At a Houston Astros game last summer, Craig Biggio was honored during “bobblehead night.” Although it’s hard to imagine him being honored while being compared to a nodding caricature of him-self, the event was real and memorable. If you recall, Biggio had been voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. It’s an honor that places him among the best professional baseball players ever. For those who saw him play, he was no bobblehead. He was the most active player on the field and was aggressive and consistent; he played to win. All this reminded me of an event out west.
The safety meeting
It was just another day at a Casper, Wyoming, gas plant. The construction team had their customary morning safety meeting. The customer’s project director spoke first, followed by the contractor’s project manager. Next came the safety guys. They each shared a few words of wisdom and expressed their gripes about housekeeping and tool use, and stressed the importance of maintaining focus. While the others were speaking, I noticed most of the contractors as well as the plant operators were nodding their heads in agreement with each spoken word. At least it appeared that way. Then I, as the guest speaker, took the makeshift stage.
I delivered greetings from our home office, mentioned the state of the company’s safety record and then dug into my grand speech. It was smooth sailing for the first few sentences as attendees nodded their heads in approval, agreement or consent — just as they had with four previous speakers. My talk was received no differently than the guys griping about housekeeping. Maybe I should have just sat down while all were in agreement, but instead I came up with the novel idea of trying to make an emphatic point. I stopped mid-speech and pointed to a supervisor in the audience and said, “Sir, would you mind telling the audience what I just said?” His face dropped, and he was visibly embarrassed. I said to myself, “What have I done?” The supervisor, a longtime company employee who had led many crews over the years, was flabbergasted! He said nothing. So as not to continue to focus the spotlight on him, I turned to a craftsman and said, “Sir, would you mind telling the audience what I just said?” The craftsman showed the same embarrassment with no verbal response. I wondered if by changing the context of my speech, had I discovered something about those routine everyday safety meetings? Yes, I had.
I hear you
After posing my questions, the entire complexion of the meeting changed. Even the plant operators were embarrassed, not because I had called on some unsuspecting nonlisteners, but because they may have thought I might call on them next.
My visit to this site was after a worker injury, and it dawned on me why and how such an injury could have occurred. You see, these employees heard every word of instruction, but they did not listen to what was said. It had just happened to me during the first part of my speech, and my guess was it happened every day in every safety meeting. Employees were just bobbleheading acknowledgement to their supervisors.
‘Tell me what I told you’
Before the day was over, a supervision meeting was held. They received instructions on effective communications. They discovered telling ain’t training, and hearing is not necessarily listening for understanding.
Beginning the next morning, the safety meeting focus was changed. We called it, “Tell me what I told you.” This was inverse instruction whereby every crew person was charged with repeating the message, and, as it should be, each supervisor was charged to be as vigilant a listener as he was a speaker. We saw immediate positive results. Crafts were enthused and given an opportunity to assist with the job safety analysis and hazard assessments. They became involved, recognized and appreciated for being team players. No more bobbleheads! Real listening occurred, and effective training ensued.
So, if you see a Craig Biggio bobblehead, tap it and ask if it’s listening for understanding.
For more information, contact HASC Customer Relations at (281) 476-9900, Ext. 310 or visit www.hasc.com.