What is it about the way I am that contributes to the problems around me: Part 1

As many of you know, I live in the mountains of Virginia.

Although our "Montebello" is beautiful in all seasons, and although it has taught my wife and I things we would never have learned while living in the city, there has been a definite "cost" of living in our remoteness.

One of these costs are power outages.  We're on the fringes of the public power system, and often loose power when high winds or heavy snows and ice take down the power lines.  We've had a portable generator ever since we've lived in the mountains, and have used it regularly when needed.   It's the kind you have to "pull" to start.

This last winter (2014/2015) was the worst we've seen.  We lost power often.  One time, when I was out of town on a two week business trip, it was -10 degrees Fahrenheit (that's NEGATIVE 10) and had been snowing off and on for days.  I was due to come home in 2 days, so my wife had already used all the firewood I had placed on our back deck to keep the house toasty-warm in my absence.  Because she had no more firewood, she braved the ice and snow and trudged down the hill to check the level of the propane tank.  It was at 20% -- the lowest permissible limit!

She called me, a bit upset!  I told her not to worry.  I called the propane company and scheduled delivery for the next day -- "as long as the delivery truck can make it into the driveway."

Suddenly, at about 10:00 PM, the power failed.  My wife knew she had to re-establish power quickly or the cold temperature would freeze the pipes, as well as herself.  She went outside to use the portable generator, but it would not start.  She pulled and pulled, and hurt herself.  No power, no phone, a snow and ice-covered driveway, no firewood, and seriously low on propane -- a potentially life-threatening combination of conditions for my wife.

Fortunately, the power came back in a few hours, and the propane was delivered the following morning and all was well -- but it shocked both my wife and myself into taking steps to assure this would never happen again.

First, we installed remote propane gauges so that we could read the propane levels from the house (rather than having to walk down a hill in ice and snow to check the levels).  Secondly, we installed a standby generator.

There!  It's fixed, right?  Wrong!  There's so much learning here it's almost hard to know where to stop.  For the purposes of this article, I'll focus on one main question:

"Why had we not done this sooner?"  (install a standby generator and the remote level indicators)?  

After all, I do consider myself to be somewhat of a "safety-minded person," and I most certainly love my wife and would do anything to protect her.  Therefore, after quite a bit of soul searching, the following are my conclusions about my attitudes that accounted for the circumstances that my wife encountered.  (note:  My wife most certainly had her own learning's as a result of this event.)

Attitude Prior to the Incident

• We have been successfully using that pull-start generator for 16 years. It's been invaluable!
• I test the pull-start generator before I leave on business trip and it always works fine.  All is well.
• I always make sure my wife has plenty of gas for the generator when I leave on a business trip.  I'm a good provider.
• I always bring enough wood to the deck to supply her needs for while I'm gone.

Attitude that would have Prevented the Incident

• Although we have been successfully using that pull-start generator for 16 years, both my wife and I have aged 16 years and both have a harder time pulling it.  Maybe it's time for a standby generator.
• Although I always test the pull-start generator before I leave on business trips, I have to admit that I've never tested it in severely cold weather.  I wonder what would happen if it would not start in those conditions when needed?
• Although I always make sure my wife has plenty of gas for the generator, I also should make sure the propane tanks are sufficiently full.  Those are the two things that are difficult for my wife.
• Although I bring enough wood to the deck to supply my wife's needs while I'm gone, what if I'm delayed -- or what if something extraordinary happens and she needs more?

What is it about the way I am that is exhibited in these attitudes?

To be honest, this was a difficult question to answer -- and I've found that my answers change as I think about this more and more.  This is an exercise in introspection -- an exercise  we ask everyone to go through when they are part of something that has gone wrong.  We encourage people to start their answers with the words "I tend to," and end with "and I know this is not good."

• I tend not to be aggressively proactive in considering that my wife and I are aging and might not be able to handle the things we once handled, and I now know this is not good.
• I tend to think that what we have experienced in the past is what we will experience in the future -- after all we've been around for a while and have seen a lot -- and do not think outside the box into the extremes often enough, and I know this is not good.
• I tend to rely of the predictions of experts (weather forecasters, in this case) and plan my life accordingly,without asking myself "what if the experts are wrong?" and I know this is not good.

