Looking For Mighty Eagles Amongst Chickens

 Once upon a time, on a large mountainside there was an eagle nest with several large eagle eggs inside.

  One day, an earthquake rocked the mountain causing one of the eggs to roll down to a chicken farm, located in the valley below.

The chickens knew that they must protect the eagle egg. Eventually, the eagle egg hatched and a beautiful eagle was born.

Being chickens, the chickens raised the eagle to be a chicken. The eagle loved his home and family but it seemed his spirit cried out for more.

One day, the eagle looked to the skies above and noticed a group of mighty eagles soaring. "Oh," the eagle cried, "I wish I could soar like those birds."

The chickens roared with laughter, "You cannot soar like a mighty eagle. You are only a chicken and chickens do not soar." The eagle continued staring at the mighty eagles up above, dreaming that he could be like them.

Each time the eagle talked about his dreams, he was told it could not be done, and he should be happy he was a chicken.

That was what the eagle learned to believe. After time, the eagle stopped dreaming and continued to live his life as a chicken.

One day a mighty eagle was flying overhead and thinking eagle was a chicken he swooped down, grabbed eagle, and carried him back to his nest to eat. When the mighty eagle saw that eagle was not a chicken he asked eagle, why are you living with chickens? Eagle said, because I am a chicken that is all I know and that's what everyone says I am.

The mighty eagle said no you're not, I tell you, you are a mighty eagle like me and you can soar like me and rule the air, I will show you. With that mighty eagle grabbed eagle and carried him high up in the air, high as he could fly. Eagle was terrified because he knew he would fall to a horrible death.

Suddenly mighty eagle let go of eagle and eagle fell, spinning and screaming I am a chicken, I am only a chicken and chickens don't fly, I am going to die. Mighty eagle swooped down again and carried him up again, but this time mighty eagle said, just try, open your wings, when they fill with air you will know you are a mighty eagle like me.  Mighty eagle let go again, fear began to rush in again but eagle, remembering what mighty eagle said opened his wings. When the rushing air filled his massive wingspan for the first time, he felt the explosive power he was born to harness and at that moment he knew he was also a MIGHTY EAGLE, looking at his new friend and fellow mighty eagle he was thankful that another mighty eagle saw him for what he really was and could be…

The Beginning

I hope you enjoyed this twist to an old story. Are you looking for mighty eagles amongst chickens?

Empowerment of Trust

Empowerment, I really like this word, it is both self-descriptive and mysterious. The thing is, empowerment is trust of which is nearly impossible to give yourself, but you can give it to others. 

Allow me to illustrate; say that you have a safety specialist who is not up to par and is not respected by you or others at their work. Everyone says he/she is not any good and you are even considering letting him or her go…Wait, before you pull the trigger and end his/her career with your company, ask yourself, "Have they been empowered". Many are authorized but the successful ones are empowered. You ask "What's the difference?", to be empowered, someone else needs to trust you and lift you  up:

1.    Begin with full trust and confidence in their motivation, competence and qualifications.

2.    Visibly support and be loyal to their efforts.

3.    Unambiguously layout your expectations with a "real" offer of support accompanied with training materials and funds.

4.    Working from a position of trust you will see many more attributes of the person that are encouraging and with the continuous reinforcement of the positive, you will see  results manifest as wins, capitalize on the wins while shoring up the low points with constructive tutoring.

 

You ask, "What if they fail, wasn't my trust misplaced?"  I say that it was not, because you still balance out in the end with knowledge of what you need and if required you can better select the next person. In addition, you can look in the mirror and say to the face looking back at you, that you did all you could to empower them to be a success they just didn't harness it.  In a win scenario, you will see the average person raise their own standards and meet the expectations or at least progress towards it. Remember when you start with trust, you will have more people you trust in the end

Moving Out of The Box

I have seen allot of cause analysis reports during my time in HSE and during that time I have seen very few that get to down the essence of the problem. I realize what I am saying is somewhat subjective but in my opinion, we will not see the results we want unless our corrective actions address behavior. That being said, behavior is almost intangible. It interjects an ethereal component because it starts in the human mind and we all know the psyche is a complex and mysterious place. What works for one person does not necessarily work on another. Nevertheless, we get discouraged and throw more systems at the problem.  I am sorry but there are not any magic beans, fix al or a silver bullet, but there are drivers that influence “normal” people.

In the 1950’s Maslow studied the healthiest 1% of the college student population, in Maslow’s book “1954 book Motivation and Personality” He laid it out a pyramid      

Abraham Maslow (1954) presents a hierarchy of needs model divided into basic (or deficiency) needs (e.g. physiological, safety, love, and esteem) and growth needs (cognitive, aesthetics and self-actualization).  One must satisfy lower level basic needs before progressing on to meet higher-level growth needs.  Once these needs have been reasonably satisfied, one may be able to reach the highest-level called self-actualization.

Every person is capable and has the desire to move up the hierarchy toward a level of self-actualization.  Unfortunately, progress is often disrupted by failure to meet lower level needs. Life experiences including divorce and loss of job may cause an individual to fluctuate between levels of the hierarchy.  Maslow noted only one in a hundred people become fully self-actualized because our society rewards motivation primarily based on esteem, love and other social needs. It is important to note that other researchers have elaborated upon Maslow’s (1954) theory. Other researchers who have interpreted Maslow’s writings to develop both seven and even eight stages.

6. Cognitive needs - knowledge, meaning, etc.

7. Aesthetic needs - appreciation and search for beauty, balance, form, etc.

8. Transcendence needs - helping others to achieve self-actualization.

Why am I bringing this up? I propose linking systems, which satisfy some of the hierarchy of needs, is your ticket to influencing behavior. Further identifying the related principal contributors associated to the hierarchy of needs (which consequently led to a loss incident event) will bring to light previously hidden behavioral causes. This will lead to better corrective actions, safety goals and targets, which result in an increase in the desired safe behaviors then a safer worksite.

What are those “Desired Behaviors”? Realistically some of those behaviors are relative to the actual work being done. After all, safe behavior for a soldier is different from that of a babysitter, although there are some core behaviors found in each. See if you can connect behaviors listed below to the needs model. If you can you are now starting to leave the box and will begin to see the possibilities.

Everybody’s Desired Core Behavior

• Knowledge of Job (Competency)
• Caring for themselves and others
• Talent/Intellect to learn and think out of the box
• Will Not let someone else work unsafe
• Teaches others the right way
• Accountability for their own actions
• Focused doesn’t let pressure drive them
• Drive wants to do a good job and find a safe way
• Looks for ways to engage others to work safe
• Mentoring in all directions down and up
• Expects and holds peers and leaders accountable
• Adheres to Policy but is willing to expose gaps and flaws
• Careful is focused on what they are doing now
• Will Stop ANY unsafe work
• Takes safety home
• Participates and promotes safety initiatives
• Willing to Emotionally Invest In Others

In a later blog I will expand on:

• Actions which can meet needs
• Those behaviors an on the desired behavior of leadership which encourage and facilitate the desired behaviors of their direct and indirect reports.
• The development of management systems and training programs which enable the desired behavioral changes.
• Rewarding desired behaviors and discouraging undesired behaviors.