Episode 196: Cultural Building Blocks Part 2

In this episode of the Leading & Learning Through Safety Podcast, Dr. Mark French continues his exploration of how organizational culture is built through both action and inaction. Drawing from research published in the Consulting Psychology Journal (APA, Sept. 2025), he highlights that while values are abstract, culture becomes real through observable practices—what people actually do every day.

Mark explains that every organization operates within three behavioral zones: actions that align with values, actions that work against them, and inaction, where leaders or teams choose to do nothing at all. He connects this framework to safety leadership, showing how emotional intelligence is cultivated not through lofty ideals, but through small, consistent behaviors—like making safety the easiest and most natural choice.

Using his own story about misplaced PPE and the challenge of convenience, Mark illustrates how organizations must remove friction from doing the right thing. The easier it is to act safely and ethically, the more those abstract values become tangible culture. Ultimately, emotionally intelligent organizations are built one decision at a time—rewarding the right actions, correcting the wrong ones, and never ignoring opportunities to reinforce what truly matters.

Transcript

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Announcer This week on the leading and learning through safety podcast, we're continuing the discussion from last time about culture, about action and inaction and how it all builds together to show values and to build culture. This week, right here on the podcast, you Mark, welcome to the leading and learning through safety podcast. Your host is Dr Mark French, Mark's passion is helping organizations motivate their teams. This podcast is focused on bringing out the best in leadership through creating strong values, learning opportunities, teamwork and safety. Nothing is more important than protecting your people. Safety creates an environment for empathy, innovation and empowerment. Together, we'll discover meaning and purpose through shaping our safety culture. Thanks for joining us this episode and now here is Dr Mark French. You Matt, hello and welcome to this episode of the leading and learning through safety podcast. So happy you've joined me. Always my honor to be part of your podcast rotation this week. I'm continuing the discussion from our last chat, because I felt like I had to rush out of it there. I felt like I got to my point and wanted to move on and needed some more time. And it's because it's about something really, really important, and that's culture, the culture of our teams, the culture of our organization, the values that we bring in to an organization, how all those fit together, how all those create what we're looking for in that in that feeling of what is that intangible thing called an organization? So it all began with, actually, the research that went into an article. And this was from the September 2025, consulting psychology journal from the APA. And it was an article called emotionally intelligent behavior at work, which is really impressive, because it talks about, what does it have to be to have an emotionally intelligent environment, like not just having one or two people, but having a full group of people really understand emotional intelligence and how it plays a part in what we do every day in the organization. And one of the sections is an EI supportive organizational culture. That's one of the subsections in their research. And it was research based to set the stage for the work they were doing. And in the research there was the first paragraph is three different journal articles that they did research for that really struck me as insightful and truthful, and it started the conversation last time about a whole bunch of things. Just as a side note, it's always interesting when I go back and listen to my own podcasts, as in my rotation, it shows up, and I listen to it, and I go, Okay, I see the point I was trying to make. But did I make it? Did I get there? I don't know. Sometimes I just talk around it. So I wanted to come back to this topic in particular, so that we could dive just a little bit deeper and let me read the research, and I'll read it verbatim, because it's easier than me paraphrasing, and it's basically starts with organizational culture is composed of relatively abstract values in observable practices. So our culture, the culture of our organization, we write our values on paper. They're abstract because they're intangible at that point, but they become tangible through watching how people behave, and it's either through good action, poor action, or inaction. So those are the three big categories I want to talk about as we go further into this. Is that you can have action that supports the values, action that actually goes against the values, and then you have inaction, where you do nothing that supports or detracts from the values. Those are the observable practices of an organization. Values are primary beliefs. Building blocks of culture. So without these observable practices, these tangible, observable practices, these are the building blocks of your culture. So do you build a house on the intangible, or do you build a house on the tangible? Easy question, it's the tangible. So our organization is not built on the paper that says our values, that is the guiding principle that we hope to live up to in a functional ei conscience company. Then we have the tangible, the observable practices. Those are the actual things