We’ve got another in a series of articles related to safety training in the July issue of Professional Safety, the official magazine of the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE).

The series of articles provides tips for better safety training, and takes as a starting point some key parts of the ASSE/ANSI Z490.1 standard on effective EHS training. This article focuses on delivering effective EHS training (as opposed to designing it, or developing it, etc.).

We encourage you to check out the ASSE, their Professional Safety magazine, and of course their ANSI Z490.1 standard for environmental, health, and safety training. Also, be aware that ANSI and ASSE are beginning the process of creating ANSI Z490.2, which will deal with online or “virtual” EHS training. We’re on the committee to create that standard and you can read more about that here, here, and here.

To download our free guide to effective EHS training, based on ANSI Z490.1, scroll down to the bottom of this article.

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As you may remember, I’m part of a group of people helping to create the upcoming ANSI/ASSE Z490.2 standard on “virtual occupational safety, health, and environmental training” and I’ve been writing periodic blog articles with updates on the status and little behind-the-scenes views of how a standard is created.

I wrote an earlier article that explains Z490.2 is in creation and that explains some base-level details, such as what is its relation to Z490.1, and a second article as we began working on Z490.2.

In this article, we’ll tell you of the most recent developments, which came about as a result of a phone conference the group members had to discuss the new safety training standard.

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This is our third and final daily summary of the ASSE’s Safety 2017 conference.

You can also read our summary of ASSE Safety 2017 Day One and ASSE Safety 2017 Day Two.

Here’s a quick overview of some of the presentations I was lucky enough to catch on Thursday. Feel free to use the comments section at the bottom to talk about sessions you attended.

ASSE Training & Communications Practice Specialty Leadership Meeting

I’m not a member of the leadership for this practice specialty, but current head Michael Coleman was nice enough to shoot me an email and invite me to sit in.

A lot of things were discussed, including news on potential ASSE name and logo changes (stay tuned for more on that), and some things going on to make communications and knowledge share within ASSE and this practice specialty easier and more efficient.

I also learned that Michael Coleman’s preparing to step down as leader of this practice specialty and that Morgan Bliss of Central Washington University is preparing to step into the leadership role. I met Morgan and she seemed great, so I wish her luck in her new role.

Insights from Leadership Development Training for Frontline Supervisors

Lori Guasta presented data from training she helped design, develop, and deliver to frontline supervisors in mines. The purpose was to help these supervisors develop leadership skills so they could lead employees more effectively.

In doing so, Lori presented a lot of interesting information about how people see the world, communicate, and otherwise interact.

Her training breaks workplace relationships down into three parts:

1. Person–the kind of person you (as a leader) are and/or want to be
2. People–interacting with and leading others
3. Environment–how your organization, including its culture, affects the two items above

And, if I wrote this all down quickly enough, here’s the outline of her 2-day course:

1. Embracing differences
2. Values, motivation, attitudes, and personality
3. Generational differences
4. Adult learning styles
5. Communication
6. Team building
7. Motivation, feedback, and recognition
8. Mentoring/coaching
9. Accountability and vision
10. Strategies to promote positive safety culture

Closing General Session–Why We Make Mistakes

Joseph Hallinan explained some features of human psychology that are often very helpful but sometimes cause us to make mistakes, including safety mistakes at work.

His primary message is that there’s an element of “mistake-making” that’s baked into humans, and as a result we should design systems that are safe even with those mistakes occurring.

He explained three traits that cause humans to sometimes make mistakes:

1. Inattentional blindness–“If you don’t see something often, you often don’t see it”
2. Selective memory–Memory is not an “exact science,” but is instead constantly being reshaped, pruned, and reinterpreted, sometimes to create a narrative that’s not objectively true
3. Blind spots–Things we’re prone to overlook

Given this, he suggested the following:

• Know your limitations
• Realize humans are fallible and build that expectation into design
• Impose constraints, including things like checklists

What about You?

