Introduction
Leaders and Leadership make a significant contribution to the successful implementation of Critical Risk Management (CRM). Whether you’re a supervisor or manager, demonstrating your commitment to CRM plays a defining role in its success on your site. Simply rolling out CRM on site is not enough to ensure its success. As a leader, you set the expectations and standards for the team. Your visible leadership - and ongoing support of CRM - enables your team to put Critical Risk Management into practice in all high risk work activity.
Stop Work Authority
You can demonstrate your support of CRM to the team in a number of ways. However, no matter which part of CRM you are currently engaged with, the clear and consistent message from you to the team is: ‘When a critical control is missing - and a worker answers ‘NO’ during a verification - work must stop.’
Most importantly as a leader, you fully support and encourage these decisions. The operator needs to feel empowered to make that call and understand that they are authorized to stop work until the control has been adequately implemented. To empower workers, it needs to be made clear that no leader, supervisor, or manager is going to take issue with a person for temporarily stopping work to prevent a possible fatal incident. This practice needs to be encouraged and clearly expressed, to signal a clean break from previous work practices that may have placed the focus on continuing the work rather than on staff safety. Endorsing this 'Stop Work mindset' lets employees know their lives are valued more than the need to keep going and improves their confidence to speak up when controls are lacking or missing.
Celebrating success when 'finding a red'
One pitfall that needs to be avoided is using CRM verifications to identify individuals and highlight their errors or omissions. It's important to acknowledge that every human is prone to error when dealing with these matters. The power residing in a positive CRM culture lies in the value of identifying control gaps and improving the effectiveness of critical controls. The implementation of CRM allows us to identify any missing controls, to eliminate potential fatalities, before the job starts.
TIP: Think about how you would approach an operator if you observed an unsafe work practice. Avoid framing the interaction in a negative way, like pointing out they have 'missed something,' or 'have made a mistake.’ This type of language serves only to create a defensive, negative mindset among the team.
Celebrating success when the team identifies a critical control as missing generates a positive work culture around finding the reds. Particularly when there have been no incidents or injuries involved. Whenever a non-compliance is identified that did not result in adverse impact, a perfect opportunity is created for a coaching or improvement dialogue with the team. By encouraging a positive mindset around finding the reds, you create a deeper understanding of the benefits of identifying them. They can be recorded - and fixed - preventing them from reoccurring.
CRM highly encourages leaders to adopt this approach. Embedding a practice of celebrating with your team whenever they identify a critical control as ‘missing,’ encourages the 'stop unsafe work' mentality. As a leader, you have a duty of care to see that everyone on the crew protects their own lives and completes their work safely.
That responsibility is the difference between being able to walk away at the end of the shift saying, 'We saved some lives today because we followed the CRM process and were safe...' rather than ending the day saying, 'That shouldn't have happened to Joe, he was a good guy…' or 'We were lucky today! That was close!'
Leadership principles
Always observe first, without interrupting the work. You want to see the work in action so you can understand which critical controls are in place and which may be missing. If an operator asks what you are doing, briefly explain that you are there to verify critical controls with them, and that you will talk through what you are seeing together at the next safe pause in the work.
Be mindful that approaching staff means stopping or pausing their work, and that this is a disruption to their business. Whenever you identify a serious problem or an immediate threat to safety, you must stop the work straight away.
Whenever possible, wait for a safe opportunity or natural break point in their work before engaging. Doing this shows courtesy and respect, and goes a long way towards building trust with the team.
When you approach the operators, focus on asking rather than telling them about their work and the critical controls in place. Invite them into the verification by asking open questions and exploring the controls together.
Remember it’s your verification – they have already completed one themselves. Walking them step by step through your verification may be overdoing it and can be interpreted as you not trusting them. Instead, use the discussion to confirm understanding, clarify any gaps, and build confidence in the process.
Let the conversation be about them - and not you. Ask or say things that demonstrate you care about people - and not just 'your' verification.
When the times comes to discuss your verification results with the team, lead with something positive that you have observed during the team's implementation of CRM and critical control conformance in their workplace. Collaborating with the team on any open items requiring further input, promotes sharing of CRM terms and methods, deeper insights and an overall broader understanding of CRM.
If you have identified any potentially non-compliant items, be mindful that any corrective actions you suggest are communicated in a positive way - and invite further discussion.
Asking open questions is a powerful, conversational approach to gauge your team's understanding of the control method itself, and the task of putting it in place. Open questions you could ask include: What hazard is this control put in place to prevent? How does this hazard apply to our assigned work? How did you go about implementing this control? What elements of the control were clear/unclear from your point of view?
If you identify a missing or partially implemented control, celebrate it with your team. Let them know how you feel about having the opportunity to help protect them - and to be a part of them going home alive. ‘Find a red' is a learning experience for everyone involved - and lastly, take the time to reflect on how using CRM has created this 'moment’ when 'nothing' has happened...when perhaps it could have been a lot worse.
In addition to the team learning how to initially apply CRM, it's their ongoing, consistent application of CRM that removes the potential for human error from the most dangerous tasks they perform - and this benefits everyone. What hazard is this control put in place to prevent? This is a message you can regularly reaffirm with your team.
Keep it positive. Encourage everyone on the team to take action, 'find the reds' and implement controls that are missing. How does this hazard apply to our assigned work? You're there to find the solution when the team is unable to do so.
Courage to Stop
The ‘Courage to Stop’ is a powerful message from leaders and should not be overlooked. A new employee for example, may not understand what the verification questions are really asking of them. Develop this 'courage' in the team by getting them involved in the verifications. The person verifying could delegate part of the verification process over to some of them - or ask them to clarify the details of the hazard controls specified for the work as the verification proceeds. And the most important part is, that they perform the verifications at the appropriate time; before the task starts! That way, if they find something that is not in place, it is the team's responsibility to stop unsafe work, and not to proceed until the control is implemented.
If the control cannot be put in place, their responsibility is to inform their supervisor and work out the best way to proceed. Having the ‘courage to stop’ in place at your work site is fundamental to Critical Risk Management (CRM). The knowledge that you and the team will be supported by the business when the team makes the decision to stop - and not proceed with the work until it is safe to continue - is a visible demonstration of leaders enabling their people to be safe.
Difficult Conversations
Another leadership skill to focus on is 'being prepared to have the difficult conversations.’ If you find yourself in one of these situations, remember to keep the conversation positive, and ask questions to gather information. But above all else, remember the most important message: All of this is being put in place to ensure their safety.
There is no telling what specific issues you may face, but whatever challenges arise - be the example, and set the lead.
Demonstrate your commitment, and show the way.
Why should the team, if you don’t?