How To Get Supervisors to Take Responsibility for Safety – by safety speaker John Drebinger

How could you get supervisors to realize they can have an impact on safety?

Step one is getting them to believe it themselves. Most supervisors believe they can have an impact on the production and other aspects of the people they lead. Oftentimes there is a disconnect when it comes to believing they can effect the safe work practices of their employees.

The first challenge is that for those who aren’t already committed to making a difference in the lives of their employees you must find out why. From my experience as a safety speaker the most common reason is the mistaken belief that, “accidents just happen.” This problem makes sense with this belief. If you believe accidents are random or a matter of chance or fate then it would naturally follow that you wouldn’t use any of your energy to prevent them because it’s just luck.

You and I know better but how we get them to have that better belief? Once again the solution is the creative use of questions.

– I wonder if accidents just happen, how is it that other divisions of our company that do the exact same tasks have a consistently lower incident rate than us?

– I wonder how our competitors manage to have a better safety record than us?

– What do leaders do that produce more than us and have a safer record?

– How does safety leadership improve the production and profitability of …?

Remember it is impossible to argue with a question however it is possible they might question your question so be prepared. For instance, “I wonder how our competitors manage to have a better safety record? They might reply, “Well they don’t report the same way we do.”  Don’t get trapped in an argument. Just tell them you will research that and get back to them.

Do the research and give them the truthful answer even if it doesn’t prove your point. If you plan ahead or strategize you next move you will have already thought of this prior to the meeting.

Have fun helping leaders become safety leaders get better at what they do.