You might be surprised to learn that many of the same technologies used to construct “Watson,” the supercomputer that beat the best human champions on the game show “Jeopardy,” as well as the “Deep Blue” supercomputer that defeated Gary Kasparov and other chess masters, are being employed to bring cutting edge predictive and advanced analytics to the field of safety.
I get asked to visit companies and “diagnose” why their behavioral safety program has “lost steam” or never got off the ground to begin with. Inevitably I find the whole shebang is being run by the safety department and a few anointed safety enthusiasts who do all the observations.
When folks are brought together around some common task or set of tasks, their earliest experiences “set the tone” for the team. When team members develop the positive attitude that they can succeed, they are more likely to do so.
Too often safety and health professionals work under the illusion that the advice they provide to someone is “helpful.” If only giving “help” were so easy.
Is there a parallel between all-time low consumer confidence in economic recovery and worker confidence in their company’s safety commitment and performance?
If the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) doesn’t play up the very popular “Safety Dance” (Men Without Hats) song at their June 2011 annual meeting in Chicago, I think they will miss a big opportunity.
We do a fine job researching, investigating, uncovering root causes and lamenting work-related disasters. The government often forms commissions (think Deepwater Horizon or the NASA shuttle explosions or the BP Texas City refinery).
You know you’re a safety geek when you slip and land on your butt on the bathroom floor in a factory’s front office thinking, “What at-risk behavior did I do to earn this bruise?”
It happened again in Bangladesh in December 2010 - a fire in a garment factory killed 29 workers and hundreds were injured as they were suffocated, burned alive, trampled in stairwells, or leapt to their deaths from the 9th and 10th floors - because four of seven exit doors were locked.
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