Leadership PPE and the Hidden Benefits of Safety-Driven Decision-Making
In this episode of The Energy Detox podcast, we reveal a different type of PPE that will protect your prior successes without becoming a barrier to continued progress.
And we’ll also demonstrate the universal value of a “safety mindset” that can be gained by asking three simple questions:
1) What is actually worth protecting?
2) Am I falling victim to a false sense of security?
3) What hazards can I influence…and which ones are outside of my control?
And, finally, if you're unwittingly investing too much time trying to predict and prevent the hazards that will limit your success instead of spending time improving your ability to respond when things inevitably don't go as planned, we’ll also help you strengthen your adaptability in the face of challenges so that you can take the decisive action expected of great leaders.
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TRANSCRIPT:
00:15
Hello and welcome to The Energy Detox, a leadership podcast with oilfield flair. Our mission here and the mission of our sponsor, Witting Partners, is to help you pragmatically find and remove the junk causing you to unwittingly limit the odds of realizing sustainable success in both your professional and personal lives.
00:35
I'm your host, Joe Sinnott, and in today's episode you're going to don some “Leadership PPE” designed to protect your achievements and secure the existing success of your stakeholders. This PPE will also ensure more confident decisions by helping you do three things:
1) Identify what is actually worth protecting;
2) Avoid falling victim to a false sense of security; and
3) Recognize which threats you can influence…and which ones are outside of your control.
01:09
And before starting to tackle all of these goals, let's go ahead and define PPE for anyone who somehow escaped the global attention that PPE has been receiving over the last four months or so. PPE, which stands for "Personal Protective Equipment," is protective clothing, headgear, gloves, and other equipment designed to reduce the odds of injury or infection for the person wearing this PPE. The most prominent examples of PPE today are, of course, the masks and face shields worn to reduce the spread of COVID-19. And you'd be hard pressed to go a day without seeing a headline or a social media post that isn't mask-related.
01:45
And while masks may be the most visible example of PPE, there are plenty of others that play a critical role both at work and at home, including earplugs, which made an appearance in our house early in the quarantine as a way to protect our hearing from a pair of two-year-olds who regularly exceeded OSHA noise thresholds…as confirmed by the decibel level warnings of my Apple Watch…
Some parents may turn to other forms of PPE to protect themselves from the healthy lungs (and vocal cords) of young children under quarantine.
02:07
And whether related to hearing protection or masks or other PPE, it's important to remember that PPE has limitations. By now we all have heard that a mask alone may not be enough to prevent you from catching the coronavirus, especially if it's not worn properly. And, in fact, we're told that its primary purpose is actually to protect others should you be an unwitting carrier. And naturally, there are different types of masks for different situations, just as there are different types of hearing protection for different noise environments and different eye protection for different operations. For example, if there's a threat of being splashed with some acid or if you're working in an area with tons of particulate matter flying all over the place, you're probably going to want a tight fitting pair of goggles or a face shield, not some thin pair of safety glasses to protect your eyes.
02:52
And when you're wearing the right PPE, what does it do? It lets you relax a bit. It brings you some level of comfort. It cuts down on worry and anxiety, even if you do develop a bit of a false sense of security, which we'll certainly address today as well. But for now, let's stick with that removal—or at least that reduction—of worry and anxiety, as that is what really makes PPE powerful. Protecting and defending you from harm is great, but having the right PPE for the job also means you can still do your job comfortably. And in many cases, you can actually do it better and more confidently than you would be able to if you weren't wearing PPE.
03:29
For instance, if I'm clearing weeds and sticks and debris from the backyard, I might not need to wear gloves to protect my hands. But if I am wearing a decent pair of gloves while doing it, then I'm not worried about splinters or poison ivy or thorns that might otherwise slow down my progress, and embracing this idea of choosing the right PPE—or at least choosing the right leadership mindset—so that you can more confidently complete tasks and make decisions is the ultimate goal of today's episode.
03:55
And it's a goal that flows from our last episode (Episode 10), in which we commented that people wear seatbelts not just because the law says so or because your employer says you will be immediately fired if you're caught not wearing a seatbelt on company property or on a company vehicle. But people wear them because the data clearly shows that seatbelts dramatically increase the odds that you will survive a car accident. And we also acknowledge that there are accidents where wearing a seatbelt could actually be harmful. But that those infrequent and improbable instances should not make you second guess your decision to buckle up every time you're in a vehicle.
04:30
And the point of that conversation was that making the best decisions sometimes doesn't lead to the best results. And that blaming yourself after the fact for a bad result—like the rare car accident where you might have actually been better off if you were not wearing a seatbelt—isn't always the best course of action. Now in today's conversation about PPE, the point we're trying to make is that wearing a seatbelt shouldn't limit in any way your ability to drive. It should actually make you a more confident and comfortable driver by removing some worries. But it's also important to remember that a seatbelt only does so much and shouldn't cause you to recklessly drive 100 MPH simply because you're wearing one.
05:08
Wearing a seatbelt is simply a tool (like PPE) that helps you focus on driving so that you can move forward towards your destination without having to worry about your safety. It helps you focus on the little decisions you're forced to constantly make while driving. It means you can spend your energy reacting to things that pop up along the way.
05:29
So, revisiting the three goals laid out at the beginning of this episode, this seatbelt analogy touches on all of them, as contemplating this very important feature (the seatbelt) of any vehicle can help you...
