How To Have an Interesting and Effective Safety Meeting
Part I: The Setup
During this opening section we’ll go over some
simple ways to have the best setup for the session. (Even if you
have to give it in a corner of a busy machine shop). This part also
includes some tips on how to best prepare for the session. (Even
if you only have a couple minutes to spare.)
Part II: Starting the Session
The main purpose of this part is to show supervisors/group
leaders how to capture a group's attention with verbal and physical
signals. We’ll also go over some practical ways to stimulate
interest during the introduction of topics that everyone is already
familiar with or that are "dry." Answers to the question
"What should and should not be included in the introduction
will wind up this section."
Part III: Getting More Interaction
Too often a safety meeting is nothing more than a
boring waste of time because nobody gets involved or the supervisor
is ignored because he or she drones into a piece of paper. During
Part III, we’ll go over several ways to get a crew involved
in a meeting—any meeting, not just one on safety.
Part IV: Easy Ways to Capture and Keep Attention
- This part is pact full with practical tips and techniques
such as how to:
- Use pausing and pacing to make your voice more interesting.
- Change the mood of the session by asking different types
of questions.
- Turn facts and figures into memorable comparisons.
- Use common items as props to drive home a point.
- Vary your body posture, facial expressions and gestures
to liven up any topic (no matter how "boring").
During this segment we’ll take several safety
topics, including ones directly related to the attendee’s work-place,
and come up with specific ways to make them more interesting by
using props, audience participation, and other easy-to-use methods.
Part V: Killing Distractions
Even the most well-prepared and enthusiastic presenters
need to know how to stop distractions from ruining their presentations.
Likewise with supervisors who conduct safety sessions. That’s
why this important section includes several tried and proven methods
on ways to "kill distractions." Various scenarios will
be used to highlight the techniques described. Here are the types
of distractions attendees will learn to handle:
- crew members talking to one another
- too much joking
- sleeping and dazed faces
- excess noise or movement in the area
- late comers and early goers
- know-it-alls who won’t shut up
Part VI: Wrapping It Up
Whether it’s a three-minute tailgate meeting
or a four-hour training course, the conclusion is vital to the success
of the whole shebang. We’ll dissect ways to make the message
of the session more memorable with an pointed wrap-up. Like the
section on introductions, we’ll go over things you should and
should not include in the conclusion.
Conclusion:
Several humorous overheads on what to do "If
You Want to Have a Boring Waste-Of-Time Safety Session . . ."
start off the conclusion. This makes for a good review of the "Don’ts"
which were presented during the course. It also leads smoothly into
"If You Want to Have an Interesting and Effective Safety Session
. . . " which will wrap up the course with a listing of the
main points (particularly the practical tips) that were covered.
Also, each attendee will be asked to describe at least one suggestion
from the course which they intend to practice during the next few
weeks until it becomes natural skill.
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