HSE People - Health and Safety Community

We have spent a considerable amount of time discussing the use of social networking and selected tools to help improve the implementation of an effective safety system, in this case the Job Hazard Analysis. During our search for new ideas, we came across a number of basic concepts that may be of benefit to the Business Professional when developing a process.  We recently presented our findings at a local safety conference and presented a technique we found that may be of benefit.   It may help when you encounter a scenario similar to this: You have developed a specific and well designed Management System (Safety, Human Resources, Quality, etc.) only to find your efforts have stalled, been diluted in a short period of time, or during program reviews an audit uncovers pockets of errors in the system.  We then increase our efforts and try to enhance our effectiveness by deploying new safety and health actions that also meet with continued resistance.  What do you do next?

To Whom, When, and Where do we Communicate?

We face a myriad of organizational structures that create obstacles to a successful safety system, obstacles such as:

·         Multiple levels of management that lack of continuity, due to a lack of communication between the levels of management.  This reminds us of the old saying: “the right hand does not know what the left hand is doing.” 

·         Company politics where everyone does their own thing believing that their way is the right way and do not listen to the professionals or each other.

·         Resistance to change – the old way has worked, why change?

·         Potential  key players or potential supporters are not involved and missed in the initial endeavor rollout

·         The importance of the endeavor is downplayed as not a high priority by various departments or individuals

These organizational obstacles as well as others must be understood and dealt with.  As a safety professional, one must learn how to adapt to meet these obstacles by developing strategies to overcome resistance to change, gaps in support or communications issues when launching any new initiatives. While many tools and techniques must be considered and used as part of your tool kit, one new technique that appears to have promise is the use of Social Network Analysis (SNA). 

SNA and its foundational concepts have been around for a long time but have not, in our opinion, been effectively used to the degree needed. SNA applies to the inter-workings of an organization and assesses your communication links and quality.  It is much more than using social network tools as we use on the internet (e.g. Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, blogs, etc.).  SNA certainly has not been used in the risk/safety process development to our knowledge.

In part 2 we will discuss how the Social Network Analysis can be a way to assess and determine the quality and scope of individual (employees, management, etc.) or the organizational group interactions. These interactions can be developed graphically or through use of mind mapping techniques then displayed to assess a variety of communication elements.