Managing driving standards     An introduction to managing driving standards

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				Start by asking questions
					If you wish to better manage, or review, the way people in your organisation drive and the risks they are exposed to, start by asking questions. Strongly resist the temptation to 'do things'. People often have a simple view of driving. Simple views may lead to poorly informed action. Driving is an activity that many people undertake. It is generally a safe activity - crashes, at a personal level, are rare events. Road safety messages suggest good driving requires much skill and concentration. Not surprisingly, most drivers, after they have survived several years of this activity, believe they are good at it...better than average even.
					Managers who believe they are good drivers may be incapable of objectively observing and judging their own driving behaviour. In turn, this may influence how they act to change others' driving. For example, they may grossly underestimate the energy that is required to induce personnel to drive appropriately. In a business context, appropriate driving is far more than just legal driving or safe driving. There is a difference between the two.
					Appropriate driving always complements the organisation's mission. It necessitates understanding and balancing protection with production. The organisation must be able to produce and deliver its product or service while sustaining appropriate levels of safety. For the moment, let us assume that your organisation has put much effort into documenting appropriate driving behaviour. What you must not assume is that personnel will now miraculously drive appropriately. Note, a documented standard for driving will have zero effect on how personnel drive the organisation's vehicles or on the risks they are exposed to. Standards do not change people's driving; training does not change people's behaviour; and nor does information. People adjust their driving behaviour only after two conditions are met: They have acquired a new or different understanding of how the world works. They have made permanent the thoughts and feelings that move them to behave appropriately. When you manage personnel who drive, you must manage their exposure to risk and their workplace experiences. Life in the organisation must first help people understand what appropriate driving is. Then it must help make permanent and sustain the thoughts and feelings that move people to behave appropriately. Above all, intelligent management recognises that driver behaviour is very much a consequence of management practices. If you doubt the role managers have in shaping driver behaviour try the exercise on the resource Who is responsible? [Contact us for this resource.] In safety management, attempted solutions may prove to be counter-productive and the correct response may seem counter-intuitive. Actions need to be well informed. Before you act ask yourself: Why is this action that I intend to take necessary? Why aren't our current systems or work practices achieving the desired outcomes? In what ways do my perceptions of the driving task and of my driving ability influence my approach to managing driver behaviour? In what ways does my approach to managing driver behaviour differ from the way I manage the most 'serious' of business issues? In what ways can I demonstrate that the energy I have, or am putting into managing driver behaviour will actually influence behaviour and influence it appropriately? More questions specific to safety solutions are on Critique your solution. [Contact us for this resource.] You will be managing your driver behaviour and personnel's exposure to risk, when you start to ask the types of questions listed above. Until then, you will simply be 'doing things'.
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