Alive and Well at the End of the Day, 2nd Edition

CHAPTER 18MANAGING SAFETY DILEMMAS

On the horns of the dilemma.

—George Santayana

This book takes on the tough safety challenges standing in the way of sending every follower home, alive and well at the end of the day. Many challenges are of the type every leader understands perfectly: lack of knowledge, experience, poor training, and ineffective safety meetings fit that description. There are challenges a leader recognizes, knows, but does not completely understand: complacency, compliance, hazard recognition are examples of challenges that are far more complex than first meets the eye. There are challenges that often go unrecognized: executives need unvarnished information as to safety reality that is kept separate and distinct from data to determine bottom line safety results.

Then there are the dilemmas leaders routinely deal with in managing safety performance. When facing a situation that fits this category, a leader is more likely to see it as a failure on their part rather than what it is: a unique type of safety challenge that defies a conventional solution.

Tracing the word back to its Greek origin, dilemma comes from the words meaning “two assumptions.” In a dilemma, present are two conditions that are both true and in opposition to each other. It is the dual nature of the dilemma—and the tension it produces—that led to Santayana’s description of being “on the horns.” It’s the perfect metaphor for these tough challenges. Every leader in operations regularly comes ...