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Category Archives: workplace safety communication

How to Use Positivity to Improve Business Performance

Written on February 6, 2012 by Marie-Claire Ross in CEOs and executives, Marketing/business development professionals, workplace safety communication
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Barbara Fredrickson is a social psychologist who has conducted extensive research into emotions and positive psychology.

In her book, Positivity, she talks about how being positive has the mind-broadening powers that allow us to be more creative.

Like daylillies, when the light is shining and we are happy we are more open to what is around us, our world literally expands and we see possibilities.  But when darkness falls, just like the daylilly that closes up, we feel alone, unable to see our bright future and despondent.

Research studies have found that when you are positive it feels good because you are literally substituting negative thoughts for happy thoughts.

But that’s not all, being positive changes the boundaries of our minds, expanding what we believe is possible.  This in turn transforms our future, as our positive thoughts literally build up our resources (from sleeping better, having closer relationships) so that when the inevitable challenges do occur we are better equipped to handle them.

She suggests that to lift our moods to being more positive, we need to increase our positive thoughts to negative thoughts.  And the ratio to strive for is 3 positive thoughts to 1 negative thought.

Positivity for Business

From a business perspective, it’s important for business leaders to look at ways to encourage staff, and themselves, to be more positive.  This is because being positive:

  1. Enables you to do what’s right for others, rather than for yourself.
  2. Broadens the mind, by expanding the scope of your visual attention, so that it expands the conceptual connections you make.  This makes us more creative, helping us to come up with more and better ideas.  When you face problems, positivity makes solutions better.
  3. Builds good physical health.  People with high positivity scores have lower levels of stress-related hormones.
  4. Builds connections with others, so that we have better interpersonal relationships.

Research has found that positive managers are more accurate and careful in making decisions, are more effective interpersonally, infect work groups with greater positivity which helps groups to work together better and faster.  They also strike the best business deals during negotiations.  In fact, business teams with a positivity ratio of 6 to 1 outperform all other types of business teams (read “Seven Factors behind creating a high-performance Business Team“).

Give Thanks

But it’s not just positive managers that can make a difference.  Just by getting staff to think of positive things, before a meeting, this positivity enables them to bring more ideas and workable solutions to any problems discussed in meetings.

One such way to do this is at the start of a team meeting to express gratitude to work members who have undertaken or jobs well done.  An example is “I appreciate Bob for helping out with my report on Monday which enabled me to meet the client’s deadline” or “Let’s be thankful team for the XYZ project we won last week”.  Just by starting business meetings on a positive note, you will find that your meetings will run much smoother and staff moods will lift.

 

 

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Seven factors behind creating a high-performance business team

Written on February 1, 2012 by Marie-Claire Ross in CEOs and executives, workplace safety communication
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In the book, Positivity, by Barbara Fredrickson, she discusses a fascinating research project about what makes businesses successful.

In the mid 1990′s, Marcial Losada undertook extensive research into the characteristics of high performance business teams.

Behind a two-way mirror, his research team observed business meetings and tracked whether statements were:

  1. Positive or negative
  2. Self-focused or other focused
  3. Based on inquiry (asking questions)
  4. Based on advocacy (defending a point of view)

Teams were then classified into high-performing if they had high ratings for: customer satisfaction, profitability and evaluations by peers, subordinates and superiors.

60 business teams were researched and of these, 25% were classified as high performing, while 30% were poor performing.

When he divided the teams into high, low and mixed performance teams striking differences emerged.

What he found was that:

  • High performance teams had high positivity ratios of 6 to 1 (or 6 positive statements made to 1 negative statement).  They also had high connectivity (which means they were responsive to one another) and they asked questions as much as they defended their own views.  They also cast their attention outward, as much as inward.
  • Mixed performance teams had ratios of 2 to 1.  As could be expected, mixed teams sat in between.
  • Low performance teams – had ratios well below 1 to 1, they were far less connected to one another, asked almost no questions and showed no outward focus (Sound familiar?  I’ve attended meetings like this and I wondered how that business managed to stay in business).

High performance teams really did outperform the other teams in more ways than one.  And while other groups crumbled under pressure, these teams carried on, asking questions, thinking through ideas and working together for a successful result. They were more flexible and resilient.

