In an exciting, highly experiential process, the focus of the training is placed on commitment to a safety culture via building strong multi-cultural teams, creating a sense of individual and team responsibility for safety, building a group vision and values towards zero harm.
The success of the programme comes out of a high level of participation not before seen in mine trainings. All this has resulted in not only greater safety awareness and practise and record numbers of injury-free days, but also much improved relationships between management and unions and workers, and general morale.
“While I have seen a definite movement towards a recognition that safety issues have a major impact on both production and the bottom line, often there is a lack of capacity to move from just a “Culture of Competence and Compliance” to a “Culture of Caring”.
While there is an emphasis on Visible Felt Leadership (VFL), if the relationship between management and workers is poor, then the visits serve no function but to create a sense of intimidation and interference amongst both workers and supervisors. Certainly the more positive the involvement, the better the results.
"In Lance Bloch & Associates’ South African–grown model of Culture Based Behavioural Safety, the focus is thus on changing corporate culture towards the above ideal, while using people’s culture as a way of winning hearts and minds. This would involve African-centred approaches such as singing, dancing and storytelling. The work is towards building relationships and ensuring employee engagement with full participation and ownership at all levels, improving communication and caring.”