Humans love fireworks. They've been around for centuries - fireworks, that is; humans have been around for millennia. A spinning firework similar to ones used today made its first appearance at the end of the 12th century. I wasn't there, of course. But that's what I've read. What I have seen with my own two eyes are the annual Independence Day fireworks displays. Every July 4th, my wife Jackie and I take our rowboat out on a nearby lake and drink in the festivities. We like fireworks because they are vibrant.

This July 4th, during the most vibrant part of the display - the climax at the end - with rockets red glare and bombs bursting in air, a thought popped into my head. Wouldn't it be great if safety was as vibrant as a fireworks display? I'm talking vibrant as in attractive, exciting and energizing. Indulge me while I spin this thought a bit.

Why Is Safety Boring?

There's no good reason I can think of why safety shouldn't be at least as vibrant as a fireworks display. Fireworks are fun and games. Safety, by contrast, is a matter of life and death. What's at stake is nothing less than our survival and quality of life. Moreover, unlike a fireworks display which is choreographed and planned in advance, safety deals with matters that are unscripted. There's genuine suspense. Will we make it home at night alive or in one piece? Nobody can be completely sure.

So if safety has all the elements, why does it get such a lackluster reputation? How do we, as safety professionals, allow this vibrant subject to be associated with sheer boredom?

One reason is that the goals of the safety program tend to be negative. Instead of doing something good, we're seen as trying to prevent something bad - accidents. When you congratulate workers for not having accidents, you're basically lauding them for not messing up. Avoiding negative outcomes may be important; but it doesn't energize people or encourage them to do better.

Think about this for a minute. Imagine if the only praise a child got while growing up was "Good for you, Tammy, you only did three things wrong today, which is 40% better than your average last week." Tammy would grow up paranoid and without any true sense of what it means to accomplish something positive.

Making Safety More Vibrant

So one of the things we can do to make safety more vibrant is to turn the usual paradigms on their head. Let's start praising our people for the positive things they do, not simply for not getting involved in accidents.

I also advise my clients to back off from using their accident/injury statistics as a gauge on when, how and who to reward. Minor changes in the numbers may represent a windfall for the company, but they don't mean much to most employees. By using positive actions as a gauge for praise (turning in safety suggestions, improved housekeeping, safety contacts, meeting attendance, etc.) instead of accident statistics, employees begin to feel like they are in more control and can have a greater impact on the company or department's safety performance.

Opening Our Minds

There are all kinds of things we can do to make our programs more vibrant and energizing to our employees. But we need to be open-minded. One example of a vibrant safety initiative is theming. Organizing safety around a theme makes safety fun. It gets people to pay attention and get involved. I know it sounds corny, but it works.

Example: A safety engineer who attended my public seminar in Philadelphia last year told me that her company successfully adopted a Hawaiian theme, complete with Tiki bar (dry, of course), sand, posters, etc. Accident rates dropped dramatically; and everybody had a great time.

Tip: Make sure you change your themes so they don't get stale.

Conclusion

As safety professionals, we owe it to the people we're supposed to protect to make our programs more vibrant. Like a fireworks display with its hundreds of shapes, sounds and colors, there are a grand number of ways to bring vibrancy to our safety programs. Safety is not boring. And if we allow this life-and-death endeavor in which we are engaged to be seen as boring, I say shame on us.

DINNER RESERVATIONS
Food Poisoning at Restaurants

By Glenn Demby

Last week, a website called Healthinspections.com published a report about foodborne illness at restaurants. Using data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the report examined outbreaks of food poisoning among restaurant patrons - defined as an incident where two or more people eating the same item or at the same place got sick from bacteria such as e.coli, Norovirus and salmonella.

The report finds that there are six states with the most food poisoning outbreaks. They are, in order:

Other statistics from the report:

In many cases, foodborne illness isn't caused by tainted food but poor hygiene. More precisely, bacteria from restaurant employees' unwashed hands contaminates the food, knives, forks, spoons or plates and is transmitted to the diner.

Source: Healthinspections.com

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