Adapting the culture of your organisation
The quality of almost everything that goes on in your organisation is influenced by the culture you create and maintain. But until you find the most appropriate tools to use, talk of culture change often remains words and wishes.
For safety and H R professionals, the problem often lies in figuring out the most effective questions to ask. It's usually more effective to do this in person, because you can adapt your conversation according to what those you want to influence say and do.
The challenge lies in balancing the best possible chain of reasoning with empathy. You may not 'win them all, all the time' yet by trying and adapting, you are very likely to make fair progress.
That's when it pays you to be able to draw on reliable, valid instruments of enquiry, especially when you want to conduct some measurement.
How you can learn to influence culture from manager of the English football team
Fabio Capello realised the level of risk he was undertaking when he took on the job of coach to the English football team in 2007. Two years later, after he had convincingly steered the team to a place in the 2010 World Cup Finals in Africa, he began to talk publicly about his approach. These are a couple of the revealing things he observed:
- 'At first, I was amazed at how lacking in confidence the team were when it came to play games - they left it behind on the training field;
- Managers and players can learn a lot by studying top class players in other sports; I have learned from watching rugby, baseball and volleyball.'
Translating this into health and safety management:
- 'Be clear on your goal , and on your options for communicating with people at all levels, then act with confidence;
- 'Learn by observing good managers in any other area: sales, production, customer relations, research and development - then decide on specific objectives for working with people in each area, and go for them!.
Advantages of tools of cultural measurements
So many factors can influence behaviour and events at work that it pays to use reliable, valid masurements as practical ways of simplifying matters for decision-making, without overlooking key factors or downplaying any that may be difficult or uncomfortable.
Reliable, valid instruments to measure aspects of your organisational performance and of human behaviour at work are necessary for complaince with laws of fair discrimnation. They enable you to make useful comparisons of performance, between individuals and groups, and to track changes over time.
Once you have scores for data you measure, you can convert information into the understanding you need to make the best predictions you can.
This summary table summarises aspects of your organsiational performance and of human behaviour at work that we can help you to measure.
| Kinds of data to measure | How data are measured | Scores you can interpret |
|---|---|---|
| Safe actions | Ratings based on observations | Percentage of safe behaviour per task |
| Survey on corrective actions | Number of items corrected | |
| Attitudes and beliefs | Repertory grid | Maps of clusters of patterns |
| Structured Analysis of Social Behaviour | Insight into root feelings and values | |
| Personality traits | Standardised inventories | Comparative ratings |
| Musculo-skeletal health record | Checklists and observation forms | 'At risk' conditions |
| Opinions | Questionnaire | Ratings; Rankings |
| Injury-related incidents | Near-hit reports | Frequency and type of near hits |
| Injury reports | Number and type of injury-producing incidents (incl. lost-time accidents) | |
| Insurance claims and costs | Expenditure | |
| Work environment< | Worksite observation or video | Percentage of safe conditions per task |
| Housekeeping audit | Percentage of items in proper location | |
| Reasoning and analytical ability | Standardised time-controlled tests | Percentile ranking on factors measured |
| Ergonomics | Checklists and physical measuring instruments | Anthropometric databases; Guides to usability and safety |
Some of the measurement instruments available for decision support are published by specialist publishers and restricted to chartered psychologists and other registered users. We ourselves design other instruments to suit specific needs of clients.