The importance of top management leadership
Lawrence Waterman, OBE
Chairman
British Safety Council
Let us not pray to be sheltered from dangers
but to be fearless when facing them
Rabindranath Tagore
Risk Management through Leadership
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• Creating an organisational culture for success
• Activities of Leaders
• Focusing on Excellence not Failure
• Broadening the View
Agenda
Large complex, contaminated site, April 2006
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• Creating an organisational culture for success
Agenda
Let us not pray to be sheltered from dangers
but to be fearless when facing them
Rabindranath Tagore
Risk Management through Leadership
9
• Safety Culture is the organisational culture
• How do you want people to work
– managed but empowered
– reliably rule-following (if a little inflexible)
• Health and safety will sit within this frame
Culture
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• Implication is that fully integrated, innovative phase is best
• Depends on the work, the workforce and other factors
Stages of Development
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• Creating an organisational culture for success
• Activities of Leaders
Agenda
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• Leaders are clear about aims and objectives
• Leaders create followers
• Leaders are active and demonstrate behaviours to model
• (Good) Leaders listen as well as speak
• Leaders surprise
• Leaders motivate, encourage and praise what is good
• Leaders operate in a structure
Activities of Leaders
Supervisors – the local leaders
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• We called them “Black Hats”
• Respect – Black Hat Conventions
• Daily – the leaders that the
workers experience
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• Creating an organisational culture for success
• Activities of Leaders
• Focusing on Excellence not Failure
Agenda
15
• Theory backing this
• Behavioural-based approaches
• Safety I and Safety I I
• Reward and Recognition
Focusing on what goes right
Climate Surveys - Questionairres
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• What’s it like working here ?
• The medium is the message !
Just by asking you win respect
• The answers inform the next stage
of workforce engagement
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• Creating an organisational culture for success
• Activities of Leaders
• Focusing on Excellence not Failure
• Broadening the View
Agenda
Health – not just accident prevention
20
• Porridge – breakfast campaign
• Health as a way to engage
• Ill Health costs us even more than
accidents – lost productivity
• Workplaces as suitable venues for
good health initiatives
• Evidence is that this is a good
investment with a rapid return
Air Pollution
22
Air pollution in the largest cities is a
growing concern
Outdoor workers, inc. police, road
maintenance, construction
New research: Future risk
23
Literature review by
Robertson Cooper
Lots of research about how work is
changing – technologically,
demographically, contractually
- but little on health/wellbeing and
implications of these changes
Research shows the psycho-social
risks of ‘over-engagement’ with work
via new communications
Research vital to prepare for and
influence future
https://www.britsafe.org/campaigns-
policy/future-risk/
Wellbeing
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• Literature review – ‘Not just free
fruit: wellbeing at work’
• Top level recommendations
• A way of engaging the whole
workforce
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• Create a culture for success
• Be very visible leaders
• Build leadership at every (suitable) level
• Health and safety, Wellbeing and Health & Safety
• The mind as well as the body
• Celebrate success
H&S is a good news story
Summary