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Safety Communication

By Brie DeLisi When an incident occurs or a particularly hazardous situation is discovered, who participates in remedying the situation? If the safety representative and the supervisor are the only participants, you may want to reconsider your approach to be more collaborative in order to reduce rework, future injuries and creating additional hazards. Who should be included in a collaborative safety approach? For starters, there should be a cross-functional team with representation from anyone who interacts with the hazard and anyone who might have insight into the hazard. The purpose of including this range of individuals is to gain as much perspective as

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By Josh Williams, Ph.D. Last week, Dustin Johnson recorded the lowest score ever and won the Masters Golf Tournament at Augusta National during an odd, COVID-influenced November timeframe. Several years ago, I was fortunate to be able to attend a practice round at the Masters during its traditional April schedule. As advertised, the course was immaculate with its vividly green grass, azaleas in full bloom, undulating hills which TV can’t fully capture, and expansive grounds without a leaf or twig out of place. Birds even chirped in the trees (which, for some reason, were noticeably absent of squirrels). This hallowed ground

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By Madison Hanscom, PhD It is near impossible to change someone’s mind — but this can feel like an important mission for leaders and safety professionals. Some try to convince through arguing, others like to give people options to persuade them, many try appealing to emotions, and others use an ‘information overload’ approach that includes facts and figures. But what really works? How can we convince someone to work safely? How do attitudes really change? To begin, you have to make it about your specific people in their specific situation. (That’s a less direct way of saying “it depends”.) Because there’s not

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By Josh Williams, Ph.D. Forward-thinking leaders are continually searching for ways to advance safety culture and prevent serious injuries and fatalities (SIFs). Several years ago, I published a book with Government Institutes entitled, “Keeping People Safe: The Human Dynamics of Injury Prevention.” The book was designed to be a user-friendly guide for leaders to improve safety culture and performance. Here are key takeaways from the book that may help your safety improvement efforts. Each of the five sections in Figure 1 will be detailed in this 5-part blog series. The first four focused on ways to improve safety leadership, systems, people

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By Madison Hanscom, PhD Many in safety have seen it firsthand - high turnover can be a safety concern. When there is a revolving door of employees coming in and out of the organization, this can create issues when it comes to sustaining a strong safety record. Because new employees come in without deep knowledge of the job, they are more likely to get into accidents. And it is not their fault — new hires are still gaining experience and training. You are only as good as the people on your job site, and if this is constantly changing, this can

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By Madison Hanscom, PhD Leaders sometimes forget how fundamental it is to provide effective feedback. Fortunately, great feedback is pretty basic. First and foremost — it is specific. It targets someone’s safety behavior and not who they are as a person. For instance, if you tell someone they are too quiet and withdrawn, that is picking at their character (who they are as a person = hard to change) and not at their behavior (easier to change). Instead, you might let them know specifically what behavior they need to improve (“I would really appreciate it if you would speak up in pre-job brief

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