The bottom line is that positivity is linked with business success.  And for business teams to be successful, they need 6 positive to 1 negative comments.

Speaking Up

In “Candor, Criticism, Teamwork” written by Keith Ferrazzi for Harvard Business Review in January 2012, other research has also found that high performance teams have high levels of candour among team members.  High candour workplaces have colleagues speak honestly about the risks involved and other issues, rather than talking behind people’s backs.  While it is understandable that people prefer to avoid conflict, it’s debilitating for organisations.  Lack of candour contributes to slow decision making and longer cycle times.    The higher the candour, the better the business performance.

But a high candour workplace needs the right organisational culture to allow it to flourish.  In fact, low candour workplaces signify a highly politicized workplace where people do what they told and do not question anything.

Seven Steps to a High Performance Culture

The seven steps to creating a high performance team and culture is by encouraging team members to:

  1. Focus on positive statements, while only using a negative statements if it helps clarify an issue (6 to 1).
  2. Focus on what is best for the company or group rather than overly focusing on themselves.
  3. Ask questions when they do not understand issues or someone’s point of view (rather than openly criticize).
  4. Defend their point of view provided that it is for the best interests for the group, rather than for their own personal agenda or pride.
  5. Form smaller groups (5 people or less) so that opinionated people do not dominate.  A spokesperson can be nominated to report back to the larger team.
  6. Designate a “chairman” who notices when something is being left unsaid or someone cannot get their say and encourages people to speak or cover issues that are being ignored.
  7. Start sentences with “I might suggest…” rather than openly criticizing the person.

High performance teams occur when true collaboration and a positive environment is able to flourish.  This occurs when people trust one another enough to speak with candour.

Tune in to the next week about why positivity is so important for personal success.

 

 

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How to Reward Staff for Better Safety Performance

Written on January 23, 2012 by Marie-Claire Ross in CEOs and executives, safety rewards, workplace safety communication
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Many safety professionals believe they need to reward staff to get them to behave safely.

But we all know, that rewarding staff doesn’t always work.  You often get great safety performance when rewards are on offer, but once the rewards stop, the safety behaviour drops back down to the previous level (or lower).

 

The Downsides with Rewards

In the book, Drive, by Daniel Pink he goes through a lot of research studies to discover when it’s best to reward staff.

Most business managers know that goals are an important business tool as they focus the mind on undertaking a particular objective.  They help get things done.  But care needs to be taken with what you get people to focus on.

When offered a reward on completion of a task, staff tend to focus on the reward, resulting in poor performance when undertaking the task.  Offering a reward for performance encourages short-term thinking, cheating and unethical behaviour.  I’m sure many of you have experienced working for a company offering a financial or a gift card reward for safety which resulted in incidents being omitted from the monthly statistics.

Other examples include Enron who set such lofty revenue goals that staff undertook risky, unethical sales behaviour that led to the company’s demise.  While Ford released the Ford Pinto with a focus on producing a car on a certain date with a certain weight and price that it omitted important safety checks and unleashed an incredibly dangerous car (self-exploding vehicle, anyone?).

Pay me

If you pay people to lose weight, work harder or stop smoking, people will start doing the new behaviour that is required.  But once they get their reward, they don’t continue.  Money in itself isn’t a big motivator for improving performance or stopping an unhealthy habit.

However, it’s different for left-brain routine tasks, that do not require creative thinking.  Research has found that rewards can actually boost productivity without harmful side effects provided that the work is monotonous.  Examples include production line work (or putting letters into an envelope).

But for creative tasks, rewards actually decrease performance.

Pink says that if you do want to reward a design team for doing a good job, you must give them a reward after the task is done and it should be unexpected.

This is to ensure that staff focus on solving the problem, rather than the reward.

What’s a good reward?

When it comes to enhancing performance and motivating staff – the best reward is positive feedback.  It might seem a bit “twee”, but we all like to hear we are doing a good job.  And we’re not likely to cheat or exhibit unethical behaviour, just to hear our boss give us a good rap.