I do not like these conclusions, because of what they imply:

• I have to face up to the fact that my wife and I are aging and cannot do some of the things we used to do!  
• I have to realize that I have NOT seen it all -- and that I have to force myself to be more cautious about the future.  
• I have to take responsibility for what happens to me, no matter what the "experts" might suggest.

And this is only Part 1!

About one year ago, my life changed forever...

Before I share the text of this blog, allow me to introduce "Monty Gillard."  Monty is one of Failsafe's Apprentices, rapidly on track to becoming a full-fledged Affiliate.  I hope you take time to read what Monty has to say.  It's more lengthy than our typical blog articles, but I think what he says will resonate within most of you.  Whatever you do, don't miss his final two paragraphs.

  Thanks for sharing this Monty!

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About one year ago, my life changed forever.  As a Contract Field Safety Advisor,  I accepted a new contract with a company who is a client of Failsafe Network, Inc.  I had no prior exposure to Failsafe or Latent Cause Analysis and attended "Day One" of a 3-Day Class with preconceived notions.

This is going to be just another Root Cause Analysis class, with yet another chart to consult in order to get the same results we've always been getting:   it was operator error, or the supervision was insufficient, or the system was flawed, etc. etc. etc.

But to my surprise, this was DIFFERENT.  This was what I always thought learning from things going wrong COULD be.  I realized I had been muzzled by these other, restrictive forms of RCA.

I had become disenfranchised with the Health and Safety Profession as a whole.  I chose this profession because I wanted to make a difference.  However, after being contracted to some of the world’s largest energy companies, I began to realize it is impossible to make a difference when using the investigative techniques used by most of the industry.  Without realizing it, I was contributing to the problem -- especially the blame game. 

It is understandable that when a safety advisor first approaches a work group, their defences will go up.  They do not know whose “side” you are on.   After all, how many times have I heard,

“What does it matter.  If anything goes wrong they are just going to blame me/us anyway."

Safety Advisors are viewed as part of the "management team," i.e.,  “us against them."

This defensive reaction from the groups I was working with offended me at first, and I would try to explain that I was neutral;  that I worked for everybody.  However, as my career progressed, I realized that I did NOT work for everyone!  Most project managers view field safety advisors as their “eyes in the field” and would request audits about the work being done in their areas from a safety perspective.  More often than not, the only concern we would find would be a lack of documentation, or perhaps a small improvement which could be made in safeguarding, or personal protective equipment, etc.  A corrective action item would be created by ME, the safety advisor, and forwarded to the project manager, who then would forward it to the work team.

What is really being accomplished through this process?  It became a circus in many respects.  The safety advisor is viewed as someone who is doling out more jobs for the workers, more paperwork to fill out, or more equipment to buy.  In other words, from the perspective of the people in the field the end result is troublesome.  This perspective does not help with morale in any way.  It is simply someone else coming into an area, looking at a problem,  and deciding what the fix is.  The people who really need to CHANGE - the workers, are not engaged!  

How can this work?

Even more, when an incident occurred, most organizations I was involved with used one of the two most popular Root Cause Analysis templates used in the North American industry.  I found these checklists to be mere crutches, helping people to manipulate the chart until it worked to get you the result you desired.   If the incident was deemed to be a specific worker’s fault, he/she was removed from site or fired.  Problem solved right?  

Every time I heard this happening, and I reiterate EVERY SINGLE TIME, I felt awful, sometimes even sick to my stomach, because I had often known this person and had talked with them.  To make matters worse, I have had Project Managers or Construction Superintendents ask me if “this person should be allowed on site."   The person made a mistake!  They did not do this maliciously or with intent!  This person had almost always co-operated in the investigation and they were always told that “we simply want to learn from this."  Once they were “skidded” from site, what does that do for the morale of the rest of the workforce?  Does this breed trust within an organization?  Or is it another safety document they must review and sign.  Do we really think the workforce is retaining all this information? 

As you can see, my belief in what I was doing was waning, and it was not really the result of any one particular contract.  Often times I would spend long days in camps or hotels and without job satisfaction.  It was difficult to remain focused on my role under such circumstances.

Which brings me all the way back to the beginning.  One week in February 2014 I was exposed to something that would change my professional and personal life forever; the Latent Cause Experience.  How to REALLY learn from things that go wrong in our lives.  I have been fortunate to use LCA in an industrial setting, but I have been more fortunate to also apply its concepts in my home life.  Examining how thing go wrong whether professionally or personally can ONLY be solved by looking at yourself as part of the problem.  There simply is no other way.  

