Tool Box Talk: People First, Safety Always

The following represents a few thoughts from Zig Ziglar with additional “lay man’s” comments:

People First- Safety Always

The greatest good we can do for others is not just to share our riches with them, but to reveal theirs. Everyone has at least one gift and one passion in this life, usually more. Sometimes we’re blind to what’s in front of us, and we need someone else to point out the obvious. Life is better when you pursue your passion!

This passion will enable us to demonstrate that we value our lives and the lives of others. It will enable us to be tenacious in our efforts to do things right and prevent accidents and ultimately preserve our well-being. Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude. It is not your inherent ability that determines your success, but your attitude.

Some people who’ve had everything given to them fail miserably, simply because they gave up as soon as the going got rough. Others who started with nothing have become very successful. With a positive attitude all you need to be successful is the determination and drive to persevere. Challenges will appear in many ways, there may be uncertainties which can sometimes influence how well we maintain a focus on safety.

However; when we lose focus on safety, we lose focus on ourselves and become more vulnerable to injuries. The reality is that there is no situation that justifies being hurt so it is important that we maintain the right attitude despite the circumstances. Every choice you make has an end result. The decisions you make today are the ones that shape your life, so choose wisely! Ask yourself, what kind of choices am I making and will they affect my life positively or negatively?

The choice to assess risks before a task is done, the choice to use correct and adequate personal protective equipment even for short tasks, the choice to report or correct hazards, the choice to provide positive feedback and commendation or the choice to criticize and the choice to act on personal behalf even when such choice does not benefit the team. These are all choices that we are faced with every day.

If you learn from defeat, you haven’t really lost. We learn more from our failures than our successes and we call it EXPERIENCE. Failures are just hurdles on the track of success as long as you stay in the race and keep running. We can also learn from the failure of others especially after an accident. An accident occurs because of failures whether they are system-related or personal. The important thing is that we identify the lessons and look for the opportunities to learn.

When things are going well, we often overlook opportunities to learn and improve, we become complacent, we feel we are invincible until something bad happens we blame it on luck or feels that it was unavoidable; however, failures provide potential opportunities to stop and re-evaluate. As much as the aim is to avoid failure since we don’t choose to fail, we need to learn from failures whether from ourselves or others.

Sometimes adversity is what you need to face in order to become successful. Adversity can be friend or foe – teamed with the wrong attitude we can never overcome it, but it can make us better and stronger if we maintain the right attitude. Adversity can be described as a blessing in disguise. It can help us to build character and strength, it tests leadership and how well we adapt to a situation. Adversity tests our commitment to a cause so that it influences how well we maintain focus on our goals. Goals such as zero accidents, etc.

You can have everything in life that you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want. What really matters is helping others. It is what brings joy into our lives and gets us up in the morning. We all have something to offer… get involved in the lives of others… Listen, guide, offer constructive criticism as appropriate. Do what you can to help them reach their goals and you’ll be helping yourself. Safety needs involvement, it thrives on teamwork, it needs a culture of caring.

When we share knowledge with others we are learning too, when we offer assistance to others we are helping ourselves too, when we listen and empathize with others we are listening to ourselves too.

“Open your arms to change, but don’t let go of your values.”
-Dalai Lama

Thanks for the share, TO!