05:39
1) Remember that the safety of you and your passengers is worth preserving when you're behind the wheel;
2) To understand that wearing a seatbelt does have limits and it isn't going to turn you into a racecar driver and doesn't all of a sudden make you immune to getting injured in an accident; and
3) Recognize that there's a lot of road hazards outside of your control, primarily related to other drivers. So control what you can...Control what you can inside the vehicle.
06:10
And using seatbelts as an example of something that both protects and restrains us while also allowing us to move forward safely is something that many people who have worked in oil and gas can fully appreciate, as many operators and service companies out there make seat belts a point of emphasis from day one on the job. And they really don't beat around the bush about it either.
06:29
In fact, I recall clearly the repeated warnings during my first two weeks at Schlumberger about the list of people who were fired for not wearing a seatbelt...and how one time a whole car full of people were let go because just one of the four people wasn't wearing a seatbelt and the others were held accountable for not telling the other person to buckle up. Now, whether that last story was embellished or not, by the time I heard, it doesn't matter (how true it was) because the point came across loud and clear to me and many others.
06:54
And similar discussions about safety policies and procedures and PPE throughout my time working in the field were also frequent and often blunt. And they were largely summed up by saying something like, "Wear your PPE or else you might get killed or fired," which is pretty straightforward. And as discussed in Episode 8, this "safety indoctrination" and the associated mindset that working in the oilfield provided is one of the things about my career in energy for which I'm most thankful.
07:23
And I owe some of that safety focus not just to strict seatbelt policies, but to some awfully powerful stories and videos and presentations over the years, like the story of the Piper Alpha offshore platform disaster that killed over 160 people in the late ‘80s...and that still serves as a prime—if not the prime—example of what happens when there is a breakdown of communication and inadequate safety controls in place...
07:50
...or the helicopter safety video of a smiling tall man exiting a helicopter and accidentally raising his arms up into the spinning blades...and, well, let's just say that the result of that also made an impact on me (even though I actually felt blessed anytime I was forced to watch that video to be too short to reach the blades of most helicopters)...
[WARNING: The brief video referenced above can be found here and may be disturbing to watch…even if it, as some have speculated, is staged]
08:09
...or the many pictures I've been shown in safety presentations to emphasize why wearing a wedding ring while working with your hands can be a really bad idea...especially if you're working on something above your head and you trip and fall but your ring gets caught on something and your body keeps falling to the ground, but your ring and the skin of your ring finger do not keep falling…and, well, you get the idea.
08:33
So I and everyone else exposed to these things over and over and over get the idea. And the idea is not to scare the audience. The idea is to keep these things in mind so that you can work more effectively and confidently and safely because you're putting yourself in a position where these bad things aren't going to come into play because you're wearing the right PPE...and because you have the right mindset...and because you're following the procedures.
08:56
And, unfortunately, now that "Be safe" or "Stay safe" is said almost instinctively during this age of COVID and is probably the number one closing of choice these days for emails and conversations, it's easy to hear "Be safe" and "Stay safe" and to be completely desensitized to it because of its overuse. And you can perhaps even think it sounds ridiculous at times to hear somebody saying "Be safe" or "Stay safe" to someone who's not facing some real peril like a rock climber about to scale a mountain or a reporter going to cover some large protest or riot or a soldier headed into a war zone.
09:36
And obviously, we do want our friends and family to be safe and stay safe. But when it feels like it's being overused it, of course, can lose some meaning. And if safety becomes viewed with indifference—or even with disdain—then we're asking for trouble. If safety and PPE are viewed as things that inhibit progress and limit people's ability to complete a task, then it's human nature to cast them aside. And if "staying safe" is viewed as an end in and of itself instead of something done in conjunction with your other responsibilities, then people can start to believe there exists a choice between staying safe and enjoying life or being productive.
10:14
And in most cases, this is absolutely a false choice…because you can do both. The goal of safety—at least as I define it—is to help you get done what needs to get done, while controlling whatever factors and hazards you can. And when you can't prevent the hazards, you at least try to limit the negative impact they can have on your well-being and the progress you're trying to make. And with that definition—or at least some variation of it—then safety and the reasons for wearing PPE become more of a positive mindset and approach than simply being a mix of tools and procedures that slow you down and add in layers of protection that may or may not be worth the effort or the cost.
10:54
To put it another way, wearing PPE and being safety conscious means that you are aware of risks, but it does NOT mean that you have to be paralyzed by them. You're asking yourself or others how a given process could go wrong, how you or others might get hurt, in what ways existing safety protocols could fail or be rendered ineffective.
11:13
And in many ways, a safety mindset is similar to an innovation mindset, where an innovator is constantly thinking, "How can I overcome this obstacle? How could I improve this process?" And despite the parallels, it's usually innovation that is painted in a much more positive and uplifting and sexy light. But since a safety mindset could help save your life, I'd argue they both have tremendous value for you and your stakeholders, which is why companies spend tons of time and money on both safety and innovation initiatives.
11:42
In fact, when my former employer invested in innovation a few years ago, it undoubtedly helped me think better. It helped in so many ways—both professionally and personally—that I talked about it at length in Episode 8, as one of the things that really made an impact...but it didn't click until much later how the safety training I'd received a decade prior to this innovation training helped me think in almost exactly the same way back then...it just happened to be around hazard analysis or identifying what could go wrong.
