Strategic Hint for Your Consideration
Bias acts as a blind spot when evaluating problems lying in wait, limits your insight when recognizing and prioritizing risks, narrows your perspective, and leads to incomplete and inaccurate decision making.
Summary
Real risk management is a belief structure of high-reliability organizations to do the right thing, the right way every time, through resilient systems and a culture of ongoing improvement, sound decision making, and self-regulating employee discipline.
The philosophy’s underpinning is the prevention of tragedies by identifying and addressing problems lying in wait, as opposed to proximate cause, and converting these root causational factors into pillars of success. This conversion maximizes employee fitness, customer loyalty, and organizational mission.
Chapter emphasis will focus on pre-incident prevention and the importance of building resilient systems through enhanced perspective, data, and workplace diversity, as well as the necessity to monitor bias so that predictable gray rhinos are clearly distinguished from unpredictable black swans.
Gordon Graham here, and welcome to Chapter 1 of our journey toward real risk management. Throughout this trek, we’ll be imparting practical ideas, strategies, tactics, and concepts that you can take back and implement in your organization. The book’s primary purpose is to provide an actionable manual to better protect yourself, your organization, your community, your profession, and the big one for me: our great country. I’ll periodically refresh salient topics as memory markers and include directional signs through strategic hints to ensure we reach our final destination of doing the right thing, the right way every time, which is the marque of a high-reliability organization.
These same reminders will apply to certain human conditions and traits that often transform problems lying in wait into tragedies. Such characteristics include bias and mediocrity, as well as arrogance, ignorance, and complacency. It also includes decision making that lacks data and diversity as well as behavioral tendencies that fixate attention on superfluous risks. Real risk managers understand an informed and varied perspective is necessary to properly scan for perceptible and imperceptible risks, and these practical actions lead to viable control measures (systems) that prevent tragedies.
Let’s begin our journey with a four letter word that surfaces when I discuss risk management: bias. I give a couple hundred presentations a year, and, occasionally, I say things that make people angry. The common reaction is hate mail, and this reaction is exponentially greater when I publish articles or musings. I wrote a piece about a decade ago titled Everyone Has a Bias. Of all the pieces I’ve written, this one generated more hate mail than anything else. “Dear Mr. Graham: How dare you accuse me of having a bias! You don’t even know me, and I can assure you that I don’t have a bias bone in my body.” I sent an email back. Not only are you biased, you’re unwise if you don’t recognize your own bias.
Strategic Hint for Your Consideration
The best way to improve as a person and risk manager is to expand your horizons (perspective), and that’s properly achieved through active and ongoing engagement with insightful books and smart people.
There’s nothing wrong with bias. If you prefer Ford’s to Chevy’s, that’s a bias. If you salt your food before you eat it, that’s a bias. If you prefer one football team to another, that’s a bias. There’s nothing wrong with bias until it negatively affects people or narrows perspective. Bias, from the lens of risk management, adversely influences our decision making and ability to properly evaluate risks. Let me explain. A common bias I face when speaking to audiences outside of public safety is the following: “What’s this guy talking about? Number one: He’s not experienced in our industry. Number two: What does he know about my job? And number three: What were they thinking when they asked a non-industry guy to talk about safety stuff?” That level of bias is myopic and contributes to the mishandling of risk. It also acts as a blind spot when evaluating problems lying in wait and constricts your insight when recognizing and prioritizing organizational and operational risks. All those factors narrow your perspective and lead to incomplete or inaccurate decision making. That brings me to a central point in my philosophy: The best way to improve as a person and risk manager is to expand your horizons (perspective), and that’s best achieved through active and ongoing engagement with insightful books and smart people.
