Reflections … Passion and Commitment

“When you have passion and commitment, you don't need a complex plan.”

-Rudy Ruettiger

Good Afternoon APM Team,

Last week I had the opportunity to be in Atlanta & Washington, DC to strategize and celebrate safety. I have two brief reflections to share.

Passion fuels safety. In Atlanta, we were asked to collaborate on the EHS strategy for GE Gas Power. We discussed trainings, development, programs, processes, metrics, etc. Admittedly most people tune out when we get into the EHS weeds. Yet we received feedback that people tuned in (not out). Why? Passion. To paraphrase a few attendees, “Clear passion about Safety made us listen.” Passion for people, their value, and their success. Passion for people is the fuel for the safety keystone. 

100% safety is achievable. In DC, we sponsored the ZISA (Zero Injury Safety Awards) Gala. This event is held each year and recognizes safe work (defined as zero injuries, or as we say it 100% all home safe) in the union construction industry. Some of the numbers:

• 83 total projects with over 28M hours safely worked

• The largest project was 2.3M+ hours safely worked

100% safety can be done, even in big chunks. How? Commitment. See the quote below from the ZISA Gala program.

“Tonight, we honor more than 28 million injury-free work-hours – a direct result of the tripartite governance and collaboration found within our industry, and the commitment to sending our craft workers home safely each and every day. Congratulations to all who have contributed to this special achievement.”

We know about commitment – it is core to our CBS philosophy. So yes, we can have an entire outage season and year with 100% all home safe. We have the right plays in our playbook, we just need to run them with excellence.

—Jake