So long as the feedback provides useful information.  Rather than saying “Wow. You designed a great safety poster”.  Instead, give meaningful and specific information about how the poster met the objectives such as ” Wow.  That poster you designed really hits the mark.  It clearly communicates how to walk down stairs correctly”.

Four Tips to Communicate and Reward Safety Behaviours

If you have a new safety initiative that you need to communicate to staff and you know that there will be some resistance, use the following four steps to communicate and reward:

  1. Explain why the task is important – You can make mundane tasks more meaningful by explaining why the task is so important and how it relates to a larger purpose.  For example: “When delivering mail, it’s important to drive safely on your motorbike so that you customers get their mail on time and you return home in a healthy condition.  After all, there are people depending on the postal service to get their paycheque and birthday present from Grandma.  You don’t want little Billy missing out on his new Lego set”.
  2. Acknowledge that the task is boring – Be empathetic that being safe might be boring and that they’ve heard the same things over again, but let staff know that it is important.
  3. Allow people to complete the task in their own way – Give people autonomy.  State the outcome you need, but where possible, let people do it in their own way.  Give people freedom over how to do their own job.  If necessary, give them the guidelines on what safety rules they need to apply, but let them figure out how to make this work.  Once they have worked it out (and it’s working), create a document on what you want people to do (see “How finding company bright spots bring business success” for more information).
  4. Give positive feedback – After staff have undertaken a procedure safely in the right manner, let them know the reasons why they did it so well.  Make sure you give positive feedback one on one to all of your staff members.  This can also be done publicly in meetings or through the company newsletter.

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Top 6 Workplace Safety trends in 2012

Written on January 11, 2012 by Marie-Claire Ross in designing a safety campaign, workplace safety, workplace safety campaign, workplace safety communication
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Sheepdog on quad bike

Image via Wikipedia

Welcome to 2012.

Now that it’s the start of a wonderful new year, we’ve put together our list of workplace safety trends for 2012.

Given the introduction of OHS harmonisation laws across most of Australia, this has formed the basis behind most of our hypotheses.  However, we’ve also included other safety areas that have long since needed an overhaul.

Our predictions for 2012 workplace safety trends are:

1. Director’s responsibilities – Given the tough penalties corporate directors will face for unsafe workplaces, there will be a demand for executives to find out more about their responsibilities and what they need to do to improve their workplace safety.  Expect to see a plethora of executive training courses on this subject.  And executives out attending them (if they didn’t do this in 2011).

2. Safety communication initiatives – With the need to improve workplace safety, the majority of large companies will introduce large workplace safety initiatives to target areas that need fixing.  Expect to see lots of workplaces bombarded with various communications.  Unfortunately, most of these will be rushed, bandaid approaches, that will have little effect on improving safety.

3. More strikes on poor safety  - Companies that allow poor workplace safety conditions to keep occurring will have a rough 2012.  Thanks to workers at Baiada Chicken farms who have lead the way in complaining about workplace safety).  Expect to see an increase in strikes due to poor safety (and also pay increases, but that’s another subject).

4. A decrease in deaths – 2011 saw a spike in unnecessary workplace deaths, particularly in Victoria, and in many other countries across the world.  Given the need to focus on harmonisation and improve workplace safety, the amount of deaths will decrease.  Time will tell as to how short-lived this will be (no pun intended).

5. An increase in mental health programs and awareness – Thanks to initiatives like R U OK day?,  the National Mental Health reform program sponsored by the Australian Government and organisations like the CFA leading the way in providing access to a variety of mental health programs, organisations will start to realise the importance of good mental health.  More importantly, these types of initiatives will allow people to realise that they might not be themselves and seek help.  After all, it is only when people are self-aware that they will be able to get the help they need and do something to improve their lives.

6. Quad bike riders will have to wear helmets – I’ve ridden a quad bike, in an effort to round up cows on my parents-in-laws dairy farm.  And it was terrifying.  Now, I have to admit that I’m a city girl, and quite frankly, anything remotely rural scares me, but riding a quad bike up and down hills chasing stubborn cows wasn’t as fun as I’d hoped.  I was petrified.  How teenagers and adult riders can drive them without a helmet in this day and age, surprises me.  After all, if city kids have to wear a helmet when riding a scooter on smooth city streets, surely those riding an open air quad bike on uneven ground have to wear one, too?  After the high numbers of quad bike fatalities in 2011, finally, improved safety rules will be introduced for quad bikes across Australia.

