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Safety

By Josh Williams, Ph. D. A recent incident at the Cleveland Medical Center got national attention when a patient was given the wrong kidney during an operation. Two hospital staff were removed from their jobs pending an investigation.1 Some may applaud this action as frustration mounts with ongoing reports of human error in the medical community. So, the question is: Is firing people really the answer? In a previous blog, empirical evidence demonstrated the benefits of human performance (HP) tools to minimize human error and reduce: Communication breakdownsOperating delaysPost-operative complicationsOverall mortality and morbidity rates The same benefits from HP that help patients also apply to health

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By Emily Wood It is, once again, that time of year. The time where we set personal and collective workplace goals for the next 12 months. Whether it be to implement new safety initiatives, improve productivity or improve our own skills and knowledge, we sit for hours planning our yearly goals. Even though we all have the best of intentions, for many of us, only a few weeks later these goals go out the window, never to be thought of again until someone requests an update or the next year rolls around. In fact, studies show that 80% of annual goals

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By Eduardo Lan As a safety leadership and culture consultant with Propulo Consulting, I am often asked by our clients to focus our efforts on the workforce to support them in shifting their safety mindset and behaviors. The logic behind this approach is based on the belief that changing how workers work will solve the problem. This approach is useful, but doesn’t always work long term, particularly if workers’ actions and behaviors are being driven by external forces, such as organizational culture, systems, and leadership.  Building a worldclass safety culture has everything to do with how leaders show up and choose to lead. It is leaders

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By Josh Williams, Ph.D. It’s tough being a new employee. There are procedures to learn, relationships to build, and new skills to figure out. On top of that, many jobs are full of hidden (and not so hidden) hazards that make people nervous. Proper onboarding helps acclimate new hires to their novel environment. Supplementing your safety onboarding with a formalized “buddy for a week” program accelerates this acclimation and gets employees up to speed more quickly and more safely.    Real-life example:  To formalize mentoring with new hires, an energy company in Tennessee implemented a “buddy for a week” system. Essentially, experienced employees (with high job knowledge and

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By Eric Michrowski Speaking up saves lives. Looking back on the series of events that led to an incident, most people will recall something “off” – a gut feeling that they shouldn’t have proceeded as normal. Unfortunately, people usually don’t feel comfortable raising issues or sharing bad news. One of the most critical levers for leaders to drive is increasing team members’ comfort with speaking up, stopping work, and escalating issues. Feeling comfortable enough to raise issues without fear of negative repercussions is also referred to as psychological safety. Leaders often inadvertently encourage their teams to get the job done at all costs by praising a rapid

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By Josh Williams, Ph.D. Providing effective peer feedback for safety is one of the best ways to prevent serious injuries and fatalities. Employees understand the job and generally know when someone is putting themselves at risk. Plus, supervisors and managers aren’t always around when people are doing something dangerous.   Unfortunately, giving and receiving peer-to-peer safety feedback can be difficult. Employees may be reluctant to give safety feedback because they’ve never done it before, think it’s a supervisor’s or EHS’s job, lack confidence in their ability to provide good feedback, or worry that employees will be offended. Too many people take safety

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