Implementing a Culture of Safety

“Curmudge, I have the feeling that we’ve been here before.”

“We have, Jaded Julie. Same church but a different pew. We spent much of April and May of 2008 talking about change leadership. Our goal then was changing from an existing culture to a Lean culture. Now we want to change from a punitive culture to a just culture. Each type of change requires many of the same tools, starting with the dedicated and active support of the organization’s top management. As we said back in April, he or she should follow the guidance provided in John Kotter’s book, Change Leadership. Although one element of Kotter’s ‘Eight-Stage Process of Creating Major Change’ is to establish a sense of urgency, one shouldn’t wait for a sentinel event to initiate the change.”

“I just read Leanne Huminski’s ‘Eight Steps to Creating a Culture of Safety.’(1) Let’s list them and see how similar they are to Kotter’s. Note that the order of Huminski’s list has been changed to fit Kotter’s order.”

Huminski, 2008
· Develop a sense of urgency
· Involve leaders in the process
· Develop a vision
· Communicate the change vision
· Engage and empower the staff
· Realize it can’t happen overnight
· Test new ideas before full rollout
· Be alert for sabotage and workarounds

Kotter, 1996
· Establish a sense of urgency
· Create a guiding coalition
· Develop a vision and strategy
· Communicate the change vision
· Empower broad-based action
· Generate short-term wins
· Consolidate gains and produce more change
· Anchor new approaches in the culture

“It’s pretty clear, Julie, that Kotter’s recommendations apply to implementing all
sorts of changes, including a culture of safety. However, one must realize that if
an organization doesn’t develop a reporting culture, their culture of safety will never get off the ground.”

“Curmudge, two weeks ago you said that the ‘blame game,’ or hiding one’s errors, is the natural thing to do. I guess that means that reporting errors is unnatural. It should be evident to any mom that instilling a reporting culture is not too different from toilet training. People have to learn that doing the right thing often requires doing something that is not natural, just like when they were little kids. Remember? We discussed this back on May 8, 2008.”

“Of course I do. Error reporting is intimidating to employees just like the big porcelain toilet may be scary to a child. In both cases, they are fearful of being flushed.”

“I’ve got the solution, Curmudge. It’s trust. If the child trusts her mommy when she says that everything is okay, the problem should go away. And when employees trust their employer and their colleagues, error reporting should become less unnatural. Of course, mothers have a better reputation for trustworthiness than organizations.”

“That’s right, Julie. A reporting culture requires that trust exist among and between the organization’s people from the very top all the way to gemba. People must be able to trust that they will be treated fairly if they report an error. We’ll talk more about this next time. I trust you’ll be here.”

“I might bring the kids. They’ll learn how they help Mom teach about change.”

Affinity’s Kaizen Curmudgeon

(1)http://blog.hin.com/?p=391