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in SafetyFrom Blah Blah Blah to

ByTimPage-

Bottorff,CSP

!Blah, blah, blahand blah. You know whatI am talking aboutanother mind-numbing, boringregurgitation of uninteresting information presented bya droning monotone voice, death by PowerPoint orthe dreadful persistent slide reader. Have you everattended this type of lecture, meeting, or conferencesession before? Of course you have. I have. Everyonehas, time and again, more often than not. Lets face it;

you would rather be playing sports, cards, exercising oreven working, than listening to this drivel. More impor-tantly, you would rather be doing your favorite thingswith your family. Now, imagine youre not in this sessionby choice; your job requires you to attend. This cantget much worse! Oh wait, it cantodays topic, SafetyTraining.

Maslows hierarchy, common senseand those favorite things with

your family would lead youto believe that staying alivewould be of interest to most

people, but sadly, safety is noteveryones favorite subject.No surprise though, consider-ing most adults feel they aresafe enough already, coupledwith years of rules, proce-dures, negative enforcement(as opposed to positive reinforce-ment) and uncomfortable behavior change.I mean, think about it. When was the lasttime a police officer pulled you over andsaid, Thanks for driving the speed limit?

So, as a safety instructor, this is what youre up against.Before you even begin, your students have

a predisposed expectation you willdeliver yet another boring or repeti-tive class on a subject that they dontwant or need.

But what if you had an importantmessage to delivera critical pieceof information that would helpthem make it home to their family

and their favorite things? And safety is

always an important message, even if it is the umpteenthtime through a regulatory refresher. Always. Thats thereal risk herewhen an important message is missed,because the instructor didnt get their students attention,because of the blah, blah, blahs.

I teach a class called HAZWOPER. If you are a safetyprofessional, chances are you know what HAZWOPER

means. This class requires forty hours of instruction inorder to work at a hazardous waste site. It has to beone of the most boring classes I have ever attended, ortaught for that matter. And, it is usually the instructor thatcan make or break the class.

If an instructors presentation capabilities are so crucialto delivering important messages, then we need to

understand what makes a good instructor or trainer.Well, it starts with you. First, think aboutthe instructors who have made an impacton youthose that really touched a chordwith your life. I have a few, but one is

my dad. He really taught me a lot. And, Ilearned a lot. But what did he do that wasso special? What did he do that was somuch better than Miss Glentzer in the fifthgrade? It was mostly hands-on training anda very stern approach. Those characteris-tics are great, but its not what I rememberthe most. What I remember most is my dad

saying, Why work if youre not going to have fundoing it? I never will forget that.

After working with several disgruntled municipal employ-ees, I took my dads advice and started adding tidbits

of humor into my never-ending compliance classes.Once that happened, I received some significant posi-tive feedback. The more humor I used the more positivesafety response I received in the field during practicalapplication. Negative energy became positive energywhen students remembered what I had told them in aclass a year ago. Replacing the blah, blah, blahs witha little ha, ha, ha went a long way in helping me givethese students their Aha! Moment and solidifying thepoints I was teaching. So where does humor fit? It fitseverywhere and in many ways.

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Poking Fun (at Yourself)First and foremost, you need to set the class at ease, letthem know youve been in their shoes and provide self-disclosure to the students. Open yourself a little. Lettingthe students know you are as human as they are can goa long wayespecially if you can relate some humorousmistakes youve made and the lessons youve learned asa result. I teach a lot of SafeStart classes, and one of

its great successes is this self-disclosure component.

Fun and GamesBack to the HAZWOPER class I mentioned earlier. Otherthan the typical hands-on component that gets attachedto a class of this magnitude, there are several otherauxiliary items you can add to make it more upbeat orhumorous. For example, play a game for reviewing testquestions. There are several free PowerPoint-basedgame templates like Jeopardy, Who Wants to bea Millionaire and Family Feud that lend themselvesto this type of activity. They increase retention levels,

participation and fun.

Another tactic I use during the Site Characterizationcomponent is to incorporate building toys, like Lego,Lincoln Logs, Tinkertoy or Knex. Beyond the child-hood memories and fun, these toys give the students anopportunity to see the Hot, Warm and Cold Zonesinside before they have to build them outside.

