Page 75 - Serious Incident Prevention How to Achieve and Sustain Accident-Free Operations in Your Plant or Company

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Employee Involvement 53

My experience indicates that a large percentage of the working popula-
tion can devise a plan for getting all prisoners safely across the bridge in 19
minutes. However, there is a better solution with no tricks involved, for re-
ducing the time required for all prisoners to cross. Can you identify a bet-
ter plan? If not, you are among the vast majority who could benefit from
collaboration with others on the project. For those of you who identify the
optimum solution of 17 minutes for all prisoners to cross—
Congratulations! However, be aware that for other types of problems and
projects, you may be the one benefiting from the synergy that can be
achieved through teamwork with others. (A solution for the 17-minute
bridge crossing is presented at the end of this chapter.)

Teamwork

Effective teamwork leverages the diversity of team members to produce
a synergistic output. Employee involvement and teamwork facilitate the se-
rious-incident prevention process in a number of ways:

1. Identification of risks: Employees at the point of control and others
with specialty knowledge can provide valuable input on past inci-
dents, near misses, and improvement opportunities.

2. Identification of critical work: Point-of-control employees can pro-
vide information based upon direct observations and experiences to
identify the proactive actions needed to effectively control risks.
Input from employees with technical or other specialty knowledge is
also critical.
3. Synergy: The involvement of individuals with diverse backgrounds
and knowledge enhances the development of effective serious-inci-
dent prevention processes. Team-based, synergistic processes are
much more likely to succeed than those developed exclusively by the
manager.
4. Understanding the process: Employee involvement increases under-
standing of the serious incident prevention process. Involvement is
the difference between experiencing Europe through personal travel
compared to viewing someone else’s photographs. The first-hand
experience provides a greater feel, sense of perspective, and under-
standing. Involved individuals understand the fundamental principles
driving the incident prevention process and are more likely to main-
tain the commitment necessary to sustain performance.
5. Pride of ownership: People show polite interest in other people’s ba-
bies but reserve real commitment and personal sacrifice for raising