Pick a topic tied to the day's work
Start with what the crew is doing today. Not what's next on a list.
If the crew is setting ladders, talk about ladders. If a lift is planned, talk about the lift. If the weather turned, talk about the weather.
- Look at the day's work and ask what could hurt someone doing it.
- Check last week's near misses and any open corrective actions.
- Check the forecast. Heat, cold, wind and storms all change the day.
- Ask the crew on the way in. They'll tell you what worries them.
Prepare in two minutes
You don't need slides. You need three things in your head and one in your hand.
- 1
Read the talk once
Skim the talking points. Pick the three that fit today. Drop the rest.
- 2
Find the example
Walk to the spot where it applies. A damaged cord, a blocked walkway, the ladder on the truck. Point at the real thing.
- 3
Write two questions
Open questions, not yes or no. "Where could someone get hurt on this setup?" works better than "Does everyone understand?"
- 4
Grab the sign-in sheet
Have it and a pen ready before the crew gathers. A phone works too.
Run it in five to ten minutes
- 1
Gather the crew where the work is
Stand out of the way of traffic and noise. Everyone should see and hear you. Phones away.
- 2
Say why this topic, today
One sentence. "We're working under the pipe rack, so we're talking about dropped objects."
- 3
Give your three points
Short and concrete. Say what to do, not what not to do. Use a story from your own crew if you have one.
- 4
Ask your questions and wait
Count to ten in your head before you fill the silence. Someone will talk.
- 5
Close with one line
A line the crew can repeat. "Check the cord before you plug in." Then send them to work.
Get the crew to talk
The talk that sticks is the one the crew helps give. A lead who talks for ten minutes straight has lost them by minute three.
- Ask the most experienced person to explain how they do it.
- Ask a new hire what looks wrong. They see things veterans stopped seeing.
- Thank anyone who raises a hazard, out loud, every time.
- Don't correct someone in front of the crew. Pick it up one on one.
- If someone raises something you can't answer, say so. Then find out.
Record who attended
A sign-in sheet records that the talk happened, who was there, what the topic was and who gave it. That's all it does. It doesn't show the crew understood, and it doesn't prevent an injury.
Get every name, the date, the topic and the lead's name. Keep it where you can find it later. Crews that work across several sites need a way to pull the sheets back up by person or by topic.
- Have people sign themselves. Don't sign for them.
- Log late arrivals and give them the short version.
- Note anything the crew raised, even if it's one line.
Follow up on what comes up
If the crew names a hazard and nothing changes, they stop naming hazards. Follow-up is what makes the next talk work.
- Write down each issue raised, who raised it and who owns the fix.
- Fix what you can today. Tell the crew when it's done.
- Take the rest to your supervisor or safety lead with a date.
- Open the next talk with what happened to last time's issues.
Common mistakes
- Reading a poster. If you're reading, the crew is waiting for it to end.
- Same topic every week. Crews tune out by the third repeat.
- A topic that has nothing to do with the day's work.
- No follow-up on what the crew raised.
- Signing the sheet for people who weren't there.
- Running it at the last second with the crew already walking off.
- Running it too long. Ten minutes is the ceiling.