 

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Four types of visuals to use in your Safety Communication

Written on December 12, 2011 by Marie-Claire Ross in safety videos, visual communication, workplace safety campaign, workplace safety communication
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In a recent online discussion with safety professionals from around the world, we discussed what types of visuals they use during their safety presentation training.

These visuals fell into a few different categories:

  1. Shock photos (that often include death and lots of blood, to ‘scare’ workers into being safe),
  2. Incorrect safety photos (that showed staff doing the wrong things),
  3. Correct safety procedure photos (that show the right behaviour), and
  4. Happy families and people (to show that being safe leads to a happy future).

Any of these types of photos can work.  The only exception was that the group felt that showing incorrect safety procedures can be a sensitive issue in companies and was not recommended.

The reasons why these types of photos work can be found in the book  Switch, by Chip and Dan Heath.   It was stated that when people make choices they rely on two basic models – consequences and identity.

Should I or Shouldn’t I?

The consequences model is well known among economic students.

It assumes that when we have a decision to make, we weigh the costs and benefits of our options and make the choice that increases our satisfaction.  It’s a very rational and analytical approach.  It’s all about choosing the option that gives us the best value.

This is when we use photos that “shock” the person into safety by showing the result of an accident that could happen to them.  It tries to appeal to their self-interest.  Or we show the right way of doing a procedure.

With the identity model, however, people make decisions based on what they believe the person who they are would make the decision.  They ask themselves “what would someone like me do in this kind of situation?”

With identity, this is getting people to think about a decision in terms of how it effects them through their group association. So it’s getting people to make decisions about about person they aspire to be (or who they already believe they are and how that person would make the decision (group affiliation includes race, religion, gender, class, occupation and countless other groups).  For example: scientists would make decisions on how a scientist is meant to make decisions by gathering lots of facts and making an objective decision). This is when you show people what they want to be (ie: safe and happy families) according to which group they believe they belong to.

Encouraging group identity is important for any company.  It’s all about your culture and getting your staff to align with your core values.  Consider fostering a group identity that encourages looking after your mates, being a safe worker or doing things in a way that only special people can that work for your company (eg: IBMers have their own name and use their core values when making decisions).  Then, you can use visuals that match group identity.

Which type of visuals do you like to use in your safety communication?

 

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Six Secret Principles to an Effective Workplace Safety Campaign

Written on October 24, 2011 by Marie-Claire Ross in communicating OHS messages, using stories in the workplace, workplace safety campaign, workplace safety communication
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In the brilliant book, Made to Stick, by Chip and Dan Heath, they discussed a 1999 research project by a team of Israeli researchers.  In this study, 200 award winning ads were classified into six templates.

They then classified 200 unsuccessful ads and found that only 2% could be classified into the six templates.

But wait there’s more…

The researchers brought in three groups of novices and got them to create three ads for three different products.  The first group received information on the products and no ad design training.  The second group was trained for two hours by a creativity instructor, while the third group was trained for two hours on the six templates.

For all groups, the best best ads were selected by a creative director and tested with consumers.

The group that was trained on the six templates was the clear winner with a 55% more positive attitude rating towards the product advertised and also rated 50% more for creativity by consumers.

The Six Secret Advertising Principles

Based on the research study, the Heath Brothers came up with six advertising principles.  These can also be used to powerfully transform your safety communication to improve message recall and understanding.  Here is a list of the SUCCES principles:

Simple – Use simple and easy to understand language.  Only communicate one core message and make it as short as possible.  Avoid decision paralysis where the more information a person is given, the harder it is for them to make a decision.  Think metaphors and proverbs that contain highly informative information in a bite-sized take away.

Unexpected – Common sense is the enemy of sticky communication.  When our brain’s guessing machine fails, it wants to work out why it was unable to guess.  This surprise grabs our attention, so that we can be prepared in the future.  By trying to work out what went wrong, our brain is more likely to remember the information.  A good example is the Enclave television ad.

