Safety Leadership

JMJ helped us analyze more deeply what the problem was rather than just finding technical solutions.

Transforming a safety culture is about setting the right example, role modeling, relationships and really believing that every incident can be avoided.

What I’ve seen happening over time is that the leadership has shifted away from me. The leadership team has become the project team and the people on the vessels. They know they have my full support and I count on them making those decisions themselves.

The biggest benefit of JMJ’s safety approach, in addition to injury reduction, is that it builds relationships, making communications at the project level about all types of subjects more effective and easier to maintain. Our IIF journey has not only given us a significantly safer place to work, it has made us a better company overall.

We’ve almost gone a year without a recordable incident, and we only had three very minor first aid accidents during two shutdowns. That’s a great feeling for the team…I’ve seen increased communication from the guys in the field to their supervisors, to their managers. I don’t think we would have seen this in the past because people feel like it really is OK to speak up and to ask questions.

In addition to enabling us to make safety personal, relevant and important to everyone in the company – especially with our field and craft employees – Incident and Injury-Free™ has been the one method by which we have been able to create a one-culture company. It has opened communications and assisted in building relationships that otherwise would not have been created.

When you genuinely care for your people, the numbers, the statistics will generally take care of itself. It’s the caring and concern that really drives your project culture.

The numbers were very important, but we cared for people going home safely. Going home safely was the real target.

The emphasis on relationships worked very well. JMJ repeatedly referenced the importance of relationships, often saying a relationship could be anything you wanted it to be. This made a huge difference; the ambiance in meetings was very different to previous meetings. Subcontractors and owners spoke more freely, there were laughter and jokes. Challenges and issues were raised and we addressed them collectively.

We’ve gone from a reactive environment, (and most people would agree), getting into more independent and interdependent teams where they actually have a genuine concern for each other. On a daily basis, they’re pulling each other up too for doing non-safety conforming stuff, not because it’s unsafe, but they’re more concerned about their fellow man, their friends, their work colleagues, these people that they work with day in day out. And they’re genuinely looking after each other.

Safety became a core value and was clearly visible in the leaderships’ commitment to address and solve safety critical issues in 24 hours. In contrast to previous turnaround projects the reduction in the number of incidents was outstanding.

JMJ helped change the mindset and perspective of workers on the project. There were very systematic programs. Not only did they hold workshops that helped change our mind-set, but they followed up on workshops with group coaching. Because it was a constant process and there were regular training and coaching, it helped people be reminded of the IIF [approach] constantly.

The case for change was so compelling. We knew we couldn’t hide behind percentages. This is about saving lives.