Week 274

Positive post Sunday, May 22, 2022- Week 274.

At SoCalGas our mission is to build the cleanest, safest and most innovative energy company in America. In an effort to advance our safety culture, each week a member of our leadership team writes a safety message that is sent to all employees, and it’s my privilege to provide the safety message this coming week.

Those that know me well, know my passion for health and safety and that I wouldn’t miss an opportunity to share my message. After all, health and safety should not only be important at work but equally important in our personal lives. Below is a condensed version of my message. I’d be glad to explain and provide more details and background with those who share my passion for health and safety.

Good morning SoCalGas Safety Leaders (ALL SoCalGas employees)!

This week, my focus is on another one of our critical safety values, Continuous Improvement.

I personally have a great deal of passion around this safety value. It is my belief that with Leadership Commitment as the foundation, Continuous Improvement is the key to advancing our safety culture and performance. At the heart of Continuous Improvement and our Safety Management System is the use of the “Plan-Do-Check-Act” (PDCA) cycle. PDCA is an effective tool used for both small tasks and large complex jobs, assessing and managing risks. What I have found helpful is to continuously ask myself the question, “How can I do better?”, and then start the cycle over incorporating the learning back into the Plan. How do you use the PDCA cycle?

Another key to Continuous Improvement is providing, receiving and acting on feedback. Input from employees at all levels is highly valuable in improving our safety, our co-worker’s safety, and the safety of the communities we serve. As leaders, both formal and informal, we must go beyond simply welcoming feedback and create an environment that expects, rewards and acts on feedback with transparent communications.

Although I have certainly advanced my virtual meeting skills during the pandemic, there’s no replacement for old fashioned facetime (not Apple’s FaceTime) to connect with employees. So, over the past several months, I have personally met with employees at several bases, participated in frontline safety committee meetings and attended several dialogs with employees.

After reflecting on my visits and discussions with frontline supervisors and employees, I was reminded of the importance of getting “Back to the Basics” and developed the list of health and safety actions/tools below to help strengthen our safety foundation. With the support of our region safety champions, and in the interest of Continuous Improvement, we have shared these within the region and now broader across the company. What are the “Back to the Basics” actions/tools that strengthen your safety foundation and Continuous Improvement?

It has been energizing to reengage with our frontline supervisors and employees. I appreciate the candid and thoughtful feedback I continue to receive, and I look forward to our continued partnership as we advance our safety culture through Continuous Improvement. We can achieve an incident free environment, and we have with “pockets of excellence” at several company locations where ALL employees have worked incident free for extended periods of time.

Health and Safety to all,

Dan

How do you model and promote health and safety at home and at work?

What tools do you use for Continuous Improvement in your life?