Insight 4 Archives - Krause Bell Group

The COVID-19 Challenge — When Complexity Overcomes Capability

Apr 21, 2020

Categorized under: Improvement Strategy, Safety Culture, Serious Injuries & Fatalities

In my nearly 40 years of Supply Chain Management I have seen and managed plants and operations with considerably different performance levels. Some struggled to deliver the basics while others were able to tackle just about any challenge and excel. This pattern was evident in every company I worked for, regardless of the industry, technology or product line. Over time, I began to appreciate the need to better understand an operation’s capability, complexity and culture. Fully understanding each of these three critical components is the key to assessing the current state and essential to improving performance. Performance excellence is achieved...

Safety Culture

Tom Krause

Kristen Bell

David Libby

May 23, 2018

Categorized under: Safety Culture

Tagged as: Insight 4

We all know that building a strong safety culture is important for the overall success of your organization’s safety effort, but how does this connection actually work? Is it a general idea you take on faith? Or, is it something that can be demonstrated? In the book we co-authored, 7 Insights Into Safety Leadership, we present a set of cultural characteristics are essential for improving safety and support organizational performance in general. A culture assessment focused on these attributes can predict safety engagement of front-line employees, injury frequency, and a set of performance variables that apply outside safety as well....

Where Did the Concept of “Safety Culture” Come From?

Tom Krause

Kristen Bell

Sep 15, 2016

Categorized under: Safety Culture

Tagged as: Insight 4

We’ve found that organizational culture is one of the most important dimensions of business performance, especially in the realm of safety. But “safety culture” is often taken for granted because the concept seems so obvious and so powerful and few people realize the context in which organizational culture exists. Indeed, it didn’t emerge as a subject of inquiry until 1960, and it didn’t become prominent until after 1985. Organizational culture as we understand it started with Edgar Schein’s observations in the late 1950s. Schein was working for National Training Labs in Boston, doing leaderless training groups, also called ‘T’ groups....

What Culture Are You Creating?

Tom Krause

Kristen Bell

May 27, 2016

Categorized under: Safety Culture

Tagged as: Insight 4

We’ve never met a leader that didn’t want a better culture for their organization. We hear statements like, “we need to change the safety culture,” every day. What is odd is that the leaders who make these statements usually think they are talking about other people, when in reality they are talking about themselves. We know that “leadership creates culture;” any leader will tell you that. When we say leaders are always creating culture, we don’t mean that leaders are always trying to create culture. We don’t mean that leaders are always thinking about the culture. We don’t mean that...

Safety Culture Across Regions

Tom Krause

Apr 1, 2016

Categorized under: Safety Culture

Tagged as: Insight 4

Global organizations often ask questions like, “Will the things that work in North America also work in Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Europe?” or “Are the principles that inform safety excellence the same across countries and their cultures?” or “Is safety excellence in an underdeveloped country the same as in a developed one?”. These are important questions that many leaders find perplexing. For sure regional cultures are different when it comes to safety. Travel in Asia and you will see a common sight, an entire family riding a motor scooter, sometimes five or six people at a time, including...

Why Can’t we Get the Culture Right?

Tom Krause

Mar 18, 2016

Categorized under: Safety Culture

Tagged as: Culture Assessment, Insight 4

Working in a good culture is fun. More than that it is meaningful. Look at the film All Things Must Pass, the incredible documentary about the rise and fall of Tower Records; 5 billion to bankruptcy in 5 years. Key employees tell their stories, fascinating in many ways, one of which is the deep sense of connection to work life; emotional, alive, authentic engagement shown by the interviewees. Real tears, not because they lost their incomes, but because they lost a source of meaning in their lives. Note that Tower Records was a profit making company. It wasn’t that people...

Articles & Blogs About Insight 4

The COVID-19 Challenge — When Complexity Overcomes Capability

Safety Culture

Where Did the Concept of “Safety Culture” Come From?

What Culture Are You Creating?

Safety Culture Across Regions

Why Can’t we Get the Culture Right?