12:10
And once you get into this safety mindset, it's easy to become hyper-aware of the thousand ways a simple situation could injure or even kill you. And, at least for me, I annoyingly began applying this mindset to my personal life, which means my wife and my kids and my friends always have to hear me pointing out how they might get hurt if they are not careful. And, of course, with kids there are a million ways to hurt themselves, and they're going to do so...they're going to hurt themselves...they're going to find those ways (to injure themselves). And as a parent, keeping kids safe is obviously a priority, especially for younger children who put everything in their mouth...because it's one thing to let a kid explore and get the occasional scrapes and bumps and bruises, but preventing choking and big falls and poisoning is a whole different story that we're constantly on guard against, especially with two toddlers running around.
12:55
And if you're leading a company, safety might indeed be stated as being the number one priority, at least as laid out in the organization's marketing materials, but the reality is that it's only a piece of the overall equation. It (safety) is not the ultimate objective of a corporation to be safe, because the company's ultimate mission is often to create shareholder value. And most leaders would argue that safety is a necessary piece of that; it's not something that stands alone, however. Being safe isn't something to pat yourself on the back for if you haven't accomplished something else, but safe operations ARE integral to successful operations.
13:33
And if you want to play devil's advocate, you could argue that—from a corporate standpoint—a focus on safety is nothing more than an attempt to reduce the cost of lawsuits and bad press if employees get hurt or—God forbid—there's a catastrophic incident that results in fatalities. But again, I'd argue that even if safety isn't a product that a company sells, there's no doubt that an appropriate emphasis on protecting employees is necessary for efficient and successful operations.
14:00
All that being said, there actually are organizations where safety is the product they are selling, including a company headquartered here in Pittsburgh called MSA. And if you've ever looked on the inside of your hardhat, there's a good chance you've seen “MSA” stamped in there. And MSA, originally called Mine Safety Appliances, is a company that produces all kinds of different safety equipment. And I mention MSA because their entire company—their entire mission—is built upon the idea that you can help workers do their jobs. You can help them do the things they were hired to do more safely and more effectively with the right PPE. And the products they make don't simply prevent injuries and death, but they're designed to help people work better.
14:46
And the event that actually led to the founding of MSA over 100 years ago was an explosion that killed 80 coal miners. But the founders' mission wasn't just to prevent future disasters, because if that was the mission, they could have lobbied to just shut down mining altogether. Instead, their mission was to reduce the odds of disasters and casualties while enabling workers to do their jobs safely. And this really captures the essence of today's topic, that you, as a leader need to ask how you can protect what is valuable—whether that is the health and safety of you and your stakeholders, the accomplishments you've amassed throughout the years of hard work, or some tangible or intangible assets that would be disastrous to lose—can you do all of that while still growing and while still moving forward and still realizing additional success?
15:31
As a leader of a family, of a business, or of your own life, you need to avoid the false choice between protection and progress. You can be safe and do a dangerous job at the same time. You can have your cake and eat it, too. And sometimes doing that simply requires a safety mindset that I'd argue is actually more of an innovation mindset. You need to start by asking how you might protect and progress at the same time.
15:57
And if we go back to MSA and its history for a second, you can see a prime example of where innovation and safety go hand-in-hand, because the co-founders of MSA actually recruited Thomas Edison to design a cap lamp that ultimately saved untold numbers of lives in the years following his invention.
16:15
But the good thing is that introducing literal or figurative safety and protection into your life doesn't mean you need to enlist the help of a famous inventor. In most cases, it just means you need to make it a priority. It means you need to employ a safety mindset. And it means that you need to properly and consistently use the tools that have already been created and are already at your disposal. And many of those tools are not physical ones you can buy from a company like MSA; many of those are simple processes and procedures and habits that can be used on a drilling site before doing electrical work or before completing some simple tasks around your house.
16:52
These are things like tailgate safety meetings, where we get together and you discuss what could happen or what has happened to keep everyone as safe as possible. Or performing a formal JSA (a Job Safety Analysis) with checklists and questions just to make sure you don't miss anything. Or a safety walk around, either walking around a work site or—more practically from your day-to-day life—walking around your vehicle before you hop in and drive away...just in case there's something that needs to be discovered.
17:19
In fact, a few months ago I pulled out of a parking space and saw a man lying right next to where the front passenger wheel of my truck had been. And the other half of his body was actually underneath the vehicle that was parked next to me. And long story short, the poor man was drunk and had passed out in a not so good spot. But because I hadn't taken just a few seconds to walk around my vehicle before leaving, I very easily could have run him over had he been positioned under my truck the same way he was positioned under the vehicle next to me.
17:51
And obviously with the lesson here being that this relatively minor effort can make a world of difference in terms of health and well-being of yourself or people around you. So the question then becomes, "What habits and questions (and mindsets) can you employ as a leader to prevent disaster, both figurative and literal?"
18:16
And what can you do to be on guard against the most dangerous thing that can infiltrate an operation which is, of course, complacency? Because what is complacency? It's thinking—consciously or subconsciously—that you know how things are going to play out. So you don't worry and you let your guard down. And that's why safety meetings and all the things we mentioned before add value...because they fight complacency if they're done appropriately.
