Today we mark the UN World Day for Safety and Health at Work across Huhtamaki. Huhtamaki’s ambition is to be injury free – what are the steps every one of use can take towards ensuring we reach this important goal?
Big ambitions, small steps
I’m a believer in setting clear safety ambitions. In my opinion, setting a destination, strategically thinking through what ideal world we want to operate in, is as important as is obtaining support to reaching this destination.
Recently, a colleague shared an article promoting the importance of small steps in improving safety. That really got me thinking as I spend lots of time on big ambitions and promoting them. How do small steps help us to deliver on our big ambitions? Our worlds are complicated, the working world is busy, noisy, tricky and no two days are truly the same.
What if that process you create is safer than what was in place before, what if you tidy an area and remove trip hazards, what if you stop at the kerb instead of stepping straight out? What if you give a colleague a few minutes more time to move heavy objects so they are now moved individually instead of being piled up – no rush? That machine that always blocks – we unblock and return to work, but who is finding out why it blocks?
Small steps. But each one matters, and each contributes to our ambition. The great thing about small steps is that we can all take them and make a difference, working towards a safer Huhtamaki.
Care, so share
Each small step is underpinned by one very important behavior: we care, so share.
Zero injuries is best achieved when we feel we can share our experience or fear. We need to highlight our concern, an issue, a problem or an adverse event and what we have learnt from it.
Caring to share is also daring to listen. When we listen, we act. Share, listen and act – 3 essential steps.
Every small step is an opportunity to learn and work together, helping each other to change a problem to a solution. What’s your small step today? What do you care to share? How are you playing your part in reaching zero injuries?
Take a moment and think. Then take another and act. So we can dare to have the ambition to have Zero injuries.