Healing the Safety Microbiome

• By Robert Pater
• Sep 10, 2024

Leaders can glean and successfully apply knowledge from nature to improve well-being and safety. For example, here’s a sizzling-hot topic in medicine: Did you know each one of us hosts a universe of incredibly numerous organisms? 

In fact, there’s a plethora of relatively recent research investigating such “microbiomes,” the relationship and influence of these trillions of organisms living both internally and on our skin. Astoundingly, Nundhini Thukkani, M.D., Chief of Gastroenterology, Kaiser Pacific Northwest, says, “You can randomly take one square inch of anybody’s colon, and you’ll see more bacteria than there are humans on the earth.” 

These microorganisms can either be protective or pathogenic (disease-causing.) Beneficially, a microbiome protects us against harmful germs, breaks down food in order to release energy, and produces vitamins. On the downside, dysbiosis can result, according to the Cleveland Clinic: “Dysbiosis means that you have an imbalance in the different types of microscopic organisms living in your body. If there are too many of some types and not enough of others, they don’t work with you as they should, and they might work against you.

In current cutting-edge research, dysbiosis is considered strongly associated with or a major contributor to a host of illnesses: Diabetes (types 1 and 2), Parkinson’s Disease, Ulcerative Colitis, Psoriasis, Crohn’s Disease, Rheumatoid Arthritis, cancers, cardiovascular disease, and many others, including obesity, severe depression, mental illness. (According to “Influence of Gut Microbiota Dysbiosis on Brain Function,” a disruption in the “gut-brain axis” might have significant effects on the central nervous system, even making falls more likely!)

So what does this have to do with leadership? Alessio Fasano, M.D., in “The Invisible Organ Shaping Our Lives: A Survey of Over 300 Years of Microbiome Research”, contends that each one of us is actually an organization of varying degrees of health and effectiveness. 

Any organization is comprised of many “strains” of people with different paradigms, agendas, etc. And dialed in, the same is true for each individual member. Just as an enhanced understanding of the nature of multiple internal contributors can help physicians promote better health, leaders can similarly become more effective motivators and proponents of safety and well-being by harnessing principles from the internal multiverse.

Here are five leadership lessons, we can take from this:

1. Embrace what seems invisible as it may still have powerful effects on receptivity and actions. My colleague — and change master — Paul McClellan firmly states, “The safety culture most managers are getting is not the one they’re seeing.” To upgrade performance, it’s essential to first better see and then redirect the “hidden” safety culture of what people are really thinking and doing when they know they’re unobserved.

There can be surprising relationships between the hidden and how people perform. For example, there are strains of bacteria (in our microbiome that can actually impel people to exercise. A “Nature Medicine” 2020 study discovered the gut bacterium Akkermansia muciniphila reduced the likelihood of obesity and increased motivation to exercise. Then there are strains that seem to be associated with depression. Researchers reported in “The Power of Psychobiotics in Depression”: “In vivo studies provide solid evidence that dysbiosis may contribute to the development of depression. Genus Bacteroides was a strain they cited associated with increased depression and strains associated with lesser depression: Blautia, Faecalibacterium, and Coprococcus.”

2. As there are likely numerous influences within each person, consider going beyond mandating a “one way only” approach to safety and motivation that is expected to work the same for all (note, this may not apply to process safety.) Instead, be sure to offer acceptable alternatives to motivations to consider, as well as safe mental methods and physical actions for safely accomplishing tasks on the job.

3. Embrace and culture internal “strains” for better safety. Seed and grow effective internal safety catalysts to become onsite, ongoing agents of improvement (we know this one well from our more than three decades of work): Studies consistently reveal that transplantation of a sampling of microbiota from healthy people has proven to be effective in elevating others’ health; leaders can apply this by selecting, training and supporting positive safety “strains” to, in turn, elevate others within the company. 

The downside of ignoring entrenched safety negativity: “Transplantation of fecal microbiota from depressed patients into healthy rodents induced depressive behavior in them, suggesting that microbial dysbiosis precedes the onset of depression and may contribute to its development.” 

4. Incorporate many kinds of input. Go beyond overly homogenous safety committees. “While bacteria have been the focus of almost the entirety of the microbiome-related literature, it is well appreciated that viruses, fungi, and archaea are also important members of the human ecosystem, with potential effects on human health.” In the same vein, effectively seek out and elicit feedback from as diverse a cross-section of people as possible.

5. Carefully incorporate best influences in both hiring and with others. What companies “consume” is crucial — just as nutritionists indicate, there are certain foods that promote a healthier microbiome and others that can lead to dysbiosis. Similarly, what leaders introduce to their organization can make a profound difference in company safety, health, and well-being. Screen, select, and feed in wisely!

Bear in mind that small, often below the visible surface elements can clearly make significant impacts on health and safety. The most effective leaders unearth and account for actual contributors to belief systems and performance, going beyond the obvious.

This article originally appeared in the September 2024 issue of Occupational Health & Safety.