Transcription
So, you want better participation and engagement at safety meetings, do you? Then there are four things you should be talking about at your meetings.
Welcome to Safety Hearts and Minds, online courses and videos to help you energize safety, build teamwork, and get employee buy-in. Safety meetings are a legal requirement. You have to have them. But nowhere does it state that you can’t use those meetings to talk about things that make your workplace better.
When you focus on only rules, procedures, and inspections, you lose the engagement of your people. Coaches use their pre-game meetings to get buy-in to the game plan, not to cover rules and procedures. Your meetings create the team's mindset, so meetings are very important. So instead of rules, there are four things you should be talking about in safety meetings.
First, you need to make sure in every meeting you talk about accountability. Every member of your team has an obligation to be responsible for his/her actions. Getting your people to move from just following rules to an “I got this” ownership mindset doesn’t happen without accountability.
Second, teamwork. You’ve got to talk about how to work together better as a team. If you’re not talking about caring for the people you work with, and standing up for and protecting them, then you’re not actually talking about teamwork. Would your people openly speak-up if one of their fellow team members didn’t have their head in the game? They would if they were a tight team that cared about each other.
Third, you need to be talking about respect. Not just expecting it, but openly discussing it. Respect for your teammates is as important as respect for yourself. You can’t give that which you don’t own. It is so much easier to demonstrate respect for people you care about than people you don’t. That’s why solid-performing teams have a healthy respect for each other.
And lastly, you’ve got to talk about courtesy. Yes, in safety meetings. Courtesy is a major contributor to any good safety program. Courtesy is the preventative measure – the thing you do without being told. Seriously, think about this. When has courtesy ever been the reason that someone got hurt?
You can’t build a solid workplace culture without accountability, teamwork, respect, and courtesy. They don’t just magically happen. You have to talk about them. No better time than when you’ve got the whole team assembled together. So, get busy on creating your discussion points on these four subjects for your next safety meeting.
Now, if that’s helpful and you want to get more, subscribe to my weekly blog and my YouTube channel. And, coming in early 2020, watch for the launch of KevBurns Learning, online courses that build teamwork, energize safety, and get employee buy-in.