APM Team,

These past few weeks have brought two realities to our APM. First, we are doing a lot of work. On average we are employing over 2500 craft working over 150K hours on over 200 job sites each week. Second, we have seen a cluster of injuries to our teammates. Fortunately all are recovering well. Yet to have teammates leave our jobsites injured is not the performance we expect to deliver and is not the experience we want for anyone.

In response, we have rightfully focused on returning to the fundamentals, the daily disciplines that keep us safe. Being deliberate and acting with purpose in every task we do, even if the tasks are “peripheral” or perceived as “low risk”. (Note that a majority of our injuries and near misses have occurred on tasks not considered to be one of the Life Saving Principle operations we perform.) Using one of our most valuable tools – the Safety Task Analysis, aka the STA or “green” card – to identify hazards, to develop a plan to mitigate risks, and commit to actions that will deliver a safe task. And in the STA thinking about the “what ifs” when developing our plans and making our commitments. Using the 2 Minute Drill continuously – before switching from one subtask to the next, or when returning from break. All day every day, we use these tools and others to keep us all safe 100%.

Yet, any discussion of Safety has to start and return to our WHY. Next week we will engage in a “WHY I Commit” social media campaign, inspired by the example of our very own Greg Gibbs & Zylphia Hansley. (see prior blog post) Being reminded of our WHY is the energy, the “juice” that motivates us to spend those extra few minutes to do an excellent STA, to Take 2 Minutes before moving to the next step, or to STOP a teammate or neighbor when we see an unsafe act. So using another APM Leadership Tool, I will “Lead By Example” and share my WHY video with you.

I exhort you to engage us next week, both in the WHAT & HOW – using the tools like STA, CBS, 2 Minute Drill, & STOP – and also by sharing your WHY. I look forward to being inspired.

Until next week, I pray we all enjoy a safe, healthy, blessed holiday weekend.

—Jake