After the Pike River tragedy of 2010, I believe that it’s critically important when it comes to safety that we take the free lessons that are available to us. What I mean is that if something happens to someone else or another company we stop for a moment and say, “What about us, what can we learn?”
The biggest lesson for all is the Pike River mining tragedy when 29 workers died. My challenge for you is, “Have you taken the time to understand the lesson from Pike 29?”
Reading an excerpt from Rebecca Macfie, the Listener journalist who spent a year investigating the disaster and wrote the book ‘Tragedy at Pike River: How and Why 29 Men Died’ got me thinking.
Many business and industries can relate to the types of failures that led to the tragic Pike River incident. It was the catalyst for developing a Royal Commission and Taskforce with the goal of introducing updated health and safety legislation. The emphasis on getting workers more engaged in the workplace was a key finding.
Macfie writes:
Commission member Stewart Bell has likened Pike River’s failures to Swiss cheese, where the holes represent gaps in an organisation’s defence system. At the mine the sheer number of issues meant, “there was no cheese”.
“There were hundreds of incident reports from workers about broken equipment and things that had gone wrong that had not even been looked at,” Macfie says.
Despite the scale of the tragedy, she sees Pike River as an “ordinary” event because things that went wrong there happen in many companies.
Lessons
These are some of the lessons any organisation can learn from Pike River:
If you manage a business,
- be alert, be curious and be sensitive to what is happening around you
- create an environment of trust and good faith where workers feel they can say what’s going on
- ask if you’re really listening or just relying on a process
- encourage feedback from everyone in the workplace on H&S matters — not just your direct reports.
If your business has a Board of Directors, it should:
- keep eyes and ears open to every source of information
- have members with diverse skills, including technical skills — they must be able to ask the right questions
- maintain a healthy distance from management
“Every person who comes to you with information about safety is a whistle-blower and deserves to be listened to respectfully”, says Rebecca Macfie.
Talk about safety and risks – “One of New Zealand’s greatest strengths is that we can create a workplace where Jack can talk to his master,” Macfie says.
“If a piece of equipment is a piece of rubbish, you really want to know about it. That’s why the taskforce was incredibly strong on the need for worker participation as a pillar for maintaining a safe workplace.”
She also says that prioritising worker engagement and participation is a cost effective way for small business owners to keep people healthy and safe as well as being a legal requirement.
Listen
Listen to your workers; they are your best resource. Macfie says “We owe it to the Pike 29, we owe it to our workers, and we owe it to ourselves.”
I’d like to add that as an external consultant the most worrying message I still hear (even today) is “I don’t have time for Health and Safety’,” and I’m sorry to say these words can be from the most senior person in the business. Even if that’s not what they meant and they do have time, it’s the message that their team hear. The team are then left with the task of trying to work out what to do when they hear this or see that behaviour displayed. This behaviour then forces them to make decisions or take actions or shortcuts that their manager or leader never wanted them to take.
Additionally, a great read to complement Rebecca’s book is from the Business Leaders Health and Safety Forum: 8 things a CEO can do to improve workplace health and safety
I believe that it’s such a great read that it can be shared by everyone that leads others. Remember leaders come in all guises – Manager, Supervisor, Duty Leader, Team Leader, Leading Hand, Owner, or Operator. It’s not the name or position that makes the leader it’s what they say and do that inspires others to come along for the ride.
Take a little time to see how to look at Safety Differently here. For help on how to achieve this contact us on 0800 023 789 or email info@allaboutpeople.co.nz
Shona Dodd, All About People Senior Health and Safety Specialist