BEHAVIOUR BASED SAFETY

How often have we told people to follow safety instructions and they have gone ahead violating the instructions which resulted in incidents / accidents.

How often we have sent our employees for training programs and expected that once trained they will be competent to perform, but later found no change / improvement in their way of work.

The traditional system of managing safety function is top down, wherein we create a Safety policy, introduce methods and processess, provide training to employees, issue PPEs, conduct tool box talks and random safety inspections / audits, initiate disciplinary actions against violators.

Has these traditional methods helped to bring about the necessary results ???  NO. 90 percent of the accidents are caused by unsafe acts (behaviour). Do we measure the number of unsafe behaviours that leads to near miss incidents / minor accidents / major accidents.

The traditional system fails to take into account the factors that influence behaviour of a person on the work and the factors that re-inforce learning.

Years of research and study on the above factors has resulted in a  a path breaking concept Behaviour Based Safety (BBS), introduced in the late 80's. The basic idea is to try and apply the findings of Behavioural Psychology  to the safety related issues in the real world. 

BBS is a bottom-up approach with the top management support to bring about a change in the safety culture in the organisation. BBS focuses on what people do, analyse why they do it and suggest simple interventions to bring about safe behaviour in the work place. To be effective this intervention should have the commitment of the top leader of the organisation and support and guidance of other senior managers in the organisation.

We will discuss more on this in the subsequent blogs.

Self Limiting Beliefs

People thought it is difficult to run 100 meters in less than 10 secs until Jim Hines of US crossed the rope in 9.95 secs in 1968. Now the world record is 9.69 secs and most of the runners clock below 10 secs

Getting a telephone connections (landline) 20 years back used to take 3 to 6 months. Today you can walk in a store and come back with a hand phone talking to your loved ones.

When I was young I never thought I could stand up infront of an audience and deliver a speech. I was basically an introvert. But situation forced me to stand up and speak. I fumbled the first few times but became better and better as I kept on doing it.

Do you have a similar experience of something that you thought you could not do, but later was able to do more than that. What is that one thing that makes us think that we cannot do something that others are able to do. It is not about our capabilities. It is about our Self Limiting Belief.

What is Self Limiting Belief?

When we are young we thought we could become a doctor or a collector or a cricketer. But as we grew up, we started hearing that we are not capable of doing what we intend to do. Maybe there could have been a few instances where we tried and failed, which made us believe “it’s not possible by me”. Psychologist call this social conditioning.

Belief is a psychological state of mind, where we accept a statement is true or it exists.

Self limiting belief is restrictions that we impose to ourselves on what we are capable of doing. A psychological border which we draw within ourselves and vow not to cross it. It could be based on what the society has taught us or based on our own experience. There is also the fear of failure which makes us not to venture beyond the border.

6 Ways to overcome Self Limiting Beliefs:

1.     Write down in a piece of paper some of your limiting beliefs that prevents you from achieving what you wanted to achieve in your life. Seek help from friends if need be and help others if they seek.

2.     Find out what is the source of the belief. Could be a personal experience or what others have told you or what you perceived based on your social interactions.

3.     Look at the positives that you gain if only you can overcome this belief. Things that you can achieve and what other benefits you get out of it. May be financial or happiness or freedom from something.

4.     Paint the positive picture in your mind or create an illustration of the same in a paper and keep it in a place where you can see this everyday. Maybe your dressing table mirror. Do not be afraid of any criticism as it is your goal and you need to achieve it and the same criticizer will appreciate.

5.     Have self talk with positive affirmations. Keep telling to yourself that you can make it. Self talk is very important to overcome self limiting beliefs. Maybe make some physical changes to yourself or to the environment around you. Like growing a French beard, start wearing a tie, start responding in English …etc. depending on which belief you want to overcome.

6.     Finally when you see the slightest success, enjoy it & celebrate it. Get yourself a gift that you would love to have, take a vacation …etc., things that will excite you. This is very important to re-inforce the belief that you can overcome your self limiting belief.

“ The truly successful people are not characterized by a lack of obstacles; rather, they are characterized by a willingness and determination to do the hard work to overcome those obstacles.”

Interviewing for selection

INTERVIEWING FOR SELECTION ...

I was discussing with a Senior Manager on a particular resume on its suitability for the position that we had in our organisation. "Call him for an interview. let's grill him..." was the response from the Manager.

Are we interviewing for Selection or Rejection???

In my experience I had seen 2 types of Managers. One who would ask questions in an interview to understand if the candidate will fit in for the position and the second who would question to prove they know more than the candidate. Most of the time it is the second type of manager who would struggle to fill in the positions.

In today's job market where talent is becoming scarce we need to understand that the candidates also has the right to evaluate the interviewing manager and the organisation on whether it is a place worth investing their career with. This is the reason why the number of people taking an offer and not joining  is in the increasing trend.

According to me we need to interview for selection which means we need to look for the four "A's" when we interview a candidate:

Adapatable

Every company has its own culture and way of working. will this candidate fit into our way of working is what we need to assesse in an interview process.

Acceptable

Most of the positions in any organisation is interdependant and it is very important the person who is going to occupy the position needs to be acceptable to the team which would work with this position towards achieving the organisational objective.

Absorption

When we recruit a person we would expect the person to observe what is happening, understand the expectations and act accordingly. The absorption capacity of the candidate should be assessed, if you want someone who can start contributing right from day 1.

