Over the past several years I have been working on an EHS organizational management model and methodology that provides organizations with a way to bring innovation and fresh thinking to its Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) function. Some of these ideas have been presented in Newsletters and White Papers. These writings have included ways to integrate the EHS function within itself as well as within the organization.
Central to this work has been ways to elevate EHS thinking as a driver in business strategy for competitive advantage, take EHS performance to zero or near zero, and empower EHS professionals as leaders in their organizations. I was very excited when I first learned of and read Green to Gold as it reinforced and validated much of this work.
The timing of Green to Gold corresponded well with a fresh approach I have developed called Quantum Environmental Health and Safety. Quantum EHS represents my on-going research at the intersection of business strategy/performance, organizational learning/transformation, EHS management, EHS management systems, and quantum theory. It contains tools and methods and tools organizations can use in these new areas.
The Quantum EHS idea evolved from observations that corporations, and their EHS functions have both been in transition. The dynamics in this period, or era, are multifaceted. These include issues of governance, accountability, general conduct, sustainability, global citizenship, ethics, and risk management. With actions from forward-thinking corporations, there are indications that we are moving into an era characterized by more than technology and information. This new era can be characterized as the Era of Wisdom where the importance of technology and information are by no means put to the side, but rather they are framed and motivated by a new context.
Why the Term Quantum EHS?
The term Quantum Environmental Health and Safety is very purposefully used to reflect a dramatic a shift in how the EHS function can be viewed and thought about in organizations. This is consistent with the groundbreaking shift that happened with the development of quantum physics, where the “new physics” turned on its head centuries of thought and application with classical mechanics. The laws that governed the classical realm were in direct opposition to how things worked at the subatomic level. Numerous authors have suggested that this new area of science provides concepts and images for an updated worldview, one that characterizes human interactions and organizations as complex, unpredictable, interactive systems rather than stable, static, or objective machines. Quantum EHS uses basic principles of quantum mechanics as a conceptual metaphor for a new set of skills and tools to achieve competitive advantage with an organization’s EHS function.
This conceptual metaphor also captures the dualistic nature of the EHS function that is beginning to evolve in this new era, that is, there is the traditional way it is viewed, mainly from a regulatory compliance and civil-litigation-protection perspective, as opposed to the view presented in this Newsletter, where it can be an explicit — and celebrated — driver of business strategy.
Quantum EHS also captures the issue of scale, that this the small scale of the EHS function in an organization compared with the overall organization, as with quantum physics looking at sub-atomic issues compared with classical mechanics looking at larger issues. This concept is captured in the “trim tab” concept with ships where the small trim tab that is on a ship’s rudder is critical, if not necessary for the precise maneuvering of the ship.
Finally, as with the new physics, new tools and skills are needed in Quantum EHS.
Quantum EHS — A Snapshot
Quantum EHS provides a way to bring innovation and fresh thinking to an organization’s EHS function to gain competitive advantage. In Quantum EHS, a new mindset and way of thinking is introduced. It involves how everyone in the organization views EHS issues and the EHS function. Since each organization is unique, there is a focus on developing skills in innovation and fresh thinking. Each organization needs to find the language and organizational structures that work with its own culture.
When Quantum EHS is elevated to the level of being a driver in competitive advantage, it becomes part of how an organization manages its threats, such as costs and risks, as well as how it manages its positives such as revenues and intangible value.
Quantum EHS Components
As with the Green to Gold approach, The Quantum EHS journey starts with developing an EHS mindset that can drive EHS thinking deep into organizational strategy. To express the mindset, leadership capacities are strengthened, participation expanded, culture issues addressed, structures put in place, and metrics developed consistent with this new context.
© Redinger EHS, Inc. (2010)