Toolbox Talk Tuesday

Toolbox Talk Tuesday: “Conscience Driven Safety”

Conscience -. The faculty of recognizing the difference between right and wrong with regard to one’s conduct coupled with the sense that one should act accordingly.

This is the first definition listed for the word conscience in Webster’s dictionary.

Each of the other definitions are essentially the same, such as “Conformity to one’s own sense of proper conduct”, and “inner thought.”

If you let your conscience guide you during the day – would you treat safety differently than you do right now?

Think of something you do, maybe a task or a job, or maybe just your driving habits coming to work this morning.

Unfortunately what we usually think is, “I’ve done this job a 1,000 times before and I’ve never been hurt.” Or many of us don’t even think before we do certain jobs or tasks.

We can do those jobs or tasks almost without thinking, but we do them with whatever bad safety habits we’ve acquired through the years.

The next time you do any task or job, ask yourself these questions –

“What could go wrong?” and “Can I get hurt?” Now put your conscience to work, forget about the fact that you may have broken that safety rule many times before without getting hurt.

If you put your conscience to work, it will likely tell you,

“Put on your safety glasses because this is the time that a wood chip will fly up into your eye, or this is the time the car in front of you will stop short and you’ll need that seatbelt, or this is the time that someone will drop a tool off the scaffold and you’ll need that hardhat.”

Our actions must be adjusted to include a mental pause in which we asked ourselves a series of questions.

By taking a mental pause, we can reflect before taking a desired course action or direction.

This process of Safety Conscience Behaviour should take place in our lives with regularity.

When this process becomes second nature, we are on our way to a safer environment, home and work place.

The practice acquiring safety conscience behaviour is a continuous process of moving towards a better mind-set.

Begin to start thinking of completing your tasks by using this method. Simply say these words to yourself; is it safe?

In short, this will put you in the right mind-set.

If you let your conscience be your guide – you and your safe work habits will always be a winner.

“The human voice can never reach the distance that is covered by the still small voice of conscience.” Mahatma Ghandi

Thanks, TO