Relationships with people closest to me have actually improved immensely since I learned that you can only learn from the things that go wrong in your life by looking at yourself as part of the problem.

As my personal life changed with LCA, so did my professional life.  The founder of Failsafe Network, Bob Nelms, has given me the opportunity to enter the apprenticeship program towards becoming a Failsafe Affiliate.  This will provide me the avenue to truly make a difference.  Every class offering I have attended or helped present has changed me a little more, not only because I understand the concepts of LCA better, but because of the interactions with the class and how I see myself changing in relating to all of the people in my life.  It has reinvigorated me and I am truly excited about the journey that lies ahead with Latent Cause Analysis. 

You Have to Feed the Beast

You have to feed the beast!

As I was eating dinner with a client a few months ago, I asked him to think about how we (Failsafe) could be of better service to our clients.  I encouraged him to take time to think about his answer and to be in touch with me at a later date.  But immediately, he said “I don’t need to think about it!  Bob, if you want to be of better service to your clients,

You have to feed the beast.”

Later, after thinking about it for a while, I got in touch with him again to probe his meaning, but he retracted the phrase and told me (more or less) that he merely meant that the results of any causal learning endeavor must be seen on the bottom-line -- and “as a business person, I would not say this is negative.”  

Please do not get me wrong.  I appreciate this person, and what he is saying.  

But why would he have initially used those words?  Did something in his subconscious suddenly emerge, revealing a true but unwanted feeling?  Do we all have “beasts” within our lives -- circumstances that always seem to threaten us that are easily placated but difficult to permanently resolve?  Are we more willing to merely keep the beast satisfied than to do whatever it takes to remove the beast (including “killing” it if necessary)?  Are we all prisoners, in effect, of these beasts -- who demand more and more, “or else?”  What are the “beasts” of our “business lives?”  Are we merely them by “feeding” them?  Would we be better off without them?  If so, what would be the meaning of “killing the beast?”  

So many questions.  What are your thoughts?  

Please reply on this blog so that everyone can share.

Are you Kidding Yourself

Are We Kidding Ourselves?

I have been privileged to have met many thought-provoking people while jaunting around the globe sharing “The Latent Cause Experience.”  One of these people is Scott Renton, a Canadian who currently works for Ledcor Contractors in Fort McKay, Alberta.  During one of our several discussions during the class, I suggested that he put his thoughts in writing.  He sent me the following article.

After you read this, please share your thoughts right here on the blog by writing a sentence or two

1) summarizing what you think Scott is saying, and then

2) stating whether or not you agree with him.

Here's Scott's article.  Thanks Scott!

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Growth. Human nature seems to thrive off of it. As long as we have existed we have been growing, developing, and expanding. Has there ever been a time where humanity has stayed still?

As humans, growth is what builds us to be the individuals that we ultimately become as adults.  But it can be difficult to measure.  In simplistic terms, it could be defined by results:  how big, how strong, and how much.  But what is often overlooked is the process in which results are achieved.  After all, who really cares why something costs less?

What matters is the savings.

With this pressure on us, how can we measure our growth as individuals?  If we are only measured by worth that can be seen and compared, then we think this is all that matters.  There is precious little room left for pondering ourselves -- who we are and why we are the way we are.  We need to keep up, and  “who cares how we do it so long as we can show results?”  To slow down and invest in developing our thoughts, our feelings, and our social maturity takes time that we are taught to think we don’t have.  After all,

What matters is ‘the savings.'

Examples of this can be found everywhere.  Advertisements tell us that we are falling behind simply if our computer or television is out of date.  Our neighbors and peers affirm this for us when celebrating our financial and material successes.

But has a person ever been praised for turning down a promotion because they felt they weren’t ready?  If we couple this with the assumption that if we get promoted at work or elevate our social status in life it demonstrates a complete readiness for the new role, then what do we create?  It could be easily argued that we create an immense pressure on ourselves to prove how far we have come and how much we have grown so that we can hold it up for the world to see far in advance of us getting there maturely as an individual.

In other words, to admit that we are smaller, slower, less intelligent than the world that we have built for ourselves is terrifying, and the world is still growing. The more we are pressured to ‘keep up’, the stronger the urge will be to project an air of confidence in lieu of stopping and asking the right questions when we don’t understand.

