Thoughts by John Drebinger coach to Safety Motivational Speakers

It’s OK – I’ll Be Extra Careful!

Have you ever seen a hazardous situation or were doing something when your brain called into question the wisdom of your next action and you went ahead anyway? As a safety motivational speaker, I have heard over and over again a worker telling someone that since they knew the guard was removed they would be more careful and that would protect them. It does seem to have some degree of logic to it. The difficulty is they may actually be setting themselves up for an incident or an injury.

What happened to me a few weeks ago was a perfect example of the process. I was sitting in my spa, which is right behind our house and overlooks a garden with trees, wild flowers, and over 75 rosebushes. We have several bird feeders, which attract over 40 species of birds. It is like sitting in an aviary where the birds aren’t in a fence. In order to enjoy the sights, I was wearing my glasses, which I need to see and read if I want the world to be in focus.

At one point, I wanted to submerge my head in order to rinse off before getting out. I took my glasses off but had a dilemma. Where should I place them? I thought I could put them on the edge of the spa and then I realized they would be at risk of being broken when I put the spa cover down. If I forgot them it could be a problem. So I thought to myself, “It will be ok because I will make sure to pick them up when I get out.” I acknowledged the hazard and trusted my brain to protect the glasses.

I then got out of the spa, put the cover down and went into the house. As I was getting dressed for the day, I looked where I put my glasses down on the bathroom counter and they weren’t there. I looked around and went out to the spa. There they were on the ground. The glass was fine but the frame had been broken. Fortunately, there is a repair facility about 25 miles away with the capability of welding them back together and making them look like new. So, spent was about 2 hours of time and about $35 that I would have saved if I stuck to my principle of never putting something in an unsafe location.

Safety is one of those things you can’t put aside even for a moment because it is often only a moment that catches you.

Using Stories To Illustrate Safety

I hope these stories help you in conveying safety to others. One of the key reasons I tell them is to be a model to you and members of your safety team to make lessons of everyday events. Think of events from this week about which you could tell a story. If you want to be one of the best safety motivational speakers you can be, stories are vital to your success.

To help you with this I am going to be continuing a series on my blog you can use for safety meetings. Each day, I will list a possible safety topic you might wish to discuss with your employees. You can find my blog on my website or you can search for my APP on your smart phone. Just search on John Drebinger in your APP Store and download it for free. It has my latest blog entries on it and many other features.