People-Based Safety

Self-directed safety

2006-09-14T13:58:00.000-05:00

How can we change consciously competent/other-directed behavior to consciously competent/self-directed behavior? I’m talking about facilitating a transition from safety accountability to safety responsibility.

Here are three recommendations, based on behavioral research:

* Increase feelings of empowerment: Hold people accountable for safety performance numbers they can control and set goals that are specific, motivational, achievable, relevant and trackable

* Help people feel important: Increase opportunities for choice and guide how employees customize procedures.

* Cultivate belonging and interpersonal trust: Improve interpersonal communication and build group consensus for important discussions.

Scanning and focusing

2006-09-11T09:56:00.000-05:00

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.

Determining the root cause

2006-09-07T15:10:00.000-05:00

Consider the three sides of The Safety Triad depicting environmental, behavior and person factors that affect safety performance. Environmental factors include tools, equipment, engineering design, climate and housekeeping. Then you have the behaviors, the actions of everyone relating to an incident. Finally, there are the personal internal feeling states of the people involved – their attitudes, perceptions and personality characteristics.

Given the dynamic interdependency of environment, behavior and person factors in everyday events, how can we expect to find the root cause of an incident? Analysis is needed to sort through this complex web or contributing factors.

Take a systems approach in your analysis of environment, behavior and person factors. Then decide which of these factors can be changed to reduce the chance of another incident. Environment factors are usually the easiest to define and improve, followed by behavior factors. Most difficult to define and change directly are the person factors, but many of these internal feelings can be affected positively by properly influencing behaviors.

Self-coaching

2006-09-05T12:43:00.000-05:00

Coaching is observing the activities of your co-workers and providing feedback to help them work safely. But you can also take control of your own safety and improve your behavior by self-coaching:

* Develop a checklist of critical actions you need to do and actions you need to avoid doing to prevent personal injury in a certain situation

* Using the ABC model (Activator directs a Behavior that leads to a Consequence), analyze what consequences motivate you to take safe or risky actions. Determine what barriers keep you from performing safe actions and what things influence your behavior

* Remove activators that encourage risky actions or barriers that discourage safe behavior

* Reward yourself when you choose safe action over risky ones

Positive self talk

2006-08-31T09:49:00.000-05:00

Is it possible to improve our thinking, our safety mindset, before it’s too late? Absolutely! You can intentionally control your thinking, your self talk – and use it to stay safe. The key is to stay focused in the moment, keep your mind on task and stay positive. To avoid negative self-talk, it’s a good idea to think about safety-related instructions and reminders while you work.

Here are some examples of positive self talk. You can use them as boosters when you hear yourself getting negative:

* Most incidents that result in injuries can be prevented.
* Staying safe is a good way to stay productive.
* I control my own safety.
* I influence what happens to me.
* I’m a responsible, quality-minded worker. Safety is part of the package.
* Safety is a shared responsibility.
* The workplace is safer when we watch out for each other.

2006-08-28T08:08:00.000-05:00

PBS blog, 8/28

Conversation checklist

To get the most from safety conversations:

* listen attentively
* emphasize positive actions you’ve observed
* draw out responses from the other person
* get them to tell you, in their own words, what they ought to be doing to stay safe
* ask questions with a sincere and caring demeanor
* shift the focus to future ways of improving safety
* seek a verbal commitment to embrace those ideas
* bring the conversation back to the present by developing an action plan to achieve the improvements you desire

Success seekers promote safety

2006-08-24T10:33:00.000-05:00

Success seekers are the most desirable participants in your safety improvement plans. These individuals show the highest levels of self-efficacy, personal control and optimism and are more likely to actively care for the safety and health of others. With the high expectancy for success and low fear of failure, success seekers respond to setbacks with optimistic persistence, self-assurance and a sense of personal control.

How do we increase the number of success seekers in a work group? The obvious antidote is to focus on safety achievement rather than injury avoidance. The only way to put an achievement spin on safety is to define proactive things to do for injury prevention, and then hold people accountable for achieving them. An achievement-based accountability system should put more focus on positive consequences for accomplishment, from interpersonal recognition to group celebrations. Plus, your safety scoring system should be based on proactive measures – activities accomplished to prevent injury.

Positive and negative beliefs about safety

2006-08-21T08:49:00.000-05:00

Negative beliefs: Positive beliefs
* You think you lack control over safety issues * You can control safety
* You think you lack knowledge about safety * You know enough to behave safely
* You think you lack skills to act, coach, * You have the skills to apply
think and see your way to safety People-Based Safety™
improvement
* You think you lack support and * You can support and encourage
encouragement to work safely others to work safely
* You think others will consider you * You can be a leader and set the
weird or out of touch if you follow safe example
safety rules

Mental imagery

2006-08-17T10:14:00.000-05:00

Mental imagery is using our “mind’s eye” to picture situations without actually being there. When you think about the behavioral steps or procedures needed to complete a task, you’re using mental images to rehearse the job. The more vividly individuals can imagine themselves performing desired behaviors, the greater the beneficial impact of this technique on actual performance.

For safety self-management you can use imagery to:

* clarify your safety goals
* enhance your motivation to choose the safest behavior
* build your self-efficacy, personal control or optimism
* rehearse safe acts and actively caring behaviors
* reward yourself for success at self-management

Your imagery can activate a chain of safe operating procedures, as well as motivate action. The image can also suggest the safe behavior needed to avoid injury.

Probability of injury

2006-08-14T08:18:00.000-05:00

Probability estimates the chance or likelihood an at-risk behavior or environmental condition will cause an injury. This is the most difficult kind of risk evaluation to “see.”

Probability depends on a number of factors: If your job is stocking racks in a warehouse, what is the likelihood or probability of straining your back? Many factors come into play, including age, physical strength, and how well you follow safe material handling guidelines.

It’s hard to weigh all factors related to probability. It’s best to assume the probability of any injury occurring is fairly high, and put more stock in your estimates of exposure and severity.

Bottom line: to prioritize which hazards demand the most immediate attention, evaluate environmental and behavioral risks by ranking exposure, severity and probability.

Achieving empathy

2006-08-10T08:08:00.000-05:00

Here’s how to achieve an empathetic level of awareness, which is an integral component of safety coaching.

• Take off your blinders. Minimize the reactive filters that bias conversations. They are barriers to listening intently and proactively to another person.
• Ask more questions. This is how you truly understand the other person’s position and eventually diagnose problems.
• Listen for more than words. We must also be sensitive to feelings, passion and commitment, which come across as much in body language and manner of expression as in words themselves.
• Use your imagination. When you observe another person’s work practices, try to view the situation from that individual’s perspective.
• Weigh alternatives. When you consider action plans for improvement, try to view various alternatives by putting yourself in the shoes of the other person.

Safety education stresses involvement

2006-08-08T09:05:00.000-05:00

The ultimate mission of education programs is to obtain students’ total commitment to relevant information. The student must first pay attention to the presentation and the student’s behavior reflects his or her understanding of the material and the ability and desire to apply the information.