YouTube Preview Image

Concrete – Information that is communicated with lots of words to describe say, a process, is called abstract.  The information can be difficult for novices to understand.  To help people understand the information you need to make it more real-life or concrete.  Give real world examples, make comparisons to other similar things that people will understand, use visuals to explain such as photos, video and diagrams.

For example:  A successful campaign that was undertaken to educate people about the high levels of saturated fat in movie popcorn was to compare the saturated fat content of a bag of popcorn as being equal to two big Macs.  Telling people that they are eating 37g of saturated fat is abstract and has no real meaning, unless you’re a dietician.  Instead, talk in a language that people can understand, which in this case was comparing the fat content to a well known high fat product.

Credibility – In Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, Robert Cialdini talks about social proof.  One way humans determine what is correct is to find out what other people think is correct.  In particular, we view behaviour as more correct in a given situation to the degree that we see others performing it.  Having credible spokespeople is important in any safety campaign.  These can be anti-heros who have been injured by an unsafe practices that are better at motivating staff to change than senior management.  After all, they’ve experienced first hand the consequences of poor safety and can talk about how it affected their life.  Viewers will look to the spokesperson to model their own behaviour.

Emotional – Despite economists wanting to believe that we make logical, unemotional decisions, the truth is hitting people’s emotions is important for change.  Giving people analytical, logical reasons to stay safe aren’t always effective.  Put emotion into your communication.  Make people care.  It can be as simple as talking about a person affected by poor safety.  Humanise it.

Story – This leads us to using stories to communicate your messages.  Stories are tremendously powerful and help provide an emotional connection to information.  They are especially useful when your audience is resistant to change or in denial about the safety issues.  Become a story finder in your company.

Sometimes you can’t include all of these in your communication, but the more you can include the better.

The most powerful way is to get a credible spokesperson telling their story which covers three principles (eg: Credibility, Emotional, Story).

How can you start to incorporate more of these principles into your communication?

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How to Design your next Safety Campaign

Written on October 14, 2011 by Marie-Claire Ross in designing a safety campaign, health and safety messages, how to communicate workplace safety messages, improving workplace communication, workplace safety communication
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Be careful of those stairs!

Now that you have worked out your topic for your next routine workplace safety campaign, it’s time to sit down and start writing.  Here are some tips that have been designed for routine workplace communication initiatives (and not for large safety communication programs that require a lot of change, for large scale initiatives go to “14 Tips to Launch a New Safety Initiative”).

1. Work out your main communication objective and your audience.  Keep yourself focused on what your are communicating about and who to.  Work out your key goals and keep these in your mind while designing your campaign (check your safety figures to see what issues you might be having that needs to be addressed).  Get out a picture or a photo of the person who represents your target audience.  Master communicators find it very useful and inspiring to look at these photos, while trying to come up with the right wording.  You can even label them and refer to them affectionately, as “Cam the Construction Man” or “Patty the Packer”.

2. Research your topic – Find as much information as you can about the topic and look for interesting facts and figures.  What can you say that topic that’s unexpected or different?  How can you break a pattern and get people’s attention?  Use this information to write your headline.  But make sure you develop one core message.  Often, it’s tempting to believe we have lots to say and we feel that we need to talk about everything around that topic to communicate safety.  Yet, research has proven that too many messages confuse people.  Write your communication with one clear message in mind.  Every time you add content question whether it is part of your core message.  Remember, simple clear messages are easy for people to understand and recall.  Steve Jobs was a master of the core message in each of his famous Apple presentations.  Think “1000 songs in your pocket” for the iPod.

3. Keep your writing short – Once the brain has to work hard at what communication is trying to say, it begins to lose interest.  Always ensure your communication is clear and people don’t need to work at deciphering the information.  Use short words (5 characters or less), sentences (17 words or less) and even paragraphs.  Be friends with white space avoiding cramming lots of text into your communication.  Write at the reading level of a high school student.  And use positive language.

