“Every life is of equal value, and nothing is more valuable than a life. Safety is a constant journey with no destination.”
These words are not dissimilar to what you’d hear at any safety event in and around Aberdeen, but on this occasion I was more than 5,000 miles away in India.
I was there to speak about safety leadership in the context of workforce engagement. The drive from the airport illustrated the uphill road safety faces not just in the country’s oil and gas sector, but in the wider community. It was midnight and the roads were heaving with trucks moving goods and people throughout the city.
Dozens of scooters packed with passengers weaved in and out of traffic. Helmets were clearly optional. Outside my car window I could see dozens of examples contradicting the purpose of my trip.
Set in the backdrop of Delhi, where millions of homeless people scrape together an existence from the slums that pepper the city, you cannot help but get a sense of the challenge that the event organisers faced. More importantly you gain an unwavering appreciation for their commitment to rise to such an enormous task.
I was there to exchange good practices, to help others avoid our mistakes and to provide an insight into our own industry learning. I shared examples of how we are leading the way through collaboration and leadership, and as a result how we are transforming the nature of our workforce culture.
But I also had time to pause. It’s too easy at first glance to think that we are any further along the safety journey than those we were there to speak to.
That is of course too simple and, more worryingly, arrogant to assume on our end.
There in Delhi amidst the overcrowded buses and scooters is an overwhelming sense of collectiveness, community and family. When you compare that feeling of ‘cohesiveness’ to our own stereotypically individualistic culture, it is clear we have much to learn. In India, the sense of community and social responsibility doesn’t start and stop with the workplace.
Instead, there is also a strong commitment to be a good neighbour.
At various leadership events around the world you often hear Ghandi’s famous words, “Be the change you want to see in the world”. But I found that iconic quote resonated with more power in India than any other safety event I have attended.
This ‘bumper sticker’ quote does not talk to just the personal change required but signposts the much greater challenge to us all. We are part of an ecosystem, part of a community and the reality today is that we are all interdependent and have to co-exist. Wider ‘cultural’ change requires more than just an individual makeover.
Ultimately there is one destination. It’s no life lost or harmed through the exploitation of oil and gas. This transformation can only be done through collaboration and engaging leadership. We have to focus on the right results – results that take helping others accomplish their own goals into account.
Les Linklater is team leader with Step Change in Safety
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