Thus, the basic ABCs of effective education are Attention, Behavior and Commitment. In terms of safety, education that relies on lectures or videotapes won’t get past the attention state of learning unless it builds exercises into the process. Only through exercises that motivate relevant behavior can we hope for commitment. This is summarized eloquently by the well-known Commitment Principle:

* Tell them and they’ll forget, demonstrate and they’ll remember, involve them and they’ll understand.

Hazard recognition traps

2006-08-03T15:41:00.000-05:00

What is a hazard recognition trap? It’s a blind spot – something that keeps us from seeing what is right in front our nose. Three types of hazard recognition traps are:

* Distractions – your attention gets diverted when you focus on something nearby, like a loud conversation or scenery.

* Going on cruise control – how many times each day do you put yourself on cruise control because you’ve done a job so many times that it has become second nature to you?

* A false sense of security – your job may be made safer with machine guards or PPE, which might make you think it’s no longer risky. It reduces your perception of risk and causes you to work recklessly.

Hazard recognition and our ability to see the risks around us are made difficult because of traps we sometimes set for ourselves. To stay safe, you must see past your blind spots and recognize the hazards ahead of time.

An exercise in mindfulness

2006-07-31T08:44:00.000-05:00

How about this group exercise for a safety meeting? Pass out raisins to all participants at the meeting and ask them to place the raisin on their tongues. Then, request all of them to close their eyes and very slowly chew their raisins, attending to every aspect of it: its shape, texture and taste. The aim is to become aware – or mindful, of every aspect of this single raisin-eating experience.

Why would you want employees at a safety meeting eating raisins? By intentionally slowing down to eat the raisin and carefully thinking about the experience, employees learn the difference between mindful and mindless work practices, which enhances safe thinking.

How to observe

2006-07-27T13:47:00.000-05:00

One of the key skills in coaching is to observe the behavior of an employee to look for safe behavior you can encourage and risky behavior that can be corrected. The first step is to make a checklist of critical actions for the task the person is doing. Examples of critical safe actions include:

* driving a forklift at a safe speed
* removing tools from walkways when working
* using eye protection when cutting with a chainsaw

When starting out, create a short checklist of critical safe and risky actions, since a long list can be overwhelming and keep you from wanting to coach. Start small, and build the list over time.

When observing, remember you are not just looking for risky behavior, but also safe behavior to support and encourage.

Why you do what you do

2006-07-24T09:41:00.000-05:00

Before you can change behavior, you need to understand the reasons behind your actions. This is the second step in Acting.

The ABC model is a helpful tool for figuring out why you do what you do.

A = Activator
B = Behavior
C = Consequences

An Activator directs a Behavior that leads to a Consequence that supports the behavior.

Example:

Activator: Your boss tells you to be careful.
Behavior: You wear eye protection while splitting wood.
Consequence: You finish the task without an eye injury, but experience discomfort from the safety glasses pressing into the side of your head.

Consequences can cause you to change a behavior or repeat it. Will you wear safety glasses next time?

Coaching communication tools

2006-07-10T08:16:00.000-05:00

Here are nine tools to help you communicate effectively as you coach employees to work safely.

* Give feedback one on one and in private.
* Try to communicate with the employee immediately after you observe the behavior.
* Start with positive statements about what the employee did safely.
* Be objective when discussing risky behavior – focus on actions, not your feelings about the actions.
* After stating what you observe, listen to what the employee has to say.
* If you sense the employee is making excuses, don’t argue, just move on.
* Problem-solve together to find ways to increase safe actions.
* If you find barriers to safe behavior that can’t be handled right away, do the best you can right now and speak to the supervisor about them later.
* A reward for safe behavior helps make sure it happens again.

Three methods for changing behavior

2006-06-30T09:00:00.000-05:00

Awareness – employees receive a clear and persuasive rational about the need to wear safety glasses and hearing protection in a certain work area.

Awareness and commitment – employees receive the convincing rationale and then publicly sign a pledge card, promising to wear this PPE under specified circumstances.

Commitment and hypocrisy – employees publicly sign the pledge card and then develop a list of situations in which they should wear the PPE but don’t, such as when mowing the grass in their backyards.

The hypocrisy method works by creating internal tension that challenges personal integrity. How do you reduce this tension and restore a sense of integrity? Easy, simply change your behavior to make it consistent with your commitment.

Actively caring

2006-06-26T08:17:00.000-05:00

Actively caring about others might take a little more effort on your part. Why do it then? Because looking out for each other is the right thing to do. If that reason doesn’t convince you, thing about this: Actively caring benefits you. When people sense you care about them, eventually they watch out for you, too. If we all actively care about each other’s safety and health, then people – including you, won’t get hurt.

You can improve behavior by actively caring and simple actions are all that is needed to prevent injury. Ask yourself, “What should I do?” and “What should I not do?” to keep yourself and others safe.

How to celebrate safety success

2006-06-22T08:13:00.000-05:00

Surveys of safety professionals show worker morale to be top concern. Lean and mean downsizing has shaken spirits in many organizations, leading to apathy, helplessness and less willingness to look out for the safety and health of others. What can we do to respond?

Giving and receiving quality recognition are prime ways to boost morale. When done correctly, safety celebrations can be an antidote for sagging morale. They can motivate teamwork, build a sense of belonging and boost our desire to actively care for others.

Management’s primary role in a safety celebration should be to facilitate discussions of activities that led to success. The best safety celebration I observed was planned by employees and featured a series of presentations by teams of workers. Numerous safety ideas were shared. Some workers showed off new personal protection equipment, some discussed their procedures for encouraging near-hit reports and implementing corrective action and one group presented an ergonomic analysis and redesign of a workstation.

Safety celebrations can be meaningful and memorable events that serve as a stepping stone for greater achievements.

Empowering self-directed behavior

2006-06-19T12:28:00.000-05:00

Many safety professionals have learned from experience the best way to increase safety involvement is to allow the workforce to have substantial control and authority over desired safety procedures. You’re not telling people what to do in order to remain safe. Rather, you’re giving people the knowledge, tools and resources to implement a particular process that will help keep them safe.

All of this empowerment stuff is easier said than done. But surely you see advantages to this way of motivating long term participation.

Research has shown safety participation and performance can be improved by creating a link between overt behavior and self-perception. How we behave influences how we think about and define subsequent behavior. This is self-directed behavior, and it can persist without external control.

From OSHA regulations to corporate responsibility

2006-06-08T08:37:00.000-05:00

Much of the safety activities and programs in industry are perceived as driven by OSHA rather than by the companies that benefit from the safety process.

In other words, many industry personnel perceive they are doing “safety stuff” because the government requires it rather than because it was their idea and initiative.

But remember that people will be more motivated and willing to go beyond the call of duty when they perceive they are achieving their own self-initiated goals, rather than when they are merely fulfilling requirements set by an outside agency.

Communication tools

2006-06-05T12:16:00.000-05:00

Here are nine tools to help you communicate effectively when you coach your co-workers.

