Scanning and focusing

Lack of periodic scanning and excessive focusing contribute to a number of workplace injuries. Many slips, trips and falls are caused by narrowly focused attention without sufficient environmental scanning. Many harmful contacts between body parts and machinery occur because of insufficient environmental scanning for moving objects. Some injuries occur because people lose track of where their arms or legs are in relation to an environmental hazard. We’re busy, we’re rushed, we’ve got things to do after work, and then our foot gets run over by the wheel of a forklift.

It’s often critical to vary attention from scanning to focusing. Developing a critical behavior checklist (CBC) should include discussing when and how often to scan versus focus visual attention while performing a particular task. A CBC is a good coaching tool to increase the kinds of ongoing attention strategies we need in the workplace.