New Year’s resolutions for the EHS pro

By Timothy Ludwig Ph.D.

future The time of reflection on the old year is over. With the brand new year we look to the future with an eye on improving our selves and our impact on the world.

For this new year, let’s consider some personal resolutions that focus on behaviors you, an EHS pro, could adopt to increase your effectiveness in helping build your team’s safety culture:

Learn everyone’s name at your site. If you already know their names, learn their kid’s names.
Forward two safety culture-related e-mails a month to your team and your leadership. Talk about them over a brown bag lunch.
Identify all potential safety hazards in your own home. Share your findings with your work team and encourage them to do the same.
Create hazard identification games to be played by work teams each quarter.
Get to know 5 EHS professionals outside your company. E-mail them once a month with questions or ideas.
Create a behavioral self-appraisal form and give it to four people each quarter and ask them to give you feedback.
Send an e-mail or text once a day explicitly saying “thank you” to someone for building up the safety culture. Be specific in the behaviors they did to earn your praise.
Make a list of three of the top resources you need. Justify them, and put them at the end of every presentation you show to your leadership (or at the end of every e-mail).
Talk to two supervisors each day. Don’t advocate your safety initiatives. Instead, inquire about their safety challenges. Seek to solve those challenges.
Once a day… stand at a different vantage point to look over your operation. Look at the people there. Take a deep breath and take a moment to acknowledge the effort you put in to keep them safe.
PUT YOUR OWN RESOLUTIONS HERE – MAKE THEM BEHAVIORAL (DOABLE, OBSERVABLE, MEASUREABLE)

Lets challenge ourselves to pick at least three of these resolutions by checking the boxes above, print out the list and stick it on your office wall. Use it as a prompt. When the behavior occurs put a tally mark. Don’t get discouraged if you’ve missed a goal. These are new behaviors, in most cases, that need to be shaped and your self-monitoring will help in this.

If you want to provide yourself a stronger contingency for these behaviors…GO PUBLIC.

Email me your name and the three+ resolutions you’ve made at TimLudwig@Safety-Doc.com. I’ll post them publically on Safety-Doc.com and we’ll check in on you at the end of 2013.

Now get out there and make an impact!

One resolution I have made, and try always to keep, is this: To rise above the little things. -- John Burroughs

Timothy Ludwig’s website is Safety-Doc.com where you can read more safety culture stories and contribute your own. Dr. Ludwig consults and serves as a commissioner for Behavioral Safety Accreditation at the non-profit Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies (CCBS: behavior.org) and teaches behavioral psychology at Appalachian State University, in Boone, NC. If you want Tim to share his stories at your next safety event you can contact him at TimLudwig@Safety-Doc.com.