I recently heard a comment that I just can’t get out of my head. I was with a group of colleagues who were discussing a workplace that had experienced several accidents all in one day. One person said that this should make folks more vigilant about prevention. Another said: “They happened in a manufacturing plant.” It was a simple comment. But it was said with the conviction that accidents in a manufacturing plant are bound to happen. It came across as an acceptance, almost condoning that this was all right. I was taken aback. Accidents in a manufacturing plant are not okay. It wasn’t the few words that bothered me, it was the attitude.

Attitudes Can Jeopardize the Efforts of a Learning Organization

Many organizations today strive to create a learning organization, which can be defined as one that is continually learning new KSAs (knowledge, skills, abilities and attitudes). Workers improve their skills and then take that learning to the workplace where they apply their newly acquired knowledge and teach others, thereby raising the skills of the entire organization.

For health and safety, much effort is afforded and applied to increasing knowledge, skills and abilities. The results can often be measured and ranked with a clear picture of “where are we now.” The elusive KSA, the one not easily seen or measured is often the one that enables or impairs the learning organization. This is attitude.

How Safety Professionals Can Affect Attitude

Injury prevention and a target of zero accidents is a bold undertaking, and health and safety programs with these objectives may be asking the workforce to undergo extraordinary change. Behaviors are expected to be drastically different from past history. While increasing knowledge, skills and abilities will help effect these changes, it’s the workers’ attitudes that matters most. Why are workers’ attitudes so important? Because they’re the route to safe behavior.

Sometimes safety supervisors find they can’t always directly influence workers’ behavior. Rules may not work; training may not work. But attitudes usually drive behavior. People learn by watching others. They pay attention to what others do and what they say are teaching tools. Workers’ attitudes reflect their evaluation of what they’ve learned.

As a safety or educational professional, you can help change other’s attitudes by your own beliefs and the attitude you exhibit towards those beliefs. Let’s use prevention as an example. If you believe that accidents in your workplace can be prevented, your attitude (and your behavior) will reflect that belief. And your attitude in turn will affect what your workers believe and, ultimately, how they behave. If you can change just one attitude that injury prevention is possible and worth achieving, it can go a long way to changing lives. (By the way, if you secretly don’t believe that accidents in your workplace can be prevented, don’t fool yourself: That belief will come through in your attitude.)

Conclusion

It’s difficult to measure the culture and values of an organization; however making a contribution to changing attitudes is something everyone can take pride in being part of. Remember: What I do, what I say and how I say it can change lives and prevent accidents! Organizations that can effect this change in attitude are true learning organizations.

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