Cultivating an Actively Caring Culture: The Courage and Compassion of an Injury-Free Workplace

Here we're talking about personal experiences that enable a person to perceive their achievements. Sometimes these success stories occur naturally, as when the artist, scholar and tradesman view the positive results of their ongoing behavior. We call this “intrinsic reinforcement.” Effective safety leaders point out the inherent positive consequences of a group's injury-prevention efforts, thereby increasing the self-efficacy of the participants.

Personal Control (“I'm in control”) - The academic term “locus of control” refers to a general outlook regarding the location of forces controlling a person's life - internal vs. external. The internal outlook reflects belief in direct personal control over a certain situation, as opposed to the external belief in chance, luck or uncontrollable fate. In the internal state, individuals are captains of their ship, whereas in the external state, people believe they are victims of circumstances beyond their control.

The perception of “choice” closely is related to belief in personal control. In other words, whenever you increase one's perception of choice (e.g., by offering options rather than mandates), you enhance the perception of control, ownership and self-directed commitment. These perceptions contribute to an actively caring disposition.

Optimism (“I expect the best”) - Optimism refers to the learned expectation that life events will turn out well. People who expect the best benefit from the self-fulfilling prophecy. They start with an expectation of success, and then work diligently to make that positive outcome happen. In contrast, a pessimistic prophecy can depreciate a person's perception of personal control, self-efficacy and even self-esteem.

Empirical research has demonstrated increases in both optimism and helping behavior following such simple events as finding money in a coin return, accepting a cookie, listening to soothing music, being on a winning football team and receiving genuine behavior-based recognition. Bottom line: People are more likely to actively care when they are in a good mood and optimistic about the future.

Belongingness (“We are family”) - We don't hesitate to ask members of our intermediate family to stop an at-risk behavior or perform a certain safe behavior. This does not take courage; it's an obligation, and compassion comes naturally.

However, intervening on behalf of a stranger's safety takes moral courage. For example, giving corrective feedback to an unknown person regarding his or her at-risk behavior could result in an unpleasant, uncomfortable or embarrassing confrontation. In fact, the lower the relatedness between an observer and the performer of at-risk behavior, the more courage it takes to intervene.

Some work teams are extremely cohesive and consider themselves members of a “corporate family.” These individuals not only are willing to give and receive corrective feedback regarding at-risk behavior; they expect their teammates to actively care for their safety. These workers are “brothers-sisters-keepers.”

How can a sense of belongingness or interdependence be cultivated in a corporate culture? I've heard a variety of proposals from discussion groups at my actively caring seminars, including: a) increase team-building exercises, group goal-setting and feedback sessions, self-managed or self-directed work teams and group celebrations for process and outcome achievements; b) decrease the frequency of top-down directions and “quick-fix” programs; and c) teach relationship-building communication strategies throughout the work force.

CULTIVATING ACTIVE CARING

There are obviously numerous ways to cultivate actively caring throughout a corporate culture, both directly and indirectly. Only a select few have been given here.

I suggest you solicit suggestions from your work teams. You may be surprised by the number of specific examples given about daily events that decrease these five person states among people and therefore their propensity to actively care for the safety and welfare of others. More importantly, you will learn practical ways to decrease these inhibitors of actively caring and to increase the facilitators of actively caring for safety among your teammates and beyond.

Searching for ways to cultivate an actively caring work culture will take significant time and require compassionate courage. Subsequently, implementing the practical suggestions will be even more time-consuming. But the resulting interdependent and injury-free workplace will be well worth the effort.

---

E. Scott Geller, Ph.D., is an alumni distinguished professor at Virginia Tech and a senior partner, Safety Performance Solutions.

REFERENCES

¹E.S. Geller & R.A. Veazie, 2009. Coastal Training and Technology Corp., Virginia Beach, Va.,

²Daniels, A.C., & Daniels, J.E., 2005. Measures of a Leader. Atlanta, GA: Performance Management Publications.