Who among us is willing to stop, when we could be left behind as a result? 

Who among us is willing to admit that we don’t understand, when we have projected for years that we had everything ‘under control?’  Another way of asking this, is:

Who among us is willing to trade who we appear to be for who we really are, when the cost could jeopardize our position in life?

In summary, it seems that we are creating an imbalance between our projected self and our own personal identities. We are willing to trade life experience for material profit, because so long as we believe that the only way to demonstrate our growth is by what we can hold up in front of us, our projected self will always be more important.

Scott Renton

 All Photos by: Chris Potter CC by 2.0

Let There be Light

Conceived in darkness, and then developed in a womb which was also dark, our birth must have brought an explosion of light into our consciousness.  Come to think of it, I suppose there was a point in my life when I had no consciousness whatsoever -- another form of darkness.

Light.  What is it?  Where does it come from?  Where does it go?  What does it “want?”

"Creative Commons Tehran Sunset"  by Hamed Saber is licensed under CC BY 2.0

I recently read a novel where one of the subjects, an eccentric philosopher, suggested something I’ll likely never forget.  He suggested that:

“Once light, always light.  No light ever goes wasted.  It always remains “light!”

He was talking about the light we receive from the sun.  All of life on earth depends on the light received by the sun.

Life absorbs light.  

What happens to that light when life dies?

We have a wood burning stove in our home.  According to the eccentric philosopher, when I put logs of oak into the stove and watch them burn, the flames I see are the same light that the oak tree once received from the sun.  I tend to believe this is true.

The brain is locked in total darkness.  It floats in a clear liquid inside the skull, never in the light. And yet the world it constructs in the mind is full of light. It brims with color and movement. So how does the brain, which lives without a spark of light, build for us a world full of light?  Consider a single piece glowing in your family’s stove.  That chunk of coal was once a green plant, a fern or reed that lived one million years ago, or maybe two million, or maybe one hundred million. Can you imagine one hundred million years? Every summer for the whole life of that plant, its leaves caught what light they could and transformed the sun’s energy into itself. Into bark, twigs, stems. Because plants eat light, in much the way we eat food. But then the plant died and fell, probably into water, and decayed into peat, and the peat was folded inside the earth for years upon years—Open your eyes, concludes the man, and see what you can with them before they close forever,

Doerr, Anthony (2014-05-06). All the Light We Cannot See: A Novel (pp. 48-49). Scribner. Kindle Edition.

What a marvelous existence we live in.  Wonders abound everywhere.  As I drive at night during this festive time of the year and see all the lights celebrating the season, I say to myself “hmmmm, now I know where all this light came from.”  As I write this blog article, my desk lamp is reminding me of the same thing.  When I turn on my smartphone and see the lit screen -- same thing.

I do not want this last blog post of the year to sound like an advertisement.  Actually, I never want anything we do at Failsafe to sound like an advertisement.  Then again, isn’t the sun itself an “advertisement?” Doesn’t the sun draw everything to itself?  Even the plants we have on our window sills follow the sun as it makes its journey across the sky as if the sun is saying

“Follow me, or you will die.”

Our response to the unexpected, unplanned pain in our lives is akin to a plant that has been suddenly shielded from the light.  The plant desperately seeks the source it needs, and so should we when we get in trouble.  That’s been our message since 1985, when Failsafe first went into business.  Things that go wrong are not what we think.  They are the only thing capable of prying us out of the ruts of our own objectives, desires, and goals to force us to look for the light.

So yes, LET THERE BE LIGHT!  It is my hope for myself, my loved ones, and all of humanity that we “open our eyes and see what we can with them before they close forever.”

Enjoy the Season!

Remembering Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving

Thursday, November 24th, 1960.
  

I was 13 years old.  My aunt, uncle and cousins were visiting for the Holiday.  Excitement was in the air.  The “male children” had to sleep in an unfinished and unheated attic to make room for adult guests.  We slept in army cots, with sleeping bags, and plotted practical jokes to play on my youngest cousin who just happened to be a girl.  What a blast!

It was morning, and the smell of bacon permeated the house.  My mother had the dining room table decorated to remind us that it was Thanksgiving Day.  My father was looking up the bus schedules to see when we could catch a ride into New York City to see the Macy’s Day Parade.

