Caterpillar’s “MindShift for Leaders” program shakes up traditional safety training

Caterpillar’s innovative safety training program, “MindShift for Leaders,” is designed to help develop new ways to improve and increase workplace safety. It includes five sessions to introduce the principles of Human and Organizational Performance (HOP) and assist companies with establishing more error-tolerant safety processes. These processes are developed to accept that mistakes happen but don’t have to result in serious injury.

This MindShift for Leaders program is said to help leaders foster a worksite culture where employees can speak up and are empowered to encourage mindsets that respect human factors at work. This builds a caring environment where mistakes don’t result in blame. 

HOP is a completely virtual program centered around designing policies, work standards, and processes based on how managers think employees should work rather than how they actually do. The HOP principles are a framework for discussing safety and safety culture by shifting a company’s mindset toward more error-tolerant systems. 

Zach Knoop, Caterpillar Safety Services Manager, says, “Expecting perfection from workers is not realistic, and traditional methods of managing safety do not account for factors that can disrupt a system. A human and organizational performance mindset does not manage the incident itself but assists organizations with building more error-tolerant safety systems that allow people to stay safe, even when they make a mistake.”

The five principles of the HOP framework include: 

1. People make mistakes: Perfection as the only defense against injury and fatality is unrealistic. 
2. Blame doesn’t work: Blame is unproductive and detrimental to team morale.
3. Behavior is driven by context: Workers do what they do because it’s what makes sense at that time and place. 
4. Learning is key to improving: Those closest to the work have the best knowledge on executing it safely.
5. Your response matters: Leading with empathy and emotional intelligence are taught as new skills for the leadership toolbox. 

Each session is 90 minutes long, and leaders are reminded that HOP is not a step-by-step process but rather a guideline for a healthier work culture that takes time and consistency to develop. Companies can contact the Caterpillar Safety Services Team for more information on the program. 

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