Are We In A Battle?

This week I've been talking about language in our communication around workplace safety.

It was triggered by a recent post which quoted a union body and was using strong language, which I likened to fighting or battle language.

It spoke about battles, fights, standing united and similar things.

Don't get me wrong. As workplace incident investigators we see the results of fatalities, significant incidents, high potentials, and near-miss events. Some are scary. Some leave you shaking your head.

Any initiative to reduce the number of incidents is obviously a good thing, however, I suggested yesterday that we're in the business of marketing.

We're trying to get people on-board, to buy into our initiatives, to change people's thinking and similar.

And this is where we can often come unstuck.

Words are powerful and can help us. Or they can hinder us.

Are we trying to get buy-in or are we setting up for a battle with management?

Let's be clear- this isn't a battle and nor should it be. If we have a battle, then we have some big cultural issues to address first or we're always going to in an up-hill race while shackled to an immovable object.

Choose your words carefully.

Do they help the message? Or do they hinder the message?

Don't write or communicate in the heat of the moment.

Think about how someone else will perceive what you've written or want to say.

#icam #safetywise #icamtraining #investigations