Orlando — The opening session at the National Safety Congress & Expo Monday morning featured world-class blind adventurer Erick Weihenmayer motivating several thousand safety and health pros in a vast ballroom at the Orange County Convention Center. He asked one question:
Are you a quitter, camper or climber in your role as a safety and health professional?
Quitters are obvious. Nothing more needs to define a quitter.
Campers make up most of us. We start our careers, or a new job, intent on climbing, moving ahead, solving problems and challenges. But safety work often feels like you’re a lone wolf, operating without the support or resources needed. Without buy-in from senior leaders and the frontline, adversity or apathy can cause pros to camp out on a plateau. Energy, a sense of purpose, can be lost. And one stagnates on the job.
Climbers are a rare breed, says Weihenmayer. Climbers simply don’t quit. Call it a mindset, an attitude, self-belief, confidence, a personal philosophy. Climbers in any profession, or more broadly in life, are not crushed or stymied by adversity or resistance, but accept it and use the challenge to give them the energy needed to figure out how to overcome whatever the barrier may be.
One important fact that climbers acknowledge: you can’t do it alone. As a safety pro, working in a silo without support can be likened to working in a cage. Weihenmayer says every adventure he has taken – mountain climbing, white water rafting, para-gliding, etc. – would not be possible without a team of supporters he trusted, communicated with and collaborated with. In safety that could be a committee, a department, safety leaders on the frontlines and allies in upper management.
Weihenmayer says don’t limit your scope or understanding of who your support team may consist of. Optimism and open-mindedness are keys to finding the resources and assistance needed to meet challenges that arise constantly in safety work.
