From “Seven Reasons Why Your Behavior-based Safety Process is Flopping” a series addressing the top reasons you are having problems with your behavior-based safety system.
1. You did not do your homework.
2. You got an off-the-shelf behavior-based safety system instead of a customized process.
3. No pickles, no lettuce—Special orders do upset us: you chose an inflexible consulting firm.
4. You bought complexity instead of basic tools.
5. Your leaders are not involved.
6. You did not know when to ask for help.
7. You don’t know how to deliver effective feedback, recognition, and celebrate success.
3. No pickles, no lettuce—Special orders do upset us: you chose an inflexible consulting firm. So you bought the big name and now they own you. Everybody in your industry knows that you use “X” company as your behavior-based safety provider. You have added a new appendage to your safety management system; “X’s” behavior-based safety process. It has so much notoriety that your own safety process has lost its identity. It’s like marrying a movie star; you lose your identity and become Mr. or Mrs. Celebrity.
What you really needed was a customized process. You needed a knowledgeable, experienced behavior-based safety consultant to help you integrate the key behavior-based safety components into your existing safety management system. You should have a personalized system adapted to your nation, region, industry, site, and work group functions. You needed input: an opportunity to learn the basics and make some of the decisions about how, when, and what.
But, the big provider used their clout to shout you down. They’ve done this dozens (even hundreds) of times before and you have to do it the way they want. There is only one way—their way. It is only afterward and many dollars later that you become aware that you could have screwed up for a lot less money if you had done it yourself.
But now it’s too late; they have you encircled by their lawyers. You can’t do this or that without their approval; if you do, you may be stealing their proprietary material or pirating their intellectual capital. If you want to use another provider in another plant, the big players may have to give you their permission.