18:43
But when making decisions in a business or at home or within a family, is complacency being introduced more these days because of all of the fancy tools available and at our disposal? Because thanks to our phones and our computers, it can feel like we already know everything. And when you "know everything," you can let your guard down. And at a higher level, with the advent of new technologies and analytical tools, leaders are becoming more and more reliant on these things to help make better decisions. And that's not a bad thing!
19:15
When you're dealing with predictive analytics, which can allow leaders to see how a few tweaks to some inputs or market conditions could impact their revenue, that's a good thing, and that can help them make a better decision for all their stakeholders. And prescriptive analytics is even more of a game changer. Because prescriptive analytics is going to further enhance a company's ability to execute efficiently, as these tools aim to prescribe the best decision and the best course of action. But as discussed in our last episode, even the best decision made off of the best prediction or prescription may not have the desired results because all those decision support tools and outputs do is increase the odds and don't offer guarantees.
19:59
So when it comes to sustainable leadership, what do you do when things don't go as planned? Even if you were making decisions off of the best data available, how do you protect what's been built when predictions go awry? And how do you do this without spending all of your time running through and unnecessarily preparing for the thousands of hypothetical ways that a decision could actually go wrong? How do you balance a logical use of new tools and technologies that help decisions without becoming overly dependent on them and growing complacent with the results that they're spitting out? How do you ensure that these tools are allowing you to think more clearly and confidently while not causing your business plan to crumble if those tools ultimately don't work as expected? And how do you ensure that you're still firmly in control and not just a figurehead, mindlessly parroting the output of some fancy new tool while jeopardizing the figurative safety and well-being of your stakeholders?
20:55
And in a few minutes, we'll go ahead and revisit those questions about how new technologies and data-driven approaches can impact business decisions. But first we're going to toss business and advanced analytics aside for a second and talk about a much simpler topic: camping.
21:11
Because camping in a tent in in the great outdoors provides plenty of examples where a safety mindset and the right PPE can mean the difference between an enjoyable experience and some rather miserable experiences. And this is fresh on the brain for me because my two older sons and I—like many families embracing COVID-friendly vacations this summer—went camping last week..and fortunately had an enjoyable (and safe) experience. But it's tough not to go through each day without balancing a desire to have fun with the need to keep everyone safe and protected from harm. And those safety mechanisms come in various forms, just like PPE.
21:49
Do we wear long pants while hiking to minimize poison ivy or having our legs all scratched up? Is all of our food stored in our vehicle to prevent a hungry bear from sniffing around? If we're swimming or boating, are our life jackets worn properly? Do we have properly fitting helmets on our heads while biking? Are we wearing bug spray to ward off ticks and the threat of Lyme disease? And are we wearing and reapplying sunscreen?
22:13
And we do all those individual things each day while camping just to ensure that we can have a good and safe time...and not just in the moment, but so that when you get home, we can sustain some level of enjoyment without having to scratch the skin that's peeling off from sunburn or from a thousand mosquito bites or whatever else could go wrong when one is out in the great outdoors.
22:37
And not only are you doing all those things throughout the camping trip, you're also constantly preparing for the unknowns. What could pop up? Could a thunderstorm show up? Could a giant gust of wind show up? Just in case, you're going to stake down your tent should something come along that wasn't expected. And just as businesses embrace new analytical tools to make decisions these days, at least when you're out camping in the year 2020, you can look to a weather app for guidance of what's going to happen and what could pop up...although when it comes to summer thunderstorms, of course, sometimes they can come out of nowhere, and even the weather apps can provide limited guidance and precision at times.
23:14
So you still need to be ready and you still need to have that mindset and you still need to be prepared for what could show up that wasn't expected. And again, on a trip like this—as simple as the trip should be—I was willing to arm myself with whatever tools were available so that we could be adaptable and so that we could ultimately fulfill the objective that we had of having a good time spending time together as a family. And, you know, that's it...that's the primary goal! And we did whatever it took to ensure that goal was met...and as much as the kids might complain about taking time to lather on sunscreen and do all these other things...and even though they think I'm OCD for doing all these things, they do enable us to have a good time and to be successful in what we set out to do.
23:23
And so going back to the three goals of the podcast, which were 1) to help you understand what is worth protecting, 2) to avoid being lulled into a false sense of security, and 3) to recognize what you can and can't control, we can certainly look to this camping trip where we decided that protecting our skin was worth the annoyance of sunscreen...because watching kids running around in the sun is not enjoyable if you're worried about them developing melanoma and 20 years. So you take the few minutes to put sunscreen on them so that you can sit there and enjoy watching them play. And you can think more clearly about everything else that's going on.
24:38
As far as being on guard against a false sense of security, sunscreen again can provide a good example because if you put sunscreen on your kids in the morning and then you ignore all those pesky warnings about reapplying later in the day, then at the end of the day, you might have some burnt kids. And the point here is that just applying sunscreen one time is obviously not enough to solve all your problems. It deals with one threat for a limited amount of time. And parents can't let their guard down because they successfully lathered their squirmy kids up in the morning and then—later on in the day—the kids are upset because their eyes are burning (from sunscreen and sweat dripping down). Well, you still need to overcome that and you still need to put some more on for their protection...all so that they can actually have more fun than they would otherwise.