Later on in the day, after the Parade, we went to the Teaneck High School football game.  We always played our arch-rival, Hackensack, on Thanksgiving.

Then, of course, the feast!  Oh the fond memories.

I have so much to be thankful for.

I was blessed with a wonderful mother and father.  I have two great brothers.  I was exposed to the most influential elements of my life at a young age:  my Christian heritage; the Boy Scouts; and music (I played saxophone through my Junior and Senior High School years).  My parents supported me in almost every endeavor I undertook.   I felt loved.

As an adult, I continue to be blessed beyond all expectations.  I am married to a woman who led me to my Life, and who continues to do so every day.  I have been blessed with children and grandchildren who make me proud, and who continue to grow daily.  I am living in the place of my dreams -- in the mountains where nature can talk to me.  I have been blessed with a “calling” -- a “purpose in life” which I have realized few people have.

Don’t get me wrong, life has not been a bed of roses.  I have shared tragedies with my loved ones, suffer physical and emotional pain, and often wonder if I’m on the right track.  But I’ve realized that all these things have also helped me to become “who I need to be.”

Looking back, one of the most memorable Thanksgiving’s was a recent one -- one where all our children, spouses, and grandchildren came to our mountain home.  Yes it was hectic, but as we ate the Thanksgiving Feast that night, each of us expressed what we were most thankful for in the preceding year.  I remember tears -- my own and other’s -- tears of thanksgiving.

I hope this conjures up similar feelings in you.  I hope you have much to be thankful for.  I hope you have learned to be thankful even in the bad times.  

I’ll end this post by leaving you with a question to ponder.  I mean it.  Please spend some time dwelling on this question.  I have, and it’s helped me to see Life more clearly:

When you have that feeling of thankfulness that wells up within you, who do you feel like thanking?

I Want to Hurt Them Myself

A dialogue in a recent Latent Cause Experience seminar will have me thinking for a long time.  We were discussing two of the principles of Latent Cause Analysis:  

When something goes wrong, no-one is allowed to blame anyone.  Instead, all involved are required to look at themselves.

I had thought that this principle would encourage the ultimate in personal accountability.  Even the blamers ought to realize that they would get what they wanted -- the people that “did it” would be admitting their own roles.  I learned that this was not good enough for some people.

The second principle is known as the Golden Rule of a Latent Cause Analysis, which states:  We will try to understand why people did what they did to such an extent we’re convinced we’d have done the same thing if we were that person.  

I had thought that this principle would help people put themselves in another person’s shoes before they jumped to quickly into the blaming frame of mind.  I learned that this is also not good enough for some people.

One of the seminar attendees, a manager, objected to these principles saying that he wanted the option to punish someone if he thought it appropriate.  I countered his objection by asking:

If you thought you might have done the same thing if you were the person you wanted to punish, would you still want to punish him?

Yes!  Just because I’d have done the same thing doesn’t make it right!  I thought to myself, “well that’s not a bad point!”

Well then, how would you feel if the person you wanted to punish admitted his error, and even suggested his own “punishment?”

That’s not good enough.  I want to be the one that imposes the punishment.

The discussion digressed into a fictional scenario.  Another seminar attendee said:  Let’s suppose someone did not follow a procedure, and because he omitted a few steps something awful happened and a person actually died.  Let’s also suppose the “culprit” admitted his role.  Even more, let’s suppose the person quit his job, and even walked into a jailhouse and locked himself behind bars for 30 years.  Would this be good enough?

The manager said “no, that’s not good enough.”  I would want to be the one that hurts him for what he did.

I’m not too sure I know what to make of this, but my “gut” doesn’t like it.

What do you think?  What does this say about the human condition?  Are we all like this?  If not, how many are like this?  Even more, what does it say about the hopes of learning from things that go wrong?  So many questions.

Please share your thoughts below!

Into the Wilderness

It is beyond my comprehension how anyone in this field of root cause analysis cannot wonder about the most fundamental questions of life.  We all know that the incidents we investigate have causes, that is, there are reasons why things go wrong.  In other words, none of us have ever investigated anything without coming to the conclusion that the things that go wrong in our lives happen for a reason. 

Recently, my personal thoughts have taken me to the subject of “the wilderness.”  I suppose that all of life is a step into the wilderness.  We either make large, intentional steps into the unknown by embarking on huge new ventures, or we simply get out of bed in the morning for another new day. 