Accomodate

Off late the tendency of recruiters is to pay more salary to a new recruit than the salary levels of exisitng people. Ofcourse we need to pay more than what he/she is getting and if we want a good candidate we need to pay more. But we need to understand this will send a wrong message within the company and we need to decide whether we can afford to loose the existing people.

This does not mean we need to take sub-standard candidates to fit our compensation structure, but be aware of the decisions that we are taking and the consequences of the same.

I strongly believe, for any recruitment to be successful, we need to hire the candidate with the right attitude and cultural fit more than for the knowledge or skill or the kind of experience and company the candidate worked for. Managers should also assess themselves (honestly) for their recruitment skill by looking at how many of the recruitment decisions they made have been successful in the past.

What foot print are we leaving behind

Foot Prints left behind …

Today we live in a Modern society. A Mother living in India is able to see and talk to her daughter in US everyday through internet chat sites. From the desk of our office we are able to watch the proceeding of a seminar being held few hundred kms away through webcasting tools. At a click of a button we have access to the lessons and teachings of great minds in any field through YouTube. With a Mobile in hand you can stay in touch with anyone anytime. We can keep quoting many such innovations in the field of medicine which has helped us to lead a better life style.

But all these were possible due to the struggle of people who had burnt their midnight oil for innovating these revolutionary technologies. They have left their “Foot Print” for the next generations to live in comfort.

What are the Foot Prints that we intend to leave behind to the next generation?

Here is an interesting story which I read recently:

A Traveler was crossing a dessert and he has run out of drinking water which he was carrying. He was feeling very thirsty and has to cover a long distance to reach the next town. His body fluids started draining and he became very weak. He was afraid he could not move any further and had to die in the desert.

Suddenly he saw a deserted hand-pump at a distance. He reached the pump and saw a Jug of water near the pump and a note left behind.

“Pour the water in the Pump and operate the hand pump to get more water.  Consume as much you want and leave the Jug filled with Water”.

The Pump was very old and the traveler doubted if it will work. He thought, “ should I listen to the advice and what happens if water does not come out of the pump. Or should I drink the water in the jug which will give me the energy to reach the next town.” His logical brain suggested him to drink the water but his emotional mind suggested him to follow the instructions in the sheet of paper.

Do we face a similar situation in our life. What would you do if you were the traveler?

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While we enjoy the benefits (jug of water to drink) of the good foot prints left by our ancestors, are we going to leave behind similar good foot prints to our next generation  (leaving the jug full of water for the next traveler).

If you take the environment, we have destroyed the natural  balance by cutting trees, blasting mountains, mining minerals, extracting water, polluting the air. This has resulted in Global Warming. Our Glaciers are melting faster, the normal surface temperature is rising, rains are erratic.

What are we doing about this? What kind of an environment we are going to leave to the next generation? Who are these next generation? Are they not our Children and grand children? Are we not answerable to them?

Please ask the question : Do I have a role to play to protect my environment and leave a better one for my children.

Invariably the honest answer has to be “YES”.

 Then Let’s ACT

Motivational Articles - Stephen Hawking

The Best Way Out is Always Through

Here is a story from the book, The Best Way Out is Always Through called, "Defying the Diagnosis." It's guaranteed to put your life's challenges in different perspective: It was 1962. Stephen Hawking was just twenty-one-years old when he received the awful news that would change his life - he had amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease. It's a devastating diagnosis: the disease is progressive, incurable and fatal. His doctors told him he had just a few years to live. At the time, Hawking was a doctoral student at Cambridge, having already earned a degree from Oxford. But his research hadn't been going well; he was unmotivated in his work and bored with his life. His diagnosis was a turning point: He could either give up his studies and wait to die, or he could make the most of what time he had left. At first, he chose the road of despair and resignation. He wanted to give up because he didn't see any point in finishing his degree if he was going to die soon. But he didn't give up for long. Through the encouragement and love of his girlfriend, Jane, he pulled out of his despair and found the fire and determination that had been missing before his diagnosis. He married Jane in 1965, finished his studies, and got a job at a university. True, he was afraid of dying, but even more, he was afraid that he would die without achieving anything in his life. Hawking and Jane had three children together, and she devotedly cared for him year after year as his disease progressed. While his body was deteriorating, his career was blossoming. He was elected as one of the youngest Fellows of the Royal Society in 1974, became a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1982, and became a Companion of Honour in 1989. These acknowledgements and public honors were bestowed on Hawking for his contributions to the fields of theoretical cosmology and quantum gravity, especially in the context of black holes. He has published hundreds of research papers, as well as six books. His runaway bestseller was, A Brief History of Time, which stayed on the Sunday Times best-seller list for a record-breaking 237 weeks - unheard of for a science book. It's been over forty years since Hawking got his diagnosis from the doctors. He defied their prediction of an early death, as well as his early impulse to give up. Now completely paralyzed, wheelchair-bound and compelled to use a computer voice synthesizer, he is a respected scientist, a world-renowned celebrity and an inspiration to millions. In a 2005 interview, Hawking said, "It is a waste of time to be angry about my disability. One has to get on with life and I haven't done badly. People won't have time for you if you are always angry or complaining." That's not a bad credo to live by… ~~~~~~