In February, 2009, at our Second Annual Business Leaders' Forum, Paul Pascoe of the Safety Solutions Group presented three case studies of Australian businesses that had embarked on off-the-job injury prevention strategies with their employees. Two of these businesses had failed to sustain their efforts or deliver a successful strategy while one business succeeded. The key to that organization's success was the fact that the business was seen to have an interdependent culture that supported the off-the-job strategy over time and that resulted in the desired outcomes.

While attending the Saskatchewan Safety Council's, Industrial Safety Seminar last week I was speaking to an individual from one of our partner organizations and I talked about an interdependent culture. I indicated that if we are going to have success, as a province, in eliminating our unintentional injury epidemic, we must embrace an interdependent culture, one that sees us not only doing our part as individuals, but working together, in a collaborative manner. The individual I talked with asked me more about the attributes of an organization or a province with an interdependent culture and I had somewhat of a difficult time defining that for her.

Last week, a friend of mine who works in industrial safety sent me the DVD entitled "All For One - The Meerkat Way", a video produced by Lattitude Safety Limited of the United Kingdom (www.lattitudeproductions.co.uk). This short video helps define what an interdependent safety culture is all about and I highly recommend it. By watching the video and observing how Meerkats relate, I soon discovered the true definition of interdependency.

It seems we can learn a lot about the desired safety culture by following "The Meerkat Way".