25:20
And finally, when it comes to the question of what you can control and what can not control...with sunscreen, you can control whether you are able to lather up your kids successfully. But maybe you can't control whether they keep a hat on as well or keep their sunglasses on when they're running around and being crazy. So you accept that reality because the goal as parents is not to prevent every single bump and bruise and ailment. Because when we talk about protection and security throughout this episode, we're not necessarily talking about complete prevention. So again, the goal is protection and security without necessarily having a 100% success rate...and without preventing 100% of all the threats from getting through whatever you're wearing.
26:10
And to continue with another analogy, this same concept can also be applied to home security. Because what is "home security?" And why pay a company each month to monitor your home? And this is a question that my wife and I have been talking about recently because our home security company actually came out this week to replace some old carbon monoxide detectors that apparently have a shelf life and needed to be swapped out. And such a visit, of course, prompted me to revisit what we actually pay each month and ask, "Is it even worth it? What does this company actually prevent?"
26:43
And the answer, of course, is basically nothing. They actually don't prevent a whole lot. I mean, you could put a lawn sign up warning that you have an alarm system as a deterrent to potential intruders which might reduce the odds that such intruders will choose your house versus your neighbors if you have a security system and they don't. So in that sense, you can boost your odds and maybe prevent a break in. But that's about it. If someone wants to break in, it might not matter whether you have a security system or not. So outside of the potential deterrent, our security system doesn't really prevent anything.
27:14
It gives us a chance to react if and when something does happen. If something triggers the alarm and we're home, we can pop up and take action of some sort, whatever that action happens to be.
27:24
If we're not home and we get a call that a sensor was tripped, we can decide to dispatch the police to check things out. And when it comes to the carbon monoxide or smoke alarms, they again don't prevent anything...they don't secure anything. They rely on you or the company or somebody else taking action once the alarm sounds. If one of those goes off, well, you leave your house you call the fire department. So you know you still need to take action. And if there's a fire, you need to put it out or somebody else needs to put it out.
27:53
And, yes, typically the more prepared you are and the more you have these measures in place, the faster you could take action...and, in turn, the better the outcome. But at the end of the day, these protective measures just facilitate you doing something else. And that's what you're paying for. You're paying for the opportunity to take action.
28:16
So anyway, moving away from home life for a second and—as promised—getting back to the business world and back to the questions and the decisions that leaders at every level in an organization need to make about protection and security...let's go ahead and start with the pressures that are put on companies to focus on ESG initiatives that prioritize environmental, social, and governance concerns.
28:40
And putting those in a safety context, you could argue that a company's focus on ESG helps them protect the environment, protect their social licence to operate, and protect the integrity of their assets, their fiduciary responsibilities, and whatever covenants and commitments they have in place with their stakeholders. And in any industry, things can, of course, go wrong. And if you're a banking or a digital services company and you suffer a data breach, it can be catastrophic, especially on the social and the governance side of things. And if you're involved in physical or industrial operations, then certainly the environmental piece may require more effort to protect.
29:19
And when it comes to the drilling and completion of oil and gas wells, companies can collectively spend billions of dollars on efforts to protect the environment. But if there still happens to be a spill or other disaster, then it all comes down to how a company reacts and responds and takes action. Once the initial bad event happens, what do the leaders already have in place that can simply be set into motion to mitigate any damage that might have occurred? What actions can they take immediately? And sure, some of those actions are pretty obvious and they're probably laid out very clearly in disaster management plans: if you have a blowout or some sort of well control issue, then you bring out experts on well control...and you notify the community...and you provide some timely support and information to the people that could be impacted; and of course—and above all,—to make sure all personnel are accounted for.
30:07
But then what? What happens when everything is relatively under control once things are secure? Well, again, it becomes all about how you prevent the next issue and how you continue to respond to questions that arise. So what can you do differently? How can you remain adaptable to problems in the future that you haven't considered? Because you're probably going to successfully prevent the problem that just happened from happening exactly the same way again, but how do you maintain some level of preparedness and adaptability for all of those issues that arise that you're not considering and haven't thought of up until this point?
30:42
Because while a safety stand down following a major incident is a logical response, there might not be a realistic option to simply shut everything down indefinitely to prevent another issue. And companies need to figure out how to get moving again, just as individuals need to pick themselves up or their families up when something tragic happens in their own lives. But in our personal lives and in the world of business, it can be tempting for leaders to rest on their laurels and to become overly afraid of things going wrong again...and to be afraid of making a bad decision.
31:11
But as we've said repeatedly, a safety mindset does not mean you're fearful. It means you're asking how you can complete a job in as safe a manner as possible. And when faced with challenges or recent failures, it can be really tempting to make this idea of protection an end in and of itself and to forget an organization's overall mission and to forget your responsibility to all the stakeholders.
31:38
Take, for example, a CEO nearing the end of his career...and he's experienced enough rough patches over the years and doesn't really have the desire to make a decision that could be looked at poorly and taint his legacy that he's so close to wrapping up. Or maybe he doesn't want to make a decision that risks the value of whatever substantial equity he has in the company as retirement approaches. Maybe a leader like this isn't interested In his personal growth anymore because he's accomplished plenty already. But what about continued growth of the company? What if his concern about protecting his legacy causes him to take his foot off the gas towards the end of his career under this guise of protecting himself?
