Silent Danger: Five Crucial Conversations That Drive Workplace Safety in Chemical Manufacturing

In a workplace safety study involving more than 1600 workers, VitalSmarts has discovered the phrase “It was an accident waiting to happen” is true more often than not in the chemical manufacturing industry. The ugly secret behind most workplace injuries is that someone was aware of the threat well in advance, but was either unwilling or unable to speak up. In our research, we discovered five workplace threats that are especially likely to become “undiscussibles.” The threats are: 1. Get It Done. Unsafe practices that are justified by tight deadlines. 2. Undiscussable Incompetence. Unsafe practices that stem from skill deficits that can't be discussed. 3. Just This Once. Unsafe practices that are justified as exceptions to the rule. 4. This Is Overboard. Unsafe practices that bypass precautions considered excessive. 5. Are You a Team Player? Unsafe practices that are justified for the good of the team, company, or customer.

A whopping 98 percent of the 440 employees we surveyed in the chemical manufacturing industry had at least one member of their work group who regularly created one of these five “accidents waiting to happen.” In fact, 64 percent were aware of an injury or death that was caused by one of these five undiscussables. But the troubling finding is that when employees see one of these five situations, less than half speak up. People's failure to speak up and correct these unsafe conditions results in recurring accidents despite the inevitability of injury, or even death. These results suggest that employees don't need more training, safety audits, or safety practices. They already see and recognize the threats. And it's not that they don't care. What we're seeing isn't bystander apathy; it's more like bystander agony. Employees describe themselves as “holding their breath,” “feeling tortured as they watched,” and “not able to watch” as their coworkers put themselves and others in danger. But they don't speak up. They don't think it's their role, they don't know how, and they are afraid of retaliation. In today's complex, fast-paced world, we'll never create a completely accident-proof environment. Safety will always require individual vigilance and initiative. But nobody can be vigilant and proactive all the time. So safety demands that people look out for each other, remind each other, and hold each other accountable. Accountability is the “operating system” that underlies all of our safety programs. Come to this session and learn from experts at building safety cultures: cultures where anyone can talk to anyone else about anything; cultures where everyone holds everyone else accountable for everything. Learn how to measure whether your organization is vulnerable to these five “accidents waiting to happen,” and if it is, learn to help build a culture of safety.