Why do we say that someone is "warm-hearted" or that our "heart has been broken"? The heart is just a pump that keeps our blood circulating. We do our thinking - and our feeling - through our brains. Yet, we don't say that someone has a "warm brain" or that our "brain has been broken." Somehow, that old blood pump has become the metaphorical center of our thoughts and emotions.

And maybe we've got it right after all. New branches of science such as energy cardiology and energy medicine are discovering (or perhaps, rediscovering) the power of the "thinking heart." For my part, I've learned from extensive experience and a dash of research that to get people to change their behavior, particularly safety and health behavior, you have to strum the symbolic heartstrings.

How does a leader or company do that? I'd like to tell you about an example.

A Campaign that Touches the Heart

I just finished developing a nation-wide campaign for a retail division of BP that's entitled, "It Can Happen to Me. It Can Happen Today." Working with a savvy BP team, our mission was to reach out and touch the hearts of employees and get them to see how important it is to live safely and to divest them of the common "tragedy-won't-happen-to-me" mindset.

So far, the results have been fabulous (the program is up for a Helios Award - the most prestigious award BP grants to projects). One reason the program is doing so well is that it's in tune with what touches the heart and brings joy. The synchronization of safety message and heartfelt feeling is, I believe, a goal that you should strive for when creating your own health and safety campaigns.

5 Ways to Marry Safety and Emotion

How can a safety campaign achieve this synchronization? Here's a short list of suggestions:

1. Get employees to think and talk about what their life would be like if they suffered a serious injury. Make them be specific and get personal. For example, challenge employees to think about how a debilitating injury, like the loss of a hand or eyesight or a crippled back, would impair their ability to play with their children or grandchildren.
2. Include sad stories about the injuries sustained by others in your newsletters, e-zines, bulletin boards and safety meetings. Such true stories are, unfortunately, all too easy to find. You can use any search engine and plug-in a specific hazard or health problem. (Every year, I get the CD and booklet Could This Have Been You? which includes several stories about fatal accidents published by Bongarde Media and is available at
   www.safetysmart.com.) Editor's Note: Yes, Bongarde Media is SafetyXChange's parent company. Please be assured that we didn't ask Richard to "plug" our product. But we do appreciate the compliment. That Richard Hawk really does know how to tug on the heartstrings after all. . .
3. Include not just the sad but the heart-elating success stories about people who have avoided or battled back from injury. For example, in summer, when I talk about heat stress I use stories about people who've gotten rid of headaches, chronic fatigue symptoms and many other discomforts by becoming hydrated to encourage employees to drink water. Stories of actual people work much better than mere facts and figures (By the way, dehydrated people are less alert and more likely to make mistakes than those who are hydrated, making dehydration a serious safety issue.)
4. Make safety fun! There are few things in life more helpful to your heart than having fun. That doesn't mean you should do nothing but play. Play and fun are not the same. You can have fun while doing "work." If you enjoy your occupation, no doubt you often have fun while finishing tasks. As part of the BP campaign, employees receive a booklet to take home that's not only easy to read but includes fun and unusual trivia and even a cool section for children.
5. Show that your safety and health program is about people and not just about the company. Sure, it's good business to prevent accidents and keep employees healthy. But your campaign shouldn't be about the company's achievement but about the individual success stories that contributed to that success. So keep the statistics to a minimum. However, you can make a big fuss about major milestones; but emphasize that these milestones are not so much a statistical benchmark as the representation of individual pain and anguish avoided.

Heartstring Appeals Also Work Outside the Workplace

A few weeks ago, right after I had given a presentation, Randy, one of the attendees, came up to me and told me how he'd recently quit smoking. Randy had been a smoker since he was 10-years-old. He explained that quitting was one of the toughest things he had ever done, even though he knew in his "head" that smoking was doing him serious harm. He wanted to quit but he just couldn't.

Randy said the decision to quit was one he made more with his heart than his brain. He made the decision one fateful afternoon two years ago when his four-year-old son asked him a question: "Daddy," he asked, "when will I be old enough to smoke with you?"

It was the word "with" that got him, because he knew his little boy wanted to be like his daddy and wanted to do things with him. I don't know which one of Randy's heartstrings his son played, but it gave off a strong enough vibration to change Randy's behavior for the better. He never smoked another cigarette.

Conclusion

As a trainer, you work hard to know your material, deliver meaningful presentations and keep good records. But if you really want to change people's safety and health behavior, make sure your program plays on their heartstrings!

SEMINAR ANNOUNCEMENT
Richard Hawk in Chicago, November 3, 2006

If you'd like to spend a day with Richard and learn how to get fantastic results with your safety and health program, don't miss his next public seminar on Friday, November 3, in Chicago at the Chicago Marriott O'Hare. For more details and to register, go to: www.adlassociates.com/safety_richard_ hawk.htm

LAUGHTER AT WORK

Joke of the Week

We asked you to share jokes you use to break the ice in training sessions. Thanks to everyone who sent them in. Here's another one to share with your workers

Ghost Rider

A passenger in the backseat of a taxi leaned over to ask the driver a question; he tapped him on the shoulder.

The driver screamed, lost control of the cab, nearly hit a bus, drove up over the curb and stopped just inches from a large plate glass window.

For a moment, everything was silent in the cab. Then the still shaking driver said, "I'm sorry, but you scared the daylights out of me."

The frightened passenger apologized to the driver and said he didn't realize a mere tap on the shoulder could frighten him so much.

The driver replied, "No, no, I'm sorry. It's entirely my fault. You see, today is my first day driving a cab. For the past 25 years, I've been driving a hearse."

Submitted by
Maxton Craven
NC Division Safety Coordinator
Gold Kist Inc.
Siler City, NC

If you've got a joke or riddle you'd like to share, send them to catherinej@bongarde.com. Let us know if we can use your name/company name.

MARK YOUR CALENDARS
List of National Health and Safety Observances

A SafetyXChange reader asked: Next year I want to promote monthly safety/health awareness throughout my company. Do you know if there is a list of monthly events for safety/health? For example January is National Eye Care Month; February is American Heart Month; March is National Nutrition Month, etc.

Sue C

San Jose, CA

Answer: We've compiled a list of month-long, week-long and day-only observances. You can find it here in Tools. Do you have any dates that should be added to this list? Send them to catherinej@bongarde.com

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