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impacted can embrace the need or action,
as well as our vision. At that point we can
begin changing attitudes to support an
initiative. Buy-in isn’t always about change.
It’s needed to achieve simple and desirable objectives at work and at home. Great
leaders may not even recognize they are
creating this environment—it just happens

as a result of good leadership and effective
communications.
Achieving buy-in to safety programs takes
determination and vigilance, and includes
behaviors and actions that nurture discussions around common agendas. Having formal and informal communications—including team discussions, as well as routine

individual meetings to hold team members
accountable—are key elements to good
leadership. And good leadership is the key
prerequisite to buy-in.
.
Bill McBride is the Senior Director,
Aviation, at The Home Depot.

SMS CORNER

Why Most SMS Programs Don’t Work
BY DR. TONY KERN

In a recent online poll, the NBAA listed “employee engagement” as
the number one challenge to the effective implementation of Safety
Management Systems. This likely comes as no surprise to the hundreds of organizational safety officers who are striving valiantly to
make their programs work, only to be thwarted at every turn by minimal participation by the rank and file.
In the next few paragraphs, I will try to explain why this occurs, and
untangle, redefine, and reassemble a combination of soft words that
we have become so familiar with that we assume we comprehend
their full meaning. In point of fact, we have gotten so used to the
term Safety Management System, we seldom use the entire phrase
anymore. SMS has become yet another example of our industry’s
love of jargon and acronyms.
Words mean things. For example, love means something different
than affection; and
furious is significantly
Embrace the program. Be
different from angry.
As an author, I have
a cheerleader. Lead by
learned that selecting the right word can
conspicuous example.
mean the difference
between an active and engaging sentence and a totally boring one. In
the publishing business, where buyers can choose whether my words
are worth spending their time or hard earned dollars on, this is critically important. It is equally important in any endeavor where people
have a choice whether to pass or play on a new concept, product,
or service. And it is here where Safety Management Systems have
stumbled badly.
Let’s look at the three words individually; system—management—safety. Are any of those words inspirational? Do they inspire
action? Do they sound fun? Of course not. They are the words of a
bureaucrat, and since we can’t go back in time to change the name
of this well-established process, we need to do real things to gain our
employees’ willful and—dare I say it— “joyful” participation inside our
SMS programs. A bridge too far? I think not. The key to successfully
countering the employee engagement challenge is to remember that
while SMS programs are highly standardized globally, they are admin-

istered and implemented locally. This means you can—perhaps better
said must—come up with creative ways to execute your program.
Here are a few suggestions to get started.
—Rename your program. There is no requirement that you have
to call your program the same thing as thousands of others do. A
few names I have seen that I think are pretty cool are “Success
Management System” and “Peer Protection Program.” Get creative.
Make it your own.
—Rehearse the process. We would never consider letting a pilot
solo without training, or letting an auto mechanic work on our flight
control systems. If SMS is so important, why don’t we provide the
same sort of scenario-based training? This concern was the driving
factor in the creation of our new SMS Lift boxed training program,
which allows a “full mission rehearsal” for all flight department
employees to promote understanding and engagement in their local
SMS.
—Don’t apologize. Far too often, organizational leadership does
a poor job of promoting their program, explaining it as an externally
driven requirement or something that must be done for an upcoming
audit. This is a kiss of death. Embrace the program. Be a cheerleader. Lead by conspicuous example.
Sometimes I think our industry needs more poets and fewer
accountants—people who can make the emotional case as well as
the business case. At the final turn of the road, your SMS will succeed or fail based upon igniting the wills of individuals who already
have a lot on their plate—and we have a lot of catching up to do in
this regard. While we can “mandate” the creation of an SMS, we cannot mandate “participation.” Mandates do not create enthusiasm.
In fact, it is just the opposite. Mandates create resistance, and overcoming resistance is a human factors art form of the highest level.
Good leaders can do it, and those leaders need not be at the top of
the organizational chart.
Find out more about how to drive engagement in your SMS (www.
convergentperformance.com).
Dr. Tony Kern is Chief Executive Officer of Convergent Performance,
and Disrupter of Sacred Concepts.

http://www.convergentperformance.com http://www.convergentperformance.com

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