The Safety Moment

Is there a tool that provides free, simple, effective, transformative change in the safety culture of your team and organization? No written policy, no forms, no systems to maintain and effective implementation requires minutes to achieve? A tool that is as effective as you and your team are at telling stories about what you did over the weekend?

Well… let’s explore the ‘Safety Moment’.

As humans we look to the priorities of our leaders to direct our actions. If consistency is important to them, we try to be more consistent, if beating schedule is important, we do everything we can to drive projects and tasks to closure. Most managers know this and take care to represent their priorities based on the expectations of the company; the ops manager values production, the finance director values accuracy, and HR values communication and transparency. With so many different objectives, how do we ensure that regardless of department and personality we all convey that safety is a core organizational value and is an essential part of everything we do?

One simple additive may provide a vehicle to address this challenge.

The Safety Moment:

Whenever you have a management meeting (scheduling, project start-up/update, senior staff meetings, etc.) open with the ‘Safety Moment’. Allow any team member to share an experience they have had at work, home, or in life that emphasized the value of safety. They may talk about a worker that almost got hit by a car when he didn’t have his vest on, or when they were teaching their kid to ride a bike who fell without a helmet. The person tells any story they want (within the bounds of professional decorum) and express what they think it tells us about safety. That’s it… less than 5 minutes… then we return to our regularly scheduled program.

Initially this may seem simplistic and ineffective, and when done as a one-off exercise you would be right. However, when practiced consistently it becomes a habit, and over time your teams context will shift from ‘safety is a priority’ to ‘Safety is a core value’. This attitude will be observed by direct reports who will follow the priorities of their leader. The Safety Moment allows can have the power to align teams and ensure safety is considered regardless of circumstances.

It is NOT reasonable to insist that "Safety is our number one priority" for the simple reason that priorities change. Values are consistent and present regardless of changes in circumstance and conflicting objectives. Safety as a value is a far more realistic and effective position that makes it easy to engage with safety in a world of conflict and change.

That’s it. Like I said there are no forms, no attachments, no extensive planning or strategizing. This is a tool that works for those who choose to take the initiative and make it a consistent practice. If you don’t there is no penalty, but if you do you will reap the benefits of fewer incidents and injuries, better employee morale and retention, leadership values alignment, and a more robust professional image amongst your clients and industry. The choice is yours; I hope to hear some great stories from those of you who make this a standard practice.

Thank you all and stay safe.