Safety Speakers Insights – Consequences and Safety

Safety Speakers and Consequences

There are many techniques safety speakers can use. If you know my work as a safety speaker, author and thought leader, you know I prefer to motivate people from a positive perspective. When people are self-motivated to work safely they will make the best safety choices even when no one is watching. Use techniques which cause people to “want” to work safely. That is why for twenty-six years I have focused on giving people reasons they would actually choose to make the safest choice. Some safety motivational speakers motivate people to work safely out of fear or “having” to do so. People naturally resist when it is perceived they are being forced. Instead of motivating people to improve their safety mindset you can actually set up resistance.

What Elements Are Necessary For Consequence-Based Motivation?

Safety speakers who attempt to motivate using consequences (negative or positive) have the same problem. Let’s look at what is necessary for consequence-based motivation to work. To be effective, consequences must be “sure” and “certain.” As with most teaching, actual research-based information gets modified by “common sense.” This has happened with consequences. Somewhere, somebody added that it must be, “sure, certain and soon.” This is incorrect. My friend, Dr. E.S Geller, pointed out to me a person who wishes to become a physician has to go through a long period of education, which means the results are not “soon” but they are certain.

I wonder if it takes a higher level of emotional intelligence for the long-term consequence to have the most power. Another example of sure and certain being the only two key criteria would be the following. A young Boy Scout will work for a few years to achieve the rank of Eagle Scout. The award is certain but is achieved long after beginning the journey.

Why Are They Ineffective?

Now that we understand consequences must be sure and certain to be effective, it will become clear why they are likely to be ineffective. Telling employees the tragic consequences of an injury, which experiential safety speakers do very well, creates a problem. The problem is consequences like that happen very rarely. All of our personal experience reinforces this. Think about it; most of the time when someone takes a shortcut nothing bad happens. Even the best experiential safety speakers confirm this in their presentations. They often share how the activity that resulted in their injury had been done by them hundreds of times before and nothing ever went wrong. This, instead of motivating people to change their behavior, actually reinforces the common belief, “It won’t happen to me.”

People’s personal evidence bears this out; they take shortcuts, text while driving and other unsafe acts and they haven’t been hurt yet.  Therefore, since the consequence of unsafe actions is not certain, it is an ineffective motivator.

Incentive Programs Follow the Same Rules

This even apples to safety incentive programs. My friends at Paulsboro Refining Company understand this and have developed an effective safety incentive program. They shared it with me when I spoke for them. Their program involves employees doing ten out of fifteen activities, which improve safety performance. The employee can be sure if they do the ten items they will receive the award, which is a gift card of predetermined value.

In contrast, many safety incentive programs are not sure and certain. For example, a program utilizing a raffle. Recently, I received a request to fill out a survey to evaluate the effectiveness of an activity a national organization implemented. They asked me to take a survey and as an incentive I would receive a one in two-hundred chance at winning a $50 gift card. Most people actually think they never win in raffles, this type of motivation is ineffective at best. I actually think they would get a better response by asking people to do the survey as a service to the organization.

Another area of incentive fails is the, “If we have no injuries this month/quarter we will have a safety luncheon or other benefit.” The major problem with this one is the individual can do nothing to make the consequence certain. Even if they work safely someone else could be injured and the prize is gone. This also has the potential for peer pressure to encourage people to not report an injury.

How to Discuss Consequences

This is not to say you should never discuss consequences. The key is not to make it your primary motivator. When you share consequences of unsafe behavior always include positive reasons why people would want to work safely. By the way, “work safely because of the impact an injury would have on your family,” is not positive motivation. It is a warning of the implied or possible consequence suffered by your family.

I teach techniques people can use immediately to want to work safely every day. If you would like this give my Meeting Planner, Diane Weiss a call today eat 209-745-9419. Or email her at diane@drebinger.com

© 2016 John Drebinger Presentations
Permission to use granted when credited and contact information included. www.drebinger.com +1 209.745.9419