We look at things a little differently!™

Our consulting practice can be summed up in one word: Execution.

Execution simply means “faithfully carrying out the plan.” When it comes to getting results, our careers as managers at some of the biggest names in the industrial world convinced us that execution is the difference that makes the difference.

Sure, policies and procedures pay an important role. So do programs. But they’re just print – until they are converted into action. In the world of operations, line management determines how well that conversion takes place. When it comes to execution, no level of supervision plays a more critical role than that of the front line supervisor.

Whether we’re teaching or consulting, we take a practical, common sense view of problems and solutions.  Our training courses – from the Managing Safety Performance™ suite to professional development courses, like Influencing Skills™ – teach what to do and how to do it. Our approach to teaching is based on the Socratic Method, the oldest teaching technique on the planet, but still the best. Our consulting work is built on the Law of the Critical Few: find the real problem and come up with simple and effective solutions. That’s where the critical time and resources of management can be best employed.

We believe that’s what sets us apart from the rest of the consulting world. And why our work has helped make a real difference in the performance of our clients.

Balmert Consulting is proud to announce an open enrollment offering of our What Went Wrong: A Guide to Investing & Correcting Problems™ course.

Accidents and incidents don't "just happen." They are caused. If the organization wants to learn from the experience, they must understand what really happened and determine what to do to avoid the same thing from happening again in the future.

To accomplish this, every company has an accident and incident reporting and investigation process. Many have invested in computer reporting systems, quantitative and statistical analysis techniques, and purchased propriety investigation methodology.

All of these processes depend on effective execution at the point of the investigation. In most cases – all but the most significant accidents – front line supervisors are entrusted with execution of the system.

What Went Wrong™ workshop teaches practical skills and techniques that successful supervisors and managers use in the investigation process. Taught are methods that complement investigation systems – whether commercial or company specific:

• When and how to complete the initial incident/accident report forms
• Why investigations are so important – particularly for near miss incidents and minor injuries.
• How to deal with all of the normal human behavior that shows up after an incident, from fear to finger pointing.
• Efficient ways to get the investigation process completed without spending hours
• Getting the support from the organization to fix the problems that created the situation.
  

Workshop Objectives

At the completion of the What Went Wrong program, participants will be able to:

• Understand and meet the company-specific requirement for submission of complete and accurate incident reports
• Recognize the two fundamental parts of the investigation process: finding causes and fixing problems
• Apply the Injury Triangle to the investigation process
• Understand the differences between near miss cases and actual injuries, to fully appreciate the value of investigating near miss incidents
• Ask better questions in the investigation process
• Know when it's time to say "case closed"
• Effective deal with complex problems involving people, objects and energy.

The Program

What Went Wrong™ is a highly interactive one-day workshop. Classroom lectures, individual and group exercises, and extensive practice using case studies are used to bring real world problems into the classroom. The course is taught by an instructional staff of senior line managers, each with more than thirty years of experience in the practice of incident investigations in operations.

Upcoming Workshops

Managing Safety Performance:
Skills for Supervisors & Managers™

2012

February 6th & 7th - Houston
April 23rd & 24th - Houston
June 18th & 19th - Houston
September 17th & 18th - Houston
December 3rd & 4th - Houston

(Click here to find out how you can attend as our guest)

More Info

Our consulting practice focuses on improving execution in the manufacturing and industrial services sector. A key step in the performance management and improvement process is conducting an HSE Assessment - determining the current state and identify opportunities and provide specific recommendations for improvement of Health, Safety and Environmental processes and execution - represents. Our definition of an HSE Assessment is “an evaluation against mandatory government requirements and recognized industry best practices.” In the typical HSE assessment we do for our clients, the evaluation cover matters such as management leadership, employee participation, incident reporting and investigation, management and staff organization for the required Health, Safety and Environmental work Our team of consultants brings a world of knowledge and practical experience to the task of understanding the way things really are, and what it will take to achieve the HSE goals that have been set for the operation. Our assessments are helping clients around the globe achieve the level of health, safety and environmental performance they have set for themselves.

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Balmert Consulting is in the business of business process improvement. Our consulting focus - no matter what the problem or where it is found - will always "follow the money" to The Four P's™.

© 2000 - 2011 Balmert Consulting

updated January 10, 2012

Managing Safety
Performance News™

The leading source of Darn Good Ideas™

January 2012

Welcome to the New Year where optimism and resolutions reign supreme. Our New Years resolution is to return Managing Safety Performance News to a monthly basis. Many of you have contacted us asking, "where's the news?" Quite frankly, like many of you, we got real busy, not that we're complaining at all.

