Speaking of Safety
What do safety rules, work practices, and Pavlov’s dog have to do with you?
In the early 1900’s, Russian researcher Pavlov found that if you ring a bell then feed a dog, soon all you will have to do is ring the bell and the dog will start salivating. (Remember the movie Turner and Hooch?) Pavlov referred to this as a “conditioned response”.
Written by Carl Potter, CSP, CMC A: You Are! In years past, the question of who is responsible for safety was answered with “Everyone Is”!
Until recently, it was common for companies to reward employees with cash, prizes, and awards based on lagging indicators of safety. In other words, they rewarded employees for keeping the number of accidents, incidents, and near misses low. These rewards were meant to give employees an incentive to perform their work safely.
It isn’t very often that I have a day like the one I am about to describe. After all, it started off like most days. Hurry here, get this done. Get to the airport, turn in the car, get to the gate, catch the plane…all in a day’s work. During these moments while I am waiting at the airport or when I am actually in the air flying, I get to thinking about safety, where we are now, where we have been and where we are going.
You have the policies and procedures in place. You have established smart practices for tasks. Y ou train your employees the best way to work safely so you can send them home at night in one piece to their family and then…
Written by Carl Potter, CSP, CMC Have you ever heard people in your workplace make statements about safety that just don’t ring true? Often these