Life or Death Leadership

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Life or Death Leadership

Johnson, Judy / Dakens, Les / Edwards, Peter / Morse, Ned

In any heavy industry, safety is serious business. But on the railroad, it's dead serious. Safety was and is very much a part of the culture change at Canadian National Railways (CN). Safety is one of the Five Guiding Principles and CN could not progress as a company if it failed to keep its employees healthy and injury‐free. The key to making the improved safety culture at CN is to constantly reinforce safety behaviors. At‐risk behaviors were tackled by creating great awareness of the safety rules. Shift huddles, safety walkabouts, and Safety for Everyone (SaFESM) observations were developed. SaFESM was a new way of tackling safety by working with front‐line employees to give each other feedback, which they did not do under the old culture. It was another application of Q4 LeadershipSM. With safety tests, shift huddles, safety walkabouts, and SaFESM observations, CN made progress in reducing personal safety incidents and injuries. More importantly, leaders and employees alike are involved in the process.