It’s Just Common Sense

“There is no such thing as common sense!” Decades later, those words still ring in my ears. They came from a leader who made no secret as to exactly what he was thinking; never a moment’s doubt about anything, with complete disdain for anyone who dared think differently. For some reason, there wasn’t a word of disagreement.

Perhaps you’re acquainted with the type. I would add, as it is with so many of the things people say that they are absolutely convinced to be true, not a single word of explanation why that might be so.

Full disclosure: this wasn’t the first time I’d heard that tenant of faith. Years before I was told exactly the same thing in a training course on investigations, albeit in a less strident tone. That same teacher later taught us never to ask a question starting with “Who”.

Reading this, you could be thinking, “What’s wrong with any of that? Makes perfect sense.” To you, it might. But to someone else, asking “Who?” in the process of finding out what went wrong might seem like common sense.

The truth is that both statements are really nothing more than opinions. There’s not a thing wrong with having an opinion, but there’s a world of difference between voicing an opinion and sharing wisdom. 

Managing Safety Performance

Twenty-five years ago, I wrote a course to teach front-line leaders “what to do” and “how to do it” to lead and manage safety performance. In my time in management in the chemical business, the need for such knowledge was apparent, but I never found a course that matched up very well with the role of the front-line leader, or one that taught practical things that actually worked “out on the shop floor” as I like to call the real world of industrial operations. 

Front line leaders can be a tough crowd, and normally aren’t fans of what they see as “flavor of the month.” Who could blame them?

Despite what you might think, coming up with the content for such a class was pretty easy. In my college days, when I spent my summers working as a General Helper at a chemical plant, I’d worked for more than a dozen front-line supervisors. Later, I worked with and around hundreds of front-line leaders, many of whom I considered friends. As they relate to leading and managing safety, the duties of the front-line leader were clear, simple and universal: run safety meetings, communicate changes in procedures, manage safety suggestions, observe equipment and people doing the work; coach up followers, investigate and fix problems. 

If you are – or have ever been – a front-line supervisor, you are no doubt familiar with the territory. 

As to what constitutes the “what” and “how” – otherwise known as safety leadership practices – it was likewise easy to identify those who were the best at doing them: who ran good safety meetings; who was good at selling change; who was skilled at coaching people up; who knew how to make people feel good when giving praise; who had a keen eye for observing the details; who was really good at making people think; who set expectations that were clear and mattered.

I will spare you their names, but as you’re reading this list, you’re probably thinking about those with similar talents in your realm of experience. Those role models do tend to stand out, don’t they?

Reducing the practices of those best at them to a step-by-step process wasn’t all that difficult either; all that required was paying attention, in particular, to the details. Like a lot of things in life, in the practice of safety leadership small things play big. Those seemingly big things, like the annual town hall meeting starring the CEO, usually turn out to be not nearly that big. 

But don’t take my word for that: put that to your own test of real reality. How is it that your behavior gets moved in some significant way? By sitting in a chair, watching powerpoints?

Speaking of training.

Writing a training course may be easy; teaching it well is priceless. One of the corollaries to Murphy’s Law goes, “If you think something’s easy, try doing it yourself.” I can tell you from personal experience that standing in front of a room full of skeptical front-line supervisors expecting “death by powerpoint”, teaching safety leadership practices is not for the faint of heart.

Do it well, and what happens at the end of class makes it all worthwhile: you get positive feedback that is totally genuine. “Best class I ever took: didn’t fall asleep once.”

And, sometimes, “What you’re teaching is just common sense.”

To a teacher, those kind words really do mean a lot.

Common Sense

Building a training course in safety leadership by starting with making a list of what a front-line leader actually does. Identifying the practices of those best at performing those functions. Reducing their practices to step-by-step processes. Teaching in a way that does not rely on powerpoints and does not put participants to sleep. 

Does that strike you as common sense?

It certainly does me. So, when someone tells me “What you teach is just common sense” I take that as quite the compliment. In my book, there’s not a thing wrong with the term common sense – as long as we agree on what it actually means, and, in turn, how it should be properly used in conversation. 

Particularly when it’s the leader who’s using the term, whether to compliment what they experienced or to totally dismiss the very existence of common sense.

I know: another case of “It’s just common sense.”

Common Vocabulary

For almost as long as we’ve been teaching Managing Safety Performance, we’ve been asking leaders, “What are the toughest safety challenges you face as the leader – every day?”  Their answers are totally predicable; putting them in order, starting with the a’s, the list goes: attitude, awareness, behavior, buy-in, compliance, culture, complacency, communication…

Stop right there: communication!

Communication means to express or exchange information by using (among other means) words. Consider the implications of that definition: when someone is speaking, someone is listening. And everyone understands the words used to communicate.
 
I know: just common sense.

May I first point out that listening is probably the most under-appreciated management practice on the planet. Next up: management contributes mightily to their communication challenge by throwing around terms of art – culture, risk, engagement, attitude to name a few – without taking the time to properly define the words. 

Which are theirs.

Like it or detest it, “common sense” deserves to be defined in a way that can be understood by speaker and listener. Feel free to create your own definition, it is a term of art that predates the Roman Empire.  I’ll offer this: common sense is what someone with a reasonable degree of life experience and good judgement should know. 

Note the use of “should.” Not everyone does. 

So, back to where we started. If a leader truly believes there is no such thing as common sense, it follows that no knowledge can be assumed. Meaning that, for safety, everyone must be trained on every possible way they might be hurt. 

Picture that: new hire safety orientation begins with: “Do not touch a hot stove.” “Look both ways before crossing the street.” 

Sounds just like Mom and Dad.

“Hold on to the handrail when the stairs are covered with ice.” “Do not put your hand in a door jamb on a windy day.”

The apprentice who did blamed the journeymen he was working with: by seniority he was the last to go through the door. That’s when wind blew the door shut – on his fingers.

“Don’t test the depth of the river with both feet.”

Appreciating Wisdom

As a practical matter, there must be a place for common sense; there will never be a rule for everything. It’s reasonable to expect that people apply their life experience and knowledge, and exercise a reasonable amount of sound judgment.

Wisdom is a different matter. It’s the ability to observe and understand things that aren’t obvious, and make sound judgement when circumstances aren’t simple or clear. Like common sense, that kind of insight is bourn out of experience; but while everyone gets experience, wisdom is reserved for the special few. 

As an example, regarding common sense, a wise leader might observe, “There are limits to common sense” and offer examples of situations where common sense might not apply.  “We can’t expect an apprentice to understand hazards the way an experienced technician would, but we can expect someone new not to do something they’re not trained and qualified to do.”

Likewise, to the point of questions asking “Who” in an investigation, “There’s a world of difference between asking, “Who left the valve open?” and “Who else might have valuable information about the problem?” One question asks for incrimination; the other for more information.

Wisdom, well delivered, can sound just like common sense. Observe closely, know what you’re looking for, and you’ll find a world of difference between the two.

Do that, and you might just appreciate wisdom on those occasions when you are getting it – and giving it.
 
Paul Balmert
January 2026