Safety and Wellbeing

Safety works when we include everyone, every day, everywhere. That means sharing a sense of belonging, from accountants to engineers, across offices and construction sites. Beyond the obvious frontline risks, safety needs a systemic view of impacts. Disconnection between teams is one of the big threats to safety. Without interdependent environments our safety systems break down.

The solution requires active discovery, challenging assumptions and shared ownership. It is only when we are all responsible in an interdependent culture that we can achieve a safer, healthier, workplace.

Safety depends on belonging: top safety records come from interdependency, with everybody upholding standards.

Symptoms:

  • High variance in standards
  • Unacceptable number of incidents or near-misses, increased risk to employees, customers or public
  • Poor record-keeping, no clear tracking of potential risks
  • ‘Safety’ is seen as an issue for high-risk areas only, little attention to office-based work or slips, trips and falls
  • Wider issues of health and wellbeing are overlooked, leading to high levels of working time lost that could be avoided
  • “It’s the others that are a problem”
  • Lack of understanding between teams about how their work impacts on potential safety risks for others
  • Blame, fear or lack of candour with leaders prevents the directness necessary for good safety management

How we can help

A cross-disiplinary review of safety and wellbeing, looking at principles in a practical context. Beginning with a Safety and Belonging Exploration, continue with this Sounding Board to identify quick winds for improvements and longer efforts to achieve consistent high standards.

"As soon as you see a mistake and don't fix it, it becomes your mistake"