Published on Jan 14, 2025
It’s not unknown for management development courses to use nautical metaphors such as “charting a course for your company” and “steering the organisation through stormy waters”, but, for some reason, they never mention the need to be aware of icebergs.
And that’s strange, isn’t it? After all, it was an iceberg that sank the RMS Titanic, a brand-new ocean liner which had been vaunted as being “virtually unsinkable”!
So, let’s begin by clarifying what we mean by the term “iceberg” from a business management point of view. For our purposes, an iceberg is a problem which seems small and insignificant when it’s far away in the distance, but which actually has the potential to cause the company a great deal of damage if you run into it.
To illustrate this point, think about your company’s fire drills. No doubt you follow Government guidance by having at least one fire drill every year, but do you record – and then retain – the details of the drill as part of your fire safety and evacuation plan? The guidance says you should.
And what about the way the drill is carried out? Do you forewarn people that the drill will be taking place? Do you tolerate people, especially senior managers, ignoring the alarm because “it’s a drill and I’m too busy”? Do your drills always follow the same, predictable, format?
Think back to the last drill and how the people exited the building. In all probability, some 95% of the people (if not everybody) strolled out the way they came in, via the main door. No sense of urgency because “it’s just a drill”.
But what would have happened if, as the alarm sounded, you’d placed a barrier across the front door proclaiming that the exit was blocked because of fire? How much confusion would have been generated? What would that have done to the evacuation time? If the fire had been real, then how many people would actually have got out of the building alive?
Put bluntly, the question you need to address is this: do your drills in their current format have any practical benefit at all, or are they just a bureaucratic, tick the box, exercise? If the latter then, unfortunately, your current drills are so unrealistic they are both a waste of time and potentially dangerous. They represent the tip of an iceberg – a disaster waiting to happen.
Of course, these are worrying thoughts – but that’s icebergs for you!
The IPI webinar on how to identify and manage such icebergs, An Introduction to Health & Safety for Managers, is presented by Andy Farrall, a chartered safety management consultant who previously spent twelve years in operational roles with the NHS ambulance service – so he speaks both with professional authority and from the viewpoint of practical emergency response experience.
Join Andy for this half-day course, running on various dates throughout the year, and you’ll find it’s worth its weight in gold if it helps you avoid safety icebergs and stay afloat.
Published on Jan 14, 2025 by Andy Farrell