Managing Safety: Motivational Punishment: Beaten by Carrots and Sticks

GOING FAR

One such approach currently being implemented is called the FAR process. FAR is an acronym for: focus, achieve and reward. This process has leaders choose a specific opportunity to improve safety and focuses workers on accomplishing this improvement. It is important to allow participants to have input in how the goal is to be accomplished. Pink suggests that autonomy is motivating; Dr. W. Edwards Deming always claimed that, “People support what they help create.” Giving workers the opportunity to creatively improve safety is a form of motivation in itself. Rotating opportunities to lead or participate in safety improvement teams is a key concept in several approaches to safety programs, including OSHA's Voluntary Protection Program (VPP).

The proper focus is crucial in making such efforts successful. Trying to accomplish too much at once can result in frustration and failure. Working on items with low impact can be de-motivating if a lot of effort is required to make only a little improvement. The key to proper focus is transformational thinking. What one thing, if improved or done differently, would have the greatest impact on advancing safety? What are your transformational opportunities? How many can your team tackle at a time? Working on an attainable project with verifiable results is a great way to inspire and build a capable safety culture at the same time.

Achievement is another step in the process, but it also is a motivational strategy. Pink calls it “mastery,” i.e., to bring about an intended result. When your workers overcome a safety challenge or take advantage of a safety-improvement opportunity, they “master” safety. This mastery is a high form of motivational strategy and an opportunity to publicize success and celebrate accomplishment. Cultures that have success at their core require very little extrinsic motivation. Winning is a motivational strategy.

Rewarding victory is more of a symbolic than monetary task. Think of the trinkets that are given to athletes and performers when they win: ribbons, trophies, cups, statuettes. These items often have more value as a symbol of accomplishment than as a commodity. Regular items of value can be used as rewards and often are appreciated, but failing to award them symbolic value may be a lost opportunity. Clothing or utility items can be inscribed with safety symbols or memorabilia about the specific accomplishment for which they were given. For the symbols to have lasting impact, place them on items workers will keep at work, rather than take home or to their cars.

Many organizations using the FAR process celebrate their successes. Experts seem divided on the wisdom of this practice, though they argue more about what should be celebrated than about the celebration itself. Celebrating based on lagging indicators over which workers have little control can be ineffective and demotivating. But celebrating the wins of teams who are focused on leading indicators over which they do have control, or gain new levels of control, is a different matter. Celebrations, like rewards, need to be carefully aimed at the right targets to motivate the right behaviors.

If you have struggled with incentives, you are not alone, and there is help available. To develop an effective motivational strategy for safety improvement, consider revising the structure of jobs to maximize motivation. Utilize Dean Spitzer's list of motivators and de-motivators or Daniel Pink's trio of strategies: autonomy, mastery and purpose. If that is not sufficient, utilize the FAR process to supplement motivation. Even though motivation for safety is difficult, it is much too valuable and important to abandon.

Terry L. Mathis is the founder and CEO of ProAct Safety. As an international expert and safety culture practitioner, he has worked with hundreds of organizations customizing innovative approaches to achieve and sustain safety culture excellence. He has spoken at numerous company and industry conferences, and is a regular presenter at NSC, ASSE PDC and ASSE SeminarFest. He can be reached at 800-395-1347 or info@proactsafety.com.