Dean of Springs It’s Time to Take a Deep Breath and Restart: Four Score and Seven Years Ago By Dan Sebastian
lease forgive me for borrowing from Abraham Lincoln P but the time period seems appropriate, as we appear to be through the worst of our recent pandemic. In that period of
One day, an employee inadvertently fell into one of those tanks. His fellow employees rushed to his aid. They knew the danger, so they followed the mandatory established safety profour score and seven (87) years we have been through the Great cedures to get him to safety. Nothing worked. It was then that Depression, numerous recessions, near economic meltdowns an employee, who knew he was clearly violating the zero tolernot to mention World War II to defeat fascism, a Cold War to ance policy, jumped into the tank, rendered aid and rescued reduce the threat of communism (and a not-so-Cold War in the injured employee before getting out of the tank himself. Korea), and wars in other parts of The best of all outcomes resulted Asia and the Middle East, and of in both the hapless victim and his …rules are important course the pandemic of 2020-2021. rescuer making a full recovery from In all that turmoil, we have had to in the ordinary course of business, the incident. Eventually they were adjust our management practices both able to return to their jobs. but managers are confronted with and policies. The rescuer had clearly violated In most areas where there is the rules and under the zero tolmany situations every day misconduct or poor judgment, it erance policy should have been where they must use wisdom, normally results in the establishterminated. ment of a rule, policy or procedure. GM realized that the actions of common sense and In the world of safety, our rules are the rescuer went above and beyond science in their decisions meant to protect everyone, and in the call of duty and they awarded most cases are only common sense. him for his courageous action. Zero In my many years on the factory tolerance was not the way to save floor, most accidents resulted from well-intentioned people lives in this particular situation. (As a matter of full disclosure, thinking they are doing the right thing to produce a quality that hero was my cousin Fred.) part that too often would be destined for the scrap bin. The lesson here is that rules are important in the ordinary As we establish our rules, policies and procedures, we can course of business, but managers are confronted with many get advice from consultants, experts or even bureaucrats or situations every day where they must use wisdom, common political leaders as to the corrective action for rules violations. sense and science in their decisions. n In today’s world, the advice we receive for serious violation is the establishment of “zero tolerance,” with mandatory termination. In many cases, termination is the appropriate action, but Dan Sebastian is a former SMI president and currently serves as a technical consultant to it should never be an absolute. As managers, we must always the association. He holds a degree in metalpractice the wisdom of Solomon and not be a slave to the never. lurgical engineering from Lehigh University A few years ago, GM had a plant in Bristol, Connecticut. They and his industry career spans more than four had some of the strictest safety rules in GM, with an excellent decades in various technical and management safety record. There were a number of areas that had chemical roles. He may be reached by contacting SMI at 630-495-8588. tanks that had a “zero tolerance” rule for anyone entering the area because of the extreme dangers posed.
SPRINGS | Winter 2022 | 19
