Category: Phil La Duke Articles

“Safety Sergeants and Invisible Risks”

~ Jack Benton ~ Leave a comment

A “Cop On The Beat” mentality will never change, build or enhance a positive safety culture. Going the “Extra Mile” to show employees the right way to be safe and get them involved as well, so that you can build a TEAM mentality that will win out every time, as long as there is an HONEST commitment to Safety, by THE ENTIRE organization! – Jack Benton

Thanks Phil La Duke for another fine article.

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Sergeant

By Phil La Duke

In some respects the safety practitioner is like an army drill sergeant.  At first that seem like an odd coupling, but the drill sergeant has to train people to act in a way that is clearly not in their best interests and in fact, carry the risk of getting them killed to serve a greater good.  Safety practitioners, conversely, are often charged with persuading workers not to take risks that people don’t see as all that dangerous. So while the goals of the drill sergeant and the safety practitioner are at cross purposes achieving those goals both rely to varying extents on one’s ability to persuade another.

In too many cases, the safety professional misses the difference between the role of the drill sergeant and that of the safety practitioner. These safety sergeants believe that their role is to berate and bully people into…

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“What’s In It For Me? WIIFM in Safety”

~ Jack Benton ~ Leave a comment

Another excellent post by my good friend Phil La Duke. Great Read!

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keep-calm-and-what-s-in-it-for-me-2

By Phil La Duke

Let’s suppose your spouse’s cousin asks you for a favor…a big favor (not a sexual favor get your mind out of the gutter). After he unveils his scheme to make big money with little effort and all he needs from you is $10,000 and he can see a $80,000 return in just six short months. Since he makes no mention of interest, a reciprocal favor, or even of paying you back, you’re likely to ask, “why should I?” or “What’s in it for me?” After all $10 grand is a lot of money (about a third of a good safety practitioner’s annual wage) and you worked hard for it…well not exactly hard, I mean you weren’t working in a limestone quarry swinging a pickaxe…but you did earn it…okay some might argue with that point as well…at any rate it’s YOURS and you aren’t just going to…

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“When is Your Safety Meeting Not A Safety Meeting?”

~ Jack Benton ~ Leave a comment

Good Article from my good friend, Phil LaDuke!

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dysfunctional meetings

By Phil La Duke

A common leading indicator for safety is involvement in safety meetings, but to risk sounding like Bill Clinton’s infamous “It depends on what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is” quote what constitutes “involved in safety meetings”? To answer that question we have to define “involved” “safety” and “meetings” (and hell you might as well define “in” while you’re at it.)  To be a true leading indicator, that is, a measure of something that positively correlates to future safe performance, something must directly or indirectly align with things that promote safety (in my view of the world: improved competency, better process capability, more effective management of risk and hazards, heightened accountability, or stronger engagement).

Participation in safety meetings if often used as a leading indicator, presumably of worker engagement; the assumption being that the more one is engaged the more likely one is to attend safety…

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Is Killing Kids Good For Small Business?

~ Jack Benton ~ Leave a comment

Another thought provoking article from Phil La Duke.

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tombstoneby Phil La Duke

When we hear about worker fatalities I imagine we picture a number of tragic but, let’s face it, predictable scenarios. Maybe someone took a short cut, maybe some won grew complacent, maybe…well we all have our presuppositions and our biases that help us to accept that while workplace deaths. Whatever preconceived notions about workplace fatalities that help us sleep better at night, and whatever it is that makes us believe that we and ours are better than that, immune to the carnage, protected because of who we are, nothing much prepares us for deaths like that of Martha Hochstetler. The 14 year-old girl died horribly after a portion of her clothing was caught in farm machinery while she was loading straw bales onto an elevator

http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2015/07/22/vermontville-michigan-farming-accident/30545533/

I grew up on the ruins of a farm and can’t accurately tell you when I started working. My parents…

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Changing The Safety Culture: You Got To Want It

~ Jack Benton ~ Leave a comment

Another great article and read by my good friend Phil La Duke!

Phil La Duke's Blog

By Phil LaDuke

 

To some extent the world is driven by desire, and I have said (quoting a long-time friend) that you always have the time and money for what is truly important to you.  As I continue battling to sell safety systems to companies who truly do need to change their cultures I am continually beset by companies who are quick to say all the right things but when it comes to making a commitment they just plain lack the political will to get things done.

Of course no one will ever admit that they don’t want a safe workplace; to do so would brand them a villain worse than any war criminal.  So why is it so difficult to sell companies who employ large staffs dedicated to making the workplace safer? And why is it harder still to maintain the momentum it takes to drive lasting and…

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Safety Never Sleeps: Creating A Culture of Vigilance

~ Jack Benton ~ Leave a comment

A another Excellent Read By My Good Friend Phil La Duke

Phil La Duke's Blog

We-Never-Sleep

By Phil La Duke

Creating a safety culture is all the rage today, and whether you are a snake oil shyster or an organizational psychologist working in safety everyone seems to agree that we need to create cultures of safety to be successful in reducing injuries.  I don’t know about you, but I get a more than a bit nervous when everyone agrees on a single course of action.

