Page 23 - Occupational Health & Safety, June 2018

Human Behavior and
Why It is Not the Way to Go
How do most of us decide on what actions to take? This question is often not asked enough, yet it is one of the best indicators of human behavior.
Let’s analyze two very similar scenarios to illustrate why relying on human behav- ior is not the way to go when implementing corrective actions within your safety man- agement system. In other words, why it is not effective to solely rely on human behav- ior for the success of your safety program.
In both scenarios, you are commuting to work for a very important meeting with clients and your leadership. This meeting could mean the difference between your company significantly growing or your company sliding on its market share. In both scenarios, you are running 15 minutes late in leaving your home. At best, you will make it there on time.
In scenario one, your purpose, your mission, your drive is to make this meeting, no matter what. In scenario two, your pur- pose, your mission, your drive is to make this meeting safely, no matter what.
What is the likelihood that you will roll through stop signs, run through yellow/ red traffic lights, and speed under scenario one? How likely are you to do the same un- der scenario two?
It is this slight change in focus or pur- pose that drives significantly different behavior. If we as humans view the con- sequence of our actions to be low with respect to our point of reference, then we are likely to take that action. If we view the consequence of our action to be high in the same regard, the likelihood is also high we will not take that action. This is human nature. We pause and perhaps avoid a dark alley while casually and with minimal fear walk a well-lit, well-attended, and popular downtown street. If we view the conse- quence of not wearing our personal pro- tective equipment as low, then we will not likely wear it. If we view the consequence as high, we will wear it.
Human behavior is very consequentially based. We are always weighing the risk of this in an ever-changing emotional envi- ronment. Process corrections that rely on consequential and varying viewpoints are destined to have varying degrees of success and failure. Process changes, on the other hand, that rely on systematic enhancements are destined to produce predictable and ex-
pected outcomes. Focus on process changes versus human behavior changes and the former will inevitably influence the latter.
There Is a Solution to Everything. . . All You Have to Do Is Find It Preventing opportunity blindness is about adopting a mindset powered by objectiv- ity, positivity, openness, and the realization that there are gaps, often significant, in ev- ery process, every situation, and in every- thing we do or do not do. The road toward excellence starts with implementing the four “Bs” of business: be brief, be prepared, be inspiring, and be gone. Be brief means
get to the point, effectively communicate and demonstrate that you understand and respect the value of time. Be prepared means do the research, get the right facts at the right time, learn the language of your organization and speak it, and understand the value and art of perspective discovery and expectation management. Be inspiring means being pumped about your career, your project, your team, because if you are not, no one else will be, either. Passion is highly contagious. Be gone means go sell your idea, proposal, or improvement plan. Get it done! Make commitments and de- liver on them. Be gone means being vis-
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