1. Give feedback one-on-one and in private.
2. Try to communicate with the person immediately after your observe the behavior.
3. Start with positive statements about what the person did safely.
4. When giving feedback about risky behaviors, be objective. Focus on actions, not your feelings about them.
5. After stating what you observed, listen to the employee’s feedback.
6. If you sense the person is just making excuses, don’t argue, just move on.
7. Problem-solve together to find ways to increase safe actions and decrease risky ones.
8. If you find activators or barriers to safe behavior you can’t change right away, talk to the supervisor about solving them later.
9. A reward for safe behavior helps make sure it happens again. Tell the co-worker his or her actions set a good example.

Using ESP

2006-06-01T15:04:00.000-05:00

Three characteristics of at-risk behavior determine its relative risk – exposure, severity and probability. This is the ESP approach to estimating behavioral risk.

For the ESP approach, use the letters H, M and L for high moderate and low to determine your score, and determine your own risk for injury. A high score indicates a higher risk, which means you should perform the job differently or with greater care to avoid injury.

Loss of balance injuries:

Exposure: How many times a day do you climb a ladder or a roof, walk stairs, work at heights, walk on surfaces or work with liquids or other materials that could splash and make you lose your balance ___

Severity: How badly could you be injured if you lose your balance and slip, trip or fall? ___

Probability:
Do you work at heights regardless of weather conditions? ___
Are fall protection equipment, scaffolding, slip-resistant flooring and stairs regularly inspected and maintained? ___
Do you exercise regularly for fitness and agility? ___
Are you physically fit? ___
Are slip and fall hazards regularly reported and fixed? ___
Are inspections regularly conducted to identify slip and fall hazards? ___

Given your scores, with respect to loss of balance injury; your Exposure is ___ your Severity is ___ your Probability is ___

They’re not “accidents”

2006-05-30T10:40:00.000-05:00

Did you ever stop to think that certain expressions used in the safety and health field actually hurt safety efforts? Words have a powerful influence on our attitudes and behaviors, and some words we habitually use in the safety and health field send the wrong message.

The first definition of “accident” in the New Merriam Webster Dictionary is “an event occurring by chance or unintentionally.” Are workplace accidents truly chance occurrences? Don’t we try to develop the belief and expectation that accidents can be prevented by controlling factors such as environmental conditions, behaviors and attitudes? Accident is the wrong word to use when referring to unintentional injuries. Continuing to use this term will reduce the number of people who believe accidents can be prevented.

Consequences

2006-05-26T08:25:00.000-05:00

Consequences are the reasons you don’t always act as safely as you could. Many times, you are rewarded for risky behavior – like when you get a task done faster by taking a safety shortcut. And sometimes you get punished for safe behavior – like when you wear personal protective equipment that is inconvenient or uncomfortable.

People often take risks because they know they are more likely to get an immediate positive consequence than a negative consequence after taking a safety shortcut. In this sense, people play the odds. The odds of you getting hurt are generally low. That’s why it can be hard to choose a safe behavior over a risky one that ends up giving you an immediate and certain positive consequence.

To understand how consequences influence your behavior, you can:

* List some consequences you have experienced that influenced you to repeat a critical risky action.

* List some consequences you have experienced that caused you to change a risky action to a safe one.

Hazard Recognition Traps

2006-05-22T09:52:00.000-05:00

A hazard recognition trap is a blind spot, something that keeps us from seeing what is right in front of our nose.

Distractions are a very common hazard recognition trap. Think how easily our attention gets diverted. You are driving a crew to the worksite. What distractions could cause risky behavior?

* Thinking about the job
* A loud conversation in the vehicle
* Looking at scenery or landmarks
* Adjusting the radio, CD or tape player
* A cell-phone call

You must try and see past your blind spots and hazard recognition traps to spot the hazards ahead of time.

Overcoming negative beliefs

2006-05-19T07:45:00.000-05:00

Five common reasons for negative beliefs about safety are:

1. You think you lack control over safety issues.
2. You think you lack knowledge about safety.
3. You think you lack skills to act, coach, think and see your way to safety improvement.
4. You think you lack support and encouragement to work safely.
5. You think others will consider you weird or out of touch if you follow all the safety rules.

In fact, thinking positively about safety allows you to overcome the negative beliefs:

1. You can control safety.
2. You know enough to behave safely.
3. You have the skills to apply People-Based Safety.
4. You can support and encourage others to work safely.
5. You can be a leader and set the example.

Can my self-talk really make me safe?

2006-05-15T12:53:00.000-05:00

Here are three self-talk statements that can activate smart thinking and safe behavior:

1. Safety is not a matter of luck.
2. I take pride in working safely.
3. We’ve got to look out for each other’s safety.

Let’s look at how each of these statements activates safety-related thinking and awareness.

1. I control my own safety. I have influence over what happens to me.
2. I’m a responsible, quality-minded worker. Safety is part of the package.
3. Safety is a shared responsibility. The workplace is safer when we watch out for each other and communicate.

Nondirective coaching

2006-05-11T12:23:00.000-05:00

Directive coaching means giving directions or orders without considering the other person’s point of view. Nondirective coaching is more like problem-solving, where input from the person being coached is very important.

The coach of a sports team generally uses directive coaching. During a game, coaches give orders.

Giving orders, the directive approach, works well with athletes and young children, but it doesn’t work well with co-workers.

Use non-directive coaching with co-workers. Your aim is to avoid giving orders. The coach should provide feedback of specific behaviors you observe. The other person can think about what you said. Don’t pressure him or her to change. Your co-workers are accountable to themselves. They’ll have to direct themselves to change their behavior.

Rewards Boost Good Feelings

2006-05-08T10:36:00.000-05:00

If given genuinely, interpersonal recognition, group celebration and positive feedback improve internal, unobservable aspects of people. They make you feel better. This is a worthwhile outcome by itself. Plus, it’s likely that safety-related behaviors will be indirectly improved.
Let me explain by asking: How do you feel after being rewarded for exemplary performance?
• Do you get a boost of self-esteem? Feel better about yourself?
• Do you feel more competent at the task singled out for reward?
• Are you more optimistic you’ll be successful in the future?
• Do you sense a greater degree of personal control over the activity?
• Do you feel more connected to other team members?
According to substantial psychological research, when any of these internal feelings is increased, a person’s willingness to look out for the welfare of others is also increased. So whether or not a reward increases the behavior it follows, it is apt to improve one or more feeling states that make people more likely to actively care about the safety of others.

Mental imagery

2006-05-01T10:14:00.000-05:00

What is mental imagery, and how can I use it to stay safe?

Mental imagery is using your “mind’s eye” to imagine situations without actually experiencing them. When those pictures in your mind are positive – when you focus on positive outcomes – you can become more optimistic, increase your confidence and tell yourself to work safely.

In simple terms, mental imagery can activate a chain of safe thinking and safe actions. You imagine the potential consequences of following safe versus at-risk behaviors. You expect success and the good feelings it brings. This can increase your confidence in yourself and motivate you to reach your goals.

