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en-us Tiki RSS feed for weblogs Last posts to weblogs. http://demo.activeagenda.net/img/tiki/Tiki_WCG.png Feed logo http://demo.activeagenda.net/ Sat, 19 May 2012 07:18:53 +0000 Zend_Feed_Writer 1.10.8 (http://framework.zend.com) http://demo.activeagenda.net/ support@activeagenda.com support@activeagenda.com Failure as an Opportunity Fast Company's Innovation Uncensored

conference held on April 21, 2010, in New York City. During the conference, a speaker suggested we should stop learning from our failures.

The High Reliability Group participants unanimously disagreed with such an assertion. Andy Evans, Senior Aviation Advisor at AviateQ International, offered an interesting story from IBM's early years. He reminded us that Thomas Watson, founder of IBM, once asked to see a recently promoted vice president who had failed on his first assignment in the new job, a mistake that cost the company a million dollars. The VP reported to the IBM chief prepared for the worst.

: "I guess you called me in to fire me," he said on entering Watson's office.

: "Fire you!" exclaimed Watson, "We just spent $1,000,000 on your education!"

Now, that's a great story!

I shared my experience working with Dreyer's/Edy's Grand Ice Cream. At the time, they operated their business in strict adherence to a set of values they called their Grooves. One of their Grooves was called Hoopla! Hoopla is "the celebration of ownership and recognition of accomplishments, large or small, individual or team, formal or informal. The many and varied forms of Hoopla are limited only by our imagination!" I saw this company achieve some powerful results by knowing what to celebrate in order to reinforce their cultural, business, and strategic objectives.

While I was at Häagen-Dazs, we tried to stand injury reporting on its head. We eliminated the incentive tied to "No Lost Time Accidents" and replaced it with a reward encouraging incident reporting (of all severity). There was a rich reward for the people reporting the highest number of incidents - even if the reporter was the "victim." Our frequency rate was off the charts and we filled several pages of OSHA logs in our first year. Our total loss costs were second lowest in Grand Metropolitan's line of business across the US and we were located in California, a very expensive place to manage loss.

In some instances, I agree with the MIT research supporting some of the FastCompany dialog. I agree that rewarding success will have greater impact on changing behavior than will relying on failure as a teacher. It boils down to what we choose to reward as success.

Reward failure reporting and people won't be shy (a.k.a. fearful) about reporting failure. The argument that people will choose to fail in such an atmosphere is absurd. Whatever you do, don't waste the money (or appendages) you have already lost on failure opportunities.
]]> Tue, 18 May 2010 15:27:00 +0000 http://demo.activeagenda.net/tiki-view_blog_post.php?postId=12 http://demo.activeagenda.net/tiki-view_blog_post.php?postId=12 0 Oops! They've Done It Again! Wall Street Journal

7 years without a Lost Time Accident

: "The sinking of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, which triggered the spill spewing oil into the Gulf of Mexico, caught the energy world by surprise. The operator, Transocean Ltd., is a giant in the brave new world of drilling for oil in deep waters far offshore. It had been honored by regulators for its safety record. The very day of the blast on the rig, executives were aboard celebrating its seven straight years free of serious accidents."

This part bears repeating:

: "The very day of the blast on the rig, executives were aboard celebrating its seven straight years free of serious accidents."

In 2005, my good buddy Larry Hansen and I were giving a presentation during an American Society of Safety Engineers symposium in Las Vegas. Larry is usually careful to have me speak to groups late in the day to avoid walk-outs. This occasion was different.

As Larry began the seminar, he allowed attendees to share their successes. One person spoke of the success her facility had achieved in attaining the lowest OSHA total incidence rate (TIR) in its history, a rate of 0.5 - a number some would "die" for. But before the group could offer any commendation on the achievement she suggested that is exactly what had occurred - the facility had sustained three fatalities that year.

Since this was my area of expertise, and my well-publicized pet peeve, Larry turned the floor over to me. I wasted little time in issuing the following caution to this safety professional: "If you continue to measure success the way you do, plan on more fatalities."

