‘Mindful’ Health & Safety Culture
When we talk about mindfulness in health and safety, we’re looking at a way of developing an environment where employers and workers alike are continually conscious and aware of those factors that could cause injury or harm.
It’s not news that developing an organizational culture in the workplace where health and safety is seen as “everyone’s responsibility” is more important than just having a set of rules workers are ordered to follow.
On a day to day basis, mindfulness in the workplace involves workers actively considering risks, priorities and next steps as they are performing their current tasks. Far from zoning out and being at one with the universe, it’s exactly what most employers would want their workers to be doing!
Across an organization, mindfulness can be broken down into four processes:
- Preoccupation with failure
- Reluctance to simplify
- Sensitivity to operations
- Commitment to resilience, and deference to expertise
We will review each of these this week in our daily stand downs.