communication

Podcast Review – Jocko Podcast #267

Quin Bond, CEAS IIILeave a comment

Podcast Review: Jocko Podcast Episode 267 – Are You Competing In The Right Things

This is the first of a series of reviews of podcasts that I think have application in the realm of occupational health and safety.  I know that many who work in occupational health and safety are fans of podcasts – as am I – and these reviews will help identify podcast episodes that might not be on everybody’s radar.

Some background about the podcast:

I’ve tweeted and talked with people about the application of some of Jocko Willink’s podcasts in the realm of occupational health and safety in the past.  Jocko’s podcast focuses on issues related to leadership and “extreme ownership” whether it is in the business world, the military, or life in general.  As his podcasts are on the longer side, I tend to be a little choosier in which episodes that I listen to or more importantly when/where I listen to them.  They can not be knocked out in a typical drive to or from work – they normally take a couple of drives or runs or walks.  Even tougher is that his podcasts are one of the podcasts where I typically think – I wish I wasn’t driving so I could write this note down for myself.

(graphic from jockopodcast.com)


Episode Background:

Episode 267 is a discussion between Jocko and Dave Berke, one of Jocko’s colleagues who is a former Top Gun officer and Marine Corps fighter pilot, about the United States Marine Corps MCDP 1-4 document which encompasses the USMC doctrine on Competing.  While the document covers what one would expect from a combat service in terms of “competing” in different environments, Jocko and Dave help to apply it to corporate goals for businesses as well as when working in teams in a business. 

“We’re competing all the time.  But don’t waste your time competing in short term contests that don’t lead you towards your strategic goal.”

Highlights And Applications to Occupational Health and Safety:

Shortly into the podcast, Jocko discusses one of the more important issues of “competing” – who are you competing with and why, illustrating it with a story about the tactical victory of beating his youngest daughter in Monopoly but losing the strategic victory because she no longer wants to play Monopoly with him.  We have to be careful about the tactical and strategic victories in occupational health and safety.  Sometimes those tactical wins can cause us to lose from a strategic standpoint.

“Pay attention to what you’re competing in, make sure it’s taking you in the right direction.”

“We’re competing all the time.  But don’t waste your time competing in short term contests that don’t lead you towards your strategic goal.”

This concept is so important when it comes to the world of occupational health and safety.  We need to make sure that we are going in the right direction – not just going for a specific number or metric but competing to actually change the culture towards a safer culture that takes responsibility for themselves and their peers through their actions. 

One of the important topics that they talk about in regards to “competition” is being able to see from the other person’s viewpoint – whether it is a competitor, an employee, a family member, etc.  This is so important with implementing safety programs.  Dave Berke provides a unique example that can definitely apply as we try to implement new programs – he explains that when he was an adversary pilot at Top Gun, his job was to both see the world through the lens of Russian pilots and then teach the young Top Gun pilots how to go on the offensive maneuvers against him while he had to both fly defensively and also visualize the viewpoint of the student pilot – in other words, see both points of view.    In occupational health and safety, we need to see not only our viewpoint, but the viewpoints of the employees, the management, and any other stakeholders to better understand how viewpoints may affect implementation.

Another important point that Jocko makes during the discussion is that of “connecting the dots” when someone may not know all of the details. People have a tendency to use their imagination to connect the dots in absence of solid information.  As much as possible, we need to make the information of how or why we are implementing a plan available to curtail the rumors and guesses at the how/why.  I know that when I go out to a site to measure for job descriptions that if it hasn’t been adequately explained, employees will have their own stories and reasons for why I am there.  And almost always, those reasons are never close to the real reason.

There is a quick discussion on the importance of word choice and tone in how an employee reacts.  We may say something to give that employee additional responsibility which is often a good thing and representative of our trust but if it isn’t conveyed adequately, that employee may feel that we have dumped something on them. Tim Page-Bottorff’s “Storytelling in Safety” podcast has a lot of great discussions that cover communication that we will visit in the future.

There is a reminder that culture changes take time but culture of an organization is really important.  It affects how each member of an organization chooses to do things.  (Quick operational definition of culture that was used – culture is a system of beliefs, values, and behavioral norms that operate in the background below the level of conscious awareness.) 

Interestingly, the discussion of culture brought Jocko and Dave around to discussing safety (the application I had been thinking from the beginning of the podcast) – how culture affects cutting corners, PPE use, saying something or not say something when you see risky behavior.  Also, how solid culture helps to have all employees take responsibility in what goes on – it doesn’t mitigate all risk, but gets us on the path to reducing those risks.

Conclusion:

This episode is worth the time to listen to and get more information on identifying when, where, and how we should be competing.   As noted above, there is a lot of crossover to the area of occupational health and safety – where the “competition” that we are involved in helps to aid in not only job performance but more importantly helping to make sure that employees go home safely at the end of their shift.

Train Workers On COVID-19 Procedures In A Language They Understand

Quin Bond, CEAS IIILeave a comment

Training only works if the people that you are training understand what you are trying to share with them. When it comes to health and safety procedures, you need to make sure that the message gets to your employees.

At several of the meat packing plants that had outbreaks last spring, the COVID procedure signage was only in English and not all of their employee population spoke/read English. The Smithfield plant that had over 783 COVID cases gave instructions to sick workers in English, despite the fact that 40 different languages were spoken by its employees. This issue also made the work difficult for epidemiologists and industrial hygienists who were trying to understand how the spread occurred.

