Actions versus Words

I said I evaluate more by actions than words. Sometimes I’m asked what I mean by that. How does “doing it right” look?

It’s like good art. Although you couldn’t give anyone a single definition that would work for every piece of art, you know it when you see it.

A lot of my clients are manufacturing companies. The bigger they are and the more hazardous their manufacturing is, the more they talk about their safety programs. But if you dig into their safety records, one company has a safety record much better than other companies in their industry—not just a little better, but several times better than the industry average. By contrast, another of my clients based its safety program on my ultra-safe client, yet they struggle to get workers to stay alert and safe.

At my struggling client, there is a lot of emphasis on reports, figures and recording safety related information focused on procedures in the workplace. At my ultra-safe client, they keep track of incidents and drill in the importance of safe procedures—but their obsession is behavior, not reports.

When I’m near a big factory belonging to Ultra-Safe, in the town I can tell which people work at the factory. After stepping onto an escalator, they stand with one hand holding the moving railing until the end, then step off. They don’t walk on escalators because that would be less safe. At a fast food restaurant, if they drop a blob of sauce from the condiment bar onto the floor, they don’t leave it for restaurant staff to clean up later. They get a paper napkin and clean up the slip-and-trip hazard right away.

They make mistakes, have accidents and get hurt just like the rest of us, but I can see that paying attention to safety (their own and that of everyone around them) is a deeply ingrained habit.

I don’t see this near the other client’s factories even though they talk more about safety.

This is an example of what I mean when I say that I believe behavior more than words. I’ve used safety as a touchstone because it’s a familiar concern for everybody.

The principle translates well, though. In every field, if you really look, you can tell who the standouts are by what they do.