HOW TO USE OUR SUBCONSCIOUS MORE FOR SAFETY

This article is from Bill Rob at safetyimprovers.com

As we get better and better at safety we find it more difficult to gain more improvements. Yes, we have made massive progress on the technical, procedures and systems fronts, and  we are making improvements in behavioral safety too. But where will the next leap in improved safety performance come from? Using our subconscious more.  

There is extensive knowledge about how the subconscious affects human performance - for good and bad. But how do we translate this into practical steps to help people at the "coal face"? 

1. Teach people to pay attention to their subconscious. The subconscious sees and hears everything even before the rational mind acknowledges it. Often our subconscious will ask us questions: "What is that?"  "Why is that lying down - shouldn't it be standing up?" "Why do we have red ones - we usually have green ones?" "Why is he standing there - shouldn't he be standing there instead?" This is hyper-awareness! Many of the questions may mean nothing but they may just be the trigger to stop the job and save an accident.  We should teach people to listen more to those mental questions.

2. Tell people it is okay to act on "gut feelings". Often we have a "gut feeling" things are not right. We may not be able to say immediately what it is - or explain it but that is the all-knowing, all-seeing subconscious  alerting us to something. So we have to encourage people to stop the job for a few minutes - even if it is a "gut feeling". Again, the "gut feeling" may be eased by further explanation, and there is no need to change anything but we won't know everything is okay unless we do stop.

3. Teach people about  "three messages" and your out!  What this means is this: when we are worried or over-excited about something (family illness, relationship problems, money worries, a massive lottery win, for example) the subconscious urges you to do something to fix the issue. It does this by giving you messages over and over again. If we are doing a complex job we don't want this. So a) wake up and acknowledge the messages - be aware they are coming in, and b) if you have to dismiss those messages three times to avoid being distracted on the job - STOP. Let people know it is okay to stop when your subconscious is distracting you to the point of danger. 

4. Managers be aware of others' subconscious. No matter how approachable you are (and of course it is good leadership to be approachable) many of your team will be afraid of you. It is just a natural human trait. So how you act, how you say things, your tone of voice and the look on your face will have more effect than the actual words you say. Others' subconscious will be looking for signals about what you really mean and want. So perhaps before saying or doing anything, just do a double-check and ask yourself, "How will this affect people?" Also, perhaps spell out more clearly - without any ambiguity- what you do want. 

I know that this talk about the subconscious may seem "airy-fairy" but the subconscious is at work all day and all night. The more we understand it,the more we can do to direct it to helping us instead of hindering.