Committed Leadership

While the concept of shared responsibility is sound, in practice it can prove a convenient place to hide. Shared responsibility should mean exactly that, various parties accepting accountability for achieving the outcomes assigned to them in a collaborative process. However, for decades, it has been used by government agencies to deflect accountability for safety onto the road user, who is deemed to have to share responsibility. And so the road user must, but he or she should only be held accountable for behaving in accord with the laws, not for making very human errors in a system that is not error tolerant. 

Politicians must also demonstrate leadership. Of course, we need first to get them to accept that road trauma is a high-priority public health problem that requires a transformational change of policy No doubt there are politicians who have been touched by the road toU and can agitate for change within party rooms, within cabinet meetings, or on the floor of parliament. First, though, they need to accept the problem, and a vibrant constituency will no doubt help here. 

Leadership is not confined only to those with a direct responsibility for all or part of traffic safety policy. A former French president was mocked during a European heads of government meeting over France s (then) poor traffic safety record. He returned home and instructed the relevant ministers— who in turn instructed the relevant agency heads—to fix the problan. Within 3 years the number of road crash deaths on French roads had fallen dramatically. That is leadership, and the motive, though nnisplaced, was effective. 

Eliminating Serious Injury and Death from Road Transport 

Government knows best. Don t share ideas with the public that may upset someone If you do, rule out in advance those that may be controversial. 

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It remains to be seen whether China can create its own innovation chain from R D to commercial implementation. Given the prerequisites of political stability, committed leadership, adequate allocation of resources and a functioning infrastructure of research and training institutions, the future can be very promising. 

A common factor in all accredited safety management systems (SMS) is an element that calls for management leadership and commitment to the safety and health process. It is almost guaranteed that any attempt to change or improve the safety culture at any workplace will fail if there is not total commitment, leadership, and management involvement from the executive right down to and including frontline supervision. 

The importance of committed leadership from top to bottom A clear set of explained expectations for line management The involvement of all employees Effective conununication must exist... 

Provide visible top management, commitment, leadership, and involvement in implementing and sustaining the management system so that all employees understand that management s commitment is serious. 

Sample written program statements related to management commitment, leadership, and employee involvement can be found in Chapters 2 and 3. 

The difference between the 1955 fact presented blandly to federal parliament and the fact of the 1970 peak in deaths in Victoria was that the latter gained traction through vigorous public discussion. The public discussion occurred because of the committed leadership of surgeons and their link with a media executive. The lesson to be drawn is the power of influential champions in raising issues publicly. While knowledge matters, it is a necessary, but not a sufficient, condition for public policy action. 

Committed leadership— To help create the constituency but also to respond to it by driving change. 

Committed leadership involves not only helping build a public constituency for a sea change in effort, but also exerting pressure to build the institutional capacity for such a change to be realised. 

To achieve and sustain world class performance, we must develop strong capability in operational excellence throughout (Company B). This requires active leadership and the entire workforce to be engaged. We must develop a culture where everyone believes that all incidents are preventable and that zero incidents is achievable. With engaged and committed leadership, effective processes and an OE culture, we can achieve our objectives in operational excellence. 

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