Bring Me Solutions Not Problems – Republished
One of the more popular posts by the late George Robotham – see all of his work here
An ex-manager of mine used to say “Bring me solutions not problems”
There is no shortage of people on the various forums talking about various OHS problems.
Solutions do not seem to be as forthcoming as the problems. Your chance to have a say!
Some of the problems I see include-
- There is only half-hearted leadership from government, unions and many companies with regard to safety.
- There is a poor understanding in the community of the reasons why personal damage occurrences (accidents) occur. We are quick to make the assumption that the worker was careless, when one examines personal damage occurrences (accidents) carefully one identifies a range of work system factors that contributed to the personal damage occurrence (accident) as well, most of these work system factors are the responsibility of the employer at both common and statute law. Blaming workers for their careless behaviour is an emotionally appealing approach that is usually not all that productive in the bigger picture of preventing personal damage at work.
- The media emphasises personal fault in news releases about incidents and does not consider design and system issues that contribute to incidents.
- We do not have a centralised, consistent method of reporting and recording incident and disease statistics. How can we examine the beast and learn from it if we do not record and report it in a consistent manner?
- Government, unions and many companies treat safety as a second priority and industrial relations issues dominate.
- The standard of Occupational Health and Safety practitioner may not be as high as it could be
- The messages of past incidents are not utilised enough in safety decision making. For this to happen past incident information has to be collected ,presented and organised in a useable manner.
- The Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate predominates discussions about safety performance. How can a company be proud of a decrease of L.T.I.F.R. from 60 to 10 if there have been 2 fatalities and 1 case of paraplegia amongst the lost time injuries? The L.T.I.F.R. trivialises serious personal damage and is a totally inappropriate measure of safety performance
In association with 3 other people I have decided to write a paper proposing solutions to Australia’s major OHS problems, a big ask I know. I would be interested in your contributions towards the solutions.
George Robotham
George was a Legend in the Safety World who passed away in Sept 2013 but left us with a great legacy
Latest posts by George Robotham (see all)
- How to Give an Unforgettable Safety Presentation - June 3, 2019
- How To Write a Safety Report - November 9, 2018
- For The Love of Zero–Book Review - January 7, 2018
- George’s Christmas Safety Message - November 30, 2016
- FREE ebook – Guidance for the beginning OHS professional - November 12, 2016
I have worked in OHS for most of my working life, many years in the mining industry including over 10 years in a corporate OHS role with BHP. Since leaving the mining industry I have worked in a variety of safety roles with a variety of employers, large & small, in a variety of industries.
I was associated with my first workplace fatality at age 21, the girl involved was young, intelligent, vivacious and friendly. Such a waste! I was the first on the scene and tried to comfort her and tend to her injuries. She said to me “George, please do not let me die” We put her on the aerial ambulance to Rockhampton base hospital where she died the next day. I do not mind telling you that knocked me around for awhile.
Since then I have helped my employers cope with the aftermath of 12 fatalities and 2 other life-altering events. The section "Why do Occupational Health & Safety" provides further detail but in summary, poor safety is simply very expensive and also has a massive humanitarian cost.
My qualifications include a certificate I.V. in Workplace Training and Assessment, a Diploma in Frontline Management, a Diploma in Training & Assessment Systems, a Bachelor of Education (Adult & Workplace Education) , a Grad. Cert. in Management of Organisational Change and a Graduate Diploma in Occupational Hazard Management. I am currently studying towards a Masters in Business Leadership.
Up until recently I had been a Chartered Fellow of the Safety Institute of Australia for 10 years and a member for about 30 years.
My interest is in non-traditional methods of driving organisational change in OHS and I have what I believe is a healthy dis-respect for many common approaches to OHS Management and OHS Training. I hold what I believe is a well-founded perception that many of the things safety people and management do in safety are “displacement activities” (Displacement activities are things we do, things we put a lot of energy into, but which when we examine them closely there is no valid reason for doing them).
My managerial and leadership roles in OHS have exposed me to a range of management techniques that are relevant to Business Improvement. In particular I am a strong supporter of continuous improvement and quality management approaches to business. I believe leadership is the often forgotten key to excellence in most aspects of life.
I hold the Australian Defence Medal and am a J.P.(Qualified).
I have many fond memories of my time playing Rugby Union when I was a young bloke.