4. Write the announcement – Now that you’ve done some research and you’ve honed your writing skills, it’s time to get writing.  Remember, how can you make the headline interesting?  What can you say that is counter-intuitive to the message?  Common sense will not get you noticed.  What interesting facts do you have about the safety focus that will grab people’s attention?  Use the funnel method of writing where you explain your core message in your first paragraph (what, when, why, how where) and then write your medium important information in the next paragraph, followed by the third important information etc.  Avoid giving lots of details in the first paragraph.  Instead, make the first paragraph interesting, so that it draws people into the detailed information (but not necessarily the most important information).

Here’s an example in relation to slips, trips and falls:

 

Falling Down Stairs kills more people than Sharks

Did you know that you’re more likely to injure yourself by falling down stairs than by being attacked by a shark?  Stairs represent a serious injury risk and are one of the most common causes of injury at the workplace.

And here at XYZ, they represent our most common form of injury.  You can avoid falling down the stairs by:

  • Always having three points of contact
  • Avoiding talking or texting while going up or down the stairs
  • Ensuring that stairs are clear and are not used for storage of items.


5. Use lots of visuals – Humans recall and understand visual information much faster than words.  And they grab our attention.  Always include a photo or picture that best represents your information.  Where possible, use human faces, as we are very drawn to looking at other people.  Emotional imagery also is more likely to get people to change.  Always consider including different colours, video, diagrams and pictures whenever you need to create high impact communication materials.

6. Repeat your message in many different ways – Advertisers know that for humans to even recall a television ad they need to see it at least six times.  And the more they are exposed to the ad in different formats such as radio, bus posters and magazine ads, the better the results.  With any campaign you create, you will also need to create a calendar of communication events.  Ideally, you must plot out a different communication activity every week for the next 2 months with the same consistent message.  Include posters, toolbox meetings, video content, personal letters from the General Manager, email newsletters, stickers and staff stories.  Remember, frequency is key and using a variety of communication formats.  Make sure all of the communication has the same consistent core message with matching visuals.

Writing safety communication information generally isn’t the most favourite job of a safety professional.  Rather than approach safety communication in the usual fashion and producing mediocre results, use these tips to engage your staff and make communication fun.

 

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How to get Senior Leaders More Involved in Company Communication

Written on July 4, 2011 by Marie-Claire Ross in CEO workplace safety speech, CEOs and workplace safety, communicating OHS messages, senior management communication, workplace safety communication
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Anchor-handling tugboats battle the blazing re...
Incidents like the BP disaster have been blamed on poor senior communication. Image via Wikipedia

Senior leaders drive the culture of the company.  It’s crucial that they are seen and involved with induction training as a way of welcoming new starters.  And that they are vocally behind any new company initiatives.  In the words, of Dick Brown “The culture of a company is the behaviours of it’s leaders.  Leaders get the behaviour they exhibit and tolerate“.

Margaret Heffernan author of the book Wilful Blindness found that the BP Oil disaster was at some level caused by senior leaders who were cut off from how the business operates.  Their assumed power gave them a distorted view of their own skills which made them rely on snap judgements and received wisdom.  Heffernan says “It’s power.  Not your power.  It makes you intrinsically more optimistic and detached from the reality of the world.  You become psychologically cut off”.

That is why CEO’s that have been involved with the Undercover Boss series learn so much about their company when they go undercover and work at a variety of job roles within their own organisation.  Recently, in Australia this has been highlighted in a small safety undercover study called “The Skeleton Project”.

Rose Coloured Glasses

Back when I was a young, green and keen market research manager, I quite innocently told the Managing Director and Owner of the Market Research firm I worked for that everyone was always nice to him because he was the boss.  He was shocked at that suggestion believing that people genuinely liked him because he was a great guy.  His denial meant that he would constantly flirt with the young female staff because he believed that he was cool.  He wasn’t.  And my comment pretty much stopped me from being able to continue working there.  His ego couldn’t cope with the obvious truth.

Many companies end up with powerful executives who are surrounded by people who act as buffers and who omit the whole truth.  They are always prepared to give the boss a candy coated version of events, despite the reality.

Successful company leaders ask lots of questions about the company and surround themselves with people who will tell them the truth.

And just like Kris Cole said in last week’s article “leaders should not just talk, but the other half of talking – listening.  You know, even leaders have two ears and only one mouth and even leaders should use them in those proportions”.