The concept of a “safety culture” in itself is both widely known and impossibly vague.  In broad strokes a safety culture is a state where “safety” is a shared value.[1]  I put the word “safety” in quotes because it is the most basic definition of our profession and the most poorly defined.  I have had people define it as the absence of injuries, but that doesn’t necessarily make one safe.  I have been in plenty of unsafe situations where…

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“Creating Leading Indicators”

~ Jack Benton ~ Leave a comment

Another Excellent post by my good friend, Phil La Duke!

Phil La Duke's Blog

by Phil La Duke

Several weeks ago I wrote a post on indicators, which spurred a bit of interest in what I saw as appropriate indicators for the five antecedent processes to which I ascribe safe outcomes (just to refresh your memory, I am referring to: competency, process capability, risk and hazard management, accountability systems, and worker engagement). Several readers seemed disappointed that I didn’t spell out leading indicators for all of the processes. I have been mulling this over for several weeks and I’m afraid that what I am about to write will disappoint and maybe even frustrate some of you; and yet, as is my wont, I am going to write it anyway. I won’t give you leading indicators for these processes. It’s not that I don’t want to give away the secret recipe, quite the contrary, I have been writing this blog since 2008 (with a major…

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“Indicators Are Meaningless Unless They Lead to Managing Performance”

~ Jack Benton ~ Leave a comment

Another excellent post by my good friend Phil La Duke.

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broken cross

By Phil La Duke

You don’t get great outputs by managing results, you get great outputs by managing performance such that you produce great results. In safety we have spent a century trying to manage outputs and we wonder why our results are less than spectacular. To be sure safety has improved over the past hundred odd years, but this week marks the anniversary of two big events that serve both as an important reminder of how much we have accomplished and of how much work we have yet to complete. March 25 is the anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaste Factory fire that, in 2011 galvanized the nation and opened the eyes of many about the unsafe working conditions in industry. March 23 saw the anniversary of the explosion and fire at BP’s Texas City refinery. So while a lot has changed and improved in safety Texas City (and the…

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Taking a New Look At Safety

~ Jack Benton ~ Leave a comment

Another excellent posting by my good friend Phil La Duke.

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fresh look

By Phil La Duke

 Let me begin by thanking all of you who voiced your support for me over the past week. As you may have surmised I get frustrated from time to time, mostly because so many safety practitioners still don’t get it—despite cognizant arguments (I’m not talking about what I have been saying, I’m arrogant but I’m not THAT arrogant) made by really smart people so many in the field of safety cling to shear stupidity. Arguing a point that should have been conceded long ago gets exhausting and it got to me. Add to that a moderate case of writer’s block and it’s been a rough couple of weeks.

But enough about that, some time ago I posted an article that postulated that safety in itself wasn’t something we should be managing, that safety is an outcome not a priority or a factor or…fill in the…

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Worshiping at the altar of false gods

~ Jack Benton ~ Leave a comment

Another thought provoking post from my good friend Phil La Duke.

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Golden-Calf

By Phil La Duke

Yesterday was the anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Last week I buried an uncle. He, like his brother before him, my father, died the agonizing death that only mesothelioma can bring. Watching the rapid deterioration of someone who was recently so full of life is hard enough to watch, but watch it repeatedly unfold is tough. My brother was one of seven boys in his family and all but one of them served in World War II and even though one served at Guadalcanal and another flew Corsairs over the Pacific they all came home safe. The workplace did what World War II couldn’t kill these men of the greatest generation. But injury rates are down so maybe I should just shut up about it. I guess it just grinds me that so many of our profession look at one of indicator (Incident Rates)…

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Where’s the Value In “Safety Day”?

~ Jack Benton ~ Leave a comment

Another excellent post by my good friend and fellow safety professional, Phil La Duke!

Phil La Duke's Blog

safety day graphic

By Phil LaDuke

Next week I will be conducting the activities surrounding “safety day”. As leader and as a safety practitioner I was the logical selection. The notion of me getting up in front of a group of associates and trumpeting on about safety one day a year may seem laughable to some of my more loyal readers and downright hypocritical to my devoted detractors.

Years ago, as a relatively young man, I made myself a promise: I would never teach or promote something that I myself didn’t believe in or support. That has made it tough in some cases, as I have had a lot of bosses and customers—internal and external—who wanted me to present what at first blush seemed to be propaganda. It sucks having principles. I was true to those principles and pushed back and challenged the presentation sponsors until I was convinced of the value of…

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The Importance Of Discipline

~ Jack Benton ~ Leave a comment

Another intriguing post by my good friend and fellow safety professional, Phil La Duke.

Phil La Duke's Blog

bullship

By Phil La Duke

Safety professionals take great pains to engage workers in safety. While it’s true that engaged workers tend to be more concerned about the safety of the workplace worker engagement can only take us so far. And while it’s unfair to blame the injured worker—a tendency far too common—I’ve seen a decide move away from discipline as a response to unsafe behavior.

The mere mention of discipline raises emotions on both sides of the spectrum. On one end there is a chorus of “here! Here!” spouting mouth-breathers who want to blame every injury on stupid workers who can’t follow directions or won’t follow the rules. On the other end we have a bunch of bleeding hearts that want to blame everything but the responsible party. The answer in most cases lies somewhere in between. The correct approach in most cases lies somewhere in between.

Without Discipline We…

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