Everything

I lingered too long on Facebook today. DANG! I need to be getting this dissertation act together and I’m screwing around too much! I haven’t started writing and there’s no reason not to be writing. The rich content of FB sucks me right in. I look at pictures – love seeing them. People I don’t or do know – stories and eavesdropping on conversations…crazy stuff. I love it.

Today I researched more on near miss incident theory, high performance organizations, leadership influence on trust, and trust’s influence on near miss reporting.   I learned there is another organizational citizenship behavior theory, or I should say a similar one.  Reviewing notes will be necessary to recover Dutiful notes of references for more extensive reading – a page full.

I realize tonight for, the sake of improved performance, I need to stop researching and start reviewing and outlining. Tomorrow, I’ll review what I’ve done up to now with the prior topic – How does implementing a new safety management system influence perceived safety climate and actual safety performance. Some of the theoretical framework applies to my new topic – evolving - how does leadership style influence near miss reporting and does anonymous reporting mediate intent to report. I like it!!!

I was privileged to sit in on a meeting of the refining safety managers last week. I met in person these men and one woman, and I got to listen to them talk about their struggles to keep people safe while they work. They spoke acronyms, and my wheels were turning the whole time they talked. My research gives me insight into this world, but I can’t pretend to really understand it. This is where the rubber meets the road – for real!

Now, let me tell you what happened in that meeting! The top in hierarchy personal-safety manager walked up to me in the break, apologized, and said “I’m putting you in the spot.” He wanted me to talk about the near miss management project he put me on. My heart leaped! I had nothing prepared but this was an opportunity! Quickly, I pulled out a pad and started jotting notes-to-self to guide me through a brief presentation. I did my spiel, a few questions, and that was that – WHEW! I remember thinking something Erin told me once…”I was so excited I thought I would vomit!” That’s exactly how I felt.

Erin made that comment when she learned she would be writing the final action plan for the future problem solving team in the regional Governor’s Cup Academic Competition. She’s a freshman on the team – the varsity team is four people – a freshman wrote the part that is 40% of total score - and they won!!!   I’m so proud I could explode! – That’s my kid!  I'm proud of all of them!!!  These two are still at home.