Critical actions

2006-04-27T10:41:00.000-05:00

What’s the difference between an action and a critical action? An action is a behavior, while a critical action is a behavior that can cause or prevent an injury.

When you pinpoint critical actions, you’ll figure out how to do the task safetly. At the same time, you’ll recognize risky actions that could hurt you or others. Identifying safe and at-risk critical actions makes you aware of what it takes to remain injury-free.

Example:

Action – carrying a piece of lumber

Critical action – checking for people nearby before turning to put the lumber down

Recognition for safe behavior

2006-04-24T10:03:00.000-05:00

Most people get so little recognition from others they're caught completely off guard when it does come their way. Not knowing what to do, they might claim they don't deserve it, or see some hidden agenda at work. That's unfortunate, because sincere recognition for safe behavior provides direction and motivation, and improves attitudes towards safety.
Remember, consequences influence behaviors, making it crucial for us to react appropriately when we're praised. This is how we nurture positive reinforcement throughout the workforce.

Here are five basic guidelines for receiving recognition:

1. Don't deny it.
2. Pay attention when someone praises you.
3. Take it in – revel a bit in your recognition.
4. Return the favor by being sincerely appreciative.
5. Ask for it.

Examining an accident

2006-04-20T09:24:00.000-05:00

Think about a recent workplace accident and recall it in People-Based Safety terms, including:

* Acting – Did people pinpoint critical actions needed to prevent injury? Did they know why they were doing what they were doing? How could actively caring have changed the situation?
* Coaching – Did people observe the safe and risky actions they and others were doing? Did people communicate feedback?
* Thinking – How do you think people talked to themselves? What choices do you think were influenced by people’s self-talk? How would things have been different if they imagined themselves working safely before they began the task?
* Seeing – Did the people involved scan the environment for hazards? Was selective perception or biased interpretation a factor? Was exposure to risk considered? Was the severity or probability of risk considered?

Injuries can be avoided by applying the four components of People-Based Safety.

Self-talk

2006-04-17T08:21:00.000-05:00

Self-talk is the internal dialogue, that little voice in your head that goes on all the time. Most of the time we think before – and after, we act, except when we do something out of habit. Self-talk can boost your confidence about safety or lead you to take unnecessary risks. Your goal is to be positive when talking to yourself about safety.

What do you say to yourself? Do you put unnecessary pressure and demands on yourself that cause you to rush, or do you bend the rules or take chances?

Self-talk is important. Self-talk influences our ACTS – Acting, Coaching, Thinking and Seeing. Each of these skills – observing, giving behavior-based feedback, helping others and being able to see or recognize hazards – works better when your self-talk is supportive.

Scanning and focusing

2006-04-13T08:28:00.000-05:00

What can I do to avoid distractions and other traps that prevent me from seeing hazards?

There are two tools you can use to overcome hazard recognition traps – scanning and focusing.

We often go about our business with blinders on. When we’re busy and concentrating on a task at hand, we forget to look up and divert our attention elsewhere. So what can we do to make sure we’re not rudely surprised by a forklift that speeds around the corner, or some other risk that catches us off guard?

When you’re focusing on details, step back intermittently and take a wider view of the situation. Scan for possible risks.

Entitlement Thinking

2006-04-10T13:09:00.000-05:00

As a human dynamic, "entitlement thinking" is a belief that basic personal comforts are natural and inevitable, even owed to people. In other words, regardless of individual effort, people believe they deserve to have their basic needs met – they are "entitled." How does entitlement thinking influence participation in safety-related programs? Here are three possibilities:

1. Should employees receive prizes or a financial bonus based on injury statistics?
Such programs may simply reduce the reporting of injuries. But try removing this ineffective approach to motivating safety participation and you'll likely experience entitlement thinking.
2. Are workers entitled to an optimal "fail-safe" work environment?
I've heard employees use such entitlement thinking as an excuse for not participating in a behavior-based safety process.
3. Shouldn't employees expect their local safety professional to handle all safety-related concerns and do whatever it takes to keep the organization injury-free?
I bet many safety pros have experienced and bemoaned this entitlement perspective.

Analyzing an event using ACTS

2006-03-30T10:26:00.000-05:00

Let’s use the four parts of People-Based Safety, Acting, Coaching, Thinking and Seeing, to analyze an event that caused serious injury:

When a customer at a grocery store pulled a six-pack of beer off the top shelf, the whole display began to fall and a woman slipped on floor and cut her head.

Acting: The employees who set up the display failed to pinpoint the critical actions they needed to avoid injury. They arranged the six packs so high, they were unstable.

Coaching: If other workers had observed the employees setting up the display, they could have warned them of the danger.

Thinking: They employees who built the display were unaware of their self-talk, which led them to take risky actions. Comments like “We’ve got to hurry up, the store’s about to open” suggest poor thinking that causes accidents.

Seeing: The employees who built the display should have seen how dangerous the display was. They didn’t apply the appropriate seeing skills or underestimated the risk they saw.

Actions cause injuries

2006-03-27T14:24:00.000-05:00

To understand why injuries happen so frequently, we need to start with what we can observe – our actions.

Here are the three basic kinds of actions we take:

* We follow orders
* We direct ourselves
* We operate out of habit

When you first begin a job, you are careful to follow orders. As you gain experience, you have the confidence to direct your own actions. After repeatedly doing the same task, it becomes a habit. When people begin to direct themselves and operate out of habit, they might decide to take short cuts, a calculated risk which causes accidents. Here’s one example:

A man on a roof doing repairs fails to realize how close to the edge he’s working. He loses his footing, hits the roof and falls off.

Was he following orders? No.
Was he directing himself? Yes, he knew from experience how to do the work.
Was he operating out of habit? Possibly. If he’d done the same job over and over, he took it for granted, failed to scan to see how close he was to the edge of the roof and fell off.

Create internal tension

2006-03-20T16:22:00.000-05:00

Focusing on awareness is the typical educational approach used in safety to change behaviors and attitudes. It’s also common to combine awareness and commitment. Now evidence suggests a third method, combining commitment and the “hypocrisy effect,” listing situations when employees should do something safely, but don’t.

How can the hypocrisy effect be explained? Why does this kind of intervention influence more behavior change than standard awareness and commitment procedures?

Let’s return to the consistency principle. Given a person’s desire to keep his words in line with his actions and vice versa, having people remind themselves of an inconsistency between what they say they will do and what they actually do leads to internal conflict or tension. Social psychologists call this “cognitive dissonance.”

An example of combining commitment and hypocrisy is: employees publicly sign a pledge card to wear safety glasses and earplugs and develop a list of situations in which they should wear the PPE but don’t, such as when mowing the grass in their back yard.

This internal tension is not a pleasant state. It challenges one’s personal integrity. How do you reduce this tension and restore a sense of integrity? Easy – simply change your behavior to make it consistent with your commitment.

