“The Safety Excellence Trilogy”

“Excellence isn’t the opposite of mediocrity…Excellence is different.”
-Marcus Buckingham, Author of “First, Break all the Rules”
 

Description: This seminar series addresses the ‘Excellence Difference’ in safety! A unique series of organizational learning seminars, designed to explore the critical (WHY, WHAT, & HOW) questions requisite to leading organizational change, and achieving operational Safety Excellence. Each sequential seminar addresses a prerequisite change target (mindset, process, strategy, tactics, and execution) critical to moving an organization to the ‘next higher level’ of performance, and ultimately to the goal of safety excellence. Each seminar is designed to provide stand-alone value, and a comprehensive treatment of the change topic it addresses. The seminar series, in composite, explores the full spectrum of ‘organizational change’, and provides the insight, information, diagnostics, and implementation tools necessary to unify and enable the safety leadership team to guide their organization through an organizational ‘transformation’ to safety excellence.

1. "Stepping Up to Operational Safety Excellence” – A seminar exploring ‘excellence mindset’ addressing ‘WHY' certain organizations achieve safety excellence results, (while most others struggle with mediocrity), and identifying the predominant management principles, practices, and organizational characteristics that drive excellence performance.

2. "A Universal Model for Safety ‘X'-cellence" – A seminar exploring ‘excellence process’ addressing: ‘WHAT' safety excellence companies (the best) do, that differentiates their performance…and results from all others (the rest), and constructing a "Universal Business Model of Safety Excellence” that identifies and aligns the critical elements of operational safety excellence. Although there are no ‘quick fixes’ in business or safety, there definitely is the potential for ‘rapid returns’, when an organization focuses is on ‘doing the right things’! This session exposes the ‘right things’ for safety excellence!

3. "Strategic Planning for Safety Excellence" – A seminar exploring ‘excellence strategy’, addressing: ‘HOW’ safety excellence strategy is developed in ‘high performing’ organizations. This seminar sequentially builds a proprietary seven step strategic planning model for use in guiding the process of organizational change to achieve safety management objectives.
 

Session I –The Excellence Advantage

“Stepping Up…to Operational Safety Excellence”
‘WHY’ excellence companies (the best) outperform the rest.

This program addresses the critical relationships linking an organization’s Safety Culture, i.e., its core leadership values and predominant management practices, to its ability to generate operational Safety Excellence results. The session differentiates an organization’s ‘safety program’ (activities of staff functions) from it’s ‘safety process’ (actions of line managers), and builds a four level organizational ‘step-change’ model which identifies the leadership beliefs, organizational characteristics, and management practices which dominate and define performance at each level along the ‘Safety Performance Continuum’: (SWAMP – NORM – EXCELLENCE & WORLD-CLASS), a/k/a - Unmanaged - Mismanaged -Managed, and ultimately Led!

Participants are challenged to solve for ‘X’ in the Safety Excellence equation: (10 x ‘X’ = Excellence), complete a Safety Culture characteristics assessment, which profiles their organization’s current positioning along the Safety Performance continuum, and engage in workshops to develop understanding and strategies to help their organizations ‘STEP-UP’ to the next level of safety performance. These exercises identify and target those areas presenting greatest opportunity for performance improvement and positive movement towards excellence. This seminar and facilitation is based on the presentation by the same name delivered at the ASSE ‘World-Class Safety Symposium’ of March 2004.

As a result of attending this session, participants will:

• Understand why true safety excellence requires Revolution, (new thinking, strategies, and approaches) rather than evolution (more of the same).

• Be able to identify the ‘four levels’ of organizational safety performance, and assess their organization’s leadership values and management practices, and organizational attributes which define its positioning along the ‘Safety Performance Continuum’.

• Be able to solve for ‘X’ in the ‘Safety Excellence’ equation: (10 x X = Excellence).

• Contribute to and value from peer workshops designed to identify organizational characteristics and develop ‘strategies’ for helping their organizations ‘STEP-UP’ to the next level of safety performance.
   

