Have you ever wondered why the game of darts is so popular? What is it about that yellow and black cork target and those feathered projectiles that so many people find appealing? Why does a dartboard hanging on the wall - in a bar or even a conference room - exert a magnetic pull and bring out the urge to compete for "king" of the dartboard?

The reason is simple and yet at the same time quite profound. The game of darts instantly gratifies our natural urge to be tested. We want to see how well we perform a task, even a simple one like throwing a dart at a target. The game of darts gives us something to aim for. Just as importantly, it offers immediate measurement and feedback. It appeals to our desire to keep score.

This desire for measurement and feedback - for keeping score - is critical to how we live our lives. It is also the key to the success of our safety program. For one reason, it lets us know how well we're doing. For another, it can serve as a motivating force to the extent that people in the workplace will make the effort to earn a "good score." This series will discuss how to measure safety performance and use measurement and feedback as a motivating force to exert positive change on our organization's safety culture.

The Power of Measurement

Each one of us uses measurements everyday, both consciously and sub-consciously. Sometimes the act of gathering and analyzing data is as simple as a glance at a clock or gas gauge, a look at a bank statement or a check of the stock market report or a baseball box score. Sometimes the data is more complex such as reports on cycle times and quality yields. Each of these things provides us with valuable information that affects our decision-making and behavior.

But we are also bombarded with data and not all of it is equally important. To process data effectively, we need to be able to sort the important from the less important and analyze it, sometimes in milliseconds, sometimes in minutes and sometimes in hours. We either store the data in our brain for future use or act on it right away.

What We Keep Score of

Keeping score is a way to process data. The term keeping "track" or "score" generally suggests something fun rather than weighty, an activity or measure that is important to us even though it seems trivial or minor to others. For example, we keep score in recreational activities and sporting events.

The "score" may not always be measured by numbers. Sometimes we measure our level of satisfaction, pleasure or feeling of accomplishment. We know if we had a good time whether we were fishing, playing golf, scrap-booking, exercising, playing chess or even playing tic-tac-toe. Even though these measures are more subjective, we could quantify them if we had to.

How We Typically Measure Safety

Safety, or safety performance, by contrast, is something we generally deem too complicated to "keep score" of. Traditionally, we measure "safety" by analyzing what is not safety, that is, injury statistics occurring at each plant site such as recordable injuries, lost time accidents, number of lost or restricted days, workers' compensation claims paid, etc.

But there are problems even with the data we use to measure "safety" in the traditional way. As safety professionals, we all agree that this injury data does not tell the whole story. For example, it does not indicate all that occurred; rather, it is a compilation only of what has been reported regarding undesirable events. It also doesn't indicate the quantity or quality of the effort we put forth to maintain or improve safety. The occurrence of an injury measures only failure and doesn't capture the positive things that were accomplished.

Moreover, all of these measures are "trailing" measures. They're after the fact. And they lead to after-the-fact solutions that are akin to closing the barn door after the horses have already left.

Conclusion

Current safety measurement systems don't do justice to how we are performing relative to safety. Moreover, because of their lack of positive feedback and acknowledgement of positives achieved, they often serve to de-motivate employees and cause them to maintain negative attitudes toward safety. We will look more at this next week in Part 2.

SHOPPING CARTS & INJURIES TO KIDS

Shopping cart equipped with child restraint

By Glenn Demby

Seating your kid in a shopping cart is a part of daily life. Those of us who have young children do it without thinking. Our parents did the same thing with us. Heck, that's why the things are there. They even have seat belts for crying out loud!

If I'm sounding a little defensive, there's a reason. A new study from the official journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics suggests that shopping carts aren't such a safe place for kids to be riding. Here are some of the sobering findings. In 2005:

• An estimated 24,200 children younger than 15 were treated in U.S. emergency departments for shopping cart-related injuries;
• Three-fourths of these injuries were to the head and neck;
• Four percent of victims treated were admitted to the hospital - 45 percent of them for fractures; and
• Falls are the most common cause of injury; tip-overs of the cart are second.

Sadly, some of these shopping cart-related injuries have proven fatal. The study authors recommend redesigning shopping carts to lower the center of gravity and reduce the risk of tips. In addition, they say carts should be equipped with a combination of active and passive child restraints that work automatically without having to be activated by a parent.

Source: "Shopping Cart-Related Injuries to Children," Pediatrics, Vol. 118, No. 2, August 2006, page e540, http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/118/2/e540

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