Did you ever think that your efforts to prevent injury in the workplace, at the home, and on the road are determined by conversation more than anything else?
Sometimes I think we forget that behavior-based safety emanated from applied behavior analysis. This month I'd like to offer basic guidelines for evaluating the human behavior aspects of a safety problem. Diagnosing (and supporting) behavior should be given equal weight to changing it.
One Sunday evening this past May I received a very rewarding phone call from a long-time friend and colleague, Mike Hedlesky. For almost a year Mike has been managing the construction of my log lodge, so we have frequent phone conversations. But this phone call was different. Before giving me a progress report, Mike thanked me for possibly saving his life. Then he told me about his freak bicycle crash earlier that day.
Have you ever suffered from something called "premature cognitive commitment"? I'd like to explore this concept, taken from Ellen J. Langer's book, "Mindfulness," as a follow-up to last month's article on how to increase mindful behavior to prevent injuries.