 Whatever our present circumstances in life, we’re all the same when it comes to our journeys.  Whether we like it or not, we’re all stepping into the unknown.

Imagine, for a moment, that you are literally in a wilderness setting.  Let’s say you have slept in a tent, and have gotten up in the morning to embark on a 5 mile hike to a glacier in Alaska.  You are with a friend, because it’s dangerous to go into the wilderness on your own.  You have firearms, in case you encounter dangerous wildlife but you are out of range of any cell phone towers.

Although the above scenario is a specific one, all of life is like this in one form or another.  The “tent” is our beds that we sleep in overnight.  The 5 mile hike is our plan for the day.  The friend is “the people around us,” and the “firearms” are whatever we have chosen to take along with us to keep us safe.

But what would you make of it if you were were hiking to the glacier and you suddenly felt a severe pain in your chest, or if you turned your ankle on a rock, or if a boulder suddenly came rolling down a hill and destroyed all of your gear?

What do you make of it when you set out on your journey and significant things go wrong along the way?  Do you say to yourself “I probably should not have gone on this journey in the first place,” or “I was not sufficiently prepared -- I’ll be more prepared next time?”  

Or is something much more profound going on when we encounter unexpected, unplanned pain along our life’s journey’s?

As for myself, I have concluded that there is something much more profound going on -- and I think I’ve discovered what it is.  And yet, I have learned not to share my personal conclusions with too many people.  My understandings are mine.  Your understandings are yours.  I cannot force my understandings on you, nor would I want to.  In this respect, those of you who have taken the 4-day Latent Cause Experience class know my position on these things:  the people who have experienced pain while embarking on their wilderness journeys need to come to their own conclusions.

But I would like to share the following quote byMalcolm Muggeridge (1903-1990).  When I first read it, I dismissed it as lunacy.  But the older I get, the more wisdom I see in it.  Think about it.  Dwell in it.  It might help you change the way you see things.

Looking back on life, it’s one of the things that strike you most forcibly – that the only thing that’s taught one anything is suffering, pain and failure.  Not success, not happiness, not anything like that.  The only thing that really teaches what life is about – the joy of understanding, the joy of coming in contact with what life really signifies – is suffering, affliction.

The unexpected pain that comes along in all of our lives seems to eventually drive us away from the world around us and deeper into ourselves, into an either conscious or subconscious quest that looks for answers nowhere else to be found.  Isn’t that, in itself fascinating?  Not to be morbid, but I wonder what was going on in the minds (or souls) of my mother or father as they laid on their death beds?  Never having been there, I don’t know.  But I have experienced debilitating setbacks in my life, both physical and emotional, and I know where my mind went.

Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding.  (Kahlil Gibran)

As we walk along the wilderness journeys of our lives, we will experience unexpected and unplanned pain.  Pain is the only phenomena of life capable of getting our attention when we are too wrapped up in our own self-created agendas.  When it comes, it is trying to tell us something profound.  

Those of us dealing with Latent Cause or Root Cause Analysis are dealing with one of the most potentially impactful exercises of life.  

Don’t squander it!

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Learn More About Latent Cause Analysis

If you are keen to step out of the wilderness, we have built a checklist for you.  The following path has been developed to help individuals like you to get up to speed in becoming a champion, a fighter and a game changer.

• Join Failsafe Network's mailing list that's on the footer of our website
• Listen to an introductory, free 15-minute webcast on What is Root Cause Analysis
• Perform a mini-latent cause analysis on any real home or work problem
• Download our eBook for an inspiring read
• Attend The Latent Cause Experience Training as a guest

Begin Your Mission

Are you Clean or Dirty?

Are You Clean or Dirty?

I have recently been exposed to the concepts of “Just Culture” and “Clean Language.”  These two differing concepts have one thing in common.  They are both apparently nested within Failsafe’s Latent Cause Analysis process, and I didn’t even know it!

The way I had become exposed to these concepts were through people that had attended The Latent Cause Experience.  Two Anchorage, AK attendees approached me during a break saying:  “Do you know you’re embracing Just Culture?”  Two Houston, TX attendees did the same thing, this time asking:  “Do you know you are using Clean Language techniques?”  I’ll discuss more about “Clean Language” in this blog, and then “Just Culture” in a future blog.