Session II – Excellence Process

“A Universal Model for Safety ‘X’–cellence”
‘WHAT’ excellence companies do different from the rest

In its purist form, business is a process designed to produce specific outcomes (the Y-words), and when designed correctly, safetY is one of these. In many organizations, however, despite significant investments in safety programs, employee training, and regulatory compliance, there continues to be a disparity between what is required by policy (safe) and what actually occurs in practice (at-risk) behaviors. This is due to the two safety processes all companies have – the visible/written one in the manual (program); and the invisible, yet most powerful and controlling unwritten one in the minds of the people (culture). Excellence requires that we go beyond ‘safety as a program’ and address the culture factors of the organization; the ‘Elements of Excellence’ that define what’s really important, and determine if safe is a core expectation (and outcome) designed into the business process.

“People, however different, when placed in the same system, tend to produce similar results.”

-Peter Senge

This presentation based on best practices, and citations in the excellence literature, identifies eight ‘Elements of Excellence’ common to a high performance safety system, and sequentially aligns these into a ‘Universal Model for Safety Excellence’ that shapes culture and drives behaviors (safe Vs unsafe) in an organization. These factors are:

• A VISION of 100% Safe as requisite to success.

• Safe as a shared core VALUE of high performance.

• VIP LEADERSHIP (Visible-Involved-Participative) as key to safe follower ship

• Strong HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS as fundamental to safe performance.

• COMMUNICATIONS systems to achieve organizational intelligence.

• MEASUREMENTS that drive safe performance.

• INTEGRATION of safety for collaborative efforts… and

• CONSEQUENCE DELIVERY practices that reward and reinforce safe behaviors. 

In composite, these ‘Elements of Excellence’ forge the beliefs, norms, and assumptions of an organization, and shape the actions of its members, from the executive suites to the shop floor. This session explores the forces and targets of change, and the specific roles each ‘Element of Excellence’ plays in forging ‘culture’ and influencing organizational behavior (how business is done - safe Vs. unsafe) in world-class organizations.

As a result of attending this session, participants will:

• Understand the three levels and targets of organizational change, requisite for achieving high performance safety results.

• Recognize that safety excellence is a function of ‘transformational’ change in an organization’s culture (values), leadership (practices) and organization (relationships)…not more of the ‘S.O.S.S’ programs.

• Be able to identify eight ‘Elements of Excellence’ which determine organizational behavior, and which hold the key to safety excellence.

• Be able to use the ‘Universal Model of Safety Excellence’ to quantify, target, and lead ‘transformational’ safety change in their organizations.
   

Session III – Excellence Strategy

“Strategic Planning for Safety Excellence”
‘HOW’ excellence companies plan for different…better results

It’s October 1st and that dreaded call comes in from the boss: “Third quarter results are disappointing…the board wants a 10% reduction across the board…have your annual goals and action plan on my desk Tuesday morning!”

What’s a Safety Manager to do? More training, more audits, more observations, more discipline…more of what hasn’t worked before? Most organizations achieve average results for one basic reason—they fail to plan for excellent ones. This presentation identifies the need for organizations to engage in a strategic planning process…if safety excellence is the objective. The session explores strategic planning, and builds a seven-step proprietary strategic change model, which can guide an organization in developing a dynamic strategy for safety excellence by:

• Raising the safety bar on Purpose

• Sighting in a Vision of safety excellence

• Managing from the Values dimension.

• Making safety excellence a matter of Principles

• Choosing a Mission of safety excellence.

Excellence companies know that there are only two types of decisions worthy of their time and attention, 1) strategic decisions, and 2) strategically driven decisions. For all other organizations, there’s the more common approach—darts anyone?
 

As a result of attending this session, participants will:

• Understand that safety excellence requires a strategy, i.e., a focus on ‘directional change’--not more of the same, quicker, or cheaper.

• Understand that excellence is the end product of a multi-stepped ‘thinking process’ that addresses the core competencies, organizational values, and human resource practices of an organization.

• Be able to identify the seven critical steps’ of a ‘Strategic Planning for Safety Excellence’ process, and be able to introduce such a process in their organizations.
   

THESE POPULAR SEMINARS vary in length from two-hour sessions to 1½-day seminars.  All sessions can be customized to meet your specific content or duration needs.  Please phone me at (315) 383-3801 or e-mail me to discuss any title listed, or to collaborate on a specific requirement you have.