How dialogue helped improve one company’s safety record

Accident prevention was the topic of TMA’s Safety PEER group Wednesday morning – and it was the topic of a recent story in EHS Today.

Author David G. Lynn wrote about a way he helped a client develop a safety culture for his company. He called the system the the “SAFE Dialogue” and he describes it like this:

Once a week, the plant manager, staff and department managers performed a SAFE Dialogue. They observed a specific operation and they talked to a minimum of two people. They used the SAFE Dialogue tool as their talking points.

To start the SAFE dialogue, they asked employees the following questions:

S—Summarize the critical steps of your job. “What do you have to do today?”

A—Anticipate where you are most likely to make an error. “Where could you make a mistake?”

F—Foresee the worst-case scenario. “What is the worst thing that could happen?”

E—Evaluate your controls. “How will you prevent it?”

 They documented what they learned on the back of the card and turned the cards in to the safety coordinator. The safety coordinator tracked participation and recorded good ideas.

“The value of the program was a visible demonstration of consistent safety commitment,” Lynn writes. “Leaders developed relationships with employees in the SAFE Dialogue forum and improvements followed.”

Can’t beat that, can you?

Find out more about the SAFE dialogue at EHS Today.