What does good look like?

This past Monday we engaged with our One Field Services partners in a Global Safety Day. Thank you to those who engaged in the day, especially those who led learning sessions, visited jobsites, and our field teams who focused on line of fire risks.

I was fortunate to visit our Steam Fossil & Boiler crews working at Entergy Independence in Newark, Arkansas. Below are some good things I saw.

1) What does good organizational safety engagement look like?

We had multiple teammates step up and volunteer to lead learning sessions on safety and health topics that address their passions, experiences, and knowledge. Many others blocked their calendars for at least half the day to join sessions as an opportunity to invest in learning, support the team, prioritize safety, and celebrate our shared commitment.

2) What does good commitment based safety on a jobsite look like?

See the attached CBS Board, which is posted outside the crew trailer for all to see. The whiteboard highlights everyone’s CBS, which encourages feedback from others (vs 1-2 talking about it in the safety meetings or a portion of the crew talking about it when completing the STA). Everyone in the crew is sharing commitments and holding each other accountable.

3) What does good safe lifting practices look like?

 While at site I also observed our crew lift two valves from the third floor and lower to the first floor for transport offsite. You will see all the roles in place, the use of tag lines and push poles, and the crew staying away from the cone of danger. If we follow the safe lifting and rigging practices and STOP when we cannot, we can execute all lifting and rigging tasks 100% safely.

4) What does good customer engagement look like?

Entergy Independence is unique in how they approach safety, not only with their employees, but anyone that is present. They view everyone onsite as part of one team, their team. It starts with the little things, like our employees being able to park in the same paved, well-lit parking lot as the customer. It continues with the 1+ hours of in person orientation delivered by the plant manager and the outage manager (not the safety manager) on the Independence culture. And it continues with individual plant employees being available any time to help. Unfortunately, some customer’s talk safety, but are mainly focused on productivity outcomes. I left confident that Entergy Independence livers their safety culture everyday.

One final question:

5. How do I use what good looks like to improve my performance?

What if I told you that you could improve performance by 23% just by visualizing what good looks like. You can! Listen to this short podcast – Episode 312 “See Yourself Make The Shot” on the Hard 90 by Zach Sorenson, the mental performance coach for the Atlanta Braves. The lesson he shares has implications for many of our safety disciplines – the prejob brief, the safety task analysis, the after lunch reset, the after shift review. Please give it a listen, and please share what you learn.

One final thought: Safety is a differentiator for us. While onsite I had a crew member share the difference between working for another contractor and working for APM. Without going into specifics, the crew member did not feel safe while working for the other contractor. In contrast, he feels valued while working for APM (“we care”). This is one reason why craft will choose APM over other contractors. The experience is different. And the experience starts with our safety keystone.

-Jake