“It’s just my bad luck to have a dad that’s a safety geek” my son exclaimed. “I don’t do ‘vert’ where kids fly up in the air and try to land back on the ramp. I do ‘ground boarding’ like when I make the board jump and flip then try to land on it”

“And I always wear my helmet”.

My son was right. He did always wear his helmet skateboarding (he had been wearing his helmet snow skiing since he was 3) while many of the kids at the skate park don’twear the protective gear. The issue between my oldest son and his safety-consultant dad had to do with wearing elbow and knee pads.

His grandmother had lovingly gotten him these pads from Goodwill, but he said he stopped wearing them because they were too small and “looked stupid”.  So I bought him brand new ones from the coolest skate store in our county. I thought, “Problem solved”.

So you can imagine how I felt when I drove up the driveway and saw him doing hisboarding with no pads. Thus, we had one of those early adolescent talks between fathers and sons wherethe son is the purely rational one and dad just gets his way because he is bigger.“

So son, I’ve seen you with the scrapes and bruises. You’ll be able to avoid those and more serious injuries if you wear the pads. So why are you not wearing them?”

“Dad,” my son said with some impatience as if I was missing the obvious.

“They are uncomfortable and sweaty. And they make me less safe.”

“Less safe? “ I said with astonishment. “Let me cite some safety statistics that blah,blah, blah… (insert Charley Brown teacher sounds here).”

“But you’ve seen the tricks I do where I use my legs like arms to flip the board. Those leg pads keep me from bending my knee well enough and then get in my way.When that happens I’m more likely to get hit by the board, fall and get hurt.”

In my psychologist’s mind I knew he was right. Consider the concept of the basic Response Cost & Benefits Ratio. Simply stated, the personal cost my son experienced for complying with my request to wear pads (from his perspective)was:

a) discomfort, b) inhibit performance, c) inconvenience to put on, and d)looking silly (with the bulging knees and elbows that was not the fashion for pre-teens). In contrast, what was the benefit for wearing pads: a) Dad’s approval.

Thus,the Cost/Benefit Ratio shows a greater cost for safety. When the costs outweigh the benefits, the safety-related behavior does not happen.

Principle 1: Safety-related behavior is often less convenient, less comfortable, and provides less dexterity than the more risky alternative.

But, what could possibly be more important than Dad’s approval?

After a little investigation of his skateboard world I found out. Skateboarding magazines contain the ultra-cool boarding professionals photographed in impossible aerial poses, all with rock-star hair, the hottest gear, and… no pads (rarely helmets). I saw these same pros showing up on popular shows such as MTV’s Jackass careening down handrails to thrash-rock music then slamming their body on pavement as others laughed into the microphone. Surely, this wasn’t influencing my son. But, when I took him to the new county park’s skate park, build by a responsible community-minded group trying to find safe alternative activities for teens, I saw other kids had the tricks, the styles, even the laughter of the pros…all with the absence of pads and helmets.

Principle 2: We are influenced by others, especially if they are considered “cool.”

Consider the experienced employee who everyone goes to for advice or the neweremployee whose production numbers are praised by supervisors. Their approachto safety is modeled by others. What messages do they communicate about safety? What behaviors are they doing to promote safety? So I did what any dad would do. With all the male bravado I could muster I declareda “threat”.

“You WILL wear your pads when skateboarding or you will…. never…….skateboard……….. again (echo here).” And he complied, or so I thought. The next week I drove up the driveway to my son taking his pads off after boarding. It was an illusion squashed when his younger brother tattled that he had just spent the afternoon boarding without pads. When he saw my car he ran to his pads, shoved them on, and then acted as if they had been on the whole time.

Principle 3: Threats and discipline are only effective when the disciplinarian is present.

Ask any supervisor or safety manager and you’ll hear countless stories ofemployees scurrying to correct their safety behaviors when they see the supervisor walking up. I’ve even talked to some employee groups who had secret whistles and tapping codes to let each other know that “trouble is coming”. Who of us hasn’t been driving when oncoming traffic flash their headlights to indicate a police trooper is ahead taking speed gun readings? My threats did not work so I upped the ante. I proceeded to contact the county parks director and county commissioners announcing myself as a safety professional and detailing what I had seen at the skate park – how unsafe behaviorswere being modeled, and how there were no policies or signs requiring helmet and pad use in the skate park. I was not the only one.

Soon thereafter the county commissioners passed a law that all patrons of the skatepark must wear helmets and pads. Up went the verbose sign with the new statute. Nothing changed.

Principle 4: Policies and signs only direct behavior, they do not motivate safebehavior.

They cannot without consequences (see Principle 3 to review what happens to consequence without oversight). Is the only solution is to have a consequence provider watching at all times? That’s what happened. The county hired a security guard to enforce the new safety policy. It was then when my son, whose father is an opinionated local safety professional, wrote this letter to the editor of our local paper:

Some people are misguided on the issue of protective gear. I have nothing against helmets because I’ve banged my head a few times with it on and it still hurts and I know people who have become seriously injured because theywere not wearing one. Though I have nothing against helmets, I disagree with skateboarding pads because they affect your looks and most importantlyperformance. Mainly skateboarding pads are used for a style of skating called vert, half pipe mini pipe and ramps, but it has been proven that pads can decrease your performance and lead to further injury in other more technical, non-ramp styles of skateboarding most of the skaters at the skate park perform. Myself and the majority of skateboarders I know are refusing to come to the skate park because of these requirements.Yet our town is spending $40,000 for a security guard to enforce the rules.We would be better to use that money to expand the park which would allow skaters to be more spread out decreasing the chance of injury. I believe this action by the county was not economic but rather a decision based on the stereotype that skaters are a bunch of hooligans and require a security guard. Iknow the skate park will lose the majority of it’s frequent skaters who will look to the streets once again as their place to skate, defeating the original purpose of the gift of the local skate park.

