- Making worker safety a keystone habit has the potential to build an organization’s culture while simultaneously reducing injuries and unwanted incidents.
- Examining a significant case study from the past reveals the powerful impact of corporate habits on transforming culture and enhancing performance.
- This article examines benchmark strategies for consideration and potential application in various organizations.
Can a radical focus by leadership in one area such as safety help establish other good habits that result in transformational benefits? The author suggests that making worker safety a keystone habit has the potential to build an organization’s culture while simultaneously reducing injuries and unwanted incidents. A keystone is the wedge-shaped stone at the crown of an arch that locks the other stones in place and has a major impact on a building as it upholds the structure. Similarly, a keystone habit locks other positive habits in place.
In The Power of Habit, Charles Duhigg (2014) postulates that by changing habit routines, we can transform our lives. He explains that by focusing on a pattern to change a single habit, it is possible to reprogram other routines in one’s life. He calls these habits “keystone habits.”
Habits can be individual and corporate. In organizations, regular and customary practices are habits. Habits encompass the concepts of patterns, routines and customs. A large part of an organization’s culture is based on the regular habits practiced by its people.
A keystone habit can make a major impact on an organization’s culture by influencing the development and continuance of habits that are important to the organization.
