Worley

Britt Howard

I was introduced to the term “Common Sense” as a young man by elders, inclusive of my father. I would work with my father, Hennie Howard, as a plumber’s helper in the summer, while I was in high school. I was developing my work ethics and mechanical inclination while spending quality time with my father. When I made a mistake, he would share that I needed to use my “Common Sense” that he thought I possessed. The problem was I did not possess “Common Sense” in my late teens. I had very little knowledge to apply to the hands-on plumber’s helper work. I had not received “Common Knowledge,” training, and or development from my elders, so I made mistakes.

We should not expect common sense in place of common knowledge because it puts the burden on the work family member to have a capability that they may not possess. As leaders, we are responsible for sharing training development with the work family member to ensure they have the capabilities to complete tasks effectively and safely. Expecting ‘common sense’ is wrong and does not set our work family members up for success in completing effective and safe task, especially in the new energy space.

The new energy space is different to many of us and the common knowledge applications of completing tasks in the past may not be applicable in the future. Different task completion techniques, time to complete task, and the safety risk of completing the task are probably different in minor to major detail.

I have these suggestions to ensure that we are focused on sharing common knowledge, instead of expecting common sense

• We must understand the background of obviousness of our work family members to effectively assign them tasks to complete.

• If we identify gaps in task completion knowledge capability in our work family members, we must provide appropriate training or professional development (common knowledge sharing.

• We must make sure our work family members feel comfortable and supported in self-identifying when they have a lack of knowledge for completion of a particular task.

• We must periodically check in on work family members’ knowledge retention and training development needs through leadership engagement and observation.

• We must constantly apply coaching and mentoring as applicable to identify and respond to training development needs.

• If an event occurs, we must take the opportunity to understand the context in which the event happened inclusive of the ’common knowledge’ level of the work family members involved. A lack of ’common knowledge’ is often a system breakdown and not an individual’s fault.

My story of being expected to possess common sense is not isolated; current work family members may feel like they will be looked down upon or removed from certain roles if they admit to lacking task completion knowledge and capability. It is up to leaders to ensure everyone feels supported in not depending on common sense and leaning instead on common knowledge to perform tasks effectively and safely.

Developing a culture where everyone feels comfortable in speaking up in the space of “I don’t know how to do that”, “I need more training”, I am not totally comfortable”, and other executed Self Stop / Pause Work Authority Actions are important. The importance of feeling comfortable and supported to stop or pause work because there may be a lack of common knowledge sets our work family members up for success and keeps everyone safe.

If I had felt comfortable about being able to speak up as a plumber’s helper, fire fighter, motorcycle rider, football player, security professional, father and neighbor at times throughout my life, I would have made different decisions as it relates to depending on common sense. I have put myself and others in potential harm’s way because I did not know better. I lacked common knowledge in certain situations, and I don’t want others to be in that same space at work and at home.

I promote and expect the ‘sharing of common knowledge and not expecting common sense” starting with me.