A Great Lesson in Safety Leadership
Another great article by Paul Nieuwoudt, Author of: Zero Harm and a Peasant in 16th Century Europe , Another side to the story and The Illusion Of Opposites
About 8 months ago my eldest daughter wanted to learn archery. I wasn’t interested in archery at all, but decided to sign us both up for an archery course with the intention of spending quality father-daughter time with her. Upon completion of the course we were both hooked. We bought some bows, arrows and other gear and joined a local club. I was very proud of my archery equipment and always took great care to treat them accordingly. We also enjoyed attending club nights with the challenge of trying to improve on our own personal performance.
This past Wednesday night we attended a club night as was our usual habit. I intended to shoot a round of 30 groups of 3 arrows in each group. After completing 28 groups, I was ready to shoot the final 2 groups. I put the first arrow into the arrow rest, pulled the string back, aimed and then released the string. As I released, I had the feeling this was going to be a good shot; the sight was on the centre of the target and the result was going to be good. … then something happened.
I heard a loud bang and felt a very unusual vibration. Confusion entered my mind. I looked at the bow and saw a mess; the string was hanging frayed and broken. Parts of the bow had also sustained damage. My stress levels shot up. I looked to the target but could not see where my arrow had gone. I looked back at the damaged bow. The damage was consistent with an event we had often been warned about during our training i.e. NEVER dry fire a bow (dry fire is when you shoot without an arrow in place).
But how could that be, I always ensure an arrow is securely in place, and I had my arrow in place during that last shot? For some reason I checked my quiver and found three arrows. My mind was trying to make sense of the situation – If there had been an arrow in the bow, then I would only have had two arrows in the quiver. The realisation slowly dawned on me that I had just done the one thing I would never ever contemplate doing i.e. dry-fire my bow. I realised that I was severely mistaken and had never actually put an arrow into my bow; I had merely imagined that I had. My lapse had caused significant damage, angst, not to mention significant repair cost.
As you could expect, it was a real anti-climax to my evening. I wanted to pack up and leave as quickly as possible. As I was packing up, one of the range officers walked over to make sure I was unhurt. We looked at the bow and chatted briefly. As I left, he offered the consolation that “it is a mistake we all make at some point”.
I didn’t sleep well that night. I was annoyed with myself and devastated by the damage I had caused. However it did provide me the opportunity to reflect on the matter and I could not help drawing some parallels to the work environment and safety. How would businesses react if my incident had occurred in their workplace?
· Some businesses would opt for severe discipline or dismissal. After all, I had been trained, I had signed all the requisite forms, I was versed in the golden rule/life-saving rule, and yet I had breached the golden rule of never dry-firing a bow. Their zero tolerance approach towards violations would ensure that I would be sent down the road. Yet I question whether discipline would have had any material impact on preventing my lapse?
· Other companies may opt for re-training. However what good would that do? There was no deficiency in my knowledge that training could rectify. I knew all the right things; I even sincerely believed all the right things and yet I still made my mistake. How could any amount of re-training have prevented my mistake?
· Some organisations may go down the counselling route. They would sit me down and caution me to “remember to always take extra care”. A big waste of time that advice would be. I was already taking the utmost care I could. Where would I get the extra care from and how would it prevent a lapse? Does that advice suddenly make me a perfect and lapse-free individual? Such advice may make the boss feel good, but does it address my need?
This made me realise that the brilliance of the range officer’s approach. There was no hint of judgement, condemnation, expectations of perfection or retribution for making an error. His first thought was for my well-being – are you ok? He then tried to console me. He recognised the fallibility and humanness of my mistake, and acknowledged that my mistake was not unique. His approach was perfectly tailored to my need i.e. consoling my utter dejection.
I wonder if businesses and safety compliance systems could learn from the wisdom and leadership the range officer’s demonstrated that evening?
Do you have any thoughts? Please share them below