The Popeye Principle and your safety information
Don’t overload or confuse your intended audience
As a child, I loved watching the cartoon show and character, Popeye. Most memorable are the fits Popeye would take when he lost patience with someone or was frustrated by something. But before he took extreme action, he'd typically say, in his own peculiar way, “Enoughs is enoughs and I can’t takes it no more!”
Have you ever thought that your managers and supervisors sometimes feel the same way when they receive various kinds of safety-related information from you?
Maybe it's dashboard content related to leading and lagging indicators. Possibly it’s a newsletter or lessons learned. Maybe it is a policy or procedural change. Whatever the source and content of your safety information, begin asking these types of questions:
Volume. Is this too much information or is it getting lost among other information of equal or greater importance?
Value. Is the information you’re providing of value or is it getting in the way of helping your people lead and perform better? Maybe you’re simply in love with your own information or trying to fulfill an objective.
Timing. Is the frequency of information appropriate and is the timing right? Can you release the information at a more appropriate time and manner, when and where you know it can be better processed, accepted, and utilized?
Clarity. Is the information clear enough in its present form? Can it be made simpler, clearer, and better? Are there conflicts in what the data or information reveals versus the way leaders feel, act, and speak when they're with your workers? Does the information require meeting with others face-to-face?
Popeye stayed strong and lasted long, “because he ate all of his spinach.” Like Popeye, help your leaders stay strong to the finish by providing the right type and amounts of safety-related information or you just might hear your people say, “I can’t takes it no more!”
Help them eat all of their spinach and safety too!
