Fable
Safety officers and supervisors on a construction site
Outside the county town there was a large construction site, and an accident happened on the first day of work. A worker wasn't wearing a helmet and was hit in the head by a falling brick. The boss brought in safety officer Old Zhou, specifically responsible for reducing accidents. Old Zhou walked around the site every day, stopping anyone not wearing a helmet, having exposed wires repaired, and halting work when scaffolding was loose. The workers found him annoying, but minor accidents did indeed decrease.
But Old Zhou soon discovered that some dangers were hidden in the construction arrangements and could not all be blamed on a careless worker. To rush the schedule, the boss had people keep laying bricks while standing on a foundation that had not yet been reinforced. Old Zhou could call a halt once, but he could not decide the schedule and budget.
He was as busy as a firefighter. Today he patched a pillar, tomorrow he replaced a rope, the day after he treated the wounded. As long as the drawings, procurement, rewards and punishments, and acceptance checks remained chaotic, fires would keep breaking out in new places.
Later the boss brought in Supervisor Zhang. On his first day, Supervisor Zhang did not go scold the workers. Instead he sat down and set the rules: how deep the foundation must be, how much rebar, how scaffolding is erected, who can approve rush work, and how accidents are reported.
After the rules were set, Old Zhou still patrolled the site, but no longer carried all safety alone. If someone violated the rules, work could be stopped for rectification; when new materials were found, specifications were evaluated before being revised; when an incident occurred, it could be traced to which rule had failed to cover it.
But as the construction site grew larger, Old Zhou began to encounter things he could not control. Procurement bought thin wooden boards to save money, the schedule cut nighttime rest to rush for a festival, and the new contractor crew had not been trained. Old Zhou could stop people without helmets, but he could not stop the bookkeeper from cutting the safety rope budget.
The boss also hired a general manager who wrote safety into startup rules, procurement standards, contracting agreements, incident reviews and shutdown authority. Old Zhou still patrolled the site, handling the risks that emerged every day; the general manager ensured the whole site operated under one set of responsibilities and decisions. If only one of them remained, there would be either only firefighting or only rules on the wall.
The two still argued at times. Old Zhou watched current risks, Supervisor Zhang managed long-term order. The boss finally understood: one is responsible for identifying and handling risks, the other for setting rules, responsibilities and oversight structures; for the site to have fewer incidents, neither hand can be missing.