Friday Summer Safety Blog, Speak Out
Happy Friday!

Enjoy the safety blog for the 5th Friday of Summer, and Happy Independence Day to you and your family. Enjoy the weekend and celebrate safely.

Thanks, Matt.

The Halfway Point -- the first half of the year is in the books, what will you do to make sure you keep your team safe for the second half? Consult Matt to help your team get even better results...and finish this year strong (and safe)! 
Give your team the tools!

Matt offers a number of books to help with your team's leadership, culture, energy, engagement, safety committee effectiveness and more!

Speak Out!

"An invincible determination can accomplish almost anything and in this lies the great distinction between  great men and little men."
Thomas Fuller

The news that Duke University Head Men's Basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski was offered the Los Angeles Lakers Head Coaching job both startled and shocked the Duke Basketball community.  In front of their 'very own Duke Coach' in the first week of July 2004 was a five year, forty million dollar contract offer.  

So, what does one do when faced with the fear of losing the most successful basketball coach since John Wooden led UCLA?  Well, most simply prayed and hoped; chalking what will actually happen up to cosmic fate or 'events out of ones control.' But that wasn't the case for Duke University junior Andrew Humphries.  Andrew, a loyal fan since childhood and dedicated Cameron Crazy (that's what they call the student cheering section) since arriving at Duke, was determined to try something. He set to work drafting an email, telling Coach K exactly the reasons he should stay and continue to be 'my coach' as Andrew stated it in the email.  "When someone's afraid, they do something to make themselves feel a little empowered." Humphries stated after sending the email.

Coach K. took the weekend to agonizing over the decision; move to LA and coach the Lakers or stay?  He and his wife, Mickey, juggled over the pros and cons. At one point, they checked email. There, from a student named Andrew Humphries was a note...Coach K. read it. And, among the tears it brought to his eyes, the decision was clear. He was to stay at Duke.  Later that week at the press conference announcing Coach K.'s decision to remain the Duke Head Basketball coach he said, "If Andrew's listening, thanks a lot."

Andrew enjoyed his fifteen minutes of fame, appearing later that same day on ESPN, talking about the email and the fact that he, possibly saved Duke Basketball. Andrew responded, "I'm not going into the record books or anything but somewhere in there my name is in the mix of things that happened in Duke Basketball."

Really, what, are the chances of a 19 year old kid influencing a $40 million dollar job offer to the best basketball coach of our time?  Well, 'small' would be an overstatement but Andrew acted anyway.  And, on issues that matter to us, we should too. It doesn't matter if we think our voice will be heard or not. We need to talk, as Coach K. himself stated, "You never know what's read." And, we never know what will make 'the difference.'

Speak out! If a teenager can make a difference in something important to him, in which he seemingly had absolutely no control, think what we can do in our own lives...put your name in the 'mix,' resolve today. 

What Day Will You Get Hurt?
--It's about an attitude, not a day...

Can we statistically determine what day our workers will get hurt?  And, can the day of the week that an injury occurs mean that severity will be less, or greater? Over the last few years, there have been some industry experts who have predicted that injury severity increases on the day before a weekend or the day before an extended break.  Can a quick internet search support this theory? Let's take a look.  On Saturday, May 8 th , a gas explosion in China's Hubei Province mine killed 10 and injured six. A weekend.  A week later, China experienced another explosion and coal mine disaster, this time it happened late week, on a Thursday.  In this case, 21 miners were killed. Do we have a late week trend?  On further searching, we find that the BP gulf coast incident happened on a Tuesday. That seems to blow the late week theory.  Or, the space shuttle Challenger exploded on a Tuesday as well...this myth might be busted.  

In looking at a number of other incidents, injuries, and fatalities, we probably can't determine a statistical probability of an injury happening on a specific day of the week but if we look closer, we can find some themes. And, discovering these themes will allow us to be aware and prepared, ahead of a potential disaster.

End of a job - - The single deadliest event on Mount Everest was on May 10, 1996 when seasoned and experienced guide Scott Fischer and seven other climbers were killed...they were on the decent. At the beginning of a hazardous job, we tend to be on our toes. We plan. We are vigilant.  Our awareness is heightened.  Yet, once we reach that peak, we tend to think the major hurdles are behind and we can let that guard down a little. Forbes associate editor Christopher Helman wrote the following in a recent article about the BP disaster, "We know with some certainty that workers were in the final stages of setting the final sections of pipe (production liner) in the hole and cementing it in place. The plan was to set cement plugs in the well, temporarily abandon it, and move the Deepwater Horizon off to a new drilling site within a couple days." Did the fact that they were 'coming down the mountain contribute to the incident? I'm not sure, but the end of a job or task can mean that we let our guard down allowing injury or disaster to creep in.  Take extra precautions; both climbing and descending dangerous tasks.

