I am reposting email I received from Shawn Galloway of Proact Safety with my thoughts / comments:- (Below the box)….. very apt from safety standpoint!
Twenty-two years ago, the world was shocked by the terrorist events of 9/11, thrusting Americans into a sense of collective intentionality. We were many, and despite differences, we became a single group, all experiencing sadness and resolve to do whatever was necessary to ensure the events were never repeated.
I witness these same reactions when I’m involved in helping a company recover from a tragic occupational safety event that took employees’ lives. I see a passionate resolve to ensure the events are never repeated. Unfortunately, passion and resolve tend to drift, priorities change, and collective intentionality dissipates. This often demonstrates a lack of maintaining an aligned vision, a safety strategy not integrated into the overall business strategy, and ineffective accountability for the responsibilities of leaders to execute on the vision.
Here we are, twenty-two years later. A previously unknown country-folk singer, Christopher Anthony Lunsford, who releases music under the name Oliver Anthony Music, has instantly become a topic of conversation in many households. His self-published song, Rich Men North of Richmond, debuted at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and demonstrates the frustration many Americans, regardless of political affiliation, feel about the country’s current state and its leadership. For a different reason, unified in some way again.
What unites or codifies is nearly impossible to predict, and unforeseen events can be massive disruptors and make any strategy obsolete. It is hard work to create a passion for a cause proactively. Creating collective ownership in a vision for the future and having a strategy agile enough to adjust as plans are disrupted is also hard work. But it’s work worth pursuing and a must if your goal is safety excellence.
How robust and agile is your safety strategy? What are you doing to create passion proactively so it doesn’t emerge reactively after a tragedy? How are leaders held accountable for creating a culture of safety excellence? If you do not have confident answers to these questions, call me. It is my passion and personal mission.
Ironically, I wrote this while waiting for my flight from Houston TX to Washington DC to finish boarding. Then, another unforeseen event: the United Airlines worldwide system outage at 12 PM CDT on 05 September 2023. This is why I try to fly earlier in the day. Delays seem inevitable lately.
“The arrival of the unforeseen reveals the depths of one’s heart.” – William P. Young
“Nothing is more imminent than the impossible . . . what we must always foresee is the unforeseen.” – Victor Hugo
“The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing, in so far as it stands ready against the accidental and the unforeseen, and is not apt to fall.” – Marcus Aurelius
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Yes, 22 years have flown in a flash with a generation born post 9/11 becoming major at 21.!! 4 months prior, on 5/11.. I was at WTC…..! So memories came flooding in!
I still recollect the moment I heard the news at my hotel room in Lahore, Pakistan when my Indian colleague pinged me on YAHOO Messenger, “AMERICA is under Attack” ( I was watching Saving Private Ryan in the room, after a long grinding day of 7 hrs of the training session as a speaker!).! Interestingly, Yahoo is long gone as a sign of time!!! Funny to think now that I was to go buy a National Microwave oven to bring back to India that day, but was too tired to go out.! (India was under a license regime and scarcity was the order of the day! how things have changed!!!).!
As Shawn rightly says, we unite for reasons that are difficult to comprehend when the cause is big. Safety is one such because keeping safe and sending back home all the folks for whom we are responsible, with all the 206 bones in tact is our prime responsibility wherever action happens. Everything else, including other things even in EHS domain fall below that! Shawn is right, in a tragic situation we unite and work a cause as with work fatalities (Having seen a few!) and then things taper down !!!
As with America we see the same situation here with a country divided on many issues, but may unite when cause is greater!
Readers of my routine email will know about
Oliver Anthony causing a wave in America.! For the first time in music history a singer has come out of nowhere to hit #1! That has Not even happened to Elvis Prestley, Michael Jackson, or Celine Dion!!!!
Regards
Karthik.
Shawn is a great inspiration for me. I recollect my phone call with him. He was magnanimous with 60 min in 2012, when I began my safety consulting. His inputs went a long way to working my charter / path.
Author: Karthik B; Orion Transcenders. Bangalore.
Lives in Bangalore. HESS Professional of 35+ yrs experience. Global Exposure in 4 continents of over 22 years in implementation of Health, Environment, Safety, Sustainability. First batch of Environmental Engineers from 1985 Batch.
Qualified for implementing Lean, 6Sigma, HR best practices integrating them in to HESS as value add to business.
View all posts by Karthik B; Orion Transcenders. Bangalore.
Health, Environment, Safety, Sustainability (HESS) 