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Strong Corporate (and Safety) Culture Guidelines
A rock solid corporate culture is about achieving greater results through sustaining the employees' focus on what to do and how to do it. A corporate culture also refers to an organization's values, beliefs, and behaviors. In general, it is the beliefs and values on which people interpret experiences and behave, individually and in groups. Shared values are what engender trust and link an organization together. These values are also the identity by which an organization is known throughout its business areas and must be stated as both corporate objectives and individual values. In aviation and other similar industries where safety is paramount, the corporate culture and safety culture are entwined. Following are some guidelines that will help create a strong corporate culture that will lead to a positive safety culture.
Educate - Show employees what they need to do by building a strong foundation for their performance during new employee orientation, on-boarding processes, and later during education and development opportunities. Unless employees clearly understand what they need to do, they will make mistakes or allocate their time to tasks inappropriately.
Train - Take employees through the step-by-step process of performing tasks and explain how the correct execution of those steps creates success for them and the organization.
Coach - It is important to show employees that the job can be done and that they can do it. Coaching helps them see why they have been selected to perform the task or why they have been appointed to the team. Instill in them a belief in themselves and the confidence to use past successes as a stepping-stone to future opportunities.
Vision - When other employees don't see the reason behind your directions, you need to get their support to move forward. This is often a trust issue. A senior leader's vision for the organization is a good start, but employees also need to know how they fit into that vision and why their organizational processes are critical to accomplishing the vision.
Motivate - This is the most challenging reason people underperform - when employees know what to do and how to do it, but they are not motivated enough to do it or they feel they have a better way. Sometimes people even try to sabotage the process to slow down changes. In this situation, you must use your influence to get results. Motivation is the key. If people know what to do, how to do it, believe they can do it, and know why they should do it, non-performance must be due to some other barrier that may not be immediately discernable. Look at how the organization is inspiring its employees. Are they being kept busy without knowing how their activities relate to the organization's mission or vision? Inspired employees have the internal desire to achieve the vision.
Establish continuous improvement by building on the characteristics of strong teams.
- Cooperation: In a strong team, individuals rely on each other to make processes and interactions function as planned. Strong teams root out uncooperative members and either replace them with people who will move the process forward or coach them on more cooperative behavior.
- Mutual Respect: In a strong team, individuals avoid arrogance, condescension, and criticism. Teams achieve success when their members respect each other's talents, opinions, and efforts.
- Democratic: In a strong team, every team member has a voice. Each member of the team has a right to question the process, add input, and evaluate the team's progress.
Capitalize on individual strengths to take teams to higher levels of performance. In a strong corporate culture leaders know how to capitalize on individual strengths. To capitalize on individual strengths, team leaders must be able to:
- Recognize strengths: Many leaders have a hard time recognizing their employees' strengths. In a business climate where appreciation is often in short supply, many of us get out of the habit of looking for the strengths in others. It takes a change in our mindset to start seeing what we admire or appreciate in others.
- Combine strengths to make a team: Combining strengths is a little bit like combining ingredients in a great recipe. Just dumping ingredients into a pan doesn't make a great dish, no matter how excellent each individual ingredient may be. It is typical to see talented, capable individuals who underperform as a team.
- Focus on strengths, not weaknesses: Do you show appreciation for your employees' strengths or do you focus on their weaknesses?
Facilitate the interaction of diverse personalities. Even leaders with the best intentions are sometimes guilty of wanting their employees to do or act like they do. Working in a team with diverse personalities requires flexibility, patience, and open-mindedness. When you embrace the diverse personalities, you enable your company to reach its fullest potential.
- Celebrate diversity: Although it seems easier, most people would be bored working with a company whose members all had the same personalities. Interaction is much more stimulating and interesting when there is a variety of personal styles and characteristics. By celebrating differences, you acknowledge that all of us are enriched by our opportunity to work together.
- Open lines of communication: Employees tend to avoid others with different personalities and to form informal alliances with similar members. If this is allowed to go on indefinitely, sub-groups become cliques with insiders and outsiders and the lines of communication are blocked.
- Build bridges, not walls: Leaders of strong organizations learn to facilitate connections between diverse styles. Look for ways to make it easier for employees to form alliances, increase mutual understanding, and break down perceived barriers in the way they approach the work.
- Manage results, not tasks: Ultimately, what matters is each employee's contribution to the company goals and mission. Leaders who are adept at facilitating strong teams have learned to focus on the results each achieves, rather than on trying to make them achieve the results in a certain way. This allows the individuals to express their personalities through their work and still contribute significantly to the overall effort.
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Safety Reporting Policy
SMS is based on the premise that there will always be safety hazards and human errors. SMS establishes processes to improve communication about these risks and take action to mitigate them. This approach will subsequently improve an organization's overall level of safety. The SMS Model is comprised of 4 Safety Pillars, the first of which is safety policy and objectives. The safety policy and objective pillar is not just an expression by an operator. It serves as the foundation for the development of a safety management organization. To establish the right corporate safety culture, policies must be established and published. These policies serve as the foundation for a highly effective SMS.
The attitudes and actions of management can significantly impact the entire staff. How many times have you heard the phrase "the personality of the organization reflects that of the CEO?" With this in mind, the Safety Policy should be a written document from senior management that is communicated to all employees. Other affiliated entities with a stake in organizational safety should also be informed. The Safety Policy should include the following:
- Commitment to the implementation of the SMS.
- Assurance that executives are monitoring safety performance just as keenly as financial performance.
- Encouragement for all employees to report potential safety issues without fear of reprisal (non-punitive policy statement).
- Establishment of clear standards for acceptable behavior related to safety.
- Commitment to providing the necessary resources.
Without the above SMS elements in place, understanding the "purpose" of an effective SMS organization will not be realized. Some of your staff may see policies as a way for management to "control behavior." However, it is generally understood that an SMS will be ineffective unless there is written non-punitive reporting policy. "Show it to me in writing!"
To encourage employees to submit hazard reports the non-punitive reporting policy should be clear, concise, current, and accessible so there is no doubt as to its purpose and meaning. In SMS Pro™ the "Non-Punitive Reporting Policy" is the first screen users see when they enter the SMS Hazard Reporting System. If an organization doesn't have a current "Non-Punitive Reporting Policy," SMS Pro™ users get a free template. The template is based on FAA, ICAO and Transport Canada criteria as shown in the following example:
At Acme Aviation, our objective is to cultivate and foster a generative safety culture in which employees and customers are comfortable and encouraged to bring safety concerns to the attention of management.
No person will be penalized or retaliated against for bringing safety issues to the attention of management.
- Safe flight operations are Acme Aviation's most important commitment. To ensure this commitment, it is imperative that we have uninhibited reporting of all incidents and occurrences that compromise the safety of our operations.
- We ask that each employee accept the responsibility to communicate any information that may affect the integrity of flight safety. Employees must be assured that this communication will never result in reprisal, thus allowing a timely, uninhibited flow of information to occur.
- All employees are advised that Acme Aviation will not initiate disciplinary action against an employee who discloses an incident or occurrence involving flight safety. This policy cannot apply to criminal, international or regulatory infractions.
- Acme Aviation has developed safety reports to be used by all employees for reporting information concerning flight safety. They are designed to protect the identity of the employee who provides information. These forms are readily available in your work area.
- We urge all employees to use this program to help Acme Aviation continue its leadership in providing our customers and employees with the highest level of flight safety.
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