Paul has a whole bunch of ideas he wants to share with you, so we've got more than a years full of darn good newsletters in the queue.

In this month's Managing Safety Performance News™, Paul shares his thoughts on end of year/brgiinning of the new years chores us managers must endure and how they impact our thinking about who's to blame or credit for the performance we got.

We hope that you ended the old year well and are ready to make a difference in the new year.

~ V. Scott Pignolet

by Paul Balmert
Principal, Balmert Consulting

"Companies don't compete. Managers compete."

~ Peter Drucker

Welcome to another new year!

So, you’re back from the holidays ready to take on the new set of challenges that come with a new year. Plus all the ones that never end on December 31, like sending everyone home alive and well every day. The challenges you face making that happen are unrelenting. On that account, no matter how good last year was, don’t let up.

Back in the days when I worked on your side of this deal – as a manager, not a consultant – one of the first orders of business in the new year was to evaluate the old year. What did the number say about how well performance measured up to the ambitious goals our leaders set for us? Some years there were successes to be celebrated; other years, we were relieved just to have that year behind us. Most years, our performance was a mixed bag of good and bad.

You know how that goes.

Then we’d turn our attention to the good folks working for us. I’m sure you know exactly what that means: individual performance evaluations, filling out performance appraisals and conducting performance reviews. In my case that meant reviewing the hundreds of performance appraisals written for those who administratively reported to me. In our company, everybody got a performance appraisal every year. We devoted a lot of effort to that process.

You know what the experts have to say on the subject of judging people: it’s one of the most important parts of a leader’s duties.  Ask Larry Bossidy: he’ll emphatically tell you the candid conversation about performance is the “live ammo of the people process.”  Exactly the metaphor you’d expect him to use. I’ll bet he just loved that people process! “You’re fired” he’d tell some soon to be former General Manager. He should have owned the Yankees.

And you know employee surveys always rate “knowing where you stand” as really important to the people working for you.

Not that I ever answered the question that way.

To be perfectly honest, the performance appraisal process was never the highlight of my business year. Guess I wasn’t that much of a people guy. I was always much happier spending that time figuring out how to change things for the better.

The good news, at least for me, is that the people process is all yours. Thankfully I’m just a consultant.

EVALUATING SAFETY PERFORMANCE

Peter Drucker described leadership as getting common people “to do uncommon things.” One of those uncommon things a leader might get people to do in a big organization – say, one of a couple thousand people – is work safely for an entire year. As I’ve traveled the industrial world, from what I’ve seen that’s pretty darn uncommon. Getting people to work safely is a pure leadership play, the ultimate test of leadership.

The question is, whose leadership?

Picture a large organization that achieves great safety performance. Who rightfully deserves the credit? The leader at the top? The ones in the middle? The leaders at the front line? The peers who stand tall, setting the great example for all their co-workers to see?

Note the operational word in that question: rightfully. I’m not asking who normally gets the credit. We all know the answer to that question.
If you reflect upon that for a moment, the answer is stunningly clear. In a big organization, safety leadership is the ultimate team game. Found in the injury rates is the answer to how good a job all the leaders do getting all the followers to “raise their game” on safety.

Compare that organization’s rate to other similar outfits, you get a clear sense of the how good management’s performance is on something that is as important as sending people home safe.

That’s management’s performance rating. It’s as simple as that. “Companies don’t compete. Managers compete.”

FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE

Calculating the injury rates….simple math. Comparing the outfit’s performance with the competition…..a couple of phone calls..

Doing something meaningful with the results…..priceless!

Here’s the problem.

Suppose you’re a supervisor running a crew of ten. None of your guys got hurt last year. Nobody’s better than you.

Suppose you’re running a department.  Last year, your department’s injury rate improved by 40% over the year before. Have you ever done a great job.

Suppose you’re the site leader, managing all ten departments, each with four supervisors. Most of those departments and supervisors did great, including the one department that was bringing up the back of the pack the year before Unfortunately, two departments that had done well for years had lousy performance last year. Add up the numbers, and the total is only slightly better than the year before. In fact, it’s hard to argue that there’s been any statistical improvement over the last five years. So, you really haven’t done such a good job.

Suppose you’re the senior leader at headquarters looking at the numbers for the entire outfit. They might tell a good story about leadership. They might tell a bad story about leadership. In either case, their numbers tell you what kind of job you did as a leader last year.

Assuming, of course, that the numbers actually reflect real safety performance.

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