that are building your culture. And again, these blocks are either going to be for, against or absent, and that's how you're building that organization. The next one, they are the principles that define an organization and serve as guides about what behavioral, behavior is desirable and acceptable practice, on the other hand, are tangible, visible actions and procedures that pose demands and provide resources for individual behavior. I've always thought of safety practices and human practices the same way we think of Lean principles. The easiest path will be the one people will take. If you make it easier to do the right thing than the wrong thing, people will do the right thing, naturally, it will be easier to move that direction and that. What resources have we put into place to make the good actions, the ones that are the easiest to get to? I especially think of this in the safety world, of how we want safety to be the direction people go, and we have to make it easier. I hear so many times that safety practices, well, it takes longer, it's harder to do. It's uncomfortable. Some of it is sometimes there's no getting around the fact that some donning all the PPE is not as much. Is not fun, putting the time and effort into prepping and getting things ready. It does it does take time. How do we make it easier? How do we find ways to make it better, for people to engage it easier for people to use it, and easier for it to simply be in place. And I'll use my home as the perfect example, and I'm going to tell a story on myself, and this is going to, yeah, you know, I'm human too. It's not terrible, but it shows that we are human. And with any work I do outside, I try to wear PPE. I try to wear safety glasses almost all the time when I'm because if I'm wearing sunglasses outside while I'm working around here, piddling around the farm, might as well be safety glasses, because I'm wearing sunglasses anyway, I always try to have a pair of ear plugs in my pocket, just in case I decide to do something crazy with machinery, always have a pair of gloves with me so that I can, you know, grab or grasp or not risk my hands. And so what happens when I misplace something, or a family member chooses to borrow, and I'll do I'm doing air quotes, borrow some of my PPE because it never returns. I even have, like a little bin in one of those, like almost cubicle looking shelves, where it's a pull out bin and it has PPE in it. I have extra PPE there. It no surprise. It gets rated occasionally and things just disappear. My gloves are probably the worst of just, I don't know where they go sometimes. And so what does that lead me to do, if I if I spend more than 30 seconds looking for my gloves and I can't find them, what do I do? Oh, yeah, I'm going out there and thinking about spending time actually thinking about, how can I grab a hold of that. Or how can I do that without hurting my hands? Because I can't find my gloves, and most of the time what happens minor things, usually, but that's usually how it begins. Little cuts, nicks, scrapes. I'll grab a thorn bush on accident when I'm trying to pull something out and or I'll hit my finger there was goodness, I remember I should have been wearing some impact like rubber impact style gloves. My hand just kept slipping and I forgot what it was. I just kept banging my pinky finger. But you know, I didn't really learn my lesson until I did it like three times. And why is that? Because the PPE the observable practice. It wasn't you. Easier for me to find it than it was just to go do it. So how do I make it easier and hopefully keep people from borrowing it? But in the workplace, it's the same thing. How do we make it so much easier to do the right thing than it is not to how do we help set up that visible, observable practice when it comes to living in the value, and I'm gonna make the value very tangible and simple and even legal, that people are working safe, that they're following the safety protocols. So let's start with just that idea of building into action, inaction, wrong action on the second half of the leading and learning through safety podcast. You are listening to the leading and learning through safety podcast with Dr Mark French dsda Consulting. Learn you lead others. The Myers Briggs Type Indicator is an amazing tool. Problem is that it can be easily misinterpreted. Dr Mark French is MBTI certified and ready to help you discover your inner strengths. The MBTI assessment can help with team building, stress management, communication, conflict management, and so much more individual and group sessions are available to help you discover what makes you great. For more information, visit us on the web at tsda consulting.com Welcome back to the second half of the leading and learning through safety podcast, continuing that discussion on organizational culture and abstract and observable values, and I'm simply bringing it into, I think last time I got way too abstract and wanting to encompass everything rather than focusing on what is the core of what I'm always trying to show is that good safety leadership is leadership across the board. You do it with safety, it automatically just spreads wings and flies. So when we look at the values as the primary building blocks, the paper, like the policy, the safety policies are just abstract words. What makes them real is the practices. Are people doing, or is your team doing what is written? And again, there are the right actions that follow the policy. There are the actions that go directly against the policy. And then there's the inaction. And the inaction, when I talk about that