6 Tips for Talking Safety to Someone Outside Your Team: Part II

4. Blame Someone Else

Another tactic to make yourself look less like a know-it-all is to reference a third party or source.

For example we can base our comments on what the boss said, what the procedure said, or what our induction [orientation] said. We can make someone else look like the "enforcer" of safety rather than sounding like it’s us. So we might say things like, "Didn’t they say in the induction that we had to …," "Come on, the boss has really been hammering us about safety glasses…," or even a general one like "They’ve been telling us to talk more about safety, so on that note I was thinking…."

Of course, we can only reference other sources or people when it’s true—we can’t just make things up!

5. Be Prepared to Walk Away

In the end, we are all responsible for our own safety, and there’s only so much we can do to influence another person’s behaviors.

So if the conversation starts to go off the rails, and the person gets defensive or argumentative, the best thing we can do is take some time out. There’s no benefit in pushing the point to prove you’re right if the person isn’t interested in listening or acknowledging what you’re saying. It will be best to just leave them to think about what you’ve said, and perhaps come back to it at a later time.

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If you’re right, they’ll probably change what they’re doing anyway, and if you’re wrong, then there was no point having an argument in the first place. We want people to work safely because they see the reasons why, not because they’ve been forced into it when they don’t agree.

6. Lead by Example

Leading by example through working safely ourselves may not help us deal with a dangerous situation that we’re witnessing, but over the longer term it sets you up to be able to have these safety conversations in the future.

If you’re not a good safety role model yourself, you’re not on a good foundation to talk to someone about what you think they should do differently.

How would you feel if someone that never wears his or her PPE told you should follow the rules more often? Leading by example with your own safe behaviors is the best foundation for helping others work more safely.

Fortunately, safety is so widely spoken about in the industry that most people are happy to engage in a discussion without getting defensive—it just needs someone to kick it off.

There’s no doubt people will still take risks even though they know it’s not the right thing to do, but a little chat to show them that you care about doing things the right way just might make all the difference!

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If this method of ensuring a safer, more OSHA-compliant workplace interests you, we’ll be happy to make Safety Audit Checklists available for a no-cost, no-obligation, 30-day evaluation in your office. Just let us know, and we’ll be pleased to arrange it.