Universe Portrait

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By Barbara Semeniuk

I was reading Popular Science and it had an article entitled:  The Shape of the Universe.   In the article the writer discussed cutting edge theoretical physics that pushes the boundaries of what we know is true, is solid and is real.  The writer talked about Einstein’s theory of relativity and the fact he talked about 4 dimensions:  infinite in nature.  These are height, width, depth and time: pretty mind boggling for the dawn of the 20th century.  The writer discussed the fact that theoretical physics up till now has been unable to explain why gravity which should be a very strong force is relatively weak and the presence of 90% of the universe called “dark energy” is unaccounted for in any of the theories about the structure of the universe.  He discussed the latest theory about the universe which accounts for dark energy and the weakness of gravity.  Anyways in this theory: English and language as we know it is a handicap. 

Languages think in three dimensions:  in this theory our universe is like a skim of fat sitting over soup:  a three dimensional universe sitting on a (get this) 16 dimensional universe in which some of the dimensions are finite…they have an end.  Only mathematics can adequately describe this universe…gravity is weak because it alone can travel the 16 dimensions and is weakened in our universe by doing so….we are forever trapped in our 3 dimensional universe just as someone in the 16 dimensional universe would be trapped in theirs.  How does this relate to safety?

Well, I have just conducted an audit of a company which made me think that Corporate Culture is like a universe…each unique to each company and like water to fish they can’t see it but it is all around them and the people in these universes can’t conceive and or think of a universe (Corporate Culture) different from theirs.  Plus, to compound matters, they never travel to different universes to see how they work, they are trapped in their own world.  Now some universes are very safe and some are not.  

The ones in the safe culture cannot conceive of anyone conducting their affairs in an unsafe manner and those in an unsafe universe cannot conceive of changing or doing things different.  After all it is just common sense (safety) and someone like me (as safety professional) who audits in 5 or 6 different industries and gets to, like gravity, travel to different universes speaks in a language that cannot adequately describe the state or the shape of  their universe:  I am weakened by my inability to do so.  For example, in the manufacturing industry it is very common for companies of 200 or more to have no safety person..this function is handled by personnel and/or the foremen.  If you try to tell a company like this that they need a safety person…it is all very alien to them.  My challenge is to communicate in ways they can understand: financial, legislative, due diligence, moral  and explain why they must change and that this change is advantageous.  It is a huge leap of faith to do so and sometimes the results are not what is expected. 

One manufacturing company has gone through three safety personnel because  they are trapped by their  old ways of thinking and the safety personnel are all telling them something that is alien and like sand in an oyster it is an irritant and must be removed or pearled over with their truths and  their ways of viewing what is right, what is solid, what is real.  If it does not mesh with their  reality, remove it!  So nothing changes and they blame the safety people for their inability to change their culture when they do not allow adequate time or really want their culture to change.

I have seen an international company who seriously injured two people when I was auditing them explain to me that incidents just happen and are a cost of doing business, of oil service companies who routinely keep extra equipment because of accidents  and they tell me the advantages: they can quickly put this equipment into service and save money.  Of course they do not consider the cost of having two sets of everything to conduct business and the cost of incidents both legislative, financially and morally.  They are in their own universe which is governed by what they believe to be true and woe betide anyone that attempts to tell them differently.

The safe companies cannot conceive of this manner of thinking and they put procedures in that sometimes make no sense from a business point of view and proudly defend these actions because it costs to be safe and they will be safe even if it kills them.  They institute programs and training courses  because they were told these are the essential elements of a safe culture and all are required in order to ensure a safe workplace although they do not consider for one moment that their culture determines, yes, in even a safe environment, what works and what does not.  I am always amazed by the number of safety personnel who come up with blanket safety rules, and blanket programs that will work on only, in my opinion, on a cookie-cutter blanket company.

So in conclusion, every company, every person, is unique.  What will work very well in one company will not work or even be considered in another company.  There are no blanket solutions….canned safety programs should be banned.  What a company must do is perform a gap analysis: where they are now and where they would like to be.  Then management and workers must decide how they are going to bridge this gap and get there…what effort will they put in, what will work, what they will consider and what they will try.  Then they must make a leap of faith…and put it into action and adjust and adjust till it works.

Companies often state:  I got 98% on my safety audit…I am a very safe company.  I can stop. I do not have to work. I have arrived.  Complacency sets in and the universe passes them by and their incident rate skyrockets.  Health and Safety deals with the universes we humans create, the traps set by habit, familiarity and common sense…..good safety programs are always leaps of faith: journeys conducted in the belief things need fixing and safety is continuous just like quality and safety…you never arrive.  It’s like life…it’s the journey that counts