Safety Speakers Know To Use Emotions And Logic

As you know, I advocate learning skills from many disciplines to improve your effectiveness as a safety professional or safety team member. I have studied some of the top sales professionals in person and have read their books. I spent several days with a sales copy writer. He made a significant impact on my effectiveness as a safety speaker.

Emotion Vs. Logic

He taught us people make decisions based upon emotion. I’m sure many of you react to that statement the same way many of us in the class reacted. “That can’t be true.” Logic must be the driving force for some people. Certainly, some professions would lean more towards logic than emotion. Trust me; he made his case very well. For every exception we brought up, he was able to answer it. But what about engineers? someone asked. Even the most intellectual person makes decisions based upon emotions.

Watch Advertisers

With as much money as companies spend on television advertising, you know they have done the research. When we as safety speakers study modern television ads we see the same thing. They are emotion-based. Mazda has you buying a car because it has, “Zoom, zoom.” What the heck is that? Emotion!

Safety Speakers Must Touch People’s Emotions

Knowing people make decisions based upon emotions you know what must be done. Make sure you are giving people emotional reasons to work safely, to use personal protective equipment, and follow all safety procedures. When you have given each person their own emotional reason then they are likely to follow through even when no one is watching.

People Back Up Their Emotional Decision with Logic

Now that you know how important emotion is, let me fill you in on the importance of logic. The completion of the persuasion equation is, “People make decisions emotionally and back that emotion up with logic.” I want to buy a particular type of truck for emotional reasons; however, I will tell you it is the best performing truck in my price range and I was able to get it on sale… That is the logic defending the emotional decision. So give them some logic so you are likely to be much more effective.