The Great Safety Lie: Why "Safety First" is Poisoning Your Culture
We chant it like a religious mantra. We print it on banners. But in the real world of profit and loss, "Safety First" is a myth that destroys trust. Here is the uncomfortable truth about Safe Production.
Walk into the lobby of almost any industrial facility on the planet—whether it’s a shipyard in Korea, a refinery in Texas, or a manufacturing plant in Attica—and you will be greeted by the same holy scripture.
It is printed on 10-meter banners. It is bolded on the bottom of every email signature. It is the first slide of every induction.
"SAFETY FIRST."
It sounds noble. It sounds ethical. It is the Golden Rule of corporate communications. It is also the single most damaging lie we tell our workforce.
I do not use the word "lie" lightly. I use it because every Safety Manager, every CEO, and every frontline worker knows the truth: In a capitalist enterprise, safety is not first. Staying in business is first. Profit is first. Serving the customer is first.
If safety were truly the absolute, singular "first" priority—above all else—we would never launch a ship into a stormy ocean. We would never dig a tunnel. We would never turn on high-voltage machinery. The only way to be 100% safe is to close the factory and stay in bed.
But we don't stay in bed. We take risks to create value.
When we look our workers in the eye and say "Safety First," but then scream at them because the shipment is late, we aren't just being inconsistent. We are creating a massive Credibility Gap. And in that gap, your safety culture rots.
The History of a Good Intention Gone Wrong
To understand why this slogan is failing us, we have to look at where it came from. It wasn't invented by a marketing agency. It was coined in 1906 by Elbert Gary, the Chairman of U.S. Steel.
At the time, steel mills were slaughterhouses. Gary wrote to his managers: "Safety must always be the first consideration." He backed it up with money and action. In 1906, it was a revolutionary stance.
But over the last 100 years, that revolutionary stance morphed into a lazy marketing slogan. It became a poster we put up to cover our liability. It became something we say when the auditor is watching, but forget when the "End of Month" production targets are at risk.
The ETTO Principle: The Science of the Trade-Off
Let’s get technical for a moment. Renowned safety scientist Erik Hollnagel introduced the concept of the ETTO Principle (Efficiency-Thoroughness Trade-Off).
It states that in any complex system, people constantly have to make a trade-off between:
Efficiency: Doing things quickly and cheaply (Production).
Thoroughness: Doing things carefully and safely (Safety).
You cannot maximize both simultaneously.
If you want 100% Thoroughness (Safety), Efficiency drops to zero.
If you want 100% Efficiency (Speed), Safety is compromised.
The worker on the floor makes this trade-off every minute. "Do I take the 5 minutes to go get the proper ladder (Thoroughness), or do I stand on this crate to finish the job now (Efficiency)?"
When management screams "Safety First" but incentivizes "Production Targets," they are putting the worker in a psychological vice. They are demanding Thoroughness while rewarding Efficiency.
The "Priority" Trap
The problem lies in the word "Priority." Priorities, by definition, are flexible. They are ranked lists that shift based on the immediate needs of the business.
Monday: The priority is Quality (the client complained).
Tuesday: The priority is Speed (the truck is waiting).
Wednesday: The priority is Cost (the budget is blown).
If you say "Safety is our #1 Priority," you are subconsciously implying that it exists on the same list as Speed and Cost. And we all know what happens to lists when the pressure is on. Priorities get re-ordered.
Your workers aren't stupid. They see the Supervisor looking at his watch. They see the Plant Manager sweating over the KPIs. They know that when push comes to shove, Production is King.
So, when they walk past that "Safety First" poster, they experience Cognitive Dissonance. They think: "They are lying to me. They don't care about my safety; they care about their liability."
Once a worker believes you are a liar, you cannot lead them. You cannot influence them. You have lost them.
The Shift: Safety is Not a Priority. It is a Value.
How do we fix this? We change the vocabulary of leadership.
Priorities are about what we do. Values are about how we do it.
Think of it like Honesty. You don't wake up in the morning and say, "Honesty is my #1 priority today, right before eating lunch." No. Honesty is a value. It is a constant constraint on your behavior. Whether you are rushing, resting, buying, or selling, you do it honestly. You don't "turn off" honesty just because you are in a hurry.
Safety must be like Honesty. It is not something we do instead of production. It is a precondition for production. It is the environment in which production happens.
We need to stop talking about "Safety vs. Production" as if they are enemies. We need to talk about "Safe Production." They are one word.
The New Script for Leaders
If you want to restore trust, take down the "Safety First" posters. They are wallpaper. Nobody reads them anymore. Instead, try honesty.
Here is how a pragmatic leader speaks to their team during a crisis:
The Old Lie: "Guys, we are behind schedule. We need to hurry up. But remember... Safety First!" (Translation: Hurry up, but if you get hurt, I will blame you for breaking the rules).
The New Truth: "We are behind schedule. We need to ship this product by Friday to get paid. That is our goal. However, we will not destroy our people to hit that goal. Speed is important, but cutting corners is forbidden. We want High Performance, but we demand Safe Performance."
The Ultimate Test: The "Stop Work" Reaction
You can preach "Safe Production" all day, but your culture is defined by one specific moment: How do you react when a worker stops the job?
Every company puts this in their induction manual: "Any worker has the authority to stop the job if it is unsafe." But does it happen?
Imagine a junior technician stops a critical crane lift because the wind gusted above the limit. The project is delayed by 4 hours. The client is screaming.
Reaction A: The Manager sighs, rolls his eyes, looks at the cost sheet, and says, "Okay, fine."
Reaction B: The Manager walks up to the technician, shakes his hand in front of the crew, and says, "Thank you. You saved us from a potential disaster. You made the right call."
If the reaction is A, your slogan is a joke. If the reaction is B, you don't need a slogan. You have a Culture.
The Bottom Line
Trust is the currency of safety. If your people don't trust you, they won't report near misses. They won't wear their PPE when you aren't looking. They won't look out for each other.
If you lie to your people about "Safety First" while secretly pushing for "Speed First," you are bankrupting that trust.
Be honest about the conflict. Acknowledge the pressure. Admit that business is hard and that trade-offs exist. Only when you stop lying about the reality of the business will they start listening to you about the safety of the job.
Don't tell me Safety is First. Show me that Safety is Non-Negotiable.
Comments
Post a Comment