Page 21 - Procanvass

Cornerstone of Safety Culture: Remember, Professional culture you learn, safety
Hygiene: It means to do things the way they are culture you imbibe.
supposed to be done. Disposing garbage from the
Communication: Communication again is a leadership
messes at the designated place and in the laid down
issue. A leader has to clearly and unambiguously
manner, accounting for every piece of locking wires and
communicate, organizational requirements on safety.
rivets at the sites, driving at the specified speed, driving
only authorised vehicles, having the courage to point The orders and instructions which originate to
out mistakes, ensuring refreshments is available to supplement the said requirements should be simple and
early and late labours after completing their piece of implementable. The quality of these orders stems from
work. the fact that they should complement each other and
not be at cross-purposes.
Self-discipline of the leader can be path-breaking in
Challenging the Norms: It is not necessary that the
this sphere. Why to have the CCTVs in the premises?
norms in place are the best possible option available to
On one hand we grade people high on integrity and on
the other hand we use CCTV to keep an eye on their do things. Managers/Leaders must strive to create an
working! The leader has to set the example of following environment which promotes challenging the existing
the rules at all cost and every time. He cannot norms to improve them further. People should be
compromise the culture by the proverbial ‘Chalta hai’ or encouraged to ask question for the sake of
‘Jugaad’ concepts. Honesty and integrity is the base. On improvement.
which self-discipline stands. As Project managers, self- Dignity of Labour: Ethos to be propagated must be
discipline should be imbibed from ab-initio training. ‘dignity of labour’. Everybody is important to the
system. The Subordinates/labourers/workers in the
Responsibility & Accountability: Dictionary defines
responsibility as doing what may be something that is project are all contributing to safety in their own way.
your duty to deal with and admitting when you “break This needs to be acknowledged in uncertain terms
something” shows accountability. Both complement The safety culture refers to shared value among all in
each other and benchmark an individual’s character. the organisation. It is concerned with contribution from
Safety requires responsibility and accountability at all everyone at every level of the organisation. In a strong
levels. This again is a leadership function. A safai wala positive safety culture everyone feels responsible for
sweeping the ground will never compromise his safety and pursues it on a daily basis. Personnel need to
responsibility if the example set by the managers is a go beyond “the call of duty” to identify unsafe
sterling-one. The managers have to be there for the conditions and behaviour. “There is no substitute for
doers and support their efforts. Actions of the project a watchful eye, a willing mind and a thoughtful
managers are the stepping stones for the much needed approach.” All this can only be achieved if all of us
trust. willingly strive to abide by following the right means to
achieve the right ends.
Normalization of Deviance is just another phrase for
condoning errors & violation. Normalization of Hence, where do we stand and where do we want to
deviance means people within the organisation become be in the future with regards to safety culture? We
so much accustomed to a deviant behaviour that they need to describe the underlying philosophy of the
don’t consider it as deviant. The longer it goes on, the
stated safety culture and then outline mechanism of
more people become accustomed to it. Due to the large how each member of project will identify it, the role
size of the organisation this can be insidious and can
also become more entrenched. This issue was and responsibility each individual will play in
achieving the goal of internalizing this safety culture!
highlighted in the inquiry which went into factors that
contributed to challenger space shuttle disaster. The Then we as PROJECT MANAGERS can proudly answer
sociologist who was part of the investigation team the question, SAFETY CULTURE: Do you have it in
noted that people conformed to ‘other rules’ than the you, with a big YES!!!
regular procedures.

Training: Professionalism improves with the
advancement of training. We need to ponder why don’t
we have accident at highly inspected zones? Do we tend
to compromise on supervision and professionalism Avinash Sah
during regular day-to-day training? M.Tech. Project Management, VJTI
avinash.sahvjti.18@gmail.com

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