On my flight home I began penning an manuscript based on this dialog. Larry joined me in authoring and submitting the manuscript to Professional Safety, Journal of the American Society of Safety Engineers. While the manuscript was under consideration, Larry called me and instructed me to turn on the news - "Any channel." I turned on my television to find the Texas City BP plant on fire. Fifteen (15) dead and more than 150 seriously injured.

...and can you guess who the person was that stood up during our presentation in Las Vegas? Yup. A safety coordinator for BP in Texas City. I'll bet they have a Total Incident Rate (TIR) of .3 today.

Please take a moment to read our 2005 manuscript "Beware the Disconnect"

and please stop acting surprised when facilities with the lowest frequency rates continue to experience the highest costs and more serious losses.
]]> Wed, 12 May 2010 19:14:49 +0000 http://demo.activeagenda.net/tiki-view_blog_post.php?postId=11 http://demo.activeagenda.net/tiki-view_blog_post.php?postId=11 0 "What Gets Measured"
"What gets measured, gets done. What gets done may defeat the purpose of what gets measured." I hate that I get so many chances to quote myself.

I read through the 2005 Annual Report of the California Commission of Health Safety and Workers' Compensation. The folks at the CCHSWC are to be commended for their work, the report provides a great deal of information about the workers' compensation system in California.

The report estimates a reduction in the total loss per indemnity claim. I would like to make a prediction - the estimate is wrong and will be adjusted upward in the next annual report. The changes to California's WC system failed to eliminate the primary source of costs - the system and its many benefactors (a.k.a. conflict). I also read a Sacramento newspaper proclaiming the "good news" to the business people of California, and the good news is "frequency of injury is down!"

As counter intuitive as this may sound, this is NOT good news!

There's an inverse relationship!

The reason costs continue to rise is precisely because frequency is down. The injuries aren't occurring less frequently, we're just limiting our reports of injury to those we cannot hide, suppress, retain, or incentivize away. The less we know about low frequency injuries, the less will be done to abate their causes, and the more likely it will be that we experience higher severity claims.

It's time for (r)evolution in injury reporting practices and it may as well start with us!

Please read our related articles published within Professional Safety, Journal of the American Society of Safety Engineers.

CAUTION; Beware of OSHA Statistics

Beware the Disconnect

You may also enjoy a 2008 report from the Committee on Education and Labor, U.S. House of Representatives titled "HIDDEN TRAGEDY: Underreporting of Workplace Injuries and Illnesses"

]]> Wed, 12 May 2010 18:20:00 +0000 http://demo.activeagenda.net/tiki-view_blog_post.php?postId=10 http://demo.activeagenda.net/tiki-view_blog_post.php?postId=10 0 Product Recall Program - Food
My pal also asked if Active Agenda could handle Product Recall. To this question, I was comfortable answering "Yes!"

I explained how Active Agenda is a risk control application and most of the tools used to abate or control a particular risk apply to most risks. I then set out to create a quick product recall program (written) to illustrate how Active Agenda could help him with product recall events. It took me about three hours. The final product is simple, not perfect or polished, but it's a good starting document. It's available in our written programs area.

We would love for you to use it and make it work for you. We would also appreciate your feedback.
]]> Wed, 12 May 2010 18:08:00 +0000 http://demo.activeagenda.net/tiki-view_blog_post.php?postId=8 http://demo.activeagenda.net/tiki-view_blog_post.php?postId=8 0 Fast Company's 2007 Fast 50

Active Agenda is a "FAST 50"

This was our entry:

The big idea: In 25 words or less. How you are helping to address the planet's problems?

: Active Agenda is reducing workplace risk through global collaborative development and free distribution of open technologies and ideas.

Please describe how you are using business as a force of positive change. What technology, idea, or strategy are you using â€” and what problem, such as global warming, poverty, or pollution, does it address?

: The Problem: The pain of human injury and billions of dollars pouring out of organizations every year. Confronted by an industry that profits from "the problem" remaining unsolved, we have turned to the path of least resistance (the Internet), adopted the technologies of greatest access (open source) and sought the best people from our local community (the World) to achieve our mission. We view our mission and business strategy as distributed capitalism fueled by collaborative competition and a shared desire to solve this global social problem. Our revenue model is based on sponsorships, support services, and sales from commercial licenses.

What are the results, both financial and social? How has your business performed, and what impact has it had on the problem it addresses?

