CORRECT ATTITUDE IN ACTION

Robert F. Mager wrote a very helpful book about training called “Developing Attitude Towards Learning”. It was one of those books that helped me learn and grow as someone new to training. Now as a safety instructor, in terms of safety training, I’m thinking about the topic of “Developing Attitude Towards Safety”. I won’t be taking on the task of writing another book, but if a reader is so inspired, go for it! I think it would be a worthy and beneficial challenge.

When developing training programs, a key factor is to identify the desired KSA’s; Knowledge, Skill, and Attitude. Knowledge is what we know, skill is what we can do, and attitude is, well, read on.

When developing or delivering training, what do we want someone to know about excavation safety that is important for them to be able to work safely? We could break this category of knowledge into two parts. One would be knowledge of the dangers that are inside the excavation. Another would be the knowledge of the dangers that are outside the excavation.

First, hazards inside the excavation. We could rank these kinds of hazards in some order, and there are many hazards, but generally I would say that knowledge of the danger posed by a cave-in in an unprotected excavation ranks very high. Therefore, in an excavation safety training program an objective would be to explain how vertical walls of soil pose an eminent danger because soils cannot be trusted to stay in place. Gravitational forces will cause soil to fall, regardless of how “stable” the soil appears, and this reality applies to excavations at any depth. Yes, even shallow trenches can kill due to the weight of soil.

But we also should not forget the hazards caused by water accumulation or hazardous atmospheres or even adjacent structures.

As to the dangers that are outside of the excavation, there are so many and would be very hard for me to give a ranking; we would want to cover them all and I think good training objectives would certainly need to cover falls, struck-by, and caught-in-between hazards, etc.

While “Knowledge” covers information about these hazards, “Skills” covers what we can do to perform excavation work safely. An important skill is soil classification, which includes conducting visual and manual tests that provide an estimate of soil stability. Soil classification is not that complicated, although some of the terminology in Appendix A can be confusing. What I have discovered is that Appendix A is designed to keep soil classification simple, and the process is much easier when we do keep it simple. I have posted quite a few articles on soil classification, and the subject is also covered in detail in my book “Trench and Excavation Safety by the Book”. It can be obtained from my website www.trenchandexcavationsafety.com

Another important skill is selecting, installing, and using an adequate protective system. Whether this means sloping, benching, shoring or using shields, all protective systems must be used correctly. So often though, we see protective systems used incorrectly. When I see the number of excavation fatalities, I’m not surprised by how many, but am surprised that there are not more!

This is a topic that is covered in good excavation safety competent person training. In one sense it is satisfying to teach someone how to use protective systems correctly and cover those all-important “Do’s” and “Don’ts” but ask any instructor how scary it is to find out what people don’t know and how many misconceptions are out there. (As an aside, if the reader is an excavation safety instructor, I just want to encourage you here. You can easily save a life today when you cover these topics thoroughly.)

So far, we’ve looked at knowledge and skills as objectives, and now we turn our attention to “Attitude” as it applies to safety. When I think of developing attitude toward safety, I think of how we want our class attendees to use their knowledge and skills to work safely each day and not skip any safety steps. I call that “Correct Attitude in Action”.

Think of the problem of distracted driving. Exceptions to the rule are made and lives are placed at risk needlessly. I can recall two separate situations where engineers lost their lives in cave-ins when they took a chance and entered unsafe excavations. Just like distracted drivers, no doubt these two engineers did not think that the unthinkable would happen to them. “Not to me. Not today.” No doubt these engineers knew of the dangers. They had the knowledge. They had the skills. But it was the willingness to enter an unsafe trench that cost them their lives. They did not demonstrate the correct attitude that day.

That is why we need to affect our training classes’ attitudes. We need to be convincing that the unthinkable can and will happen when safety precautions are skipped. We need to be convincing that it isn’t worth the risk.

Approximately 25 years ago I assisted with the production of an excavation safety video entitled “Don’t Dig Your Own Grave”. I do not know what happened to the producer of the video, perhaps the company no longer exists. But this video was a very effective tool in creating awareness of the dangers of unsafe excavation work and has affected the attitude of many workers. If you can find it, it is still worth showing.

“A Correct Attitude in Action.” That’s what we’re looking for. And it starts with having the knowledge and skills, and the determination to see things through safely, each step, every day.

Thank you for reading this. Please feel free to share my articles with anyone you believe might benefit.