Safety Meeting attendees think the meetings are boring because it seems no one cares enough to put them together well.
"The Perfect Safety Meeting" webinar (based on my new book of the same name) on November 13, 2013 had over 750 registrations from safety professionals in 18 countries, 42 US states and all ten Canadian provinces. It is apparent that a lot of people working in safety management and supervision want to get a lot better at running safety meetings. On the other side, there are probably a lot more employees who are hoping that their safety people get better at safety meetings.
The “perfect” safety meeting has nothing to do with your safety record. Perfect is ultimately about giving your meeting attendees what they need to be safe - processes and tools are important compliance reminders, of course. More importantly, a safety meeting should provide insight, inspiration, motivation, encouragement and empowerment to make the safe decisions.
Safety Meetings Get Safety Buy-in
Safety meetings are one of the best, most efficient ways to help people buy-in to safety all at once - in a short period of time. Everyone is assembled under one roof, all getting the same message at the same time. You can't just gloss over it and say, “Well, we had a meeting.” A bad safety meeting will drive people away from safety more than it will pull them in.
When a safety meeting isn't planned out, it shows. You get through it, but the presenters are stumbling through. It's a lot of talking about safety generally, but lacks a focus on anything in particular. And that results in a boring meeting - we've all been through at least one of those. Any meeting withou a plan, direction and focus has no change of capturing the hearts and minds of attendees.
You're Not Haphazard In Safety
Safety may be all about preparedness but the safety meetings don’t meet those same standards. Companies end up organizing their safety meetings at the last minute, scrambling just enough to pull something off they can say that they had their meeting. They do just enough to meet the legal requirement and yet wonder why their people have to be constantly policed into compliance.
Throwing together a safety meeting at the last minute does not inspire confidence from your people. You preach against safety complacency, but safety meetings are the result of that very same complacency. Attendees think the meetings are boring because it seems no one cares enough to put them together well.
But it’s not just the safety meetings that are boring - most times it’s the presenters that are boring. The safety content though, when packaged and presented properly, is rarely boring. After all, anything that keeps people safe, encourages them to choose to be accountable for their actions and makes it possible for them to go home to their families and play with their kids, can’t possibly be boring.
Treat Safety Meetings Like Business Meetings
The safety meeting should be treated like any other business meeting revolving around personal leadership skills, team-building or performance. Empowering people to choose safety for themselves is the surest way to change a culture of safety within an organization.
You need to get down to what matters in safety meetings: talking with your people - not at them. It’s a meeting. It’s not a lecture. It’s not a one-way broadcast. The safety meeting is about making sure your people get the encouragement, inspiration and motivation they need to help them make the decision to embrace safety, to buy-in to it, and to want to choose safety on the job.
Here’s what gets covered in The Perfect Safety Meeting:
- The real reason safety meetings are boring
- How the safety meeting is actually a safety marketing strategy
- Why you need a theme for each meeting
- Why you need to make sure your meeting focuses on the positive
- The case for a project manager to organize the meeting
- Strategies to engage attendees to safety meetings better
- Discussions on Logistics - venue, A/V, room set-up, and more
- The argument for shortening the presentations
- How to pick the right presenters for each safety meeting
- A section on keynote safety speakers and why they are not equal
- The biggest mistake safety meetings make
- Why a follow-up safety campaign is a must
- How to end your safety meeting on a high note
The safety meeting must be planned and executed perfectly. As a safety professional, your safety convictions have to show up in your safety meetings: in how they are organized, how they create expectations, how they engage and how they encourage, inspire and motivate others to safety.
Your people will engage in safety in direct proportion to how well the safety meetings engage them.
Get your free copy of The Perfect Safety Meeting now.
