Telling it like it is
This seems at first glance to be an odd title for a blog about safety, leadership or coaching – the stuff of my usual blogs – but please bear with me.
I have spent a lot of time thinking about, and talking with leaders about how to set up workplaces that are ‘error tolerant’ and where it is possible to ‘fail safely’. These ideas / ideals are about the workplace and are super-important goals. I also got to thinking; “in addition to setting up the workplace for success, what about the human bit – the person doing the work, or the work crew around the person doing the work bit – what can they do to help minimize mistakes, slips, lapses et cetera?” Then I read about ‘take deliberate action’ and ‘telegraphing’ actions and felt that here was something that was REALLY worth sharing. So that is what I am trying to do in this blog.
The ideas of ‘take deliberate action’ and ‘telegraphing’ actions are so similar that, for the purposes of today, I combine them and talk about ‘telegraphing deliberate action’.
‘Telegraphing deliberate action’ is all about getting into the habit of not only stopping and thinking about what you are about to do, but also physically pausing just before you do the action and, at the same time, verbalizing your intent to yourself and to those around you at the time.
So, what does ‘telegraphing deliberate action’ look like in anger?
Scenario: An Elevated Work Platform (EWP) operator is manoeuvring an EWP so that the basket, with a person in it, moves away from a hot furnace that the crew are working on. Moving the EWP in the wrong direction may result in the person in the basket of the EWP receiving burns. Adopting ‘telegraphing deliberate action’, the EWP operator holds his hand over the “B” lever and announces to no-one in particular “I am moving lever “A” in order to lower the basket”. The EWP spotter, who is standing next to the EWP operator sees the hand movement, and hears the intention of the operator. He immediately alerts the EWP operator to the discrepancy. Alternatively, the EWP operator himself, upon saying lever A and seeing his hand over lever B, stops the action and corrects it himself. Either way, the potential burn is avoided and safe work is achieved. I can see the potential for using ‘telegraphing deliberate action’ in many other industries. I am thinking hospital wards, operating theatres, maintenance workshops, offices.
When I talk with operators and leaders about this idea, they tend to say that it makes sense and they could see how it could help, BUT generally feel that it would not work so well (for them) as it would be weird to go on chattering as you do work. They say they would feel uncomfortable doing it. This leads to what I feel is the biggest problem with getting to an effective use of ‘telegraphing deliberate action’ in our workplaces – and that is that we do not generally think out loud as we work. We do not share our ideas as we get things done in a normal work situation and in fact, the concept of ‘safe to speak up’ that we often see in industries may not extend to the cultural need to be seen to know what you are doing, and just getting on with it. The benefits of ‘telegraphing deliberate action’ can only manifest when people are actually speaking up as they are doing their work. This may present some difficulties during implementation. One way around this is for the leaders to practice ‘telegraphing deliberate action’ in their normal daily activities, in their meetings, in their workplace interactions – to get into the habit of talking through what you are doing and encouraging your teams to listen and help you poke holes in your logic. Of course, imperative in establishing ‘telegraphing deliberate action’ is helping others understand the ‘why?’ of the activity. If they get it, if they deeply understand why ‘telegraphing deliberate action’ may help them minimise mistakes and help them undertake safe work, they will do it. If they do not get it, they won’t. “Starting with Why” has a big role to play here.
What I love about the idea is that even if other operators are not present, the application of ‘telegraphing deliberate action’ benefits the operator themselves as the act of pausing and vocalization of intent forces the mind to be mindful of the present situation and what is trying to be achieved. It gives us another opportunity to get it right. And getting it right in the first place is much more satisfying than doing an investigation afterwards…
‘Telegraphing deliberate action’ adds an element of mindfulness to the task and seeks to eliminate those ‘automatic’ mistakes, especially when the button about to pressed looks just like the one next to it (or the label on the medication you are about to give to a patient is almost identical to the one you absolutely don’t want to give to the patient).
‘Telegraphing deliberate action’ is not for the benefit of the observer or the leader doing some in-the-field leadership observation activity, or the boss. ‘Telegraphing deliberate action’ is purely for the benefit of the person doing the work.
What Jim Wetherbee says about telegraphing action:
“ When the practice of telegraphing actions becomes automatic between crew members, the operating effectiveness of the team improves dramatically. When executed properly, this practice contributes to error-free operations, allowing the team to achieve better performance, with higher-quality results.”
Whatever you do, whether you are a manager, an operator, a nurse, doctor or an engineer ‘telegraphing deliberate action’ can make a huge difference to your level of mindfulness and situation awareness in the workplace and help you to get it right the first time. So, it is not only about reducing mistakes but is very much about operational excellence. It also helps keep your workmates up to speed with what it is you are about to do – or at least up to date with what you think you are about to do. By sharing your intention, you are sharing your mental model of what the work situation is and what you are about to do within it.
I have a request of you. Do a ‘micro-experiment’ (to borrow a Dekker idea). Go away and have a play with the practice of ‘telegraphing deliberate action’. Do a ‘micro-experiment’. Talk to people about it. Get them to have a play with it. Do it yourself for a while and see how it feels – there will be benefits.
Inspiration and sources of interest for this blog include the words and works of: Jim Wetherbee, David Marquet, Sidney Dekker and James Reason.
Cheers
longy