Anne Frank kept a diary when she was a teenager during World War II. Her father, Otto Frank, used her diary to co-author the book "Diary of a Young Girl." Its pages tell the story of the hardships the Frank family and their friends endured while hiding in the Netherlands during the Nazi occupation. The book is considered to be one of the top books of the 20th century, and it captivates the hearts of millions to this day. Although Anne Frank died a prisoner, along with her mother and sister, her words live on.
Anne Frank's diary demonstrates the imagination and ingenuity of the human spirit and mind. Her father said this: "There are no walls, no bolts, no locks that anyone can put on your mind." In my opinion, that statement holds as true today as it did in the 1940s. Had there been an artificial or realistic way to "bolt" or "lock" the human mind and thought process, humans would most likely still be living in caves gathering food from nature's landscape and living a purely instinctual life.
I recently got to observe the strength of instinct firsthand. We have a new puppy that is part golden labrador and part poodle. When we first introduced her to a small child's swimming pool, she instinctively jumped in and began putting her head under water, trying to catch debris below the surface. Friends asked, "Why does she do that?" I replied it was obviously in her DNA. It was amazing to watch this three-month-old pup jump in the water and put her head under. She was not limited by my training, fear or even her environment. It seemed nothing could hold her back!
Barriers
In industry today, there are all manner of walls and barriers that keep us from performing our best. When I was a rookie to the safety world, I had some innovative ideas on how to manage a safety department and program. For one thing, I could not understand why every injury claim, regardless of whether it was an OSHA recordable or a first aid, was being reported by contractors to insurance carriers. My predecessors and managers reported every minor case, and it was killing us on our modification rates. They told me, "That's why we have insurance -- let them pay our injury bills." I learned that minor injuries like scratches and debris in the eye could be handled by first aid responders and should be carefully assessed before being turned in to an insurance carrier as a claim. I also learned that a company's insurance modification rate could rise with multiple claims. Finally, after 20 years, the industry learned the lesson of injury case management. I'm not sure why it took that long. But I do know that some corporate financial gurus in charge of reporting claims to insurance carriers were holding project leaders hostage with their lack of knowledge about how insurance modification works. Today, only if an injury is more severe than a first aid case would medical treatment be sought or an insurance claim be filed. I discovered that management had a lock on my innovation.
Barricades
Barricades are vital in safety. They separate hazardous areas from safe areas. But barriers by management can be undesirable and act like chains that can bind progress and innovation. For example, one contractor insisted on giving safety incentives to workers for keeping injury rates low. As it turned out, injuries went unreported and workers didn't lose monetary rewards. When the projects were over, incentive dollars were shared and the prizes were given; then multiple injury claims began pouring in instead of them being reported during the project. The contractor-employer, thinking he had completed injury-free projects, was surprised at the increase of after-the-fact claims and higher insurance rates. High modification rates can prevent a contractor from getting projects. In this case, incentives became a mask hiding what was really going on during the projects.
Although Anne Frank did not survive the horrors of World War II, many who did survive went on to use their imaginations and innovative skills. Even the walls, bolts and locks of war could not keep them from achieving some of life's greatest successes.
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