32:15
In a situation like that, it's important to remember that the reason he's still in charge is to 1) make a decision and 2) to deal with the consequences that come with such a decision. And if he's scared of reason #2 and, therefore, refuses to do #1, then he's not doing his job. And this false sense of protection is damaging the growth and development of the company and its stakeholders and, ultimately, may very well be damaging his legacy as well...whether he realizes it or not.
32:45
Now, this hypothetical example may seem a bit harsh, but the point here is that there's very rarely a time in today's business world where leaders and companies are rewarded for being overly protective and refusing to take action. And in many cases, the best course of action is for a company to make the best decision they can and put on whatever figurative PPE is necessary and plunge forward...even if they're entering into a figuratively hazardous situation. Because simply playing defense and being in "protective mode" doesn't last long these days if you're in the spotlight...and there are plenty of people willing to speak on your behalf unless you take action and you do it yourself. But that being said, there are some instances outside of the business world where focusing 100% on protection is the best approach.
33:32
And the world of sports—as is often the case—provides perhaps the best examples, with football's "prevent defense" perfectly capturing this idea of doing nothing other than simply holding on to your prior accomplishments. And in this "prevent defense" scenario, if you're the coach and your team is winning, and the other team has the ball without a lot of time left, you instruct your team to avoid giving up a big play that would allow the other team to quickly score points and perhaps give them a shot at completing a comeback.
34:03
And even on the offensive side of the ball, we see this, too. Teams with a lead late in the game start running the ball to let the clock wind down instead of doing what they can to really try to get first downs—including maybe throwing the ball on occasion—and trying to keep the other team's offense off the field. And sometimes being conservative and calling three running plays in a row means that they give the ball back to the other team and give that other team a chance. And on rare occasions when a team with a lead employs a prevent defense (or a "prevent offense," if you will) and inadvertently lets the other team back in the game, you might start asking, "Well, why didn't they just keep doing what they were doing? They amassed a lead and they were having success, so why didn't they keep doing that instead of going on the defensive?"
34:44
And just as we discussed how data-driven sports has become in our last episode, the reason teams might switch to a prevent defense late in the game is because that's what the data says to do. And when the data says it's time to employ a prevent defense, then there's a good chance that that's what a coach is going to do.
35:02
But what if the other team does score? What if you're innocuous attempts to run the ball up the middle results in a fumble and now the other team has a chance to win...they have the ball...and they can maybe even take the lead, as unlikely as it was before? Well, that's what coaches need to be prepared for...because coaches in 2020 still can't rely 100% on stats in sports. And that's why we still watch (or rather, would be watching under normal circumstances). Because anything can happen in sports...and because anything can happen, a strong leader or coach should hardly ever be surprised by anything. He or she should instead be prepared and ready to adapt to changing circumstances. And both being overly protective and being over-reliant on predictions can be equally limiting to the success of a leader or a coach.
35:50
Which brings us to a PPE that we are actually discouraging you from putting on...and this PPE is not "Personal Protective Equipment," but instead "(P)rofessional (P)redictive (E)xpectations." And when you're decked out from head to toe in "Professional Predictive Expectations," it's way too easy to get lulled into a false sense of security because the data is apparently telling you what you need to do and where do you need to go. But as we've often repeated, you're still only looking at statistical outputs and not guarantees. Those outputs are still dependent on certain inputs that can and will change. And whether it's machines doing a job, humans performing a job, or some combination of the two, mistakes will happen. And the more that a leader lets his or her guard down, the easier it is for those problems to become bigger than they need to be.
36:43
And swinging the other direction and being overly cautious can be just as damaging to the sustainability of an organization. Do you want to be the football coach scrambling to put your headset back on because something unexpected happened with a few seconds left? Or, worse, be the coach soaked in Gatorade After what seemed to be the end of the game only to realize that you now need to defend against one more "Hail Mary?" Are you as a leader switching to a prevent defense too early and then holding your breath that it will work out and your "lead" will be preserved?
37:15
And how often do you as a leader feel compelled to use the tools that someone else is handing to you? If you were working up high somewhere, would you settle for a harness that was "a little loose, but probably good enough?" No, of course not! You wouldn't settle. And a leader should never feel compelled to employ something just because it gets handed to them, while being told, "Yeah, this this will work." That's not what a leader supposed to do even when things are presented under the guise of safety.
37:42
Because unless you're stepping through the three questions that we outlined at the beginning of this episode—1) is it worth protecting? 2) Am I at risk of feeling a false sense of security? and 3) what am I able to control and what is outside of my control? ...unless you're going through those three questions, then you risk defaulting to the same "safe" approach that everyone might expect.
38:07
And these questions will especially help you in un-expected situations. And they will help you understand that existing playbooks in many cases aren't going to be of any use. And to underscore this point, let's say you're leading a company that is looking to protect valuable assets...maybe you're an oil and gas operator, and you have a land position that will only be held if you continue to drill uneconomic wells, which of course doesn't make much sense.
38:34
Or maybe you own a technology company that has developed some intellectual property that could propel your company above the competition. In either situation, the assets might be worth protecting, but the means of protecting them might be open to interpretation. And the safest—or the default—option may not be the best. And sure, in the case of the oil and gas company, maybe you have some fancy development model to optimize your development strategy to secure the acreage before it expires so that you don't have to go ahead and pay for that same acreage again in the future.