: Our source code was released on October 14th, 2006. Our community is just beginning to form. We have encountered opposition to our project because our mission threatens the business models of the insurance, and insurance brokerage, industries. Tangible signs of interest in our project include downloads on every major continent, participants contributing to our project, and interest expressed by potential sponsors. Our launch article, A Solution (R)evolution, was published by Occupational Hazards Magazine in October 2006 and distributed at the National Safety Congress in November 2006. Reporting financial and social results, at this phase of our business, is premature.

]]> Wed, 12 May 2010 17:52:00 +0000 http://demo.activeagenda.net/tiki-view_blog_post.php?postId=7 http://demo.activeagenda.net/tiki-view_blog_post.php?postId=7 0 If We build it, We will come
Our journey to create Active Agenda has brought us face-to-face with our own "Berlin Walls" (i.e. finance and insurance industries, industry associations, government ineptitude, budget limitations, "Dilbert encounters," etc.). We ultimately resorted to open source development out of necessity - not choice or brilliance.

We have encountered "wall" after "wall," built on foundations of equal parts greed, apathy, control and exclusion. As a result, we have turned to the path of least resistance (the Internet), adopted the technologies of greatest access (open source) and sought the best people from our local community (the World) to get around these "walls." We have never, and never will, seek to break down these walls. We want to provide people the means to solve the problem of workplace risk by reducing the importance of these "walls" as an impediment to their personal and organizational success.

Be careful where you sit when you are made of shell

After all, Humpty Dumpty needs somewhere to sit.

Those believing that open source philosophies are equivalent to communism, or extreme socialism, could not be more wrong. We view open source development, and other forms of community developed solutions, as forms of distributed capitalism fueled by collaborative competition and the promise of freedom to reach one's potential. Imagine if we (as individuals) were competing (collaboratively) to solve problems and we were being paid for our best efforts. Isn't this approach more likely to solve problems than if we (as organizations, institutions, or regions) continue to compete (proprietorially) to gain market share?

Almost every venture capital firm and "angel" investor we have encountered has reminded us to never utter the following statement, made popular by the movie "Field of Dreams": "If we build it, they will come." This warning is based on a market share mentality and disregards problem solving as a meritorious goal. The Internet, and open minded individuals with global problem solving perspectives, have changed the relevance of this common investment warning.

The Internet, and the champions of free ideas (a fast growing list), have made the following statement a realistic, and potentially profitable goal for many disenfranchised, globally distributed, problem solvers:

"If We build it, We will come." and We just might be enough.
]]> Wed, 12 May 2010 17:35:00 +0000 http://demo.activeagenda.net/tiki-view_blog_post.php?postId=6 http://demo.activeagenda.net/tiki-view_blog_post.php?postId=6 0 Now Everybody's Gonna Want One EH&S, Part I: SOX Is Nothing - Environmental Compliance Is the Real Challenge

. Their article speaks to the complex challenges of environmental, health and safety compliance and the relative difficulty of EH&S compliance when compared to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOx) of 2002.

This article reminded me of conversations with Rob Shavell from LRN, a company "inspiring principled performance" across today's corporate landscape. Rob had approached us to discuss methods of handling incident reporting within a large corporate enterprise. At the time, LRN's objective was to create an automated process of incident reporting to help companies comply with SOx. I recall telling him at the time - You think SOx compliance is challenging, try complying with the immense diversity of governmental, and self-imposed requirements associated with environmental, operational, health and safety, labor relations, and product protection.

Skip ahead a few years and we've released the source code to our best effort to solve this complex problem in an open, transparent, and collaborative way. Just wait until the world gets their hands on it. We suspect we'll learn how limited our view of the problem is from a global perspective. And now, thanks (literally) to the good works of the folks at AMR Research.

"now everybody's gonna want one!" ...and now it's easier than ever to get it!
]]> Wed, 12 May 2010 17:30:00 +0000 http://demo.activeagenda.net/tiki-view_blog_post.php?postId=4 http://demo.activeagenda.net/tiki-view_blog_post.php?postId=4 0 Have We Lost Our Vision or Just Closed Our Minds?
The Loss of Vision and Leadership by the Entire U.S. Safety and Health Community

The respondent provided sound rationale for his opinion, but absent permission, we will not share that here. What we can share is our follow-up to this respondent's honest, provocative, and insightful input.

