Safety Consulting Calgary
Toolbox Talks First Video
Safety Consulting Calgary
With "Ty the Safety Guy!"
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Challenge Authority
Video Transcription:
I'm your host Ty the Safety Guy and today I want to talk to you about challenging authority.
More specifically, what I would like you to do is pick a procedure, that you do on a day-in-day-out basis, that is documented and written. So if you have a safe work practice or a safe job procedure that you regularly use, or at least know that is written for something that you are doing, that maybe you're not following the written process. I want you to pull that piece of paper out.
I want you to go through it and go, "Is this actually what I do?" Do I follow these five, six, seven, or eight steps?" and if you don't why is it? Because there's a better way to do it or is it because you didn't know that this was the way that was prescribed? And if you disagree with the way that it's written down, why now?
I'd like you to take that information and have a tough conversation with your supervisor, your manager, or the safety professional that is on your site. Ask them some probing questions. I want you to get down to why is this procedure this way because what I want you to remember that safety is always about continual improvement. That the procedure may have been valid two, three, five, or ten years ago but, if it's not valid now, it needs to be amended and changed. You have the power to do it.
So if there is something that you're doing differently that you can prove is safer and more efficient, then that needs to be brought to the attention of management so that they can amend their process. This is how you can be involved in safety.
You also don't want to be getting in trouble for not following procedures, so if you know that this procedure is broken we should be bringing that to the attention of management and supervision so that we can, again, have input and change that.
So my challenge for you today is–challenge authority. I want you to find that procedure that you know maybe isn't being followed and figure out why. Is it an internal thing for you and you just don't want to? Or is the procedure broken, and if it needs to be amended, you get to be the voice of change.
More specifically, what I would like you to do is pick a procedure, that you do on a day-in-day-out basis, that is documented and written. So if you have a safe work practice or a safe job procedure that you regularly use, or at least know that is written for something that you are doing, that maybe you're not following the written process. I want you to pull that piece of paper out.
I want you to go through it and go, "Is this actually what I do?" Do I follow these five, six, seven, or eight steps?" and if you don't why is it? Because there's a better way to do it or is it because you didn't know that this was the way that was prescribed? And if you disagree with the way that it's written down, why now?
I'd like you to take that information and have a tough conversation with your supervisor, your manager, or the safety professional that is on your site. Ask them some probing questions. I want you to get down to why is this procedure this way because what I want you to remember that safety is always about continual improvement. That the procedure may have been valid two, three, five, or ten years ago but, if it's not valid now, it needs to be amended and changed. You have the power to do it.
So if there is something that you're doing differently that you can prove is safer and more efficient, then that needs to be brought to the attention of management so that they can amend their process. This is how you can be involved in safety.
You also don't want to be getting in trouble for not following procedures, so if you know that this procedure is broken we should be bringing that to the attention of management and supervision so that we can, again, have input and change that.
So my challenge for you today is–challenge authority. I want you to find that procedure that you know maybe isn't being followed and figure out why. Is it an internal thing for you and you just don't want to? Or is the procedure broken, and if it needs to be amended, you get to be the voice of change.
