How Do We Make Safety Stick?

In a recent conversation I had with Don Standridge for my safety podcast, he talked about “aha!” moments where people say something like: 

“Oh, now I understand why we’re supposed to do it this way.” 

“Ah, I understand why we wear safety glasses even when we’re indoors.”  

“Huh, I understand why it’s beneficial to wear safety boots.” 

Don is the Corporate Safety Manager at Mohawk Industries, the largest provider of flooring in the entire world. Mohawk is massive—it earns around $10 billion in revenue every year. 

It’s hard to imagine what it would be like managing safety across so many departments. But the gem that Don shared—about those “aha!” moments—brings it all into perspective. And it got me thinking … 

What can safety professionals do to increase the probability that a worker—or management, or someone in the C-suite—has a powerful, insightful moment where safety sticks?

Here are my six tips on how to do exactly that! 

(1) Tell stories about safety — Nothing beats effective storytelling as a means to influence, teach, and inspire people to be safe. 

(2) Share “the why” — Don’t just instruct people what to do. Help them understand the importance of every safety measure. 

(3) Talk about safety every day — If you want people to live and breathe safety, you can’t just tell them something once and expect them to instantly and cheerfully comply. 

(4) Be consistent with your messaging — Everyone, from supervisors all the way up to the CEO, must all be saying the same things about how crucial safety is to your company’s culture. 

(5) Don’t forget to have fun — When you’re encouraging people to learn something new, consider making it as enjoyable as possible. For instance, how could you gamify safety in the workplace? 

(6) Be a feedback freak — People thrive when they know that you know they’re doing a great job. So, whenever you see positive safety behavior, call it out. 

Check out my entire conversation with Don Standridge below. In it, one of the great things that Dom talks about is the “Stop and THINK” program that he and his colleagues rolled out at Mohawk Industries. The acronym THINK stands for: 

T – TRAIN yourself to look for the hazard or risk in every task.

H – HONE your understanding of the job or task.

I – IDENTIFY the hazard.

N – NEVER sacrifice safety for speed.

K – KEEP others safe.   https://youtu.be/4YaHJi7f5l4

BLOG POST 7:

Using Virtual & Augmented Reality for Enhancing Safety Leadership Skills

Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) are amazing technologies that can be used to strengthen practical and technical skills that relate to safety. Think about: 

Wind turbine installers using VR to simulate jobsite conditions. 

Surgeons using AR to improve their hand-eye coordination. 

Fleet safety managers using 360 degree video for hazard awareness training.  

I recently talked about these kinds of immersive technologies with Brian Whitaker on my safety podcast. 

Brian, who is the Co-founder and Director of Immersive Learning at Qworky.io, mentioned that many big companies—such as UPS, Pepsi, and InBev—have invested millions of dollars over the decades on safety. And, now, they’re pretty much all getting into immersive technologies. 

What we talked about next really got me excited. Brian said that large companies are also using VR and AR to develop soft skills such as leadership and communication skills. 

In the safety space, especially if you’re a small organization, it might not be financially feasible to embark on VR and AR courses to improve the soft skills of your leadership team. But times are changing. Quickly. 

For small and medium-sized companies, my prediction is—and I’m sure other safety consultants have also predicted this—that there will be two “waves” of adoption when it comes to immersive technologies. 

The first “wave” will be the increased adoption of safety professionals using immersive technologies just for hard skills (e.g. skills related to first aid and putting up scaffolding). 

The second “wave” will be safety professionals using AR, VR, 3D simulations, and mixed reality (which is the merger of real and virtual worlds) to teach soft skills (e.g. innovation, troubleshooting, and resourcefulness). 

Check out my conversation with Brian: https://youtu.be/oOLQkbhEi4w