LOTO Leadership Philosophies of India’s Great Workplaces – LOTO Interview Series

Napoleon Bonaparte had once expressed “A leader is a dealer of hopes”.

When developing and implementing an energy control system, one should not overlook or underestimate the importance of leadership. Often programs and systems flounder because of lack of this crucial ingredient. A company’s safety culture is driven by the executive leader that creates, cultivates and sustains a company’s journey to excellence. A safety culture starts with leadership; leadership drives culture, which in turn drives behaviour.

Safety leadership positively affects employees’ safety behaviour and attitudes, helps reduce injury rates, insurance premiums, and contributes to increased productivity. Operational and safety excellence go hand-in-hand. Since Lockout/Tagout is the number 1 most cited regulation in the manufacturing industry and number 5 most cited regulation of all industries, it only makes sense that a large proportion of workplace accidents could be prevented by a safety-oriented company culture.

Energy control systems need leadership because they are complex, ongoing processes and represent significant potential risk to the organisation. Studies suggest that companies that have a successful LOTO program have influential leaders who truly believe in safety and have it reflected in their body language, tone, words spoken and their daily actions.

There are several unsung heroes that lead the war against hazardous energies at work and seldomly get recognised or acknowledged for their work. Our Director, Dr. Nallini Gulati believes that reinforcing people’s optimism and enthusiasm for change is a multiplier of effort. E-Square Alliance is excited to bring to you its new initiative “LOTO Leadership Philosophies of India’s Great Workplaces” a series of interviews to support research, lead debate and inspire innovation as part of our work as a thought leader in Lockout Tagout.

This is a series of interviews conducted by Dr. Nalini Gulati with some of India’s best minds on Lockout Tagout. This is an initiative to recognise the efforts of significant achievers who have contributed positively towards the isolation of hazardous energy. Their efforts must be lauded and brought forward not only because they may be encouraged to strive higher but also because others may emulate them. Knowing that success breeds success, industrial workers and other health and safety practitioners can use the valuable insights from the interviews to develop knowledge, skills and abilities to fully participate in this movement against hazardous energies at work. Learnings from the interviews can be used as a tool for corrective actions to address problem issues and communicate progress to show the industries that the change effort is sincere.

Safety leadership is a process and not just a designation. Most people think leaders are born but it is an art that can be cultivated. Dr. Nallini’s life purpose is to build and help other leaders build safer, adhering and high-performance organisations. This initiative is a stepping stone towards achieving our goal of creating 1000 LOTO Success Stories in 2021 of companies who have achieved “Zero Accident Status” in energy isolation.

To discover how Indian leaders, drive their organizations to high performances, our research team interviewed senior executives and safety heads at various sites of the largest India-based companies. In conversations with leaders at Aditya Birla Group, Tata, Vedanta, JSW, Adani and many Automobile, Pharma and FMCG Companies, a picture emerged of a distinctive Indian model. Every industrialist that we interviewed suggested that their companies had succeeded not as individuals but as a team. They revealed that their competitive advantage lays deep inside their companies, in their people, and therefore their safety is a major concern. So, this is a series of Interviews with curious safety enthusiasts, EHS Professionals, and Industrialists. These Leaders, as a role model, lead by examples.

With this series, we invite you on a journey to find answers, with real time engagement, actual case points and compelling conversation. Join us and get involved to achieve the mission “MISSION 2021”, a unique LOTO Leadership Program with thought - provoking discussions, interviews and actions to set up for success in these challenging times to make this world safer, better and prosperous!