is generally from like a manager or a supervisor who sees either the right or wrong action and chooses to do nothing about either. So the action to either reward the good address the bad. And I must use the word punish, even though I don't like that word, but it makes sense in this context. You reward the good, you punish the bad, or you just do nothing, all of those, all of those decisions. And think about all those decisions, how many times those come up during a day or even a single task or a piece of the work day? How many opportunities we have to either create the observable practice or not, and these procedures pose demand, and we provide resources. So how do we provide what resources are we giving to our team to be able to one for our team members, our frontline people, to be able to follow the policy, in my case, from earlier is PPE readily available? Is there a place that people know they can go to, there will be PPE there, and they can get it just without fail, it will happen. I have a kind of a love hate relationship with PPE vending machines, but the one thing I love about them the most is that when they work well, they never run out. So people know that if you go to that machine, you will be able to get you a new pair of glasses, a pair of gloves or whatever you need, because it will be there ready for you every time. I like that. I like the visibility of knowing that you badge punch in your whatever it takes you get what you need, and it's always there, always ready. I wish I had one at home where, when my things disappear, I could just go get more. Because living in where I live in rural West Kentucky, to go buy another pair of gloves is a 30 minute drive one way if I don't have an extra pair, or even with two day delivery from some other places like it's still a couple of days if I need gloves, I need them now, because I'm outside the weather's right. I want to do work now, and if I'm not prepared for it, then guess what? I. Do I try to take shortcuts around it, and I end up doing silly things, no surprise, because I have created the resources that are not available to me. I've created the practice that it's not easier to do the right thing. And so this is all about emotional intelligence. It all comes back to are we emotionally intelligent enough to see these actions in place, and that you're building your emotional intelligence from doing some very simple safety practices? I think that's really a cool for me that puts a smile on my face to think about this very complex task. Because when we hear about emotional intelligence and we hear about learning it and having to develop it, you read the books, and they're all huge corporate values, all these, these big, big, big ideas. But we can put them into place. We can put them in play right now, in any organization, simply by focusing on safety and even something simple, let's even bring it in. I've used PPE as the perfect example, or not the perfect example, but a good example of this is, I want to continue it. You, generally speaking, you have a PPE policy, you probably have a risk assessment that says, These are the pieces of PPE you should use and when to use them. Now, if we go to that situation, there isn't, is or is not, are we following the policy, or are we not following the policy? If yes, great. If no okay, why? And I even like to ask the question, like, if it's working well, why did it work well? And there we begin to really push on the bubble, a little bit like probe into the unknown space of emotional intelligence in our organization. Why did you choose to do the right thing? Why is it that it wasn't easy where they fit well, do you like it was it just because you've seen other people do it? It's not accepted any other way. What is it that makes someone choose the right thing? What makes someone choose the other option, the wrong the proverbial wrong thing. And then what creates inaction? What is it? Is it not being present? Is it the IS IT management or supervision just not not present to see it? Is it they just don't care? Is that they have too many other things to worry about? Is it that the organization has put too much pressure on other items, they're missing the opportunity to really build a simple building block of the culture of starting with our values say, and our policy says, and the law says, you will wear PPE and it will be provided by the company. Are you wearing it yes or no, are we enforcing it? Yes or no? It all begins right there one simple engagement that takes those intangible practices, makes them a visible, solid building block, and that building block is either what you want, what you don't want, or an actual emotional intelligence of emptiness, of just not caring. We make that choice every time in good news or bad news, we can make that choice differently every day. In every decision, we sculpt it. We make it really awesome. Thanks for joining me on this episode of the leading and learning through safety podcast, really enjoyed this conversation about emotional intelligence and how a simple act of safety opens it up for all of us, until next time we chat, stay safe. You. Matt, thank you for listening to the leading and learning through safety podcast. More content is available online at www dot tsda consulting.com all the opinions expressed on the podcast are solely attributed to the individual and not affiliated with any business entity. This podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes. It is not a substitute for proper policy, appropriate training or legal advice you i This has been the leading and learning. Through safety podcast, you.