39:05
And in the case of the technology company, maybe you have financial models and artificial intelligence tools to pinpoint how the market will react once your new technology is revealed to the public. But odds are that the decisions are not straightforward. And if we start with the land position, the very first thing we said we'd do today needs to be addressed: is the land position worth protecting? Is spending money to hold on to assets that aren't worth nearly what they were when you acquired them still worth it?
39:36
You know that that question is not easily answered when oil prices are bouncing around. Yet the default answer for many companies is, "Yes, go ahead and save the acreage...because that's what we do. We spent a lot to acquire it and we don't want to lose it!" But, of course, that's not the ideal objective in most cases. Instead, the objective should be to do whatever it takes to maximize the NAV (Net Asset Value) of the company which might mean allowing leases to expire.
40:01
And when it comes to this hypothetical technology company and whatever new proprietary developments they've had, the question of whether the technology is worth protecting might be a no-brainer: "Yes, protect it! The technology is good. We developed it and we spent a lot of money developing it." But the actions you need to take to best protect the value of that invention or technology or innovation might not be so straightforward. And I say that because many of you listening might assume that if you have new technology, the faster you can file for a patent and get the associated protections, the better, right?
40:32
But the thing with patents is that sometimes the best way to maximize the value of your intellectual property is not to patent it right away. Maybe you want to keep your intellectual property top secret in order to have ample time to develop a solid plan on how to deploy your idea and generate revenue from it. And if you file a patent too soon, then you risk others getting wind of your plans and being able to put up a defense against your potential competitive advantage. And if you do file a patent because you're itching to protect what's been developed—yet you haven't thought through all of the potential downside and ramifications of doing so—you may quickly find yourself asking whether you were lulled into a false sense of security...and you may realize that defaulting to the "safe approach" of filing for a patent might not have been so safe after all.
41:21
So having cautioned you against over-relying on default tools that may not actually protect your assets and that can give you a false sense of security and that, in fact, can cause you unnecessary stress as you manage the unrealistic PPE—the (P)rofessional (P)redictive (E)xpectations—that can chip away at your decision-making abilities, the question now becomes what should "PPE for leaders" look like? And how can you recognize tools or approaches that fall into this "Leadership PPE" category versus tools and approaches and mindsets that do not?
41:54
And to help define "Leadership PPE" let's take one simple example. Let's assume you're an employee at a company, and you have a pretty good feeling that you're on the chopping block and likely to be fired in the near future, barring some change in direction or circumstances. And having invested time and energy into your current position and into the company for which you're working, you instinctively want to protect what you've built up, right? Unless this job is completely miserable and you can't wait to leave, there's probably a part of you that just wants to fight to work another day in your role. And so you ask yourself how best to seek some protection? What could you do? What could you "put on," if you will, to preserve your job?
42:36
And so you ask yourself how best to seek some protection. What could you figuratively put on...like a item of PPE to preserve your job? And if we want to go down a ridiculous path to make a point out of this scenario (which we will!), then let's assume that you go ahead and hide out in a bathroom stall at the beginning or the end of each day when you think firings typically happen at the company. You figure that if HR is going to come looking for you to hand you your severance papers, you're going to hide out and make them work for it. Now, obviously, many of you haven't stepped foot inside an office for a while anyway...and in 2020 firing somebody can be as simple as flipping off their computer access remotely.
43:17
But for the sake of this analogy, what makes this silly attempt to protect your job so ridiculous (other than the fact that nobody's even in an office bathroom anymore these days)? Well, quite simply, it violates the three things that we set out to help you do at the beginning of this episode:
1) Is this job really worth protecting if you're at the point where they're going to let you go for some reason, anyway? Is it really worth your time and energy to hold on to it? And…
2) any outsider would say that this is absolutely ridiculous and you're just fooling yourself into thinking you're going to collect a paycheck for an extra day by hiding out. There's this false sense of security—it's a very odd example of that false sense of security—but this is what happens when you have some misguided attempt to protect yourself and ultimately to protect something that's not even worth protecting in the first place.
And the third item is that this reveals you have no idea what is truly inside of your control and outside of your control...if this company has made a decision to fire you, then hiding out is not going to change their mind. And again, this is a silly example, but how many times—be it out of fear or desperation or whatever—do we make ridiculous attempts to push back against the inevitable instead of asking ourselves what is worth protecting and how we can most effectively protect it?
44:33
And sticking with the example of someone about to get fired, the very first thing to ask in those situations is, again, what is worth protecting? Is it the current job and paycheck and benefits...or is it the experience and reputation and skills that were built up over time? Because once you recognize that those transferable skills that can be used somewhere else are indeed worth protecting, then you can more easily start tackling those three goals that we discussed early on.
45:05
And on that first goal, we would argue that taking the time to get your resume together and to playback your major accomplishments over the last several years...and to talk with your co-workers about projects that you lead that made an impact...and to gather those anecdotes and associated confidence in what you've done and what you can do...all so that you can more easily build upon your accomplishments later on—if you are indeed let go—is far more effective than just hunkering down and trying to salvage another day or two of work. And knowing that you've started to build a resume that essentially protects what you've built is definitely going to help you think more confidently and clearly about next steps instead of allowing yourself to drift into crisis mode.