Let me drilldown further. What do I specifically mean when I say perspective? I’m referring to a proper and expansive comprehension of this broad, multifaceted field known as risk management. It’s disconcerting but most professionals have a lack of understanding of this field. Ninety-nine percent of people throughout this great country view risk management as safety stuff. I’ve ten chapters and an illustrative conclusion to convince you it’s more than safety stuff. Everything you do in water/wastewater operations, regardless of your job, involves a level of risk. For the executives reading this book, you’re hiring people. There’s a level of risk. I said that recently and somebody challenged me: “That really doesn’t apply to me. I only have three employees.” And my response to that? Three plaintiffs and three defendants. You’re firing somebody. There’s a level of risk. “Well, I can terminate an employee for any reason I want.” You are mostly right. In some states, you can terminate an employee for no reason or any reason. However, there isn’t a state where you can terminate an employee for the wrong reason. There’s a level of risk. You’re completing a performance evaluation. There’s a level of risk. You’re mixing chemicals. There’s a level of risk. You’re shoring up a trench. There’s a level of risk. Every activity performed by your organization involves a level of risk.
Strategic Hint for Your Consideration
High-reliability organizations intrinsically embody real risk management as a dynamic, inculcated way of thinking that’s predicated on their mission/purpose and serves as a governing luminance for their employees.
The purpose of this exercise is to show you the breadth and depth of what I call real risk management. Not the unctuousness I observe in so many organizations but a commitment to real risk management. I’m dedicated to imparting practical tools that you can apply in your organization and personal life. I also want to correct any misperception you have about risk management, and why that incomplete perspective impacts the activities you perform. Real risk management goes beyond the safety stuff. High-reliability organizations intrinsically embody real risk management as a dynamic, inculcated way of thinking. It isn’t a siloed department but a manifestation of an enterprise’s mission and purpose, as well as a governing luminance for employees. Real risk management is an indefatigable pursuit to do the right thing, the right way every time. It’s the marrow of high-reliability organizations, with systems and culture serving as genetic material and discipline functioning as plasma. Real risk management is the reason these marque organizations are underrepresented in tragedies (i.e., injuries or death to personnel, civil liability, organizational embarrassment, internal investigations, and criminal filings) and exceed their peer groups in employee fitness and customer loyalty. When you do the right thing, the right way every time, you maximize service, enhance safety, and minimize liability. That’s the positive and far-reaching impact of real risk management. And, it’s easy to deploy if you commit yourself to improving your bias and expanding your perspective.
After just a few pages, you’ve likely surmised I’m a risk management enthusiast. It’s been my life’s mission and life’s work for forty-plus years. I’m frequently asked how I ended up in this line of work and how I became so passionate. I’d be disingenuous if I said it was a master plan that began in my twenties. It all started on August 4, 1977. I was a motorcycle cop for the California Highway Patrol (CHP) working in Central Los Angeles, and we had an event that date called Barz versus Burkholder. Kurt Barz was a sergeant in the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD). I can’t say we were friends, but he seemed like a nice enough guy when we occasionally crossed paths at the divisional detention facility. Barz was driving around in the early morning hours on August 4 and came into contact with Ronald Burkholder, a short stature man who was naked and karate chopping a phone booth. Barz noticed the unusual behavior and exited his Rambler. According to witnesses, Burkholder immediately attacked and overpowered Barz. He then took Barz’s baton and started hitting him with it. Shortly thereafter, Barz shot Burkholder six times and killed him.
Strategic Hint for Your Consideration
Real risk management is the reason high-reliability organizations are underrepresented in tragedies and exceed their peer groups in employee fitness and customer loyalty.
The public was outraged. It was the twenty-seventh fatal police shooting by LAPD so far that year. The friends of Burkholder were outraged: “How could you shoot him? He was a gentle soul, a PhD, and never raised his hands in anger to anyone.” The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) was outraged. Everybody was outraged. Three days later, the coroner, Thomas Noguchi, came back and said: “New development: PCP.” Now everybody reading this chapter has heard of PCP, but that wasn’t the case in 1977. I’d never heard of PCP. Apparently, I wasn’t alone because every night on the local news there were experts, MDs and PhDs, talking about PCP being a powerful animal tranquilizer. PCP makes you impervious to pain, gives you superhuman strength, turns you crazy, and makes you so hot you get naked. I’m watching all these experts on television and saying to myself: Wait a minute. Barz is a big guy, and Burkholder was a small guy, but Barz was overpowered and had to shoot Burkholder. What happens to Gordon Graham who isn’t all that big or all that tough? What happens if I run into a tough guy on PCP? How much trouble am I going to get in? I’d better learn about PCP.
