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Safety Economics
That Magic 5-Point Program
In his novel, Alaska, James Michener credits the British naval explorer Captain James Cook as being not just a discoverer of new lands but of new health and safety practices. Captain Cook created a five-point safety program for sailors that revolutionized the state of medical care aboard ships of the Royal Navy. Cook’s greatest accomplishment [...]
Safety Jokes
Road Trip
Guy gets pulled over by a traffic cop.
Traffic Cop: Your wife fell out of your car two blocks back
Driver: What a relief! I thought I was going deaf!
Train Trouble
Guy’s applying for a job as a railroad switchman.
Yardmaster: Tell me, what would you do if you saw two trains coming at each other on [...]
The Poem Nobody Wanted
Editor’s Note: This excerpt comes from Art’s story about how to handle rejection:
The other way to handle rejection is to brush it off and keep trying, confident that you will ultimately succeed. Let me tell you a story. It’s about a silly poem I wrote more than 30 years ago called “Pay Attention Brother.” [...]
Harnessing the Power of the ‘Critical Few’
The Italian economist, Vilfredo Pareto (see below for more about Pareto) crafted a powerful rule: 80% of your achievements come from 20% of your efforts. Actually, the rule was only named for Pareto. Its true author was the industrial efficiency expert Joseph Juran who exported it to Japan with great results. But I’m here not [...]
Vilfredo Pareto
We usually call these little biographical vignettes in SafetyXChange “Heroes of Workplace Safety.” But while Vilfredo Pareto’s accomplishments are significant, I’m loathe to characterize him as a hero for reasons that will soon become clear.
In 1848, Europe was rocked by a series of political and national revolutions. Pareto’s family, members of the Genoese nobility, were [...]
How to Handle Complaints
A young psychiatrist, haggard with the troubles of his patients, gets into the elevator of a hospital with an elderly, but sprightly, colleague.
“How on earth do you remain so youthful, sir” sighed the younger man, “listening year after year to all those terrible complaints?”
The older man shrugs his shoulders. “Who listens?”
Whether you call them gripes, [...]
The World According to Richard
Editor’s Note: Richard Hawk brings a different perspective to safety—one that is offbeat, perceptive, funny and never dull. Here are some Tidbits from Richard’s Safety Stuff newsletter that you can find at www.makesafetyfun.com.
In Ancient Egypt, warm donkey droppings were prescribed to alleviate sore eyes.
Most Americans are too chronically sleep deprived to awaken without an [...]
Cures for the Common Ear Ache
2000 B.C.: Eat this herb.
A.D. 1000: That herb is from the devil. Please chant.
1750: Chanting is from the devil. Drink this potion.
1930: That potion is snake oil. Swallow this pill.
1980: That pill is ineffective. Take this antibiotic.
2009: That antibiotic has chemicals in it. Eat this herb.
Debunking the Myth that Recession Improves Safety
In this economy, smaller health and safety budgets are to be expected. But don’t be surprised if your CEO reassures you that budget cuts won’t really hurt because safety incidents actually decline in a recession. Where in the world would a CEO get such a crazy idea? There’s actually some statistical evidence to support this [...]
June 10, 1752
As we grow old, there are certain images from childhood that we each remember. One of the images in my memory is the poster of American heroes that graced the wall of Miss Bosco’s first grade classroom. Denizens of the poster included Washington, Jefferson, Lewis and Clark and Lincoln. But the one I most remember [...]