Perceptions and participation

2006-03-06T10:15:00.000-05:00

To truly learn more about how to prevent injuries from an analysis of an incident, we need to approach the task with a different mindset. It’s not “accident investigation,” it’s “incident analysis.” This simple substitution can have great impact on how people view the process. Here are five reasons to change our perceptions – and our language – when it comes to the old “accident investigation.”

* Gain a broader understanding of contributing factors.
* Improve communication among employees.
* Increase involvement.
* Apply system solutions
* Promote accountability

Coaches observe

2006-03-02T10:28:00.000-05:00

A key step in Coaching is to observe – looking for safe behavior you can encourage and risky behavior that should be corrected.

You can start by making a checklist of critical actions for the task the employee is doing. Critical actions are behaviors that can cause or prevent injury.

For someone climbing a ladder, critical actions include – the ladder should be set up with the base level on the ground; someone climbing a ladder should have hands free, so all tools should be in a belt; someone climbing a ladder shouldn’t lean too far left or right and should face the ladder climbing down.

If you observe an employee committing a risky action that could harm him or someone else, speak up right away. Be specific, keep your personal feelings out of it and simply note what you see happening. That way, the employee will understand exactly what he’s done and realize its risk.

Handling concerns about a new safety process

2006-02-27T10:05:00.000-05:00

Here are the six basic concerns of people when a new process or procedure is introduced in the workplace. If you anticipate and deal quickly with the critical issues people have about change, you can launch a new initiative with more participants and fewer resistors.

* Why is the change needed? – Explain the rationale behind the change. Educating people about the principles behind a new safety policy enables understanding.

* What’s in it for me? – Don’t let your people speculate on how a particular change will affect them. Be honest about the extra effort and emphasize the positive consequences.

* What will I have to do? – It’s important to convince potential participants that the new responsibilities are within their capabilities.

* Who else will be involved? – Spell out the degree of coordination and cooperation needed for success.

* How will my participation be evaluated? – Employees want to participate competently in worthwhile endeavors, but their feelings of competence are influenced by the methods used to observe and rank performance.

* Can we suggest improvements? – Leave plenty of room for individuals and work teams to derive specific procedures and encourage refinement of a new safety process.

Safety goals

2006-02-23T09:53:00.000-05:00

Safety goals should focus on process activities that can contribute to injury prevention. Workers need to discuss what they can do to reduce injuries, from reporting and analyzing near hits to conducting safety audits of environmental conditions and work practices.

The safety steering committee I worked with recently wanted to increase daily interpersonal communications regarding safety. They set a goal for their group to achieve 500 safety communications within the following month. To do this they had to develop a way to measure and track safety communications. They designed a wallet-sized SMART card for recording communications with persons about safety, and one member of the group volunteered to tally and graph the daily card totals.

The work of this group depicts safety as process-focused and achievement-oriented, rather than the standard and less effective outcome-focused and failure-oriented approach promoted with injury-based goals.

Observable behavior

2006-02-20T10:52:00.000-05:00

Whether you’re using training, feedback, injury analysis, coaching or incentives, you should focus on behavior. Why is it important to focus on behavior? You can be objective and impersonal about behavior, unlike discussion on attitudes and feelings.

Plus, behavior is affected by equipment design, the management system, the behavior shown by others and various social dynamics. Openly discussing these environmental and interpersonal influences can lead to practical modifications of the work culture.

Behavioral observation and feedback are powerful techniques to improve behavior and attitudes, but other intervention strategies can also be very effective, such as behavior-based goal-setting and incentive rewards.

The principle that incentives motivate behavior change is not wrong. Rather, the way people use incentives to promote safety can be very wrong, and can do more harm than good. The key is to focus on behavior and you’ll be on the right track. Whatever the intervention approach, focus on behavior.

"C" is for Care

2006-02-17T10:08:00.000-05:00

Safety coaching starts with caring. Safety coaches genuinely care about the health and safety of their coworkers, and they act on such caring. In other words, they “actively care.” And people are more likely to accept their advice when a safety coach’s words and body language reflect caring.

Many people are unwilling to coach or be coached for safety because they consider safety a matter of individual or personal responsibility. This is reflected in the statement, “If Susan and Chuck want to put themselves at risk, that’s their problem, not mine.” Thus, for some individuals a change in personal perspective or attitude is needed to facilitate the occurrence and acceptance of safety coaching. Everyone needs to consider safety coaching a shared responsibility or an interdependent opportunity to prevent injuries throughout their work culture. This calls for a shift from a win/lose individualistic to a win/win collectivistic frame of reference.

Empathic leadership

2006-02-02T12:44:00.000-05:00

When it comes to safety, people need your leadership. More importantly, they need the right kind of leadership. To effectively take the lead in safety, you need to know what style of leadership is required. Here are four different ways you can lead others:

* Coaching – present a plan and follow-up with support and correction to pinpoint what worked and what didn’t
* Delegating – give an assignment in general terms with limited interpersonal behavior-focused feedback
* Instructing – behavior-focused instruction works best with new hires
* Supporting – experienced workers who do the same tasks don’t need your direction but appreciate the support you give them for a job well done

Safety activity strategies

2006-01-30T15:50:00.000-05:00

Here are five strategies for cultivating the kinds of behavior, feelings and attitudes that fuel more participation in safety-related activities:

1. Focus on facts, not faults to investigate the roots of unsafe behavior. Environmental, behavioral and attitudinal factors contribute to almost every injury.
2. Diagnose carefully. Find the facts and interpret them carefully before planning a safety intervention.
3. Deliver quality recognition. The more recognition people receive, the better they feel about themselves and the more they will actively care for the safety of others.
4. Take it all in. Actively listen to recognition and ask for it when it’s deserved.
5. Celebrate success. Use tangible rewards that support the memory of an occasion by displaying a relevant safety theme or slogan.

Personality factors

2006-01-26T09:26:00.000-05:00

Some personality factors have greater impact on injury prevention than injury proneness. The four success/failure categories – failure accepter, failure avoider, success seeker and overstriver, influence people’s motivational state and their desire to participate in a prevention effort.

Optimists and people who perceive a high level of personal control are more likely to be injury preventive than pessimists. However, because of their greater expectations of personal control and positive outcomes, optimists might take more risks and be injury prone. These personality factors can influence one’s propensity for both preventing and experiencing personal injury.

Numerous other personality elements are also relevant, including belongingness, self-efficacy, introversion/extroversion, perceptions of invulnerability, conscientiousness, need for approval, impulsivity and emotional intelligence.

Understanding personality traits helps you best select targets for your safety interventions and develop interventions to improve safety-related thinking and acting.

At-risk behavior

2006-01-23T13:11:00.000-05:00

Every time an at-risk behavior occurs, someone is exposed to potential injury. The more often this behavior occurs and the more people performing it, the greater the exposure. For example, lifting a load greater than 40 pounds might not be very risky if done once, but multiply this risk by numerous employees making several lifts per day and you gain a different perspective.

