matter.

And the reason I like to say safety is not a priority is because priorities shift.

I mean, look, you can come to your office today with 10 things to do.

Prioritize number one through 10.

And the phone rings and you've got a problem with a customer.

There's a service issue.