If you’re interested in or responsible for workplace safety I recommend you read this recent two-part post in Safety Daily Advisor identifying the five essential stages of safety using a behavioral approach. This reprint, from the subscription-only OSHA Compliance Advisor, was written following an interview with my colleague, Judy Agnew. Judy is also author of a behavior-based safety bestseller, Removing Obstacles to Safety, which is currently being translated into Spanish.
This graphic video on the dangers of texting and driving has been viewed more than 4 million times according to an article in Monday’s New York Times.
But Anne T. McCarr, a senior vice president for research at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, explained to the paper why the video will likely do little to curtail this dangerous habit: ”When you look at something like cellphone use or texting, most people already know these behaviors are not safe, but they do them anyway…the challenge in highway safety is that we do unsafe things day after day and don’t end up in a crash, and so I think, over time, people go back to their everyday behaviors.”
She’s right. Negative sanctions need to be put in place for those who cause accidents while texting but this will achieve only limited success because of our inability to apply consistent, immediate consequences to the unsafe behavior. Because of this lack of consistent enforcement people will find clever ways to text without getting caught.
Unfortunately, texting while driving is one of the many cases where technology has advanced more rapidly than the ability to manage the behavior associated with it. The most effective short-term solution is a technological one that disables texting while the car is moving, much like the built-in GPS systems in cars that don’t allow input while the car is in motion.
Beyond the debate over texting and driving, however, the video does remind us that scare tactics alone do little to stop unsafe behavior in the workplace as everyone feels that they do things in a safe way… until they have an accident or are injured.
Rules and policies are a crucial first step to a safe environment, but a system that makes people want to comply with those rules is the key to creating a safety culture. Behavior-based safety systems, if set up correctly, do provide a much needed answer.
In your recent article for Business Week, you state “A million hours without an accident, a reduction in errors, or perfect attendance can all be accomplished by a corpse. This doesn’t qualify as valuable behavior and deserves no celebration.” I will agree with the attendance issue. But, if you are the manager of a construction site or certain manufacturing concerns, the hours or days without an accident can be an important measure of how safety is treated (and whether you are doing your job to make it important at your job site). In many engineering situations, reducing errors is a huge benefit and saves the company hordes of cash. These are signs of real progress and cannot be accomplished by a corpse. Please clarify.
