occur. An event that rocks their world such as flirting with
bankruptcy, a significant loss of sales and customers, or los-
ing a million dollars, might get peoples’ attention. (Heath-
field, How to Change your Company Culture, 2016)
One lesson to be learned from successful cases is the change
process goes through a series of phases that usually require a
considerable length of time. A second lesson is, critical mis-
takes in any of those phases can have a negative impact on
the mission, slowing momentum and negating hard-won
gains. Most people have relatively little experience purposely
affecting change. Even very capable people often make at
least one big error. So, as you begin or restart your organiza-
tion’s safety campaign, accept the fact you are probably go-
ing to fail at some aspect of this and emotionally prepare for it.
Genesis
To get started, we must understand that organizational lead-
ership is often focused on the business of the business and if
times are good the status quo is often viewed as acceptable.
To get their attention, an individual or group often facilitates
a frank discussion with management of potentially unpleas-
ant facts that will be experienced if change does not occur.
Since there is an almost universal human tendency to shoot
the bearer of bad news, especially if the head of the organiza-
tion is resistant to change, outsiders are often hired and relied
upon to prepare and deliver the bad news.
Our industry does not have to reinvent the wheel - we can
and are learning from others. Let’s look at the lessons learned
by our sibling, the film and television industry. Here is some
background courtesy of Julia Smith’s 2014 article “Holly-
wood’s Health and Safety Nightmare”:
The public became truly aware of the dangers in the
film industry after the Twilight Zone incident in 1982 that
killed actor Vic Morrow and two children aged six and
seven. Ironically, Morrow’s line in that scene was to be:
“I’ll keep you safe, kids. I promise. Nothing will hurt you.
I swear to God.”
In the aftermath, numerous new safety codes were im-
plemented. No doubt the public’s focus on this horrific
incident, raised awareness about the film industry and
its safety record. This in turn had an impact on the di-
rection of Health and Safety in that industry.
Today the film and television industry has an aggres-
sive safety passport program administered by the
Contract Services Administration Trust Fund (CSATF).
Signatory producers fund the organization by making
contributions to the CSATF based on hours worked by
employees covered by collective bargaining agree-
ments. Even with this program, the film and television
industry suffers a significant number of injury incidents
yearly. Many of these injury incidents are the result of
the pressure freelancers place on themselves, they feel
if they don’t take certain risks- someone else is willing to
and they will be out of a job. (Smith, 2014)
There are obvious similarities we share with the film and tele-
vision industry and we would be wise to consider the lessons
learned during that industry’s transition as it closely mirrors
our own.
Measuring Success
You may have seen ESA Vice President Steven Adelman, speak
at a conference or training session. One of Steve’s key points
of advice is that you should be able to present something that
your attorney can hold up in court that validates you have es-
tablished and continue to improve your safety policies and
practices over time.
For now, at least in the US, our industry has little recorded
data on reportable injuries and damage incidents. Without
hard data to analyze, we cannot properly measure the impact
improved safety efforts are having on the industry. While we
cannot measure until we have the data, we can measure the
c hanges in our actions themselves. Meaning, we need to re-
cord the changes we make in our individual safety programs.
We use the markers identified in those records to measure
and determine our progress, including our successes and fail-
ures.
Some questions you may be asking yourself:
Q1: Is it extra work?
Yes.
Q2: Is it easy?
Not really, no.
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