Controlling the Safety Narrative

November 17 2019
By: Terry L. Mathis

I am often asked for ways to help shape a safety culture. Something common within cultures is a set of stories. These stories are often about experiences workers had that either confirmed leadership commitment to safety or challenged it. Humans tend to talk the most about negative experiences so the bad experience stories often outnumber and outlive the good ones.

Leaders need to create experiences that create positive stories. They also need to tell their own stories about what they are doing to promote and improve safety. Often workers don't know how much their leaders have done and therefore underestimate their commitment to safety. Leaders of the most excellent safety-performing organizations control the narrative within their safety culture and measure worker retention of safety information. To shape the culture, control the narrative!