So I wrote down all the names of the experts on television. The next day when I arrived at work, I looked them up in the Yellow Pages. For my younger readers, the Yellow Pages was a big book with all sorts of phone numbers. I also wrote down their addresses, and the next day I drove out to their offices in uniform on my CHP motorcycle. I asked for a few minutes of her or his time because I had questions about PCP. They were kind and agreed to talk to me. They explained about PCP, and I wrote down everything they said. And for some reason, I took my accumulated notes and assembled them into a booklet that was eight pages long and the size of a ticket book. I called it, PCP: An Officer’s Survival Guide. The booklet had three sections. Section one: How to identify these idiots on PCP? Section two: Here’s what you don’t do when you run into one of these fools on PCP. And section three: Here’s what you need to do when you run into one of these PCP guys. I made forty copies of this booklet and distributed it to all the motorcycle cops on afternoon “B” shift in Central Los Angeles where I was working. You need to learn about PCP. It can be dangerous dealing with someone on PCP. You need to read this booklet. I handed it out and thought that was it.
Strategic Hint for Your Consideration
The positive and far-reaching impact of real risk management includes maximizing service, enhancing safety, and minimizing liability; it’s attainable if you address your bias and expand your perspective.
Thirty days later, my captain called me into his office: “Hey, Graham.” Yes, captain. “Did you write this booklet?” I did. “I want a copy of it for every officer in the office, and I want you to go to all three shift briefings and explain PCP. We’re not going to have a PCP tragedy in Central Los Angeles.” So, here I am. A young motorcycle cop going to day “A” shift and talking to all the sixty-year-old motorcycle cops about PCP. I then go to graveyard “C” shift and talk to all the new hires from the Academy about PCP. And what do you learn when standing in front of people? You pick up platform skills to get people interested. People want to learn, and I shared my understanding of PCP to all three shifts. One month later: “Hey, Graham?” Yes, captain. “The division commander is concerned about PCP. I informed him that we have the subject matter expert in our office.” Who’s that? “That would be you. He wants you to go to every office in Southern Division and explain PCP.” So now I compiled a slide tray (for my younger readers, that’s a projector with photographs) and included pictures of people on PCP, some of whom were dead, from Los Angeles Police Department and Los Angeles Sheriff’s Office. With my slide tray, I was traveling all over Los Angeles County talking about PCP and developing invaluable platform skills. I subsequently did all the offices in Southern California.
One month later: “Hey, Graham.” Yes, captain. “The Academy’s doing a videotape on PCP, and they want you to narrate it.” I flew up to headquarters and did a videotape on PCP, which was distributed statewide to all public safety organizations. And that’s when the phone started ringing: “Are you Gordon Graham?” Yes. “This is the chief of Riverside Police Department.” Hey, chief. “Are you the guy on PCP?” Well, I’m not on it, but I talk about it. “How much do you charge?” Charge? I hadn’t thought about that. So now you know how it all started in 1977. But there’s more to the story. I had just finished graduate school in August 1977. In September, I enrolled in law school and graduated in 1982. I then opened up my law practice in Hollywood. Since 1982, I’ve been a lawyer, and as a lawyer, I’ve been handling tragedy. For almost forty years, people have been coming into my law office sharing their tragedies and requesting legal representation. “My son died in a motorcycle collision.” “My house was destroyed by a pipeline explosion.” “I’m being indicted for excessive force.” “I’m being fired for harassment.” “My husband died in a plane crash.” For almost forty years as a lawyer, I’ve been immersed and fixated on tragedy. It has become my passion and purpose in life.
Strategic Hint for Your Consideration
Most of your tragedies (i.e., injuries or death to personnel, civil liability, organizational embarrassment, internal investigations, and criminal filings) are caused by errors from your good employees and can be proactively addressed.
My story isn’t quite finished. Remember, I mentioned attending graduate school before law school. And where did I attend graduate school? The Institute of Safety & Systems Management (ISSM) at University of Southern Calif...
