Conall

mobile logo

January 2020

By Josh Williams, Ph.D. Employees can prevent serious injuries and fatalities by speaking up when they see coworkers operating at-risk. Unfortunately, social norms and pressure may prevent this. Many organizations have created culture that reflect the famous Hank Williams song refrain, “Mind your own business and you won’t be minding mine.” The power of conformity, not speaking up in this case, is powerful. An illustration from social psychology demonstrates this. Decades ago, Solomon Asch asked groups of up to 15 students in a classroom setting to participate in a “vision test” (Bond, R., & Smith, P. B., 1996). Each student was asked

READ MORE

By Eric Johnson One of the biggest challenges to developing a robust safety culture we find is built around the value of safety. Unless you are Apple, corporate resources are often quite limited and have competing interests tugging at them, all while trying to demonstrate the best return on equity. Those projects/processes/activities that are best quantifiable are often the first to receive the benefit of resources. However, it is our position that increasing a focus on safety during economic downtimes can position the organization to gain marketshare when a rebound occurs. It is based on three related observations: 1. Establishing the organization as

READ MORE

By Eric Johnson When our organization engages clients, one of the first steps we perform in our assessments centers around establishing a baseline regarding the safety culture climate within the organization at all levels. These questions center around elements such as “What is the overall view of safety within the organization?”; “How do employees react to injuries – both to themselves and to others?”; “How does safety messaging impact employees”. The answers to these questions often depend on both the current safety climate but also historical data. Within the conversational aspect of our assessments, we often come across a common theme

READ MORE