MINDFUL LEADERSHIP: A Strategy for Achieving Significant Change

According to one Zen master (who seems aligned with many other experts), "right" is not "a synonym of good (as in good vs. evil), it has no moral significance. In other words, many are not being mindful, not perceiving the uniqueness of a current situation or problem, not gleaning wha...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Professional safety 2020-09, Vol.65 (9), p.16-18
Main Author: Pater, Robert
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Employees
Human error
Leadership
Mindfulness
Occupational safety
Plateaus
Safety
Workers
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Summary:According to one Zen master (who seems aligned with many other experts), "right" is not "a synonym of good (as in good vs. evil), it has no moral significance. In other words, many are not being mindful, not perceiving the uniqueness of a current situation or problem, not gleaning what's happening now. Since I am writing about the power of differentiating, of not falsely mixing up two elements as if they were the exact same, let's distinguish between mindset and mindfulness, two important but complementary aspects of effecting significant change. [...]in my experience, pretty much any company that focuses on enforcing compliance is already working off' a highly limited mindset, where the bar is too low and the setup for increasing buyout in safety is high. There are real reasons why people conflate approaches, such as: *not fully understanding the strengths and limitations of each method *being influenced by effective marketing that posi tions one solution as the only way to address a prob lem, or merely attempts to oversimplify a complex issue to make it easier to grasp *automatically associating one thing with another (see "Strains and sprains" bullet) by acquired habit *identifying or becoming so used to one method to the extent that others that are out of the box seem uncomfortable ("I've always done it that way"), can be perceived as entailing extra work, or rocking the safety boat *feeling under pressure to get things done as inexpensively and quickly as possible, leading some to persuade themselves that what is convenient is also sufficiently good enough These are some of the reasons that organizations get stuck on plateaus of safety performance and culture, where improvements seem few or short-lived and where culture appears to just merry-go-round in place.
ISSN:0099-0027