Finding Humor in VisualsThere are so many funny video clips, photos and car-toons in circulation now, you can fairly easily locate onethat will serve as a valuable anecdote in your presenta-tion. These visuals provide laughter, but with appropri-ate selection can also illustrate or support importantteaching pointshelping students relate, form morecomplete thoughts and retain the information better thanwithout humor. A word of caution though: always select

visuals that will be appropriate for your audience.

StoriesAs I touched on earlier, I teach a lot of SafeStart classes.SafeStarts greatest ingredient is that it is filled with realpeople telling real stories about their real injuries. Iteven teaches participants how to tell their own SafeStartstories. And for good reason, these stories stick likeglue. After providing consulting services for clients overseveral years, I can still remember my very first stories in-volving the State-to-Error Risk Pattern (Figure 1). Shoot! Ican still remember stories told to me way back in 1976!The point I am trying to make is that stories can linger ina good way, and I often remember them when Im doingsimilar activities and will modify my behavior to avoidthe injury or close call that happened in the story I wastold.

Feel the LoveBack to my dad for a minutehe has worked in manydifferent fields after leaving the Air Force. He didnthave one job he really enjoyed doing, but always foundenjoyment in them. If you love what you do, you willLOVE what you do. You have a choice, and you canchoose to find and focus on those things that you love.In safety its easy, saving one life and reducing injuries

overshadows an awful lot of tiring or thankless work.How fortuitous is it that having fun at work can translateto having fun while training or learning? And if yourepassionate about safety, it will show in your presentationand it will become infectious among your students and

your colleagues.

A Balancing ActThese are just a few ways to make training fun andimpactful. Pick and choose the types that work for you,just try to avoid relying too heavily on any one thing.Too many videos will eventually become boring, just liketoo much lecture will, and too much comedy will almostcertainly obscure or obliterate your important message.

Having fun is great, but you must know where to drawthe line. I mean, you will always come back to theseriousness of safetythe whole reason why you arethere in the first placebut finding a good balance ofhumorous or interesting activities to intersperse withthe important messages you need to communicate willultimately make for a memorable class. In fact, it hasbeen proven time and again that using a combination oflearning activities increases retention (Figure 2).

Figure 2Average retention of material presented in differentways (according to an investigation by National TrainingLaboratories Bethel, Maine)

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About the Author

Tim is an inspirational presenter who brings experiencesfrom his over 19 years of Occupational Health, Safety andEnvironmental experience. As a United States Marine, Tim

earned the Humanitarian Service Medal and is a veteran ofOperation Desert Shield/Storm. Tims approach intertwineshis military combat and HS&E exposure to provide a morememorable experience for any audience.

Tim is the President Elect of the Arizona Chapter of theAmerican Society of Safety Engineers. He also volunteersas the Committee Chair for Safety, Security and Health forthe Water Environment Federation (WEF). He is currentlyworking on two books, a safety engineering manual forWEF Press through McGraw/Hill and a self help book titledThe Core of Four. He has also authored several publishedarticles featured in industry magazines includingCoatings Pro Magazine, Professional SafetyMagazine and The Journal of EnvironmentalManagement.

His industry accomplishments includecertification as an OSHA Training Instituteinstructor, Asbestos Inspector/ManagementPlanner, Hazwoper Instructor, CaliforniaSpecialized Training Institute Instructor andCalifornia Fire Marshal Instructor. He is alsoa Certified Safety Professional (CSP) fromthe Board of Certified Safety Professionals.

Tim Page-Bottorff, CSPSenior Safety Consultant

Tim has consulted with hundreds of clients, at thousandsof sites, across several industries. Some of his clientsinclude Georgia-Pacific, Land O Lakes, Mosaic, Honda,

International Paper, and Procter and Gamble to namejust a few.

While Tims history is impressive, it is his personal pas-sion for safety that makes him such a motivating speaker.As a father of teenagers, he realizes the importance ofsafety not just at work, but also at home and on the road.This passion makes Tims training sessions entertaining,humorous and informative. Participants will benefit fromhis enthusiasm for training and his unique ability to im-mediately put his audience at ease through humor andpersonal life experiences. It is these traits that make Tim

one of the most sought after speakers in this industry.ne of the

For bookings, please contactRuth Steeves

(905)467-4432 (direct)

Electrolab Limited335 University Ave.

Belleville Ontario, K8N 5A5(800)267-7482 www.safestart.com 2012 Produced in Canada