Damage prevention is often talked about in terms of tools, rules, processes, and compliance, but at its core, it is a cultural issue. Damage to underground utilities is rarely caused by a lack of rules or technology. We’ve got plenty of rules and are working to create more every year. If technology alone resolved damage, there would be no need for articles like this.
For the most part, damage stems from habits, assumptions, communication gaps, or competing priorities that shape everyday decisions in the field.
Our current culture determines what people do when no one is watching. It influences whether someone slows down to verify a locate, speaks up about a concern, or chooses speed over certainty. When damage occurs, it’s usually not because people intend to fail — it’s because the current culture has normalized shortcuts, misaligned expectations, and forced stakeholders to make decisions based on the pressures of unreasonable times and production.
Changing outcomes requires changing what is considered normal. I know many companies that changed the culture of their organization. Why would they do that? I’m told it is a personal choice.
Reputation. Personal expectations. The current industry standard may consider taking shortcuts as a normal practice because it happens so often, but there are those who have redefined normal for their organization, and it doesn’t include shortcuts.
A culture shift in damage prevention is not for sissies or for the faint of heart. Culture shift is easier to talk about than to shift. That’s the reason there is more talk about it than working toward it. It means changing how we measure success, not by productivity metrics or just by lowest price, but by how consistently we work to protect infrastructure, people, and communities.
Somebody told me a few weeks ago, “This idea of working to change the industry culture will take 20 years to happen.” My reply was, “Well, we’ve been talking about it for 25 years and that hasn’t worked, so it is probably time to try a different approach. This conversation isn’t about blame. It’s about recognizing that culture is already shaping performance. It is time for us to decide intentionally what kind of culture will produce the results we want.
When partnership, accountability, and trust become everyday expectations, damage prevention stops being an obligation and becomes part of how we operate.