LEADING SAFETY

(Leading Change)
Presented By:

Craig Damos, CEO & President

THE WEITZ COMPANY
Des Moines, Iowa

Elevating Safety Performance

Shared Learning
Beyond Safety Programs, Tools and
Checklists
Change Our Thinking; Change Our
Culture
Leaders Need to Lead

Overview of
The Weitz Company
General Contractor
153 Years Old
16 Locations Florida to Guam
3,200 Employees Hourly & Salary
2008 (est.) Volume $1.6 billion
Employee Owned 365 Shareholders

Safety Pride & Performance

In March 2005, The Weitz Company
Won the Following Safety Awards:
National AGC Safety Award
(>1 million hrs.); and
National AGC Grand Award all GCs

Safety Performance - Stats

Year

Hours

TRIR

LTIR

DART

$ / HR

2004

2,985,805

4.8

1.5

3.5

$0.31

2005

3,741,532

4.8

0.6

3.1

$0.28

2006

4,291,553

3.6

0.5

2.2

$0.10

2007

4,841,363

3.3

0.3

1.8

$0.18

2008

5,653,205

3.3

0.4

1.8

$0.15

2008 calculations are current through August 31, 2008.

2008 calculations are current through August 31,2008.

2008 calculations are current through August 31,2008.

Irony Beyond Awards

and Statistics
Weitz Jobsite-Related Fatalities:

12/04 electrical sub - electrocution

06/05 employee - trench collapse
09/05 plumbing sub - head injury
02/06 electrical sub - electrocution
08/06 flooring sub - electrocution
11/06 electrical sub - electrocution
08/07 steel erection sub - fall

The Weitz Company CEO

Roles and Responsibilities
Roles

Visionary
Strategic Thinker
Change Agent
Cheerleader

Responsibilities
Build Our People
Build The Business

CEO Safety
Roles and Responsibilities
Roles

Safety Visionary
Strategic Thinker
Safety Change Agent
Safety Cheerleader

Responsibilities

Safety Leader
Coalition Builder
Leaders from all levels of the Company
engage field and management

Getting a Pulse
on the Organization
June 2006 September 2007
Walked 80+ jobsites.
Key questions:
Do we have the programs and tools to
keep people on our jobsites safe?
How can we improve our safety
performance?

Getting a Pulse (cont.)

What I Heard, Observed and Learned:
We are good at safety not great.
Subcontractor performance is a key issue.
We need to elevate safety awareness.
Collaboration with and buy-in by the field
is critical.

Paradigms
Safety Less Important than Profit
and Schedule
Low-Bid Sub Is Low-Cost Sub
Subcontractor Safety Performance
no control; not our employee

Accountability Is a Stick
Safetys an Additional Cost

Dilemma
Unanimous - All the Tools and Programs;
Safety Statistics Are Sound;
We Were Good, but not Great; and
Serious Incidents Still Occurring on Our
Jobsites.

Now What????

Elevating Safety Performance

Weitz Senior Leadership Time to Step
Up!
Recognize the Need to Change.
Break the Paradigms.
Focus on Culture.

Weitz Senior Management

Safety Boot Camps
September 2006 All Hands Huddle
80 Members of Our Senior Management
Program Content and Goal:

Create a commitment to change

Change Management
Business Case for Change
Why the Need to Change?
Reviewed each jobsite death in detail
Reviewed the human impact and
aspects

Unanimous Agreement that a Strong

Case Was Established to Change.

Change Management
Safety Vision
Safety Vision
Serious incidents and deaths are
eliminated from our jobsites.
Comfortable with a family member
working on any Weitz project.

Change Management
Safety Strategies
Elevate Project Site High Hazard
Awareness
Beyond hard hats and safety glasses
Elevate pre-construction safety planning.
Get subs involved early!!
Elevate daily/weekly construction site
planning.

Change Management
Safety Strategies
Enhance Project Site Supervision
Project site is our responsibility.
Supervisory staff are properly trained.
Project engineers get out of the trailer.
Safety becomes everyones
responsibility.

Change Management
Safety Strategies
Begin to Humanize Safety Play to
Our Strengths
We care
TWC family
The need to keep each other safe

Change
Management

Safety
Strategies

22

Change
Management

Safety
Strategies

23

Change Management
Safety Strategies
Elevate Subcontractor Safety
Performance
Better subcontractor selection
Set safety expectations up front

Lean Construction Continuous

Improvement
Last Planner eliminate schedule
chaos!

Change Management
Safety Strategies
Subcontractor Buy-In/Involvement
CEO and Corporate Safety Director
meeting with subs
Embrace subs expertise; make sub part
of the solution.
Become egoless.
Electrical we have much to learn!
Get subs involved early.
Lead by example.

Change Management
Process Accountability
Sr. Leadership Safety Committee
Key decisions:

Serious safety violations (3)

Project site supervision

Sub safety prequalification process

Safe driving guidelines

Cell phone/text messaging while driving

Post-offer pre-employment screens

All self-perform work (union and non-union)

Change Management
Process Accountability
Near Miss, Recordable, Lost Time
Reviews
How it happened

CEO Follow-Up Lost Time Incidents

Change Management
Process Accountability
Business Unit Safety Committee
Opportunity leverage field leadership
Provide solutions/lead change
Determines disciplinary action

Change Management
Process Accountability
Safety Recognition
BUs > 1 million hrs. w/o lost time (4 of 10)
Safety Recognition Award
Role Profile safety performance/
evaluation

Weitz Leadership
Development Program
Goal: Build Quality Leaders; Build the
Bench

Logistics

Focus To Expand:
Leadership capabilities
Change management
Financial and risk acumen

Post-Program Development Ongoing

Enough?
If we stopped here would it be enough
to get us to our Vision?
Tactical not enough to imbed
into the culture.

Quality Another
Arrow in the Quiver
Goal: Create a culture of excellence
A Standard of High Performance
Strategic initiatives
Supported by processes, systems and
talented builders
Dedicated resources committed to
Quality and Excellence

Overlap with Safety a Leap?

Commonality
Quality and Safety
A quality project is typically a safe project!!

Similar Attributes (Quality and Safety)

Vision
Commitment (to high performance)
Sound leadership
Team play
Effective communication
Sound planning (throughout the project)
Engaged employees (right attitude)
Properly trained staff
Supporting process and systems

Connect the Dots

Quality and Safety
A culture that creates a high performance
standard for quality . . .
Will have a direct and significant positive
impact on safety!!

Weitz Commitment
Placing Our Bet
To eliminate serious incidents and
deaths (long-term):
Quality Leadership
Leading Change
Ultimately Imbedding a Culture of
Excellence

Vision The End Game

Elimination of Serious Incidents and
Deaths
It will be an arduous journey . . . .
The Weitz Company will get there.
We will do whatever it takes!