Hi Gerald, Tim,
I was a plant manager for a company in Queens, NY that employed at peak times 40+welders and other craftspeople that were tasked to their own roles in the overall production output for the plant...
In the beginning of my tenure there, I had to implement a new set of safety rules and policies because of the unheard of percentage of workplace accidents that were @ least 95% preventable bur were not previously addressed by the former plant manager... this company was bleeding like a stuck pig regarding their track record...
The first thing I did was to call toolbox meeting before the start of every shift continuously and it was adopted as a normal and permanent operating safety procedure...
when we came together as a team and started to really express our concerns to each other each morning which resulted in adding some excellent suggestions from the welders and other workers to the final draft of the new safety rules and policies... And even after I implemented the new safety policies, I didn't stop with the toolbox meetings which I learned from when I was working @ Electric Boat, and I told them this because we had some excellent safety records going on up in Rotten Groton, Ct...
In fact, there were only two fatal accidents (too many IMO!) during my time of employment @ EB... The safety departments as well as naval safety personnel subsequently discovered that both accidents were the result of poor interaction, and communication between the crafts... A complacent safety atmosphere of cooperation from various departments, and knowing ahead of time that personnel from different departments than their own would be working in those spaces at any given time throughout each of the 3 shifts daily... So yes I do know about the impossibility of totally eliminating all sort of potential accidents - especially the ones because of human error... The best achievement is mitigating as much as possible, and remaining vigilant and proactive to maintain a successful safety atmosphere
However, the real enemy I learned that had to be taken seriously was complacency, because no matter how well one plans for creating a safety focused environment & culture in the workplace, if complacency is not considered a serious threat to the overall plan, then everything that was implemented would end up being a complete waste of time and effort...
As a result of those daily toolbox meetings, the company I was in charge of went from being a complete embarrassing example of not focusing in fostering a serious safety atmosphere & culture to a company with no accidents whatsoever once the new rules and policies went into effect... that record continued up to the very last day I was employed there... Did it continue to behave that way? I really couldn't tell you because once I left for greener pastures, I never went back to check in and see how things were there... I do have to say that being so successful in implementing the safety procedures that resulted in such a profound change in that company is one of the proudest achievements out of all of the various milestones I reached throughout my career... It was without a doubt the most satisfying of achievements I reached up to this day.
Nobody is going achieve perfection on a sustained basis... Shooot, we may never even reach it in our lifetime, but we can strive to reach it even if only for a brief period in time... And perfection only becomes permanent when we pass on to the heavens and join our lord in his Kingdom of perfection... The Kingdom of Heaven. Amen.
Respectfully,
Henry