Words Matter – Switching to Physical Distancing from Social Distancing

Quin Bond, CEAS IIILeave a comment

With over 15 years of writing job descriptions, post-offer testing, FCE experiences and ergonomic evaluations, you learn that in the world of workers compensation, physical rehab, and the legal realms that swirl between that words matter. We try to get people to use the term “modified duty” instead of “light duty” because the latter has been accepted by some to mean performing job demands with minimal physical requirements (some look at it as 20 pounds occasional, many look at light duty as 10 pounds or less). We’ve also tried to move people from “Pass/Fail” to “Meets/Does Not Meet” as the former is more about the individual and the latter is more about the actual demands of the position.

Mark Milligan (@MarkMilliganDPT) is an innovative DPT down in Austin, Texas who has been trying to get people moving over the last couple of years through the #IMovedToday hashtag on Twitter and has been a huge advocate for mobile and virtual services through his anywhere.healthcare business and his physical therapy practice. Mark had a great idea that he shared on Twitter on March 20, 2020. He suggested getting rid of the term “social distancing” and replacing it with “physical distancing”. I think he is definitely on to something.

physical distancing

In thinking about it, physical distancing is a significantly better term. We’re talking about staying 6 feet away from people when out in public or if the person is symptomatic at least 10 feet away. Or in California and New York (and probably New Jersey in the near future), staying in when possible and shutting down non-essential businesses to limit exposure. Physical distancing just means we are separated by a physical separation of distance. Humans by nature are social. In times like this, we shouldn’t be distancing ourselves socially from each other. We need to be reaching out by phone, text, e-mail, Facetime, or Skype to check on relatives, friends, neighbors, and co-workers. Sometimes it may be just to say hello and check in but sometimes to let them vent or to vent to them. This is uncharted territory but communication and connection are two of the things that will help everyone get through this together.

 

Friday Five – 9/13/19

Quin Bond, CEAS IIILeave a comment

This is a slightly different Friday Five.  I’m not going to post a check of what is new in the research in the areas of ergonomics and safety.  This week will be a quick recap of what I think were five important takeaways from the conference that I attended yesterday – “Everything You Wanted To Know About New Jersey Workers Compensation” which was hosted by John Geaney from Capehart Scatchard and Millenium Seminars.   If  you aren’t following John’s blog on workers compensation, you should be.

“Recovery on the job” – Trudy Mandia from AtlantiCare

I tweeted about this yesterday.  I hate the term “light duty”.  So many people get wrapped up with the word light with a lot getting it confused with the term “light work” which is considered to be a job with an occasional lift, push, pull, carry demand of 20 pounds.  Everyone tends to get wrapped up on the restrictions on an individual when they hear “light duty”.  Over the years, I have been on a mission to reframe the term as modified duty which is not so wrapped up in the restrictions on demands.  But, I love the term that Trudy talked about from AtlantiCare’s standpoint.  They no longer use the term light duty and have replaced it with “Recovery on the job” with the focus being on an individual’s current abilities and not focusing on what they can not currently do.

“Make sure that it isn’t boxes just being clicked”

Dr. Dwyer from Premier Orthopedics mentioned the reminder that with so many medical records being generated by different EMR packages, sometimes practitioners can end up clicking through.  Make sure that the physicians and therapists are being accurate when they are completing medical records in an EMR system and that they are also indicating both active and passive range of motion of the injured body part at all visits.

“Make sure that your employees know how long light duty will last”

This topic came up across multiple discussions through out the day because it is that important.  This is something that we tell clients that we meet with when we are talking about both regular job descriptions and tasks that might be available for modified duty.  Leaving an employee in a modified duty position for an indeterminate length makes some employees want to remain in that position for the remainder of their employment and also makes it easy to argue that the “modified duty position” is essential if an employee is left in that position for a prolonged duration of time.

“Job Descriptions”

Another topic that was mentioned several times because as John said yesterday, good job descriptions are the building block for creating a workers compensation program.  I’ve written about customized job descriptions multiple times on this blog, but members of yesterday’s panels provided reminders that good, solid, accurate job descriptions allow:

  • The physicians and physical therapists do their jobs to get the injured employee back to the essential demands of the position.
  • Allow physicians, employers, and case managers to possibly get an injured employee on modified duty when it becomes appropriate and helps to allow for progression of modified duty over the treatment timeline
  • Is necessary for having an effective interactive dialogue when the issues of accommodations comes up.
  • Need to accurately reflect current essential postural and physical tasks that are performed.

“Communication”

The issue of communication came up in several panel discussions during the day.  Communication between the employer, the case manager, the physician, the physical therapist, and the employee is key in moving towards a successful end state for an injury claim.

  • I was glad to hear that having a bilingual staff member to help with the communications process with injured workers at the Tropicana has made a big improvement in their program.  I know that in the provision of FCEs, we have been grateful when a translator has been provided if a claimant does not speak English but provision of a translator is not a common occurence.  Having a translator can make things go much easier and quicker when everyone is on the same page.
  • Make sure that you communicate your modified duty program guidelines to your injured employee when it is offered and put it in writing.  This helps to make sure that everyone is on the same page.

This is just a small sampling of some of the important topics that were discussed during the course of the day.  These one day conferences are a great opportunity to learn from the speakers, the attendees as they ask questions/make comments, and during the breaks to learn from the vendors and the attendees.

atlantic-city-beach-patrol-boat-82-quin-bond

(A photo I took during a previous conference in Atlantic City but yesterday’s weather conditions were similar)