Why We Won't Catch Drift and Weak Signals

Drift warning sign at a gravel road

Drift and weak signals are the new terms being used in the efforts to prevent disasters like the Gulf of Mexico spill and the erosion of ethics and standards in cases such as the Volkswagen emissions scandal and Enron’s financial collapse that lost billions in stock shares and pensions.

Many precursors preceded these failures. If we were to do a root cause analysis we would find that there were many opportunities to take action to prevent the unwanted outcomes that hurt so many. New safeguards and regulations have been put in place to prevent recurrence, but if past experience is a predictor, it won’t make much difference because we haven’t addressed the fundamental core of why people don’t see these precursors, and if they do see them why they don’t recognize them and speak up.

The first misstep is to focus on fixing the culture. We talk a lot about culture when something goes wrong in the workplace and that leaders are responsible for creating it.  However, how many people really understand what culture is or even care? The eyes glaze over at the mention of it. Management states they are committed to a culture of integrity or culture of safety–that it is of high importance and then moves onto getting the work done. “Culture” is code for stuff that is difficult, mysterious, and touchy feely. It’s like the junk drawer in your house. Everything you don’t have a place for goes in there until you have a mess where you can’t find anything.

I should know. I published my first article on safety culture in 1996. Ed Schein tried to warn me that there was no such thing as safety culture, but I didn’t listen. Then he started writing about it. We all kept writing about it. It was an unstoppable movement, and now we find ourselves in a messy situation of our own creation–trying to convince intractable managers that they should behave in certain ways to create a “positive culture” for whatever purpose: quality, diversity, customer service or accountability.

The problem is it only works on managers who already get the people stuff. These priceless leaders may not understand what a culture is, but in their gut they know that it has something to do with treating people with respect and believing that they can and will contribute to the company’s success if they were provided the right opportunities and training. Managers with an engineering view of the world don’t buy into those beliefs. They are convinced that if they just keep making their demands clearer and clearer, eventually employees will comply. And, those who don’t can be moved on (because they obviously don’t fit this culture!). Meanwhile, these unaware managers remain oblivious to the stress and anxiety they create.

So this brings me to my latest understanding of culture. Many say culture is the way we do things here. They forget to add, “… if you want to be part of our group.” Maybe everyone else knew that’s what it meant, but I didn’t. I thought I was being hired because of my unique talents and ideas. I found out pretty quickly that it meant I could share them as long as they fit in. Culture determines who’s in and who’s out–who can belong. And, we know how important it is to belong. It is so important that the brain signals a warning that our life is being threatened when confronted with possible exclusion.  Babies actually die or become severely dysfunctional when deprived of this bonding. We want to belong so much that after a while we begin to see things the same way everyone else does–even if it isn’t true. (Remember the Asch studies? Watch this great video of the experiment.)

What Does All This Have to do with Drift and Weak Signals?

So what does this all have to do with catching drift and weak signals? I’ve written in several posts that people are not going to point out errors if they don’t feel safe. It’s hard to bring up potential problems when one is worried about losing credibility. The solution to this problem isn’t to try and create a new culture where people don’t drift from procedure or one where everyone’s sensitive to weak signals. Address the fundamental fear of exclusion. Teach your managers why they have to be inclusive to succeed–why its the most powerful motivator to achieve full engagement and accountability. We can waste a lot of time and money training people on acceptable standards and how to speak up, but one dismissive word or behavior from the leader will undo it all.

As the Asch experiments and history has shown a few will push on with the truth, luckily for us, but why make it so hard? Why not unleash the creative power of our workforce with the free and courageous act of inclusion? What do we have to lose? Perhaps I’ll explore that in my next post.