Transparent teams work

At IRM Safety we’ve already had a prime example of how traditional command and control fails to work, with one of our clients. A large organisation with several locations and a silo mentality. Each department on each location ‘does their own thing’, so there are virtually no connections between them. Lack of shared knowledge had resulted in problems not being identified and, therefore, not able to be resolved. The cost has been an audit that should not have been necessary and processes that now have to be ‘reinvented’ in each location to not only meet the internal and external compliances, but to address the issues that are only just being discovered after years of ineffective operation.

A book published recently (The Secrets of CEOs by Steve Tappin and Andrew Cave) says that the way forward is to take a close look at how the internal teams in your organisation operate. They advise ditching command and control and embracing total transparency. In fact, the recommendation is to develop fellowship within the organisation – something that Molly Harvey (www.thesoulwoman.com) has been promoting very successfully for some years now.

Teams hold the key to a leader’s success

For more about risk, occupational safety and health, eco-management and profitable operations visit our website at http://www.irm-safety.co.uk.

Still conkers bonkers!

Most people remember the headmaster who banned the children at his school from playing conkers without goggles and gloves as a safety precaution.  As a health and safety practitioner I found this completely ridiculous as, if he had done a risk assessment, I would be astonished if he had been able to cite even a trivial risk.

However, I was stunned when my 6 year old came home from school the other day and announced that he was not allowed to play conkers at school – because it was dangerous!  Dangerous as in he might graze a knuckle or suffer from damage to his pride if he loses as opposed to learning nothing about how to deal with risk in the real world – a much more potentially dangerous omission.