Reward
Reward folks for doing it safely, and I’m not talking about safety trinkets. I’m suggesting that sincerity in communicating our appreciation for doing a good job safely isn’t going to make anyone go broke. It is certainly going to increase the chances that the people we thank will want to do it again. Define a good job as doing their work efficiently, effectively, safely, on-time and within budget. After all…isn’t that what we really want?

Statistically significant
Say what you do, do what you say and measure often. This credo of quality management is also true for safety management. Measure and analyze the outcomes as compared with the efforts. You’ll know when you are doing the right thing because the differences will be statistically significant. Things will have changed because of what you did. If they didn’t, then you’ve probably done the wrong thing or done it in the wrong way. Adjust, then measure…you’ll get it right.

Trust your own rules
An interesting thing that humans have going for us is that our inner voices often act as a gauge as to the wisdom of our choices. If your inner voice starts to work overtime trying to tell you that the thing you are doing or about to do is wrong then you are probably trying to break your own rules for your behaviour. If the voice is yelling, “Don’t do this!” Listen.

Universal protection
Many places I visit have opted for universal protection rules. These are rules that apply to everyone in a specific location. In the shop area, you are required to wear a hard hat and safety glasses. If you enter the pump room you need to wear hearing protection. These can be great rules, and often protect us from hazards and dangers.

Universal rules are easy to establish but hard to enforce, especially if they don’t make sense to the people who need to comply. So if you’re going universal with safety rules, make sure that they make sense and actually protect your people against a real hazard. Making people wear protection they don’t need is not only impractical…it’s stupid. Treat your people with respect by making and enforcing good rules.

Vigilant
If you know what to do to make a job safe, keep doing it. Do it all the time. Be meticulous about following your rules and make sure everyone follows those rules. There is no good reason to follow safety rules only when someone is watching. Either the rule is stupid (see above) or you’re being silly for not protecting yourself from a known hazard. Make it make sense, then do it always.
 
Why?
Despite our best efforts, the unintended happens. There are many reasons for these unintended results. There are many theories about incident causation and almost all of them are based on the belief that incidents are caused by actions, inactions, oversights, human error or failure, and failure of physical things. The best incident investigation approach is to simply ask why. Keep asking why until you uncover all the reasons the unintended event happened. Then do what you can to eliminate those reasons so that the situation doesn’t happen again.

X-ray
Well there are only so many words that start with the letter X so here goes. Just like an X-ray, digging deeper than the surface will uncover what’s going on in the core. When you face a problem, don’t stop at what presents itself on the surface. Start asking why. Keep asking why until you get to a spot where you have little or no influence over the outcome.

Bill slipped on a patch of oil. Why was the oil there? The forklift is leaking. Why is the forklift leaking oil? Maintenance is backed up with work orders. Why? The foreman is on vacation and they set one of the mechanics up as relief and didn’t replace him. Why? The budget was cut this year. Why? The economic situation is such that the workload is down. Why? Well, world economic factors are influencing the customers’ confidence. Why? By now, it’s about time to say, “Just because.” When you get there, stop asking why and start to try to influence those things you can.

You
You have a responsibility to make your work and play safe for you, your family, your friends and co-workers. You. Take this responsibility personally and do what you need to do to make it happen. No one else is going to do what you need to do.

Zero
Zero injuries is what we want, don’t make the mistake of only recognizing perfection. Reward the creation of safety through sincere appreciation. Celebrate if you get to a point where no one is hurt for a long period of time. And thank people often for doing what it takes to make safety happen.

Well, there you have it — the whole alphabet covered. Talk about this at your next safety meeting, have folks think about their own list. Talking about safety can change what we think and do about safety. It’s a worthwhile exercise.

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Alan D. Quilley is the author of The Emperor Has No Hard Hat — Achieving Real Safety Results, and president of Safety Results Ltd. in Sherwood Park, Alta. You can contact Alan at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .