Building commitment to safety is the #1 change task.

1. The day that Peter Brock came for dinner
Managing safety, managing change

2. The background
• This all happened in the early 1990’s at a mine located in
the Karijini area of West Australia.
• Back then mine safety was important – but it wasn’t
mandatory in many cases…… and the curse of macho
stupidity still existed.
• We had tried a lot of culture change efforts – but they
had been largely useless. We had done some apparently
“tough” leadership – but this seemed to just reduce the
respect of the staff
• At the same time, it was becoming an absolute priority to
achieve zero LTIFR’s* in order to retain the right to
mine!* Long term injury frequency rate

3. Answering the WIIIFM question
• It was clear that we had not answered the WIIIFM
question for the staff – and we all knew that we needed
100% volunteers – not conscripts
• Otherwise how could we seriously shoot for the 0%
target - every day, every month, all year
• …………..and then we had an “ah ah” moment. Listening
to discussion in the site canteen, we heard a number of
the staff planning to go back to Perth to see the V8
racing cars
• Now no-one considered the drivers to be whimps for
wearing extensive safety gear + roll cages etc, etc

4. Peter Brock comes to dinner
• On the following Tuesday, there was a call for all hands
meeting at the end of the day shift – and then it all happened:
– A character walked in fully dressed in race suit and helmet, gloves
boots
– When he removed his helmet….there stood Peter Brock!
– Staff were either dumbstruck or cheered wildly
– Then Peter spent the next 30 minutes talking about safety – he
even showed off his fire-retarding tee’s sox etc.
– There were masses of questions including a lot that dealt with
safety
– Peter Brock’s closing call to action was for all hands to think and live
safety like a race team…………and always “do a Brockie” for safety
at all times
• All the safety measures dramatically improved and stayed that
way – and the “Doing a Brockie” became a core part of the
onboarding program

5. A Brockie!