Safety Motivational Speakers – Keep Your Facts Straight – Your Credibility Is Showing

Safety Motivational Speakers – Keep Your Facts Straight – Your Credibility Is Showing

Safety motivational speakers often use stories they have heard or found from many different resources. When you send an email or tell a safety story, people used to just take your word for it. Now with smartphones and tablets in their hands, they can verify the veracity of what you just said in seconds. Several months ago in church, the pastor pointed this out during the sermon. In fact, he stated some fact or statistic and then commented, “If you don’t think that number is accurate just ask John because he probably has already looked it up and checked it on his iPad.”

By the same token, as safety motivational speakers we can check things out before we pass them on to others. It only takes a few minutes and a quick check on an internet search engine to find out the facts you need.

Some Stories are Fiction and Some Non-Fiction

The secret is to know when one type or the other is appropriate in your presentation. If you are telling a story that teaches a general principle or truth, you can use stories or parables that teach the point. On the other hand, if your story is told as if it actually happened then you better be accurate.

Several years ago, I was watching the HBO series “From the Earth to the Moon.” In one episode, a great safety decision was made. The challenge is sometimes movies take artistic license to enhance the plot or drama. As a safety speaker I wanted to use the story in one of my presentations and I needed to do some additional research first. I made a phone call to Jim McDivitt who was the Commander of the Apollo 9 mission. I asked him about the safety decision and he let me know what occurred in the movie was close but not exactly what happened. It meant the point I wanted to make wasn’t illustrated by the crew’s actions in this case.

I was glad I checked it out because it would have been far worse to have told the story and then have someone in my audience tell me the real situation. It would have damaged my credibility.

Be Careful What You Forward or Send On The Internet

How many times a week do you get what seems to be a great email warning about some virus or something that could cause you harm? Have you ever taken the time to check them out? In the past two years, of all the stories sent to me from well- meaning friends only two turned out to be accurate. On the other hand, it becomes common for me to receive a second email a couple of days later stating they found out in the mean time the original story was untrue. Protect your own credibility – check before you hit “forward.”

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 motivational speaker John Drebinger 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