Change of or absence in supervision - - "Although it wasn't, May 2, 1972 almost felt like a Friday for the 173 miners reporting to their normal 7 am to 3 pm day shift," Matt Forck writes in his new release, Check Up From the Neck Up - -101 Ways to Get Your Head in the Game of Life. "The atmosphere at Sunshine Mine in Kellogg, Idaho, probably felt different because the top brass was several counties away attending the annual stockholder's meeting. With the 'big bosses' gone for the day, it seemed that everyone was taking it a step slower."  It was early in the shift that the fire alarms rang. A fire in a mine can lead to disaster but this was a silver mine and didn't offer much fuel for a fire. Tom and Ron, partners for the last several years, left their post and headed to the man lift to go topside. On the walk there they joked that this might even mean an early beer at the local pub.  Once at the man lift, waiting with dozens of other men, Ron collapsed; overcome by fumes. Tom grabbed him and pulled him back near their work location, to fresh air.  Once Ron was feeling better, they again headed to the man lift. What they found there horrified them. All of the other men waiting for the lift, just minutes earlier were joking and laughing, were now dead.

Things change when the boss is out of town. When management shifts, a new boss is hired, one retires or someone is temporarily upgraded to fill a role. Attitudes change when management is off-site at an event, all day meeting or stockholders meeting. These situations can't be avoided but when they occur, be aware of job assignments, crew assignments and production rates. Instruct those leading the work to take extra time planning. It's even a good idea for the management left behind to be active in the field or on the floor, just to make sure work is progressing safely.

By the way, eight days and over 200 hours later, rescue crews reached Ron and Tom.  Once safely above ground they learned they were the sole survivors of one of the worse mining incidents in the United States; an incident that took 91 lives.

A simple and/or routine job in combination with weekend or break - - It seemed to be an easygoing Thursday morning. It was in a safety committee meeting when my phone rang. I first ignored it, intending to dedicate my energies to the meeting. Yet, the phone rang again, and then again. I stepped out to take the call. It was the regional dispatcher. He told me that we had an electrical contact. He informed me that emergency services, including the life flight helicopter, were on site. I left the meeting and made the 80-minute drive to the location. I found that the crew was on their last day before a three-day break.  I also found that the utility crew was working a very simple pole change-out job; one that each of the six men had done, dozens, if not hundreds of times. In the incident, two of the men had been electrocuted; one didn't make it.

While I may not be able to prove it statistically, I believe that there is something to the notion that opportunity for incident severity increases before a holiday or extended break, in this case a three-day break. But, I think that a combination of a break with a simple and routine task is the combination to watch out for.  When this combination occurs, take some extra time in the job planning. Make sure the entire crew discusses all hazards and takes the appropriate actions to eliminate each hazard, according to the rules and policies. Finally, stop the work periodically to make sure everyone is still on the same page and rules are being follow.

End of the day, end of job work Pressure - - I was on cloud nine! I had just finished my first presentation at a national safety conference. Since I wasn't flying out until the next morning, I walked the Baltimore Harbor waterfront, located a terrific seafood restaurant and was seated at a window, so I could watch the boats bouncing in the harbor. I was somewhere in the middle of my salad when the cell phone rang. It was a good friend, a safety professional with a utility, and he needed someone to talk to.  He told me about a utility incident that happened just hours earlier. A service worker, at the end of his shift, was asked to install some labeling in a piece of energized electrical equipment.  Although the job was very simple, the service worker apparently hurried to complete it. In the process, he contacted energized high voltage equipment. He was in a burn unit, clinging to life.  

We feel pressure to hurry, to get it done. And this pressure is never greater than at the end of a shift.  When we are racing to complete a job near shifts' end, take a few seconds to stop and perform a safety stop. A safety stop is when the entire crew stops, reviews the work and the safety work rules associated with the task, and then continues. This 90-second safety stop can literally save lives at the end of the day.  

Remember, maybe the most famous end of shift work pressure incident was the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. As you remember, the Challenger splintered into millions of pieces when it blew up 73 seconds after lift off.  To meet a pressure packed deadline, the decision was made to launch after some engineers questioned how an O-ring seal in its right solid rocket booster would respond in the cold weather. If there wasn't pressure of the 'deadline' would that decision have been different?

I'm not sure we can statistically prove that injuries or incidents will happen on specific days or at specific times, yet there are some warning signs to look out for. I think that there is a tendency to let one's guard down after the 'heavy lifting' on a job is finished and we are coming down the mountain. I think that when supervision shifts, we have simple tasks before a long break or we are hurrying to finish a job before the shift ends, all present certain dynamics that can lead to an incident. As safety leaders we need to be ready and aware that certain conditions make it easier for an injury or incident to occur. Where are those conditions in your work environment? And, what are we prepared to do to prevent 'bad' stuff from happening?

STAY CONNECTED:
Like us on Facebook     Follow us on Twitter