KEEPING YOUR SAFETY & HEALTH TEAM ALIVE (Part II)

(This is the second of a three-part series on adding new life to your HSE teams. Here’s a link to Part One.)

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Safety teams, after they’ve met for a while can lose their heart. I’ve sat through many “dead safety team meetings.” Usually, I’m attending as a consultant to help the team’s heart start beating again. Here are some of the things I get HSE teams to do to jump start their meetings:

Play Now and Again

Do something together just for the fun of it. A wise saying sometimes attributed to Plato: “You can learn more about a person in one hour of play than during a year of conversation” still holds true today. Do you want your team to mesh and to like each other? Of course you do. Then play a brief game, or go somewhere that’ll turn your team on.

Hold a meeting at a local “fun place” like a park or museum. Don’t even tell me you can’t because the “bosses” will think it’s not “work.” Let them know that you want the team to be more productive and work harder, faster and better; that’s why you want the outing. You’re not lying or trying to “pull one over” because it’s true. Your team will work harder, faster and better if they get a chance to gel by playing together now and again.

Keep The Teams’ Goals and Progress In Front of Them

This one is your classical “easy-to-do no brainer” that, like common sense, isn’t as common as you’d think. I’ve been brought in to help many teams that had no goals. Oh sure, they had a purpose “We’re trying to make it safer here.” But they didn’t have any specific, measurable goals. Goals such as having X amount of advertising throughout the plant, or having X amount of hazard reports from employees, or one of my favorites, having a specific goal for an increase in the ever- evasive near-miss reports.

Once the team has goals, they’ve got to keep them in the open and review and revise them regularly. Also, teams should have a mission statement that they regularly see. (I like to call them team mottos.)

Provide Ways For The Team To Learn and Improve Their Skills

People join safety committees for a variety of reasons. Sometimes they are volunteered, other times it’s to get out of work and often it’s to make a difference and improve the workplace. Whatever the reason they joined, guaranteed they will be a happier team member once they realize that, besides making a difference and being fun, this endeavor is going to improve their life skills.

Include brief learning sessions during your meetings. Assign a different team member to bring in some tidbit that is interesting and helpful. Keep it light and upbeat. Start each session together with a brief insight from a brilliant mind (like Aristotle’s) and you’ll see it’s a great way to start your meetings.

Recognize Individual Accomplishments

You’ll have members on every team who work harder and have more ideas than the team as a whole. Even though every starter on a professional basketball team may be an excellent player, some, like Michael Jordan, are stars. They stand out as an exceptional talent. Because of that they, at times, get more recognition than other players or the team as a whole. And they should. (Like when they break a long-standing record.) So should someone on a “safety team” who goes out of his or her way and makes an exceptional performance.

By recognizing individual accomplishments, you’ll stir on everyone to perform better, including the person who is getting an accolade. Just don’t go overboard. Be sure to also thank everyone who participates to achieve the team’s goals.

Make “Having Fun” One of The Team’s Priorities

“Fun as a priority?!” You’ve got to be kidding, especially a safety team. Safety is a serious business.” Because safety is so important is all the more reason why having fun should be one of the team’ primary goals. People (and safety teams) who have fun perform better, get along more and make fewer mistakes.

Realize this, fun and play are not the same words. To have fun doing something means to enjoy the process, to play means to engage yourself in an activity strictly for enjoyment. I’ve had fun learning deep, intricate ideas and methods. Many “fun” meetings I’ve attended have also been the most productive. (Some were even accident investigations!)

In the third part of this series, I’ll pass on some of the cutting-edge things I’ve discovered recently from working with innovative teams.