45:49
And on the second goal that we laid out—to help make sure you're not fooling yourself and you aren't filled with false confidence—wouldn't a good approach be to act as if you will get fired and make the most out of the time you have, instead of, again, trying to hang on and think that you're doing things that might change somebody's mind? Realize that no job is ever 100% safe. And don't get lulled into thinking that you don't need to at least ask yourself on occasion what you would do if your job wasn't there anymore.
46:17
And on the third goal, understand what you can and can't control. You might not be able to control when you actually get fired. But you can control the output of your work up until the bitter end; you can control the words you will say or the actions you will take whenever it does come time to leave. And all of that adds up to a true sense of protection that will help you progress and move on. And the same is true if you're leading a team. Maybe you're not concerned about your job for whatever reason, but you know that your team's jobs are in jeopardy. Maybe you work for Chesapeake and you know that bankruptcy may wreak havoc on your current structure and that nothing is safe.
46:58
You know that your team has contributed at the highest level and has the talent and drive to make a positive impact at a future company. And you want to help them protect all they've worked for as best as you can. So you as a leader can—and should—try to do the same things we're talking about to figure out what's worth protecting and how to protect it so that your team can think clearly and make the best decisions for whatever they're still getting paid to do...and for their family.
47:24
You can avoid this sense that everything is "going to be okay" when the reality is that it's not necessarily going to be ok...don't fool them...don't fool yourself...Prepare for the next steps!
47:33
And finally, you can help them control what they can control. You can help them update the resume; you can help them tweak cover letters; you can help them prepare for future interviews. And this is very much in line with what we've recommended in Episode 4 where we suggested that leaders openly provide support for employees that helps those employees get into a better position so that if they ever need to leave or want to leave and go work elsewhere, they can.
47:59
And all of this protection—this true protection—whether for yourself or for a team, puts you in a position to take action if and when the layoff ultimately happens. And that's a characteristic that we believe defines Leadership PPE: something that doesn't just protect, but allows you to take decisive action. When challenges arise, something that allows you to be proactive; something that doesn't just prevent you from being injured, but also gives you a chance to respond in a timely and effective way when challenges and hazards and danger appear.
48:36
And preparing your resume, building up your personal brand (as we spoke about in Episode 9), and getting additional training or education...those things can help you act and seek out new opportunities if and when needed. And they, in fact, might not do anything to protect your current job. But it's not about just protecting your current job or whatever state you're in. It's about building upon that and moving forward. Now many people go and get an MBA knowing that those MBAs will have zero impact on their current role.
49:04
And why? Why do they go and do that? To grow and to learn? Sure, but also to protect themselves and give them options if they're no longer in their current job. And in that sense, that piece of paper can indeed be protection of some sort. And not because it preserves their current state. But because it gives that person a chance to take action and seek out a new direction if and when the time comes to do so.
49:29
And speaking of seeking out new directions—and before we arrive at the end of this episode—we want to revisit the GPS conversation from Episode 2, where we introduced the idea of "GPS for Leaders," where GPS stands for (G)row, (P)rotect, and (S)ustain. And we've spoken about how each of those three elements are necessary and how overvaluing one over the other is not going to lead to long-term success. And hopefully today we have made the point that the "Protect" piece—when it takes the form of physical PPE—needs to still allow you to do your job or it's not really that effective.
50:07
If the PPE prevents you from completing the task...and if it's too bulky and doesn't allow you to grip a tool...then how are you going to grow closer to meeting your objective? Or if the PPE is so thick and heavy and causes you to overheat or have difficulty breathing, are you going to be able to sustain whatever progress you're able to make? No...proper PPE needs to protect you while also allowing you to function. Earplugs and hearing protection are not designed to cut off all noise. They're designed to just let enough through so you can still communicate with others while preventing the harmful noise that can lead to hearing damage.
50:44
Gloves still allow you to grip tools and do your job and aren't so bulky that you might as well just be wearing a thick pair of mittens. And fire retardant clothing isn't gonna stop a metal rod from piercing your skin; that's not its job. All PPE has limitations, and all PPE needs to be chosen for the particular job and the particular scenario that you are involved in.
51:11
So remember that protecting what you or your team or your family have built does NOT mean you need to sacrifice growth, and it does not have to feel unwearable or unsustainable. And if it does feel that way, then revisit your safety mindset. And make sure you're asking three questions we set out at the beginning of this episode:
1) What is actually worth protecting?
2) Have you been lulled into a false sense of security that might cause you to unwittingly let your guard down?
3) And how aware are you of the threats and hazards you can control...and those you cannot control?
51:49
And as one final question today, ask yourself,
"Am I unwittingly investing too much time trying to predict and prevent the hazards that will limit my success instead of spending time improving my ability to respond when things inevitably don't go as planned?"
52:10
And as you ponder that, please allow me, your grateful host, Joe Sinnott, to sincerely thank you for taking the time to listen to this conversation about safety, especially to those of you who consistently put the safety and well-being of your personal and professional stakeholders at the forefront of all you do.
And if you wish to share your own stories of how a safety mindset has unexpectedly shaped or even saved your career...or to learn more about The Energy Detox or its sponsor Witting Partners, please visit us at theenergydetox.com.
And until next time, please remember that "Leadership PPE" isn't a bunch of separate safety devices and tools, but it's a one-size-fits-all mindset that protects the progress you've made, maintains your adaptability in the face of challenges, and allows you to take decisive action without unwittingly limiting the odds or realizing sustained success.
Thanks again.