Page 18 - Occupational Health & Safety, June 2017

SAFETY MANAGEMENT
Align their safety as a top priority and a value above all else. Think ten steps ahead by considering the consequences of leadership actions as they relate to the resulting employee reactions and behaviors.
judgment calls based on our interpretation of how things should go or should be. By looking outside our windows, we can bet- ter understand what is going on externally so we can better plan internally. The more windows we install, the more sunlight we can enjoy, the better we can see, the more we can understand, and the more power- fully we can influence.
Securing a thorough understanding of your biases is paramount to self-checking your decisions, approaches to issues, and work relationships. Bulletproof employees are also saturated with biases. Understand- ing yours will help you understand theirs and in the process will help you implement more efficient and sustainable solutions.
Unit Bias and Risk Blind Spots
Now, back to “unit bias,” what it is and how leadership, unknowingly, can cause em- ployees to behave in ways that risk lives.
A good example of unit bias is when you have a jumbo bag of potato chips very accessible. The likelihood is very high that you will consume more chips than if you had a much smaller bag. The focus here is on having to finish one bag regardless of size. This is one unit. You have one apple; you eat it regardless of size. This is one unit. Another example is focusing your run- ning workout on completing it within one hour; distance traveled does not matter. If you focus your workout on distance trav- eled, time does not matter. In these cases, your definition of what a unit is determines when and how you complete your workout.
Let’s take a look at another unit bias example, one that happens all too often. A worker is overcome in an oxygen-deficient atmosphere while working in a confined space and a second worker makes the de- cision to go in and perform a rescue. The unit bias here is the rescue. It must be com- pleted now, so the second employee does not undertake safety precautions. The risk changed, but the risk evaluation is not re- calculated. Good intent but a bad decision that leads to another bulletproof employee fatality. Another real-life example occurred when two employees were directed by their boss to fix the heater issue in a back shed. Apparently, there was an urgent need, a true priority, ASAP, to get this accomplished right now, yesterday! Both employees go in; they smell gas in the dark shed. They can- not see well in the shed. With no other light
Decision-Making and Biases: Looking Outside Your Window
Is it possible that an employee’s decision- making process can be distorted due to an eventuality that is assigned a higher prior- ity? The answer is yes. I call these, distor- tions of the decision process. They occur when everything is okay up until some- thing happens that causes the employee’s priorities to suddenly move in a different direction, thereby making their current focus trivial in comparison. These include life-changing events like the loss of a loved one, financial distress, relationship issues, or as simple as an angry boss, a poor per- formance review, or an argument with a fellow worker. Leadership cannot control life-changing events but what we can do is have processes in place that promote a culture where everyone looks out for each other. By doing so, another employee can make the right choice for the colleague that is temporarily making the wrong one. We all have disruptions of the decision-making process. We are human. The key is to bal- ance this out with a supportive culture.
Studies (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ pubmed/16771803) show that three factors cause us to overvalue the importance of completing one task over another.
1. Authority and blindly following one directive over another
2. Time pressure and having to find the shortest path to the longest route
3. The basic need to complete a task without interruption; having to get some- thing done first at all costs and without con- sideration or re-evaluation of the safety risk.
The combination of these three factors cause us to make decisions that gener- ate undesired results; sometimes we gain weight, sometimes lives are lost. We fail to consider the real and major risks of moving forward with our decision. Psychologists refer to this phenomenon as “unit bias.” The unilateral tendency to want to finish a given unit of a task or an item. Before we discuss “unit bias,” let’s consider biases in general. Understanding them assists the bulletproof employee in moving towards a sustainable behavioral transition.
Biases are within us all. Sometimes we refer to them as preferences. Others refer to them as filters. Regardless of what these “things” are, they force us to manage infor- mation in ways that force predetermined assessments and resulting actions. Some- times the results are positive, sometimes not so much.
Divergent biases can hinder organi- zational effectiveness and overall cultural performance when introduced into the workplace. Biases are often created or manifested when we have experienced something or have learned a harsh lesson. Think of the last time you had a memorable bad experience at a hotel. The service left a lot to be desired, the parking was overly expensive, and the room was musty. What is the likelihood that you will return to that particular hotel or to that hotel chain? Drawing conclusions about future out- comes from experiences in the past and formulating a decision based on them is a form of biased decision-making.
Have you ever said: “I’m not doing that again!” or “Catch me once!”? These are classic examples of biased decision-mak- ing. Biased decision-making is not always wrong. In fact, sometimes this process pro- tects us from further harm, both physical and psychological and sometimes financial.
Another common way to secure a long- lasting bias is to adopt it from a family member or respected mentor. Let’s say the person you respected most when grow- ing up believed that the path to success is hard work, dedication, and family is first. Not only did this person preach it to every- one, but they also demonstrated it by wak- ing up early and going to bed late walking their talk. The likelihood is very high that, through their influence, today you feel em- powered to live your life in a similar fashion.
Imagine the impact of understanding where you stand and how this can be lev- eraged to influence others towards safer behaviors. Imagine if your views can be integrated with those of others so that your growth as a leader is but assured. I call this looking outside your window.
Most of us live in our worlds making
18 Occupational Health & Safety | JUNE 2017
www.ohsonline.com