Relevancy – Ten Elements of an Effective Safety Kickoff Volume Four by safety speaker John Drebinger

Ten Elements of Creating an Effective Safety Kickoff
#4 Relevancy – Thursday, October 20th

Have you ever been in an audience and wondered why you had been asked to be there? Nothing seemed to relate to what you do or how you do it. The problem was that no one had considered how relevant the material was to their entire audience.

People’s time is sacred. None of us know how many days we have left enjoying this wonderful gift of life. To waste someone’s time is to waste their life. I make sure my material is relevant to my audience out of respect to them. By the way, they will sense your respect for them and respond accordingly.

As a safety leader or team member, I am sure you face the same challenge everyday that I do. How do you make your safety message relevant to a diverse workplace? To paint an even clearer picture, let me share with you a common scenario that I encounter.

Earlier this year, I spent several days at a coal mine in Colorado. I was doing three presentations a day in order to make sure everyone had an opportunity to see and hear my message. Every audience had a mixture of office people, machinery operators, vehicle operators, mechanics, technicians, new employees, and supervisors of one level or another. The secret is to make sure your content is relevant to all members of your audience.

The technique I have used over the years is to use stories and examples to which everyone can relate. It is possible to tell a story about someone underground to which the person working in the office above can relate. The secret is in including many facets in your kickoff. In some ways, it is like the old three ring circus. There was so much going on that there was always something for everyone.

A great example of keeping something relevant is the movie Titanic. For three hours and ten minutes, James Cameron had our attention. The story had something for everyone. I am sure there were engineers in the audience saying to themselves, “If I had designed that ship it would never have sunk.” Some people enjoyed the majesty and size of the ship and the ensuing catastrophe. Others were engaged by the romance. In addition, there were those struck by the dichotomy between the first class passengers and those who traveled in steerage.

When you plan your kickoff keep everyone in mind. I talk about fall protection when I am in an office building. I ask everyone if they use fall protection as part of their job. No one ever raises their hand. Next, I ask them if they use the stairs. Almost all hands go up. I then let them know that the hand rail is fall protection and that if your hand isn’t on it you might not be able to reach it when you need it.

I even point out that your immune system will have a better chance of protecting you from the germs on the handrail than your body will survive a fall down the stairs.

Keep in mind the gender mix in your audience. Does you kickoff team have a representative membership so all members of your organization can relate? When you have a diverse safety committee, people attending your event or meeting feel better connected and therefore, are more likely to act on what they learn.

Make sure your stories come from many backgrounds. I have heard some people do nothing but sports metaphors. For those in your audience not into sports, it can actually work against you. Review in your mind or by talking to people what the interests and hobbies of your employees are.

Keep in mind all aspects of your employee base from the security people walking around your perimeter in the snow and ice of winter to the people in the office, to those on the manufacturing floor or in the operational areas of your company. The more you know about your audience, the more relavant you will be.

Audiences are involved as listeners if what is going on has value or relationship to them.

Lack of relevance is how some humor fails. On occasion, someone will tell a joke or story that fails because it is too focused on a small subgroup of the audience and they don’t get it. A joke about rap music to my son’s grandmother would not get much of a response. A good example of not being relavant is when I saw someone giving gambling instructions to someone who has never gambled in order to make their point.

The best solution to keep things relevant is to be focused on your audience instead of yourself or your team. The audience always comes first. When you think and act as an audience member you get a perspective that will make you much more effective.

Let Me Bring A Relevant Message to All Your Employees
For over twenty-one years, I have had a diverse group of people come up to me after the presentation thanking me for my message. In a room filled with both genders, many cultural backgrounds, leadership levels, and a broad spectrum of experienced workers I have been able to relate to each and everyone of them. It is common after a presentation to have an office worker and a person on the manufacturing floor thank me for the best presentation they have ever seen. To make that same connection, please call Diane Weiss to get yourself on my speaking calendar before someone else gets your date.

