In safety, there is a mistaken belief that in order to motivate employees to buy-in, you have to “go negative.”
The focus of safety marketing has been wrong. How do scare tactics, gruesome photos and videos and data and charts provide inspiration, motivation and encouragement to buy-in to safety directly?
They don’t. They create fear and create accident avoidance - a short-term result that needs to be constantly fed and reinforced. And the reason safety is tethered to fear and scare-tactics is because fear causes compliance just like a cop sitting at the side of the highway - it pulls you in line, temporarily.
Fear Of What You Might Lose
Temporary behavior changes require constant policing and enforcement. Here’s the problem with that: you don't buy-in to a financial plan because of what you might lose. You don't buy-in to a healthy lifestyle because of what you might lose. You do it because of what you will gain. But safety is focused on reminding workers of what they might lose if they don't comply - instead of showing people how safety buy-in makes life better.
You don’t build a solid safety culture by appealing to a fear of failure. Seriously, safety needs to grow up and treat their employees like the decent, caring and valuable people that they are.
Failures Are Not Mentors
The homeless person is not the poster-child for not buying-in to a solid financial plan. The morbidly obese person in a hospital bed is not the poster-child for not buying-in to health and fitness. Instead, you see photos of happy, healthy, well-balanced people with beautiful families getting congratulatory handshakes and standing on mountain tops (mountain-climbing is not a pre-requisite to achieving success - just saying). They are the pictures and examples of success - not failure.
There’s a reason why broke people don’t get invited to speak at financial planner conferences and why fat people don’t get to offer their “don’t do what I did” advice to fitness trainers. People don’t want to know what NOT to do. They want a plan and strategy for success - one that builds on strengths and teamwork - not negativity and fear. Besides, what organization ever got to be great by being focused on the negative?
Safety managers, advisers and supervisors are not motivational experts. Any safety manager that believes that negative works is simply not well-versed in human motivation. Exposing good people to bad marketing (fear-mongering messages) does little to build a solid safety culture.
Everyone Can Agree On Safety
Safety, though, is the one improvement strategy that can cut through the politics. People can put away their petty differences in favor of safety. No one wants to see someone else get hurt. Your people are already on the same page as you in that regard. So start there. Start to build your safety messaging on partnerships - not on talking down to your people like they don’t know any better.
People can agree on safety. Safety doesn’t need to go negative to sell itself. Safety enriches lives in the same way that a solid financial plan, good health, strong personal leadership skills and a good education do. Success-based strategies focus on positive outcomes. People want to see clearly what they can achieve by following the plan. If you want to get your people to buy-in to safety, focus on what they gain - not on what they might lose.
Make Them Take Ownership
When you inspire your people, and value them, and trust them, and involve them and engage them in all aspects of safety, they buy-in to safety for the long-term. When they take ownership, pride ensues. When pride is involved, standards are raised.
If you want to turn your next safety meeting wildly positive and fun (honestly, who ever says “Wow, that safety meeting was fun?”), get rid of the negative influences of safety. Keep safety discussions positive and upbeat. That means you must get rid of all negative influences. No gruesome photos, videos or stories of horrific tragedy. No injury-survivors preaching a “don’t do what I did” message.
Make safety enjoyable. Keep it positive. Make safety alluring. Only then will you get buy-in that lasts a lifetime. I can help you plan that meeting with my free ebook.
