To Discipline vs To Have Discipline
English is a troublesome language because the same word, discipline, can have two very different meanings. Which type of discipline is used will come to affect significantly how safety is viewed within an organization. Let’s look at the two different meanings of discipline and how they change our view of safety.
discipline – the practice of training people to obey rules or a code of behavior,
using punishment to correct disobedience.
Discipline – train oneself to do something in a controlled and habitual way.
Understanding the distinction between these two definitions of discipline is important for shaping an organization’s safety culture.
How Does Discipline’s Definition Change Safety Culture?
The small d, discipline, makes safety professionals into cops. Those who practice safety discipline believe accidents are caused by “careless, unsafe acts.” All one needs to do to improve safety is to have more cops to hand out tickets. This leads to a blame culture where covering up incidents is better than admitting mistakes. Emily and I actually cover this on the TapRooT® Podcast.
The capital D, Discipline, turns safety into an aspirational practice. Safety is about doing things in a controlled way. Safety is a daily practice and a never-ending process of improvement. We do the daily safety tasks not because they are enjoyable but because they are necessary for us to achieve our ultimate goal of completing our tasks and going home in one piece.
Steven Barlett created a nice mental framework for what Discipline is. You can find the video of him explaining it below.
Discipline = The importance of a goal + the enjoyment you get from pursuing the goal – the physiological cost of pursuing the goal
If you follow this for safety Discipline, you get the following:
Daily Safety Practices = Importance of completing the task + the positive motivations to do a safety task – the negative motivators of doing the safety task
To understand why a safety practice is not being done on a regular basis you have to look at motivators.
- Time – Does it save or cost me time?
- Effort – Does it increase or decrease the effort necessary to complete the task?
- Enforcement – Will I get in trouble for not doing it or will anyone even know I did it?
- Bonuses – Is there a unique reward for doing a task correctly or taking a shortcut?
If you can understand and remove the negative motivators that lead people not to follow your safety practices, you can create a culture of excellence at your company.
To discipline or to have Discipline – Do you HAVE it or not?
You can see the difference and the conflict when it comes to how both types affect safety culture. Will you discipline employees until they are compliant, or will you foster a culture of Safety Discipline where they are committed to a common goal of excellence?
A good article to check out on fostering a culture of excellence is the series of articles Mark wrote about Admiral Rickover.
If you are looking for how to put these ideas into practice, check out the High Reliability Track at the Global TapRooT® Summit.
Bonus: If you need a little motivation to be more disciplined today, enjoy this morning’s motivational video.
Very good points in Eliminating Blame video/blog.
“Discipline = The importance of a goal + the enjoyment you get from pursuing the goal – the physiological cost of pursuing the goal.”