Pray for Japan

The disaster in Japan makes me sad. Devastation is overwhelming, and nuclear plants are struggling to maintain control. I read one is now emitting scary stuff into the atmosphere. Are we to have Chernobyl again?


Scenes of a refinery tank farm blowing were horrifying. I wonder how fast an entire refinery can be shut down? Does it seem possible or feasible to practice that drill? Emergency shutdowns and emergency startups are rehearsed, procedures are written and balloted for approval and publication. What happens in a real emergency? If the procedures aren’t engrained and people conditioned to react correctly, who knows what could happen! The Deepwater Horizon survivors gave us insight.

Today was day three of my quest to complete a proposal draft of Chapter 1. I must do more research on transformational and servant leadership before I begin to write. The most exciting part of the day is I found a lead on an instrument to measure willingness to report a safety issue. Now the big question is….can I get permission to use it? Authors will have to be contacted...somehow.  If you click pictures, they enlarge (FYI).

I took a photo of another page of notes about leadership.  I found an excellent article that compares and contrasts transformational and servant leadership. It’s EXACTLY what I needed to start off with.  The authors state very clearly the greatest difference between the two leadership styles:  with transformational leadership, the leader motivates followers to achieve goals of the organization.  In essence, the leader inspires followers to serve the organization by modeling the correct behavior.  With servant leadership, the leader serves the followers for the good of the organization.  His attitude is that of “let me help you be a better helper.”  The leader works (serves) to motivate followers to be more useful for the benefit of the organization. My objective is to determine if either of these can predict intent to report near miss incidents.  In many organization cultures, workers do not trust management enough to report near miss incidents.  In climate and culture surveys, both leadership styles (as perceived by followers) have high levels of two-way trust.  GOD, I hope I can find participants!!

It’s selfish of me to address God with the current disaster going on.

Does God wear a shirt that says God on it?