For senior leaders to be able to communicate effectively with workers means that they really have to be able to ‘walk in their shoes”.  Great leaders manage by walking around and talking to people, no matter what their level.

And with this knowledge, they are able to give more truthful and believable presentations to their staff with real information that’s required.

Walking the talk

Workers don’t take speeches on-board, it is action that they want to see.  It’s important that senior management support all company initiatives by being involved in roll-out presentations, taking action on any behaviour that is contradictory and discussing measures to track progress.

Senior leaders need to:

  • use stories and metaphors to help people understand their messages.
  • talk in ‘word pictures’.
  • use actual visuals that explain information more quickly than words alone.

Being Real

There are times when senior leaders are too busy to communicate with workers on a regular basis.

An effective time-saving method is for them to be filmed introducing a new initiative that gives an explanation of why, what, how, when and where the new initiative will be implemented.

Their script must be written in their own words and be conversational and friendly.  Viewers will be turned off if they even get a sniff of superficial words and posturings.  Where possible, clear visuals, stories and ‘word pictures’ should be used for optimal results.

And once that is done and distributed, the work doesn’t stop there, senior leaders must publicly announce the results of the new initiative and seen to be involved at keeping the initiative on track.

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For Safety Professionals: An interview with Communications Specialist Kris Cole

Written on June 27, 2011 by Marie-Claire Ross in improving workplace communication, workplace safety communication, workplace safety consultant, workplace safety meetings
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Photo courtesy of The Australian by Morne de Klerk, www.photographylife.com.au

Kris Cole is the author of Crystal Clear Communication a fabulous book that gives you the skills for understanding and being understood.  She is a corporate trainer, international speaker, industrial psychologist, manufacturing technologist and a certified trainer.

Recently, I interviewed Kris to find out what communication tips she has for workplace managers and safety professionals.

1. In your book, Crystal Clear Communication, you mention the need to use positive language when communicating as “negative words encourage us to act negatively and positive words to act positively”.  What advice would you give any safety professional who is looking to communicate to his/her team about a new safety initiative?

Kris: You want to present the new safety initiative in a positive light and in a way that shows the organisation cares for its employees, hence the reason for the new initiative.  And let them know the WIIFM – what’s in it for them.

For instance, it may make their lives easier or help them do their jobs more efficiently or give them a bit more peace of mind.

If it’s a welfare or wellness initiative, you might offer:

Who is involved?

Why are you asking your team to take these actions?

How should your team do it?

They might not all be relevant but it’s worth thinking those prompts through, so you cover everything you need to.

You may also want to post the initiative on the team’s notice board and draw their attention to where they can find it in the organisation’s manuals or intranet.

And of course, remember to follow through at the next few team meetings.

Reiterate your messages, find out whether anyone has any questions or has found any difficulties with the initiative.  Few initiatives are so perfect at roll-out that they can’t stand a bit of fine-tuning.

2. You also mention the importance of show and tell.  And that to provide memorable communication you need to support words with visual aids.  When would you recommend that safety professionals use show and tell in their communication?

Well, we know people take in information more with their eyes than ears.  Let’s face it – most of us are pretty poor listeners.  That’s where the proverbial “a picture is worth a thousand words” comes in.  My tips are:

  • So rather than just telling people what to do  – show them.
  • Demonstrate it and even exaggerate your demonstration to make it memorable.
  • Tell a little story to back up what you’re telling them, so they can build a picture in their minds.
  • Put up a poster or draw a silly drawing to drive your point home.

And when do you use this technique?  Anytime something is important!  For instance, use it when you’re explaining how to do something – don’t just tell someone – show them.

Run them through it and then ask the to do it while you watch.  Just watching is seldom sufficient and that’s a big mistake a lot of busy people make – showing someone something and then walking away, expecting that they’ll remember it.

3. In terms of getting safety messages across to workers, what would you say is the most important communication technique?  Any others?

You might want to vary how you say it, so you don’t get bored, but when something is important, you can’t stress it enough.

