Want to Get Crew Leaders to perform Better Safety Planning in a Day?
August 2, 2018/by Barry Nelson
You can do this tomorrow if you want to help a crew leader hold a better safety planning conversation with his team.
We strongly believe (and have the evidence to back it up) that effective and engaging safety planning conversations with those closest to the work—before they start their day—is a sure-fire method to reduce workplace accidents and injuries.
Getting Right to It: 3 Simple Steps to Better Safety Planning
Here is how you can make a difference tomorrow, with just the phone in your pocket.
- Record a minute or two of your best foreman having a conversation with their crew
Before you do it, just tell them that you like their approach and you want to share it with others who could improve. If they are comfortable with the idea, do it.
The video should only be two minutes tops, and it should include both the people who are talking and the people who are listening.
- Take that recording and find the foremen that needs your help
Ask the foreman who could use improvement if they are open to getting better at how they conduct their daily planning conversations.
If the answer is “No”: Then forget the video and have a conversation about why.
If the answer is “Yes”: Ask them to watch the video of someone who you think does a good job, and to get their input on that approach. Then show them the video and have a conversation about the example you watched together, and where improvements can be made in their own approach.
Let them practice for a few days, then go capture their conversation on video. Use that video to either coach or celebrate.
- Rinse and repeat
Proceed until every crew is having the kinds of daily safety planning conversations you expect them to have, and feel they are fully effective.
This works. It is not extra work for anyone. You don’t need special gizmos or applications—just a simple camera like the one on your mobile phone.
