A Strong Safety Culture – No and Hell No!

Leadership can be broken down into two styles – transactional and transformational. A transactional
leader focuses on the work while a transformational leader focuses both on the task and the person
doing the task. A transactional leader achieves, at best, average results in any functional area. A
transformational leader engages the workforce to achieve above-average results.

Engagement is the key to achieving functional excellence, be it in cost, quality, production, safety or
other key performance indicators. Figure 1 depicts a very simple model of transactional and
transformational

Figure 1: Transactional and transformational models

leadership. The leadership style also is a component
of the organizational culture. Typically, senior
leadership is weighted on the transactional side but
organizations focused on achieving broad functional
excellence will demonstrate a balance between
transactional and transformational leadership. Such
an organization generally has employees who have
their head and heart in the game. Again, this is an attribute of the organizational culture.

The Evolution of Safety Excellence

Figure 2 is a modified version

of the Intel/Cintas Evolution of
Safety Engagement Model
retitled, "The Evolution of
Safety Excellence."

Figure 2: The Evolution of

Safety Excellence
This evolution model describes
the role safety plays in the
culture of the organization. In
phases 0 and 1, safety simply
is not present in the
organizational culture. As the
organization evolves to phases
2 and 3, culture comes into
their stream of consciousness
but they are still operating in a
reactive mode. Not until an
organization evolves to phases 4 and 5 does the concept of safety become part of the organizational
culture.

The key is that safety transitions from being a priority (reactive) to being part of the organizational
value system (proactive). This is where the cultural model previously described intersects with the
evolution model. People, public trust and profit are clear values and when the organization
understands how critical safety is to each one of these values, it becomes part of the organizational
culture.

The Model for Safety Excellence

If a picture is worth a thousand words, allow me to use architecture to reinforce the point that a
strong safety culture is not the answer if safety excellence is the goal. (See Figures 3 and 4)
The Stata building at MIT was designed by Frank Gehry (Figure 3). It simply does not work. In fact,
MIT is suing Gehry since the building leaks, has cracks and is a HVAC nightmare.

Figure
3: The
Stata
buildin
g at
MIT
Figure
4:The
Chrysl
er
Buildin
g in
New
York

This is a good model of an organization that has several disparate cultures as shown in the figure.
That approach will at best achieve average performance in any of the disparate cultures, including
safety.

Figure 4 is the Chrysler Building in New York. I've chosen the Chrysler Building for three reasons.
The first is that I admire the art deco style and its perseverance as an architectural icon over the
years. Second, as a student of safety for too many years to mention, I was fascinated that the
construction of the Chrysler Building set a new standard for safety in the construction of skyscrapers.
The norm (circa late 1920s –early 1930s) was one fatality for every floor over 15. Since the Chrysler
Building is 77 floors, that means there could have been 62 fatalities. But there was not a single
fatality. The third reason is its all-inclusive design provides a model depicting an organization with a
single culture, including safety leading to excellence.
As opposed to the Stata building, the Chrysler Building functions with excellence.

Focus on Safety Integration

It is time safety thought leaders stopped writing and speaking about what can be done to achieve a
strong safety culture and start focusing on how organizations can integrate safety into the
overarching culture of the organization. I realize this is much "heavier lifting" than they may want to
do, but it is essential if safety excellence is the goal.

My objective is to be a bit provocative and start a dialogue about where safety fits in the culture
equation. I work with Cintas, the uniform rental company, which is making progress in its safety
journey to excellence.

When we started, safety was not a part of its corporate culture. However, to demonstrate not just its
progress but truly to distill down to one sentence what this article is about, here is a quote from its
CEO, Scott Farmer:

"Safety must be something much more that a subject we manage. It will become part of our corporate
culture and will be a foundational part of everything we do as a company."

Dr. Richard D. Fulwiler is president of Transformational Leadership Associates, a consultancy that

focuses on organizations achieving functional excellence. He also is an instructor at the Harvard
School of Public Health and co-director of their leadership and management course. He can be
reached at 513-476-0811 or by e-mail at rdfbmw@gmail.com.
« A Strong Safety Culture – No and Hell No!