One of the two Houston attendees was a woman named Sharon Small.  I had met Sharon a few months earlier at a Nuclear Power conference and invited her to The Latent Cause Experience.  Sharon has embraced concept of “Clean Language,” a concept pioneered by the late David Grove, and is developing a business around it.  

As Sharon went through the class, she became more and more convinced that Failsafe’s “Latent Cause Analysis” is “clean” -- very clean. I am greatly indebted to Sharon for taking the time to make some notes about the similarities between Clean Language and LCA.  I have shared many of Sharon’s comments in the following paragraphs.  As you read them, please ask yourself “do we have a clean or dirty investigative process?”  Even more, you might ask yourself “am I a clean or dirty person?”  

Sharon’s comments:

LCA is trying to be “clean” when you ask the questions “what is it about the way we are” and “what is it about the way I am ..” without telling them the answer.  LCA suggests that the group looks at themselves and makes a determination from the evidence and self knowledge.  LCA lets the stakeholders come to their own conclusions. 

Do you try to shove your own opinions down people’s throats, or do you try to help them come to their own evidence-based conclusions?

Your standard interview questions are “clean,” which is an attempt to ask questions of another human being with the intention to neither contaminate or distort their answers - open and non-leading.  A clean “purpose” is an intervention that does not contaminate the other persons experience through our own suggestions or interpretations.  This can be harder to do than people think.  

When you question people, do you try to get them to tell you what you want to hear, or are you more interested in what they have to tell you, even if you don’t like what they are saying?

Your LCA approach is “non-directive,” which is totally aligned with the “clean” concept.  That is, the facilitator issues no instructions at the level of content.  This is related to not using a pre-determined theory or list when going into an analysis, or, as you say “letting the evidence guide you wherever it wants!”  

Do you find yourself wondering “is it this, or this, or this” instead of simply allowing the evidence to take you anywhere it wants?

Your approach is also “non-suggestive” in that the facilitator makes no recommendation or content advice.  This is related to your sharing the evidence and letting the stakeholders self identify (take ownership) and decide on their own corrective actions.  Your approach is also “non-intrusive,” in that the facilitator does not dispute or challenge what the other person might say - this is related to your interview process and allowing the person to simply tell what they know and think. It also pertains to letting the stakeholders be their own expert on their “system” (business, group, needs) and make their own determinations.  

Are you willing to let another human being come to their own conclusions, even if you think they are wrong (they might NOT be wrong), or are you going to try to force them to think the same way you think?

Clean models are language-based in that the facilitator does not supply a reinterpretation of what is said.  Clean models use the persons (or groups) own words and descriptions.  Using exact terminology from the client vs paraphrasing is important. Words are used for a reason and each change will make a difference in understanding.  You stress this in your comments about representing people, especially in your comments about “key quotes,” where you say “use their exact words when representing them.”  Your use of flip charts is also “clean.”  You record everything on flip charts for all the stakeholders to see.  This is so important.  

Do you find yourself re-wording, or paraphrasing almost everything people say, or do you consciously try to use their words -- and even try to understand why they used the words they used?

The “clean concept” recognizes that people (or groups of people) are self organizing systems.  Behavior is, therefore, understandable.  Your Golden Rule of LCA stresses that we need to understand so so deeply, that it is hard to imagine doing anything differently than the person or process in question.  

Do you care why people do what they do, or are you more interested in blame?

The “clean concept” constitutes a radical change to our traditional and frequently manipulative habits.  Most other methods of cause analysis have a convincing element to do with their perceptions and determinations vs the people sorting it out for themselves.  “Clean” suggests that a “less is more” approach is better, but people have such a hard time with this.  I see this in therapists and coaches - it is very difficult for them to reduce what they are doing.  They always think that a new tool, trick or technique is just what’s needed and in a way deferring attention away from the clients own internal resources and capabilities. It is a subtle distinction that is difficult for many people to really understand until they have had the experience of it.  

Do you tend to look for the newest techniques, gimmicks, and fads to help you with your problems instead of realizing that "less is more?"  If so, you might want to look back at what you have done and ask yourself “have I made things worse instead of better with all this stuff?”

I have a feeling that I will be working with Sharon in the future.  I sense she has a lot to offer.  If you are interested in learning more about “Clean Language,” or in contacting Sharon Small, please click on the links.

Thank you, Sharon, for sharing your thoughts.