Here's my pal Larry Hansen's follow-on comments in response to the editor's request for "The biggest national EHS stores of the year:"

: How about this as a "top story" (unknown by most): a couple of long tenure, committed professionals spend years (and three house refinances) to stave off the claws of venture capitalists, and evolve a state of the art, leading edge, true value-adding automated risk management operating system composed of > 80 integrated (cost and event) safety/risk management modules (compliance to best practice) designed with an Open Source concept so as to make a powerful tool available to the profession FREE! and their attempts to gain support and endorsement from the "supposed" thought leaders of the profession OSHA and NIOSH result in "NADDA" (Read not even the courtesy of a reply); and to the leadership of the associations that serve us - ASSE, AIHA, and RIMS - Double NADDA! (Read ignored in two instances, and outright rejected in the third). If you don't believe this (I didn't until I experienced it first hand), visit www.activeagenda.com browse the project and its mission, read the white paper and blogs, and play with the demo - then shake your heads! The Active Agenda project is all about "breaking the chains" of control (read proprietary motives) that have and continue to impede this profession's ability to succeed. I agree 100% we're in deep do-do in the not too distant future!"

Have we lost or vision, or are we just too comfortable closing our minds, our methods, and our markets?
]]> Wed, 12 May 2010 17:26:00 +0000 http://demo.activeagenda.net/tiki-view_blog_post.php?postId=3 http://demo.activeagenda.net/tiki-view_blog_post.php?postId=3 0 The Blog Image

Anything but lean!

While searching for images on Flickr the other day, we came across an awesome image for the blog header. The image portrays a series of silos crushing under their own weight, with some sort of control building sitting on top of them. The image reminded us of many years working inside large corporations.

The symbolism I liked was that of functional/departmental silos sitting beneath a large central headquarters. We see the silos breaking down from a failed structural design - just like functional silos competing for resources within large organizations. I also appreciate the long, arduous trip to "the top" represented by the "zig-zagging" ladder up the face of the monstrosity.

When we approached the photographer for permission to use his photo, we were delighted by his response:

: That sounds fine. A photo credit to Yuval Kordov and link to my flickr page will suffice. I'm all about open source. But if you end up becoming hugely famous and rich, be sure and let me know. ;)

: Cheers...Yuval

Please check out Yuval's creative work on Flickr

]]> Wed, 12 May 2010 17:22:00 +0000 http://demo.activeagenda.net/tiki-view_blog_post.php?postId=2 http://demo.activeagenda.net/tiki-view_blog_post.php?postId=2 0 Oh No! Here Comes the CEO
One of the topics we frequently focus on is measures used to gauge performance in the area of safety and health. We are no longer surprised by what people measure - lagging indicators. "We use OSHA incidence rates," "We use the Lost Time Incident Rate," etc.

We focus A LOT on this issue because it's "low hanging fruit." If there's one thing companies can do to achieve substantial performance improvement, it would be to abandon lagging indicators and encourage an increase in the reporting of low severity events - NOW!

Our audience, which is typically a blend of safety practitioners and operations folks, sit like those little caricatures that have their heads on a swivel as they nod dramatically in approval of our message. They could write our presentation, but they might be fired if they do.

Enter the CEO for the prerecorded speech thanking everyone for their attendance and their commitment to safety. Central to these speeches is a renewed commitment to reducing the injury incidence rate and improving upon the great performance to date.

: Note to CEO: Let the CFO write your speech. S/he won't be as encouraging and will likely ignite a discussion by asking how incident rates can be dropping while costs continue to rise.

: Your people know the truth and they want to be allowed to manage by it. As the CEO, you're in the best position to let them help your company. If you want an easy number to track, try Average Cost per Incident (irrespective of severity). This metric is the easiest way to realign the competing objectives of cost control and loss control.

: It's really deflating to watch you give that speech.

]]> Wed, 12 May 2010 16:19:00 +0000 http://demo.activeagenda.net/tiki-view_blog_post.php?postId=1 http://demo.activeagenda.net/tiki-view_blog_post.php?postId=1 0