Safety Motivational Speaker Insight – Success Can Lead to Complacency
Safety Motivational Speaker Insight – Success Can Lead To Complacency
Recently, I was the safety motivational speaker at a corporate safety meeting. As I listened to the first three speakers, each giving about a 10 to 15-minute talk, I was very impressed. Before the meeting, I had visited with several employees and it was clear this organization, the employees, the union, and the leadership were all committed to safety and held it as a value.
I feverishly took notes and by the time it was my turn, I had ideas for at least four articles, this being one of them. The first speakers were an employee, the Chief Operating Officer, and a leader from one of the plants. During a break, I asked the safety person who had hired me for the event if the Chief Operating Officer would be staying or leaving after their talk. The answer was he was staying for the entire day on safety. I was thrilled! Everything about them told me they were true champions of safety. They had commitment to safety from the top leaders to the newest member of the team.
A Sober Warning
As a safety motivational speaker I told them how impressed and pleased I was. I also shared a sober warning. They reminded me of one of my earliest clients who was, also, years ago, a safety champion.
The leadership of my early client always had a senior vice president or higher level executive from their head office at any safety day event held at any of their locations. Their leadership knew how important their commitment was seen by all employees. They wouldn’t schedule anything else for the day and wouldn’t take any calls that would make them leave the meeting.
One time, the Senior Executive Vice President was at one of their nuclear power plants for it’s safety day. Sometime in the morning, he was notified his number had come up for having to take a mandatory random drug test. Obviously, he was going to have to leave the room. He was so committed to making sure everyone knew he was putting nothing ahead of the safety day, he made an announcement. He told everyone the reason he was leaving the room was that his number had come up and he would be right back after the test. That’s holding safety as a value and understanding leadership focus and participation is critical. As a safety motivational speaker I have told the story of this leaders commitment to safety many times.
The story continues…
Shortly after, I took my career as a safety motivational speaker national and began serving many more clients. In talking with someone from my early client, I found out their leadership had changed and the company had lost their vision for safety and while it was still a corporate value on paper it had no commitment from the leadership. They stopped doing safety kickoffs, safety awards dinners and safety stand downs which they had done for years. They cut back on their safety budget and staff.
It was really sad. I suspect what happened is their safety success put them in a state of complacency. The new corporate leaders, not having been there when things weren’t as safe had no idea of what it took to get there and maintain that record. They took for granted their great safety performance and assumed it was a safe company and would continue to be one.
Things went downhill and got so bad that the lack of safety focus resulted in more employee injuries. Worse yet, they had an incident which killed several non-employees who were their residential customers.
As a result of the public incident, they have been attempting to regain their safety focus. Someone asked me if they were back to where they were years ago. The answer is not yet. The reason I know this is while serving as a safety speaker at a regional event recently I saw the evidence. One of their directors had come to the event to give a talk. I was pleased to see they had resumed sending someone from the head office to the meetings.
During the break, I introduced myself to the director and gave them a copy of my book and mentioned I was speaking right after them. They said they wouldn’t get to hear my presentation as they were leaving right after their talk. My heart sunk. I thought they had regained their vision for safety but instead they were just putting on a good show. I’m sure they meant well but they were missing the point, employees notice.
Not one employee there missed the message that they had stay for the whole day but the director didn’t have or want to because they had, “more important things to do.” I wish could spend some time with their leaders to teach what they must do to once again be the safety champions they once were.
After sharing this story with my new clients at their safety meeting, I urged my current client to remain vigilant. The safety team must always remind management how much work it took to get where they are. They must make clear the major effort it takes to stay safe. Complacency is the real hazard and must always be overcome.
Solutions For Your Safety Challenges
When you need solutions for your safety challenges give Diane Weiss a call at 209-745-9419 and bring 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
© 2017 John Drebinger Presentations
Permission to use granted when credited and contact information included. www.drebinger.com +1 209.745.9419