And do “show and tell”, too.  The power of your own behaviour, of walking your talk and practising what you preach.  None of this “Don’t do as I do, do as I say stuff”.  People always take their cues from you – from what you do more than what you say.  So you have to support your words with your actions.

4. Workplaces can often be hotbeds of frustration and anger.  For managers who are having difficulty getting workers to listen to them, what communication techniques would you recommend?

Kris: Ah, well!  If it’s a work team that’s a hotbed of frustration of anger, I’d be looking at some serious team building and looking at the way people work together, communicate and relate to each other.  You need to make sure everyone knows what the team as a whole is aiming at and how each individual contributes to achieving it.

If it’s the whole organisation or an entire worksite that’s a hotbed of frustration and anger, you’ve got yourself an even bigger problem.  A fish rots from the head, so I’d start working with the leadership team and getting them to communicate more – and more genuinely with employees.  And not just about safety, but about all sorts of other things.  And not just talking, but the other half of talking – listening.  You know, even leaders have two ears and only one mouth and even leaders should use them in those proportions.

Well, I don’t know about you, but I feel that Kris has given us all some common sense information to help make communicating in the workplace a more enjoyable and effective experience.  Thanks, Kris.

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10 Ways to improve your Workplace Safety Communication

Written on May 9, 2011 by Marie-Claire Ross in CEO safety messages, CEO workplace safety speech, communicating OHS messages, safety communications in workplace safety, workplace safety, workplace safety communication, workplace safety meetings, workplace safety messages
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Everything we do is communication.  And it is no wonder that research studies point to 70% of workplace mistakes being caused by poor communication.

How we start our message often determines the result.

According to Crystal Clear Communication, by Kris Cole, people quickly determine the meaning of our message and whether they will be receptive at the beginning.  We only have a short time to get our messages across :

  • 2 minutes when we are face to face
  • 30 seconds on the telephone
  • 10 – 15 seconds by voice mail.

So the more important the message, the bigger the need to plan what you are going to say.

Here are 10 ways to grab engagement with workers when talking about a new or existing safety initiative during your next toolbox talk, safety initiative launch or other safety meeting.

  1. Start with explaining the current safety status.  This can best be shown with a visual. In 1994, when the new CEO of IBM, Lou Gerstner was brought in to fix a troubled IBM, he put two charts on the wall to show how the market share had dramatically fallen.  Until that point in time, IBM staff refused to believe IBM was in trouble (they lost $8 billion that year).  A picture tells a thousand words.  IBM-ers quickly saw the message.
  2. Customise your safety information.  If your message involves talking at various sites.  Talk about their individual safety records, not about the company as a whole
  3. Explain the benefits of the safety initiative Talk about the thinking behind it and how it will effect staff, their family and the company.  For example, you can let people know how much you expect a new training program will contribute to a reduction in injuries and the consequences of that.
  4. Get people involved with your message.  If you are talking to a group of people, get people actively  involved.  Ask them questions.  Get them to do a demonstration of how they are lifting with an expert there to point out how they can improve and what potential damage they could be doing to their bodies.  Another idea is to ask workers where they believe the new safety posters can be best placed.  What other strategies can you think of to get people to help with disseminating your message?
  5. Repeat your message via different communication methods over a period of time. Use posters, video content, email newsletters, and letters from the GM.  Put together a schedule of communication events that constantly drip-feeds your message.
  6. Tell stories. The right brain prefers story.  It also provides an emotional connection to information that people will remember.  What real-life workplace stories can you use that show the importance of safety?
  7. Reward in public, condemn in private. Recognise high performing safety leaders or change leaders publicly.  This will encourage others to work more safely.  For those that are not doing the right thing, this needs to be done privately.
  8. Use positive language. Avoid words like ‘don’t’ and can’t.  Focus on the behaviour you want, rather than talking about what you don’t want.
  9. Expectation Clarity. Let everyone know what it is expected of them and how you will be measuring it.  Clearly set goals and targets.
  10. Follow up with Action. While workers might accept your words, they will want to see action that you believe what you say.  Keep communicating with them and checking on their progress.  Remember, the old adage “Actions speak louder than words”.

What else would you add to this list?

Seven Communication Tips for Workplace Safety
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