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Motivational and Fun Pump Passion and Showmanship into Your Safety Program

BY MARK TOWERS AND BILL DAMPF, CSP

There can be no competing interests when it comes to safety, that’s why people need to become more passionate about protecting their workers and each other.

By injecting passion and showmanship into your process you will improve your safety record, which is one of the most important morale-building statistics in your organization. Safety is about three things: awareness, training and accountability. Each of these “building blocks of safety” is critical to the success of any stellar safety process. This article will “lay the foundation” for you. It’s up to you to “build the rest of the house” and supply the specifics.

Awareness

In regard to awareness, a superb safety program begins with a passionate, “it’s show time” buy-in from all employees. At Walt Disney Corp., they use the following mantra to heighten the awareness of employees – It’s not my fault, but it is my problem. These nine words are simply that – words. In order for them to “come alive” and create showmanship, there must be meaningful actions supported by stories of safety success that are shared and repeated within the culture. Here’s a case in point: Some corporate executives from another company were visiting a manufacturing facility and studying their outstanding safety record. They were hoping to find out their secrets of safety success, their magic bullets so they could take them back to their corporation.

At one point during the visit, the executives stood up from the dining hall table and prepared to leave the cafeteria following lunch. A front-line employee on the other side of the cafeteria walked across the room. He pushed in one of the executive’s chairs that had not been pushed back beneath the table. He said to the three visitors, “We don’t want anyone tripping over this chair. Have safe day, gentlemen.”

Later the impressed executives interviewed the safety supervisor and asked him how this employee’s awareness and attitude was spread throughout the organization.

The supervisor said, “We don’t tolerate anyone using his/her rank to promote productivity or short cuts over safety. We believe showmanship is about people taking action and sharing stories in regard to how people see and manage safety situations appropriately – even heroically. Since safety is our top corporate value and not a workplace priority, we believe in being hard on the issue and soft on the person. When there is a near incident, it is openly discussed. We talk it out until everyone fully understands and agrees how we will work even more safely into the future.”

In a nutshell, safety awareness is this:

I see it and I manage it now. This awareness/attitude is spread via the most powerful teaching technique of all – stories. The executives got back home and shared what they had learned. More importantly, they designed a new safety program with input from all levels of the organization. Their safety record improved dramatically over the next nine months.

Training

Safety training must be driven by three values: (1) Educational and not boring; (2) Motivational, containing some passionate emotion/inspiration (It’s show time!); (3) Upbeat – fun/humorous. Let’s examine all three of these.

In regard to (1) educational, one employee shared this: We love being asked what our challenges are in regard to working safely. Our safety trainer asks us this a lot and then makes our input part of her training. She just doesn’t bore us with textbook stuff and charts or graphs. She also includes what works for us and weaves that in as well. We love being part of this educational design. She always says that people support what they help create. I totally agree with her.

Some may see (2) motivational or inspirational things as touchy/feely, but we must remember that emotion is the vehicle, and facts are the passengers. As one utility worker noted: I have a dangerous job. People are killed in my line of work every day.

I need to hear motivational stories on a weekly basis. They keep me focused on what’s really important—my wife and kids. I so appreciate powerful stories from people who tell the straight truth with passion and conviction. I guarantee their insights have caused me to slow down and work in a safe manner.

Training needs to contain some (3) fun/humor. There are three problems with most training programs. They are boring, boring and boring. According to research, adult education is ninety percent better when humor is used. One top-notch safety trainer said: Humor is a major component of a passionate safety culture and I believe that culture eats strategy for lunch. I model squeaky clean and appropriate humor in my training sessions. In turn, the employees supply me with humorous items and we have safety lessons with laughter. Never take fun out of safety training because it opens people’s minds and makes them want to attend.

In order to pump passion and a sense of showmanship into your training, heed the words of Walt Disney’s brother, Roy. He said, “Decisions are easy when values are clear.” Make certain that your safety training values are (1) educational (2) motivational (3) fun/upbeat.

Accountability

Safety is about self-governance and boundaries. If we are to create a safe working environment, we must have high expectations of the people who perform the work daily. We must give them the awareness, training and tools to do the job. But we must also give them boundaries.

An award-winning supervisor observed: I tell my people that I expect us all to be accountable to one another. As a team, we believe that communication is about power. Power is about boundaries, and boundaries mean “No.” We clearly spell out what is an unsafe act on the job. When we see or even speculate that someone is doing something unsafe, we shout “Time Out.”

The entire job site comes to a stop and we all take note of what is going on. This safety stop re-focuses everyone on the hazards that are present and the protective measures that must be in place.

In fact, some of our people say “Time Out” when they themselves perform or nearly perform an unsafe act. This ritual creates a sense of passion and showmanship amongst us. We realize that we may not be a perfect team, but we are committed and accountable.

Pump passion and showmanship into your safety program with the building blocks of awareness, training and accountability. And remember, “It’s Not Just Safety Time: It’s Show Time!” FSM

Mark Towers is a public speaker, teacher, consultant and psychologist who can be reached at www.speakoutseminars.com. Bill Dampf is manager of Corporate Safety and Training for Ameren Corporation. He, too, is a public speaker and a Certified Safety Professional. He can be reached at 636-287-1321, or at bdampf@aol.com.