Ten Elements of Effective Safety Kickoffs Volume Two by Safety Speaker John Drebinger

Looking For Previous Articles In This Series?
This newsletter is the 2nd in a series of ten on how to have an effective safety kickoff. If you would like to read the preceding articles go to http://www.drebinger.com/?page_id=690
where they have been posted on my daily blog.

Ten Elements of Creating an Effective Safety Kickoff
#2 Audience Attention – Thursday, October 13th

If no one is paying attention it doesn’t matter how important your content is! Without audience attention, your message isn’t getting through.

I have taught presenters and safety teams for years if you want an audience to listen to you it is your job to listen to them. If you want an audience to pay attention to you then you must pay attention to them.

Now that we know our outcome is to get the audience’s attention so they will be able to listen to, participate in and then take action on what we have to present, how do we get their attention?

I’m glad you asked!

The secret is in understanding that YOU hold safety meetings to convey content and YOUR AUDIENCE pays attention not for the content but the delivery method. Sadly, the best content poorly delivered isn’t heard and doesn’t protect anyone.

How to get an audience’s attention?
The good news is there are many ways to get people’s attention. Over the years, people have said you need to have entertainment in order to teach. This is true; however, the word entertainment has a connotation to it that makes some people think you are not making the best use of time. Entertainment in a safety kickoff or any presentation is only done so the message gets carried to the audience. In fact, if you remember in my discussion of outcomes, I said everything in your kickoff should help achieve your outcome. Making the kickoff fun, entertaining, interesting or unique is only a means to help achieve your outcome. If it doesn’t help achieve the outcome then it is not appropriate.

How I Hold an Audience’s Attention
I will begin by discusssing the way I keep the audience’s attention. After that explanation, I will give you some ideas you can use if you aren’t into storytelling or magic.

I tell engaging stories, some funny, some serious, that make a point. It is good to mix it up. I also use magic tricks that convey a point. In addition to keeping people’s attention, a good story, trick, cartoon, video or other clever part of a kickoff will help people remember what you were teaching.

When I end my presentation, “Would You Watch Out For My Safety?” I do a trick in which a dollar bill is destroyed and then appears inside a fresh lemon. The trick has people talking for weeks. Yet, that isn’t my only purpose in doing the trick. While I do the trick, I explain how I received the gloves I use in the presentation from someone who was watching out for my safety. I also use it to teach everyone how they should respond when someone watches out for their safety.

A good gauge of your success in keeping the audience’s attention is when people look forward to your next safety meeting.

How You Can Hold an Audience’s Attention
Elements that help make safety fun and memorable:
• Music before a meeting and during breaks
• Entertaining videos before and during a kickoff
• Cartoons
• Visual aids that are creative and well done
• Stories told by employees
• Stories told by leadership
• Demonstrations (be sure they can see them)
• Contests
• Creative use of PowerPoint such as slide shows of employees, etc.
• Skits to illustrate safety principles.
• Games, using favorite themes of current game shows
• In the sixth article of this series, I will examine some more ideas that use participation and in the eighth article, I will discuss creativity which will allow you to come up with more ideas on your own.

What Are You Doing For Your 2012 Safety Kickoff?
If you really want to keep your audience’s attention, let me do it for you. Any one of my employee presentations listed below will achieve your safety outcome and leave your employees talking about your kickoff for months. The good news for those of you who have had me at your location in previous years is that I have several entirely different high content presentations I can do for you.

I am most proud of my latest presentation, “Would You Watch Out For My Safety.” In it, I give people five of the reasons they should watch out for others’ safety. I also discuss three reasons why many people choose not to watch out for the safety of others and then I help the audience overcome these obstacles. Next, I offer several ways of getting your people to watch out for each others safety in a way they can enjoy. I wrap the whole presentation up with what I consider to be the key to getting your entire workforce watching out for each other. I teach them how to respond when someone does watch out for their safety.

To make your 2012 Safety Kickoff a success, give Diane Weiss a call at 209-745-9419 and she will set aside a date for you before someone beats you to it. Calling our office early is especially important if you have fixed dates for your kickoff. Even if I am already booked, she can arrange a date for one of your quarterly safety meetings.

Would You Like to Share This Article With Others?
This newsletter is the 2nd 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 employess 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.