Duration also contributes to risk exposure. The longer one carries a 40-pound load, the greater the exposure. The longer one resists using PPE, the greater the exposure. Conversely, one brief instance of donning certain PPE, from a hard hat to a vehicle safety belt, reduces risk exposure for the entire duration of usage.

What’s the probability that a behavior will result in an injury? Consider the act of lifting. By counting people and daily opportunities to lift per person, you can get a good estimate of exposure. But how probable is it that lifting a load greater than 40 pounds will cause a back injury or any severity? Many factors come into play – the age and physical strength of the lifter and various behavioral aspects of the lift. When lifters hold the load close and bend their knees, the probability of a back injury is greatly reduced.

Must it be measured?

2006-01-19T14:40:00.000-05:00

Managers focus on numbers, and in safety that means injury records and compensation costs. When I discuss People-Based Safety principles and procedures with managers, I inevitably get the question, “What’s the return on investment?” Managers want to know how much the process will cost and how long it will take for the numbers to improve. This analytical approach is obviously inspired by the popular management principle, “You can only manage what you can measure.”

Leaders certainly appreciate the need to hold people accountable with numbers, but they also understand you can’t measure everything. There are some things you do and ask others to do because it’s the right thing to do. Leaders believe, for example, it’s important to increase self-esteem, self-efficacy, personal control, optimism, and a sense of belonging throughout a work culture.

Self-directed behavior

2006-01-16T11:35:00.000-05:00

After learning what to do from the instructions of others, employee behavior becomes self-directed, which is valuable because employees should be responsible for their own actions. You can train employees to practice self-directed behavior by following these guidelines:

* Increase feelings of empowerment: Hold people accountable for safety performance numbers they can control. Set goals that are specific, achievable and trackable. Recognize progress toward major accomplishments. Increase the use of supportive interventions.

* Help people feel important: Increase opportunities for choice. Teach principles and demonstrate the significance of proactive and behavioral safety.

* Cultivate belonging and interpersonal trust: improve interpersonal communication. Build group consensus for important discussions. And teach the principle of reciprocity – the fact that helping others activates an obligation to return the favor.

* Teach and support safety self-management: Apply the ABC principle of behavioral safety to self-talk and self-management.

Measuring performance

2006-01-12T14:42:00.000-05:00

To successfully manage safety, we must find an ongoing objective and impartial measure of performance that allows us to regularly evaluate our progress. When employees see continuous improvement in their safety score, they recognize momentum and stay motivated to participate in the achievement-oriented process.

In People-Based Safety, we emphasize the need to:

• Develop up-stream process measures (such as number of audits completed or percentage of safe behaviors)
• Set process-oriented goals that are specific, motivational, achievable, trackable and shared
• Discuss safety performance in terms of achievement
• Recognize individuals for their accomplishments
• Celebrate group or team accomplishments

BBS/PBS training

2006-01-10T08:51:00.000-05:00

For today’s blog, Dr. Scott Geller answers two important questions about BBS and PBS training:

Is BBS training all about interpersonal observation and feedback? What are the other activities of companies doing BBS training? Why is there a history of low employee involvement?

The traditional BBS training focuses on interpersonal observation and feedback. This can be a turnoff to many employees, unless they appreciate the value of such a process. The idea of “big brother or sister watching over me” runs counter to traditional thinking, and can cause resistance. However, the proper presentation of PBS principles, which includes observation and feedback, provides appropriate rationale for a BBS observation and feedback process. Furthermore, PBS includes self-coaching or self-management, which is critical for the lone worker. Bottom line: Traditional BBS is only interpersonal, observation and feedback which is critical for injury prevention. However, PBS is more than observation and feedback, and facilitates more involvement and leads to more injury prevention.

What changes have you noticed among the employees one year after their training with PBS?

Besides a significant reduction in injuries, PBS leads to more open and trusting communication among all employees, including interpersonal communications between supervisors and line workers. The number of reported minor injuries increases, thus offering many more opportunities to correct conditions that can cause injuries. Employees feel empowered about safety. They feel free to ask questions regarding the safety of a situation or a behavioral process. Supervisors are more appreciative of their critical influence on safety related behaviors, and they adjust their supervisory behaviors appropriately. Safety suggestion boxes are often put back and receive substantial input. Bottom line: PBS facilitates more employee engagement for injury prevention. Actively caring becomes a reality.

Just world

2006-01-04T11:35:00.000-05:00

We feel safer when we can somehow blame the victim of misfortune. Fatalism is a form of self-defense that helps us maintain our belief that life is safe, orderly and predictable. But the “just world” hypothesis is a danger to workplace safety for a variety of reasons:

* It leads to more risk-taking because we don’t believe we deserve to get hurt.
* It stifles incident analysis because we blame the victim and leave it at that.
* It prevents us from getting involved in safety efforts because everything happens for a reason and people get what they deserve.
* It reduces public funding for government agencies that target occupational safety.

More lives of American workers are lost in occupational mishaps and vehicle crashes than to cancer and heart attacks combined. Yet government support for cancer and cardiovascular disease research far outweighs the amount allocated for research and interventions to prevent injuries and fatalities in the workplace. I believe the just-world hypothesis is partly responsible for this unjust situation.

Perceived risk

2005-12-30T14:56:00.000-05:00

Why are people generally underwhelmed, or unimpressed by risks or safety hazards at work? After all, the high degree of hazard exposure caused by a large work force and many hours of work makes it quite probable someone will eventually be injured on the job. Of course, the use of appropriate protective clothing or equipment can eliminate the possibility of injury in many cases. But many people don’t appreciate the value of using personal protective equipment or following safe operating procedures. Why? Their perception of risk is generally much lower than actual risk.

The more information and experience we have regarding a risk, the less risk we perceive. Recall how attentive you were to potential hazards when first introduced to the high-tech equipment of your workplace. Remember how quickly your perceived risk was lowered as the situation became more familiar, and you adjusted your behavior accordingly.

A primary challenge of every safety professional is to increase workers’ perceptions of personal risk. This is important because behavior is determined by perceived, rather than actual, risk.

Getting employees involved

2005-12-27T11:06:00.000-05:00

You can get employees involved in working safely and promoting safety among their co-workers by following these important steps:

* Convince workers routine safety activities are really worthwhile.
* Use personal testimony to show how safe actions can really make a difference.
* Educate and train workers so they’re confident they can handle safety tasks.
* Make sure they have personal control over achieving safety goals.
* Encourage expectations of achieving good results.
* Recognize individual and group safety contributions and achievements.
* Praise individuals when they go beyond the call for safety.
* Hold team celebrations for group safety achievements.

