Toolbox Talk: Actively Caring

“Actively Caring”
Ref: 2010; Geller, E. Scott “Cultivating an Actively Caring Culture: The Courage and Compassion of an Injury-Free
Workplace”; EHS Today

In an actively caring culture, people look out for the safety and welfare of others with courage and compassion, enabling the achievement of an injury-free environment. Most people care, but too often, people fail to act on their caring. They seemingly lack the courage to step to the plate to prevent potential harm to another person. All the six sigma, behavior-based safety and customer-focus directives will not make a difference unless people have the courage to speak up and act on behalf of a particular performance-improvement process. Indeed, without courage, most well-intentioned initiatives become another “flavor of the month.”

THE COMPASSION DIMENSION

Compassionate people are considerate and responsive to the feelings and circumstances of others. They listen and speak with empathy. Thus, while courage increases as a function of a person’s relevant competence and commitment, the positive human impact of one’s courage is a direct function of his or her compassion. The outcome is actively caring. Authentic and effective actively caring requires courage plus compassion. A person who is competent and committed in a situation calling for actively caring might not have the courage to act. But when it comes to interpersonal intervention, courage without compassion can be ineffective or even perilous.

So how can a culture increase actively caring?

Many factors that influence one’s propensity to actively care can be subsumed under the general label – culture. A work culture, for example, can incorporate an accountability system that encourages interpersonal helping, and the daily interactions of people influence certain person states that affect one’s propensity to go beyond the call of duty for another person’s safety.

In other words, the frequency of actively caring varies directly according to extrinsic response contingencies and indirectly as a function of certain dispositional person states. Positive regard for people’s helping behaviors increases the frequency of the target behavior directly, while simultaneously feeding the five person states that set the occasion for more actively caring. Self-Esteem (“I am valuable”) – How do you feel about yourself? Research has shown that people with high self-esteem stressors with more confidence and competence.

Most importantly, the better we feel about ourselves, the more willing we are to actively care for the welfare of others. Actually, common sense tells us people will not act to protect others from personal injury if they do not perceive themselves as being worthwhile. Our common sense also informs us of ways to increase our own and others’ self-esteem.
Consider, for example, the following A-words that reflect certain types of interpersonal conversations that can boost a person’s self-esteem: accept, actively listen, agree, appreciate, acknowledge, approve, ask, attend, avoid criticizing and argue less.

Self-Efficacy (“I can do it”) – Self-efficacy is more situational-specific than self-esteem and refers to a person’s sense of competence at a particular task. Thus, job-specific feedback directly impacts self-efficacy. When individuals believe they are doing worthwhile work well, their self-efficacy increases, along with their willingness to actively care. Here we’re talking about personal experiences that enable a person to perceive their achievements.

Sometimes these success stories occur naturally, as when the artist, scholar and tradesman view the positive results of their on-going behavior. We call this “intrinsic reinforcement.” Effective safety leaders point out the inherent positive consequences of a group’s injury-prevention efforts, thereby increasing the self-efficacy of the participants.

Personal Control (“I’m in control”) – The academic term “locus of control” refers to a general outlook regarding the location of forces controlling a person’s life – internal vs. external. The internal outlook reflects belief in direct personal control over a certain situation, as opposed to the external belief in chance, luck or uncontrollable fate. In the internal state, individuals are captains of their ship, whereas in the external state, people believe they are victims of circumstances beyond their control.

Optimism (“I expect the best”) – Optimism refers to the learned expectation that life events will turn out well. People who expect the best benefit from the self-fulfilling prophecy. They start with an expectation of success, and then work diligently to make that positive outcome happen. In contrast, a pessimistic prophecy can depreciate a person’s perception of personal control, self-efficacy and even self-esteem.

Belongingness (“We are family”) – We don’t hesitate to ask members of our intermediate family to stop an at-risk behavior or perform a certain safe behavior. This does not take courage; it’s an obligation, and compassion comes naturally.

However, intervening on behalf of a stranger’s safety takes moral courage. For example, giving corrective feedback to an unknown person regarding his or her at-risk behavior could result in an unpleasant, uncomfortable or embarrassing confrontation. In fact, the lower the relatedness between an observer and the performer of at-risk behavior, the more courage it takes to intervene.

Some work teams are extremely cohesive and consider themselves members of a “corporate family.” These individuals not only are willing to give and receive corrective feedback regarding at-risk behavior; they expect their teammates to actively care for their safety. These workers are “brothers-sisters-keepers.”

Searching for ways to cultivate an actively caring work culture will take significant time and require compassionate courage. Subsequently, implementing the practical suggestions will be even more time-consuming. But the resulting interdependent and injury-free workplace will be well worth the effort.

“It may be that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition is not the blaring noisiness of the so-called bad people, but the appalling silence of the so-called good people.” Martin Luther King Jr.

Thanks for the share TO!