Safety Speaker John Drebinger Disproves The Myth That Safety Is Boring

The Myth That Safety Is Boring – Insight From Safety Speaker John Drebinger

I’m sure you’ve heard someone tell you, “Safety is boring,” during the course of your career. Sadly, that is the reputation safety has throughout the workplace world-wide. One of the things I most enjoy as a safety speaker is disproving this premise.

I would suggest there are no inherently boring topics, only boring presenters or safety speakers. Perhaps a more kindly thought would be there are safety speakers who treat safety in a boring fashion.

Safety saves lives, safety brings parents home to their children, safety allows people to live the best life they can with no unnecessary limitations, safety allows people to fulfill their purpose in being alive.

How To Make Safety Dynamic

Dynamic is a good opposite of boring. Making safety interesting, compelling, dramatic, fun, unique, and exciting, makes it dynamic. By making safety dynamic you  make safety presentations much more effective. A great safety speaker knows how to make any safety topic dyanamic.

How Can You Make Safety Dynamic?

Step One: You must believe it is an interesting subject yourself. If you begin as a safety speaker by believing safety or any other topic is boring, I can assure you it will be. One way to make it dynamic for you is to get excited about the outcome, results or consequences of people taking the action you teach or train them to do. Think specifically of the families of your trainees. You may even know some of them. Get excited knowing you are changing their future by protecting the people they most care about.

A Challenge Accepted

Years ago, as a safety speaker, I accepted a challenge from some students at my full-day of safety communication training entitled, “Mastering Safety Communication.” I told them no matter what safety topic they gave me I could make it dynamic, exciting and relevant to an audience. My job was to make the audience want to pay attention and remember what they learned. The safety topic they said would be undoubtedly boring was MSDS, Material Safety Data Sheets!

I asked them for the name of a chemical I would have to talk about. They said, tri-nitrosomething or other. The name itself was enough to put an audience to sleep. The problem is they begin with talking about the chemical and not about the “why” the audience should be interested in it. I asked them what the chemical did and who they were speaking to. It turns out at this particular workplace there were only men. The chemical would do nasty things to women but since the audience was only men I worked from that viewpoint. Their answer was that if you inhaled the chemical you could experience testicular atrophy! They had my attention! In fact, I was concerned because the day before they took me on a tour of their plant and I asked if we went any where near this chemical.

Now that I had information about the chemical and why people would want to know about it, I thought for a moment and then gave the following talk.

My Solution to Their Challenge

“Good morning! Today, I want to tell you about a chemical we have in the facility, which if you inh because you choose not to use a respirator, it will cause testicular atrophy. The effect can begin with the first exposure and will become more dramatic over time.

Now, I realize many of you haven’t given the safety team and department enough respect over the years. After all, they work every day to keep you alive and allow you to return home safely every day. Many of you have taken them and their information for granted. This is partially our fault because we keep giving you lifesaving information and expect nothing in return from you. No wonder you don’t value it. People don’t give the same value to things they get for free compared to something for which they had to work.

Our remedy is to no longer just give away safety information. As you know, after our safety meetings we have traditionally had a raffle and we give away an item you might enjoy. Instead, today we are giving away an envelope with the name of the chemical and where it is located on our site. You will get this envelope as your raffle prize. What about the rest of us you ask? Simple, Bob from our safety team will be at the back of the room with a stack of envelopes for sale at $5 each.

If you don’t win or want to spend the $5 that’s up to you, just shrink away.

Now That I Have Your Attention

Actually, I will tell you the details now that I have your attention. (At this point you could give them the pertinent information they need.)

I can guarantee people would listen and remember what was said in this safety presentation. We even came up with a new label instead of the boring chemical diamond we are all used to. I suggested we put a picture of a raisin and a plum with a respirator in between to illustrate the hazard of the chemical.

Their challenge had been successfully met! I made it fun, got my point across and made it memorable.

A Look At My Technique

The key is I began by giving them a reason to want to listen. Begin with the why and you will be much more effective. Once they have the why you have given them a reason they would want the information.

How You Can Do It

The process is to ask yourself as a safety speaker what interesting story could you tell, what dramatic demonstration could you make, which would make the topic fun, interesting and effective. Most of us can remember a teacher who made their subject come alive. It wasn’t the subject, it was the skill and ability of the teacher that made this happen. I had an algebra teacher who knew how to make a positive association with math. He read from Winnie the Pooh every Friday if we did well that week. Two other teachers, Mr. Kroot and Mr. Ox, told wonderful stories and jokes. We looked forward to their classes. Sometimes the stories pertained to the course subject matter and sometimes it was just for fun. The point is they knew how to get our attention and keep it.

A Second Technique

Sometimes, you can put something fun into your safety presentation, which is totally unrelated to the lesson you are teaching. People begin to associate positive thoughts and enjoyment when they know one of your presentations is on the progress.
Sometimes the material you use to make the presentation fun also makes a point. Scott Geller uses cartoons to make his point. He found a young art student at his university to draw the cartoons he needed. That same student has continued to make new cartoons long after leaving the university. They are funny and make a point. A safety professional in the California oilfields finds music or music videos on YouTube which make a point he wants to convey.

Watch An Example of How I make it Interesting

Magic Is My Unique Element

For years, I have used magic illusions or tricks to make my presentations unique, fun, effective and memorable. Just as I have stated with previous examples, sometimes the tricks teach a point and sometimes they just break up a session to keep it fun. As a professional magician before I entered the career of a safety speaker, I had a repertoire of over seven hours of tricks I could draw from to illustrate a point.

Stories Are An Outstanding Tool

Perhaps the best and most universal way of making a safety talk or training interesting is stories. People love stories. If you have kids or grandchildren you’ve been asked over and over to tell a story. What is great about stories is they can be entertaining while also teaching a concept. Storytelling is so effective; I spend a major section of my three-day Dynamic Safety Meetings Instituteon teaching effective story telling.

If you were in an audience and the top management of your company were coming to speak most people wouldn’t be excited or looking forward to a great presentation. That doesn’t have to be the case. I have seen a few leaders who definitely hold an audience.

Good Storytellers Are Appreciated By Audiences

When I spoke at Randolph Air Force Base, the base commander was speaking before me. When it was announced he was going to drop by and speak, the room broke into applause. He was known as a great story teller. He was also very effective in making his point and having people remember it and even share it with others.

Ask yourself what can you do to make your safety presentation dynamic. Add fun, entertainment, or ,,creativity so people look forward to your presentations no matter what the subject. I have many clients who take advantage of how much my presentations are enjoyed by their employees and they have me back year after year to do a different safety topic. Fortunately, as an author, I have many different talks I can do for the same audience without repeating.

A great resource for making your presentations better is Toastmasters International. Their website is: www.toastmasters.org

Solutions For Your Safety Challenges
When you need solutions for your safety challenges give Diane Weiss a call at 209-745-9419 and bring safety speaker John to your site to discover injury preventing solutions. You can email her at diane@drebinger.com
Until next week,
I’ll be, “Watching Out For Everyone’s Safety™”
John Drebinger – Safety Motivational Speaker
© 2017 John Drebinger Presentations
Permission to use granted when credited and contact information included. www.drebinger.com +1 209.745.9419