Would You Like to Share This Article With Others?
This newsletter is the 4th in a series of ten on how to have an effective safety kickoff. If you would like to share any of these articles go to http://www.drebinger.com/?page_id=690
where they have been posted on my daily blog. When reprinting or emailing please include credit to: John Drebinger Presentations 209-745-9419 and www.drebinger.com

Outcome Based Presentations For Your Safety Kickoff

“Would You Watch Out For My Safety?”
We tell everyone that they should be their “brothers keeper” and yet we don’t teach them how to do it. This presentation which accompanies my new book by the same title is designed to create a culture in your workplace where watching out for each other is the norm rather than the exception.

“Would You Watch Out For My Safety?” will:
• Give people the five reasons they should watch out for the safety of others.
• Explain the three reasons people fail to watch out for the safety of others and then give them a perspective that will allow them to overcome the obstacles that keep people from helping others.
• Give them specific techniques they can use immediately to share safety with someone else in a way both people will feel great.
• Finally the most important lesson of the presentation is showing people how to respond when someone watches out for their safety. This lesson ensures that people will continue to watch out for each other and will seek out ways to watch out for the safety of their fellow worker.

This presentation is so powerful that John has written a book by the same title that is provided for each attendee so they can review what they have learned and share it with their family and friends. It has been so well-received that we have already made our second printing of 5,000 copies only four months after our releasing the book.

“Ensure Your Safety”
If you want people to take personal responsibility for their own safety on and off the job this presentation is for you.

Your employees will learn:
• Why they need to take personal responsibility for their own safety.
• How to stay focused in order to ensure safe performance.
• How distractions impact their personal safety.
• How to regain their focus on safety when distractions get in the way.
• Why they want to avoid shortcuts for themselves and others.

Everyone will develop a positive association between safety and their job and understand how working safely directly benefits them and their families, today and in the future. Using magic, group participation, specific safety principles and universal truths, John will show the seasoned worker why they play a vital role in helping the “new guy” work safely by avoiding shortcuts and doing everything the safest way we know how.

John shows them why using the appropriate personal protective equipment ensures their safety even when machinery fails or human errors occur. This presentation covers safety from the time they leave home to driving safely back to their family at the end of the day.
His unique presentation breaks through the mindset of, “We have heard it all before.” His magic captures their attention, and the message they hear will make them take action resulting in fewer injuries.

“Safety as a Value”
In this completely different program, John shows your employees how to improve their own safety by sending the right message via their actions and words at work and home.

Your Employees Will Learn:
• What their real values are.
• How to convey those values to their family and friends.
• Safety is a value for everyone.

The key to his insightful approach is the premise that safety must be a personal value, and that values don’t change when conditions change, even in tough times. John will help your people raise their expectations, vision, passion, and energy to work safely and make a safer and more productive workplace.

With new stories and magic, this presentation will help your employees continue their enthusiasm and focus toward another year of safety success!

What do you want from a safety presentation?
• People to walk out saying, “That was the best safety meeting they have ever attended.”
• Everyone to talk about the safety meeting long after it is over.
• You want all of the above and most of all you want to get results. It doesn’t matter if everyone loved the speaker, their message, and yet they don’t change how they work.

John Drebinger is the only top safety speaker specifically trained to deliver an effective message. In addition to his Bachelors degree in Speech he has been a member of the National Speaker’s Association for over 16 years and has attended seminars from some of the most effective communicators in the nation.

From the descriptions listed above you have already noticed something that separates John Drebinger from other professional safety speakers. As an author and speaker he has many different presentations he can do for your employees. To help you deliver your safety message John customizes each of his presentations to convey your theme and concepts. Unlike many other safety speakers who have only one speech or story to tell, John has developed presentations that build on each other to help you improve your safety performance.

Logistics
John can do multiple presentations during the day so that all your shifts can hear his outstanding message. Diane Weiss his marketing director can help you with your scheduling as she has worked with hundreds of companies over the past twenty-one years and knows what will serve you best.

John’s presentations can be done in virtually any location. If you can safely gather an audience he can get his message to them.

These presentations are designed for employee meetings with 45 minutes to 1-hour time available.