Behavior change

2005-12-22T10:30:00.000-05:00

Focusing on awareness is the typical educational approach used in safety to change behavior and attitudes. It’s also common to combine awareness and commitment. New evidence suggests a third method, combining commitment and “the hypocrisy effect,” is the most influential in bringing about the desired changes:

Awareness – employees receive a clear rationale about the need to change

Awareness + Commitment – employees receive the rational and sign a pledge card to practice the desired behavior

Commitment + Hypocrisy – employees sign the pledge card and develop a list of situations in which they should practice the desired behavior, but don’t (when workers overcome their hypocrisy, it leads to more desired behavior change than the first two methods)

Scanning and focusing

2005-12-19T09:33:00.000-05:00

The two most important “seeing” skills are scanning and focusing. Lack of periodic scanning and focusing contributes to a number of workplace injuries. Many slips, trips and falls are caused by narrowly focused attention without sufficient scanning. Many harmful contacts between body parts and machinery occur because of insufficient scanning for moving objects. Some injuries occur because people lose track of where their legs and arms are in relation to an environmental hazard. We’re busy, we’re rushed, we’ve got things to do 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 (CBX) should include discussing when and how often to scan versus focus visual attention while performing a particular task. A CBS is a good coaching tool to increase the kinds of ongoing attention strategies we need in the workplace.

Observing safe behavior and keeping score

2005-12-15T10:01:00.000-05:00

As a safety manager, you can help your employees work safely by encouraging them to observe their own behavior … and keep score.

Your employees can create checklists of safety related behaviors. Every time an opportunity for a target behavior occurs, they judge whether their behavior was safe or at-risk and mark it on the checklist. They total up the score at the end of a week and calculate their percentage of safe behavior.

Recording and scoring safe behavior will improve personal safety because it keeps employees involved and accountable to themselves. When they discover the at-risk behaviors they perform, they can remember to avoid them the next time and work safer as a result.

Coaching

2005-12-13T09:54:00.000-05:00

Coaching, one of the four skills taught in People-Based Safety, requires employees to monitor their co-workers and look for ongoing behaviors that can increase or decrease the odds of personal injury. They need to recognize and promote safe behaviors and correct at-risk behaviors in a way that will be accepted by the individual observed.

The five letters of the word “coach” can be used to remember the basic characteristics of effective coaches:

Care – Safety coaches genuinely care about the safety of their co-workers.
Observe – Safety coaches observe the behavior of others objectively and systematically.
Analyze – Safety coaches interpret their observations to understand why the behavior is occurring.
Communicate – Interpersonal communication is the cornerstone of safety coaching.
Help – The goal of a safety coach is to help co-workers prevent unintentional injury.

Positive safety talk

2005-12-07T09:28:00.000-05:00

Safety-related conversations often come across as confrontational. This points out that people expect the worst when safety feedback is offered. Here are five ways to avoid potential problems.

1. Stress that feedback is necessary. Only with specific behavior-based feedback can we improve and eventually "make perfect."
2. Be positive. When your feedback sessions are positive and constructive, they set the tone and change the association of feedback with negativity.
3. Use "trial-and-success" learning. Behavioral scientists have shown quite convincingly that we learn more from focusing on our successes than our failures. It's positive feedback from our successes that produces the most learning.
4. Be careful with public praise. Whether positive or negative, individual feedback should not be delivered publicly without the recipient's permission.
5. Sometimes give feedback first. It often makes sense to give individual feedback immediately before the next opportunity to perform the target behavior.

Prior Posts to PBS Blog on Older Blog URL

2005-12-01T13:06:00.000-05:00

The following posts were originally published on the former PBS blog site:

http://people-based--safety.blogspot.com/ -- If you have this URL bookmarked, please change it to the currrent URL: http://peoplebasedsafety.blogspot.com/

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11/02/2005
7 Training Principles

Dr. E. Scott Geller, who developed People-Based Safety™ with Coastal Training Technologies, identifies the seven most important training principles he uses in his teaching:

1. Explain why – The entire learning process is facilitated then people realize up front how they will benefit from a training program.

2. Specify objectives – It is critical to clarify what the learner will be able to do as a result of the training session. The focus is on behavior, not understanding or thinking. Explain how behavior will change as a result of the training.

3. Provide memory aides – Learning can be enhanced by memory aids. ACTS, the acronym used to describe the four key skills of People-Based Safety™-- Acting, Coaching, Thinking and Seeing, puts a positive spin on the program.

4. Inspire action and reaction – When you stimulate learners to relate training information to their own life events, it creates a personal link between their lives and the training material that makes the training more meaningful.

5. Provide feedback – By providing constructive feedback, you confirm that learners understand the material, which bolsters their accomplishment.

6. Reward on-target reactions – Emphasize the significance of the information you are teaching and express gratification whenever someone shows evidence of learning.

7. Always evaluate – Testing students at the end of a training session is valuable, because when they know a test is coming they are more mindful from the start. And they ask questions beforehand to confirm their understanding as they prepare for the test.

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9/26/2005
Introducing the people-based--safety blog!

Welcome to the "official" people-based-safety blog, hosted by leading expert E. Scott Geller, Ph.D.

Dr. Geller is an Alumni Distinguished Professor at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (popularly known as Virginia Tech), and Senior Partner, Safety Performance Solutions (SPS).

Dr. Geller and his partners at SPS help companies worldwide apply the principles and procedures of People-Based Safety (PBS). For more information, visit http://www.safetyperformance.com/ or call 540-951-7233.

Note: For information on Dr. Geller’s new book on People-Based Safety, as well as five video/CD programs, accompanied by workbooks and leader guides produced by Coastal Training Technologies Corporation, visit http://www.people-based-safety.com/ email: pbs@coastal.com; or call (888) 201-8740 for more information.

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9/26/2005
Thanks for visiting the "official" people-based-safety blog!

This post takes a look at the psychology of safety. Dr. Geller has written an excellent article titled: PSYCHOLOGY OF SAFETY: People-Based Safety™ in action: 5 distinctions from behavior-based safety

Here is the full text of the article:
PSYCHOLOGY OF SAFETY: People-Based Safety™ in action:

5 distinctions from behavior-based safety
By E. Scott Geller, Ph.D.

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In a Total Safety Culture, people Act to prevent injuries, Coach one another to identify barriers to safe acts and provide constructive behavior-based feedback, Think in ways that activate and support safe behavior, and focus and scan to See hazards. These four essentials of People-Based Safety — called “ACTS” — provide knowledge, skills, and tools to fully address the human dynamics of industrial safety.

It’s fitting the essentials of People-Based Safety (PBS) spell “ACTS,” because safety depends upon the actions of people. PBS targets attitudes, perceptions and thoughts to improve these “person states,” leading to changes in critical behaviors. If behavior or actions don’t improve — there is no bottom line benefit to safety.

People-Based Safety is no substitute for behavior-based safety (BBS), but rather extends BBS for greater impact. PBS teaches ways to self-coach and increase self-accountability for safety. Let’s look at five components of People-Based Safety, all relating to actions, distinguishing PBS from BBS.

1)Self-directed behavior

A BBS observation-and-feedback process initiates and sustains other-directed behavior. Workers increase safe behavior and decrease at-risk behavior because others — their peers — hold them accountable.

But people often work alone, and so they need to coach themselves. This requires self-accountability and self-directed behavior. People need to believe in and own the safe way of doing things.

