A little while ago I pulled into my local gas station very early one morning to fill up on the way to deliver leadership training. As I walked across the forecourt to go and pay for my gas I spotted, for the first time in my life, a customer smoking next to his vehicle. He was obviously with a crew of other guys and as I walked past him I said, “Mate - I really strongly want to suggest that you don’t smoke on the forecourt because it’s dangerous for yourself and everyone else!” He stared at me blankly as if I had spoken in a foreign language to him. And his response- with maximum contempt, just to blow smoke in my face! My “speaking up” had absolutely zero impact. I walked into the gas station and noticed what looked like his supervisor and said to him, “Hey, it would be a really good idea if you could suggest to your friend that he doesn’t smoke on the forecourt”, to which his colleague replied, “We’ve tried numerous times before to tell him not to smoke at gas stations- but he refuses to listen to us!”
You know I work with a lot of safety critical industries that have been promoting the message for years of “speaking up” when it comes to hazards, near misses, and incidents but no one is talking about the next evolutionary stage of how much safer we will be working with the kind of people that will be open to feedback and work more safely as a result. In this presentation I address:
- The underlying reasons why people fail to listen
- The sales approach of leading and influencing health and safety
- The concepts of “Win/Win” and the “Benefits Approach”
- And ultimately, what the poor listener needs to do in order to be more “accepting of influence” which obviously extends far beyond health and safety
In this presentation I share my own dramatic journey of my father being involved in a work-related incident that changed our family forever, and the difference that it would have made if he had workmates that were prepared to speak out, and if he was the kind of guy that was open to their message. At the heart of this presentation is the core concept of “Being Open to Influence” as Dr John Gottman puts it, which I strongly believe is the next chapter in the developmental journey of safety in the workplace.
And by the way, the story of the smoker does conclude with me getting him to put out his cigarette!
As with all of my presentations I customize this health and safety-related presentation to the specific industry or professional realm that I’m speaking to. I do this by initially consulting the client to understand the needs of the audience. I then solicit the names of senior leaders and those closest to the front line to conduct interviews to ascertain pain points and specific challenges. This provides invaluable information for me to customize my presentation specifically to the audience in question and in doing so I’ll make at least 25 references specifically to their world in any 60-minute presentation.
And one thing I can guarantee with all of my presentations that no coroner will ever provide a ruling of “Death by PowerPoint!” I have my audiences laughing, on their feet, interacting with each other, and have audience members on stage with me doing live demonstrations! And all of this mixed in with thought-provoking, and riveting stories that keep the audience engaged the entire time!
This presentation is also available as a Safety Leadership workshop (1-3 days).
Contact me now to talk further!
Read The Video Transcript
