Work zone: reducing mishaps by 50%

Approach, Dec, 2003

Safety Stand-Down Do's and Don'ts

Once upon a time, a safety officer had a skipper who told him to do a stand-down. "I'm sick of the same old stuff," the skipper barked. "Do something different." The safety officer, anxious for a fitrep bullet, decided to skip the usual drunk-driving monologue by a state trooper. He opted for boating safety. The problem was that when the guy who was going to talk about boating safety asked the audience how many owned boats, only three guys out of about a hundred raised their hands. "Jeez, why'd you pick such a stupid topic?" the skipper asked.

Do's

* Choose a topic that is current and that people care about. Has someone in your command been injured in a recent mishap? Has anyone damaged a piece of equipment? If there haven't been any mishaps, look for near-misses or other signs of increased risk. Focus on these situations--everyone already will be familiar with the issue and will be more apt to take away the lessons learned and preventive measures.

* Safety starts at the top, not at the bottom. The Sailors on the deck plates often don't know how to be safe. Every safety stand-down must be kicked off by the commanding officer, who sets the safety attitude. A positive example cannot be delegated. It is very easy to pay lip service to safety--it is even easier to spot.

* The best stand-downs are supported by the entire command, not just E-7 and below. Leadership by walking around usually is much more effective than leadership by sending e-mail and routing training-critique forms.

* Assemble topics and materials as the year progresses. Gather anecdotes, possible speakers, and photos. Lots of people have near-misses at work and at home--those people can tell stories at a stand-down. And remember, people love stories.

* Find some data that will help document the importance of your topic.

* Give your audience something to do, or at least something to look at that is visual and exciting. Make the audience answer questions, take a quiz, or add personal opinions and experiences.

* It will take time to assemble the images, data, anecdotes, and lessons learned that you'll need as rave materials. If you are talking about local problems or conditions, got a digital camera and take pictures of real stuff in your squadron, your hangar, your ship, or your workplace. People respond to what is familiar.

* If someone is going to have to stand on a stage and yak at an audience, find someone who is fun to listen to, or, barring that, at least someone who has some good stories. This task is easier said than done, but it is crucial. Not everyone is articulate, clever and knowledgeable enough to keep an audience involved and alert. One veteran of numerous stand-downs recalls two that kept audiences awake and interested. One was a talk by the head of shore patrol in Tijuana, with pictures of jails and descriptions of silly actions of Sailors and Marines after they crossed the border. The other was a talk by a triage nurse (who worked on Lifeflight helicopters) about traffic wrecks, with pictures and graphic descriptions.

* One squadron started their stand-down with the standard briefs in the morning, then shifted to the hangar deck for an afternoon session with a variety of booths and stations set up, covering blood pressure, life safety, fitness testing, protective gear use, diet, driver safety, and so on. Self-paced, interactive sessions are effective, and the response is excellent.

* If you create something that others can share, send it to us, and we'll post it on our website. You'll get credit for your work, and others can take advantage of your ideas and research.

Don'ts

* Don't put people to sleep. You'd be better off just giving them the afternoon off. At least then you gain some morale points. Boring people with a dull safety lecture just make things worse, because now they are even more allergic to safety than they were before.

* Don't wait until you have three days to put together a stand-down and you are out of ideas. As usual, you can have it fast, or you can have it good, but you aren't going to have both. Opt for starting early.

* Don't reinvent the wheel--you can borrow and adapt someone else's work or ideas.

* Don't fumble around with the electronic equipment as you start. Get it ready early, and check it in plenty of time to troubleshoot problems.

* One veteran of countless stand-downs says, "The worst are those with 1 or 2 hours of monotone '70s-vintage safety videos, while drills, maintenance and flight ops abound throughout the ship."

* Learn from the mistakes of others.

Template for a Safety Stand-Down PowerPoint Briefing

1. Support your topic with data, anecdotes, and other sorts of documentation. Hazards are rarely a matter of perceptions or feelings--either the risk exists, or it doesn't. Are people getting injured? What sorts of mishaps are showing up at sick bay? Is equipment getting ruined because of accidents? Concentrate on actual, local problems and hazards. Then expand if necessary.

2. Digital cameras are quick, easy and effective. Take pictures of mishaps waiting to happen, or people doing stuff wrong or cutting corners. If you have a chance to photograph an actual mishap scene, make sure the resulting images aren't offensive to the people who were involved in the mishap.