Self-direction requires internal justification for the right behavior. This happens when external consequences supporting an action are not sufficient to totally justify the behavior. Too often people choose safe over at-risk acts only because they want to obtain a reward or avoid a penalty. These programs often get the desired behavior — while this accountability system is in place. But what happens when the external rewards or penalties are unavailable?

The key is not to over-justify safe behavior with large incentives and severe threats, but to provide education, training, and experience to help people develop a sense of personal control over preventing injuries. This includes understanding how habits can be undesirable when it comes to safety.

2) Mental awareness

Developing safe habits is a key objective of BBS. Daily repetition of an observation-and-feedback process builds “habit strength” eventually resulting in the development of safe habits. This is good, but not ideal. Habits occur without mental awareness or thoughts, as when you buckle a vehicle safety belt without thinking about it.

But what if your buckle-up behavior is so automatic you don’t notice a passenger in your vehicle is not buckled up? You could miss an opportunity to actively care for the safety of others. And you miss an opportunity to develop self-talk or thinking that supports self-direction and self-accountability.

I hope you agree self-directed or mindful behavior is more desirable than mindless, habitual behavior.

3) Personal choice

I’ve heard many BBS trainers, consultants and students claim that certain environmental cues “trigger” safe behavior. This implies that stimuli cause safety-related behavior to occur. Not true.

Some “triggers” cause involuntary behavior. The flashing blue lights of a state trooper elicit certain emotional reactions. But drivers choose to slow down and pull over. Similarly, traffic lights do not trigger or cause intersection behavior, although they may cause an emotional rush following a driver’s decision to speed through an intersection as the light changes from yellow to red.

Bottom line: There is a space between the stimulus (or activator) and voluntary behavior. Activators provide direction, but it’s up to you whether to follow the direction. Your choice is largely determined by how you perceive consequences and their importance to you. What positive consequence do you expect to gain and/or what negative consequence do you expect to avoid?

Yes, this is the standard ABC (Activator – Behavior – Consequence) Principle of BBS, but the PBS view of it takes into account one’s beliefs, perceptions, and attitude.

4) Attitudes & perceptions

“Positive reinforcement” is overused and abused by trainers and students of BBS. A consequence is a reinforcer (positive or negative) only if it increases the behavior it follows.

Attitudes and perceptions determine the motivating potential of a reward or penalty. Trainers and students of PBS realize the reinforcing power of a consequence is in the eye of the beholder. The meaning of a “safety trinket” to an individual determines whether such a consequence is viewed as positive, negative, or neutral and could motivate behavior (see my discussion of “safety mementos” in the February 2005 issue of ISHN).

It’s usually impossible to determine whether delivering a consequence actually influences the behavior it follows. Thus, the loose use of “positive reinforcement” among BBS consultants and students is risky and often inappropriate. PBS does not make this mistake. “Positive reinforcement” is not used in PBS, and the impact of positive consequences on feelings or person states is entertained and appreciated.

5) Feeling states

In PBS, positive consequences are considered “rewards,” and negative consequences are “penalties.” If these consequences don’t impact overt behavior, they will at least influence feeling states, which is important in PBS. With PBS, rewards increase self-esteem and perceptions of personal competence and control, as well as improve behavior. Research shows these feelings increase people’s willingness to actively care for the safety and health of others. Thus, PBS applications of the ABC Principle are directed to both external behaviors and internal person states.

Next month I’ll continue to explain how PBS refines and extends standard BBS concepts for greater and broader impact on the human dynamics of occupational safety.

More specifically, I’ll point out advantages of a PBS approach to safety coaching over BBS coaching.

SIDEBAR: Essentials of People-Based Safety

*Act to prevent injuries.

*Coach one another to identify barriers to safe acts and provide constructive behavior-based feedback.

*Think in ways that activate and support safe behavior.

*Focus and scan to See hazards.

These four essentials of People-Based Safety — called “ACTS” — provide knowledge, skills and tools to fully address the human dynamics of workplace safety.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

E. Scott Geller, Ph.D., is Alumni Distinguished Professor, Virginia Tech, and Senior Partner, Safety Performance Solutions (SPS). Dr. Geller and his partners at SPS help companies worldwide apply the principles and procedures of People-Based Safety (PBS). For more information, visit www.safetyperformance.com or call 540-951-7233.

Note: For information on Dr. Geller’s new book on People-Based Safety, as well as five video/CD programs, accompanied by workbooks and leader guides produced by Coastal Training Technologies Corporation, visit www.people-based-safety.com; email: pbs@coastal.com; (888) 201-8740.

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10/20/2005
Set SMART Goals

A message from E. Scott Geller, Ph.D. --Expert in People-Based Safety

Set SMART Goals

Substantial research evidence supports the use of objective goals and activators to improve behaviors, if behavior change principles are applied correctly.

Holding people accountable for numbers (outcomes) they do not believe they can control is a sure way to produce negative stress or distress. Some people won't be stressed because they won't take the goal seriously anyway.

I remember the techniques for setting effective goals with the word SMART:

* S - for specific,
* M - for motivational,
* A – for achievable,
* R - for relevant,
* T - for trackable.

Smart goal setting defines what will happen when the goal is reached and tracks progress toward achieving the goal. Feedback from completing intermediate steps toward the ultimate goal motivates continued progress. Of course, it's critical the people asked to work toward the goal "buy in" or believe in the goal and believe they have the skills and resources to achieve it.

From the book, People-Based Safety: The Source. Call 1-888-201-1150 or click here to learn more about the next evolution in safety... People-Based Safety™

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9/26/2005

Introducing the people-based--safety blog!

Welcome to the "official" people-based-safety blog, hosted by leading expert E. Scott Geller, Ph.D.

Dr. Geller is an Alumni Distinguished Professor at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (popularly known as Virginia Tech), and Senior Partner, Safety Performance Solutions (SPS).

Dr. Geller and his partners at SPS help companies worldwide apply the principles and procedures of People-Based Safety (PBS). For more information, visit http://www.safetyperformance.com/ or call 540-951-7233.

Note: For information on Dr. Geller’s new book on People-Based Safety, as well as five video/CD programs, accompanied by workbooks and leader guides produced by Coastal Training Technologies Corporation, visit http://www.people-based-safety.com/ email: pbs@coastal.com; or call (888) 201-8740 for more information.

Futility of Punishment in Safety Training

2005-12-01T12:36:00.000-05:00

According to Dr. E. Scott Geller, those responsible for safety often rely too much on punishment to correct behavior. He points out the futility of this approach in his book, People-Based Safety: The Source. Instead, the reasons for errors and calculated risks need to be discovered and addressed. Before meting out punishment, answer the following seven questions. In most cases, Dr. Geller asserts that you'll find another type of corrective action is more appropriate.

1. Was a specific rule or regulation violated?

2. Was the behavior intentional?

3. Was a rule knowingly violated?

4. How much were other employees endangered?

5. What supports the behavior?

6. How frequent is the behavior?
7. How often have others escaped punishment?