Values Drive What You Achieve – Safety Speaker John Drebinger
Another important part of my life when I am not out traveling as a safety speaker is my volunteer work. A couple of weeks ago I attended our local Boy Scout Council Recognition Dinner. We did a presentation about the 2010 National Scout Jamboree and the great success it was. So what does this have to do with safety? Simple, in the earliest planning stages of the 2010 Jamboree, safety was made a key value. In fact, the promotional material called it the “Safest Jamboree Ever”. The volunteers (some of you who read this newsletter) who planned and worked at the event did a great job.
The significant factor was that from the beginning there was a commitment to safety and it was an overriding consideration. I can assure you the 40,000 Scouts and Leaders had a great time and did so in a safe way. I watched Scouts climbing a 20 -foot signal tower using fall protection. I can assure you that the fall protection in no way limited the fun they were having, in fact, I suspect more scouts were willing to climb to the top because they didn’t have the fear of falling.
The only reason they could have this kind of fun safely was the people designing the events had safety as a value that wouldn’t be compromised and because of that they figured out a way to make it happen.
As a safety motivational speaker, I have had many mentors over the years and one of them once taught me the concept, “If you must you can.” He pointed out that if you knew you had to make something happen your brain would figure out a way. Not unlike Gene Kranz at NASA uttering the famous quote, “Failure is not an option.”
I will write more on this tomorrow.