What sessions did you see? Let us know in the comments section below. And we hope to see you today!

And help yourself to the free guide below, which is based in large part on ASSE/ANSI Z490.1.

Effective EHS Training: A Step-by-Step Guide

Learn how to design, create, deliver, and evaluate effective EHS training by following these best practices with our free step-by-step guide.

Download Free Guide

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This is our second daily summary of the ASSE’s Safety 2017 conference. You can also read our summary of ASSE Safety 2017 Day One.

(Note: The conference is now over, so we’ve now published three daily overviews: ASSE Safety 2017 Day 1, ASSE Safety 2017 Day 2, and ASSE Safety 2017 Day 3).

Here’s a quick overview of some of the presentations I was lucky enough to catch on Wednesday.

Keynote Presentation by Mel Robbins

Confession-I missed this. I stayed in the hotel and wrote the Day One summary. But I DID hear from a handful of people who attended, and they seemed to enjoy it. A key point seemed to be something about facing up to challenges in life, counting to 5, then moving ahead to succeed. Never a bad reminder–keep trying. I’ve been there, to be sure.

Flash Presentation on Safety and Business Excellence by Kathy Seabrook

I have caught a number of presentations framing safety within the context of business excellence and find the idea intriguing. Well done, Kathy.

Critical Hazards Field Guide by Kirk Mahan

Georgia-Pacific has made a strong effort to reduce critical injuries and fatalities and have addressed five critical hazards that they have found lead to most at their facilities. Kirk showed a field guide G-P created to explain those hazards. G-P uses these field guides to spark discussions with workers.

The hazards? Uncontrolled energy, falls from heights, struck by mobile equipment, fires and explosions, and exposures to chemical and/or thermal releases.

Strategic Training Design with a Bar Napkin, a Magic Wand, and Speed Dating

A really good presentation by Sharon Kemerer and Kery Mortenson of Baxter Healthcare of how they created a training program to reduce safety incidents. Got into a lot of good instructional design tips and methods.

The program involved a focus on business goals, a desired end state, impact mapping, and a rapid gap analysis.

The completed training included modules on commitment to safety; high-impact safety conversations; hazard identification; and root-cause analyses.

A good one. Worth searching this PPT out.

Establishing an Electrical Safety Training Program

Paul Zoubek quickly walked us through a handy seven-step program in 15 short minutes. Well done, Paul.

Risk Mitigation and Wearables

I got to this short, 15-minute session a few minutes late and really regretted it, because what I DID hear sounded interesting and had lots of useful information and data. Hats off to speaker Rachel Michael. I’m going to search out her PowerPoint.

Plenary Session on Behavior-Based Safety (BBS) and Human and Organizational Performance (HOP)

This was well-designed and the four-person panel (with one moderator) were really very helpful. This was so interesting I’m going to write a shorter, separate blog post about it shortly, so stay tuned.

In the meantime, did you see this one? What were your thoughts?

Team-Based Safety Training Activities

Instructor Linda Tapp taught us a handful of team-based safety training activities that we could apply in different settings in our own trainings. And, hats off to her, she did so by having us participate in the activities as teams–learning by doing, you know!

A fun and useful session.

Using Real-Life Events and Social Media to Create High-Impact Safety Training

Joseph Sanna and JoAnn Goshorn shared some tips for telling real-life stories and mining social media to create safety training that catches people’s hearts and makes them pay attention.

JoAnn Goshorn shared her family’s own story–her father was injured while cutting down a tree–as a way to demonstrate how accidents affect a large number of people. I admired and appreciated Goshorn for sharing her story.

What about You?

What sessions did you see? Let us know in the comments section below. And we hope to see you today!

And help yourself to the free guide below, which is based in large part on ASSE/ANSI Z490.1.

Effective EHS Training: A Step-by-Step Guide

Learn how to design, create, deliver, and evaluate effective EHS training by following these best practices with our free step-by-step guide.

Download Free Guide

Read More