He was right: The park closed from lack of attendance that same year.

I was right: He fell ground boarding, hurt his elbow and kept him on the DL during his baseball season. I took the issue to higher authorities, he resisted even more. We should have worked together. I guess we were both wrong.

Tim is a senior consultant for Safety Performance Solutions and teaches Psychology atAppalachian State University. Tim’s son Christian is a Junior at Watauga High School and future King of the World.

CCBS accreditation recognizes your outstanding safety performance and tells the world about what your company has done. For your employees it becomes a source of pride and the valuable intangible reinforcers that sustain safe performance.

This workshop will describe the value of CCBS accreditation to employees and other stakeholders, including customers. We will review accreditation methods and standards, and show data on the behavioral safety practices among companies who are accredited. You will have opportunities to discuss behavioral safety programs in your company and learn how to assess the readiness of your programs for accreditation. We will discuss case examples of companies, such as the Acetate Fibers Division of Eastman Chemical, that have sustained long term success in their BBS programs.

You may wish to bring data on safety programs and performance, such as graphs of OSHA recordables over recent years. Dwight, Tim and Mark will give you recommendations and guidance to help your company plan and prepare for an accreditation site visit.

Presenters

Mark P. Alavosius, Ph.D.

Mark P. Alavosius, Ph.D. is assistant professor of psychology in the Behavior Analysis Program at the University of Nevada, Reno. He received his BA in psychology from Clark University in 1976 and earned his MS (1985) and Ph.D. (1987) in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

As President of MPA & Associates, Inc., Dr. Alavosius works with specialists in instructional design, multi-media interactive systems, software development, business strategy, and performance management to develop and provide behavioral systems to improve performance in business and industry. He held faculty appointments in the Behavior Analysis and Industrial/Organizational Program at Western Michigan University and the Behavior Analysis Program at West Virginia University. His interests are in developing behavioral and instructional systems to improve work performance particularly in the areas of health and safety.

Dr. Alavosius has a proven track record with NIOSH as a recipient of Small Business Innovations Research Grants to develop and test behavioral safety technologies. With over twenty years of experience in behavioral approaches to work performance and occupational health & safety, Dr. Alavosius has over 100 publications and conference presentations.

__________________________________

Tim Ludwig, Ph.D.

Tim Ludwig earned his Ph.D. at Virginia Tech researching the benefits of employee-driven behavior based safety programs under E. Scott Geller. Dr. Ludwig is a full professor at Appalachian State University where he was named a University Deans’ Distinguished Graduate Faculty for his contributions to the nationally recognized Industrial/Organizational Psychology and Human Resources Management Masters program. Dr. Ludwig’s teaching has been recognized with the North Carolina University Board of Governors’ Excellence in Teaching award and he has been inducted into Appalachian State University’s Academy of Outstanding Teachers.

Dr. Ludwig is currently serving as the President of the Organizational Behavior Management Network and the current editor of the Journal of Organizational Behavior Management. He is the author of dozens of scholarly articles that empirically document the successes of methods to improve safety and quality in industry through behavior-based management. His book Intervening to Improve the Safety of Occupational Driving reviews 10 years of behavior-based safety in the product delivery industry. His upcoming book, Best-in-Class Safety benchmarks how companies with the best safety records succeed. Dr. Ludwig serves on the Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies’ Behavioral Safety Accreditation Board that reviews best-in-industry safety practices and offers independent, objective feedback on safety programs.

Within his consulting practice at Safety Performance Solutions, Dr. Ludwig has helped design, deliver, and implement safety programs at Corning, Albany International, TRW Automotive, Eastman Chemicals, Domino’s Pizza, Carolina Medical Center, Kimberly Clarke, Connectiv Energy, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), SuperValue, and Nucor Steel. He has continued this research for two decades integrating his empirical findings into his safety consulting. He also has provided his expertise in TQM, strategic planning, and human resources development to numerous private and government organizations over the past 15 years. Clients include the US Navy-Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA), US Department of Energy, US Department of the Interior, National Grocers of Canada, the Deaconess Hospital System, Boyles Furniture, and Alex Lee Inc. of North Carolina.

Dr. Ludwig’s recent keynote presentations include speeches at International Conference on Occupational Risk Prevention, A Coruna, Spain; AmCham’s Health Safety and Environment Conference & Exhibition, Trinidad; Behavioral Safety Now, Kansas City, MO.; and the Behavior Management Training Leadership Conference, Darington, United Kingdom.

After explanation and examples, participants will work in groups to complete a PIC/NIC analysis in order to better learn how to use this powerful tool. The last portion of the workshop will involve discussion about designing strategies for change based on information gathered using the PIC/NIC.

The importance of addressing all sources of consequences (management, peers, organizational systems, etc) will be discussed.

Presenters

1) How does behavioral safety differ from traditional safety programs?
2) What comprises a behavioral safety program?
3) How does a company implement a behavioral safety program?
4) What role does management play?
5) How can the observation process best be established?

Presenter

Angelica C. Grindle, Ph.D. Project Manager with Quality Safety Edge, a company that specializes in the application of behavioral technology to employee driven safety and quality improvement efforts. Over six years experience successfully designing, implementing, and evaluating behavioral and process improvement systems in a wide variety of organizational settings. Projects include: Innovative training, feedback, and reward systems Cross-business unit process redesign Strategic organizational design Clients include: Archer Daniels Midland Alticor Corporation Kaiser Permanente Menasha Corporation Georgia Pacific Lear Seating Borgess Hospital   A presenter at local and national conferences and author of articles appearing in the Journal of Organizational Behavior Management and the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis. Contributor to The Values-Based Safety Process: Improving Your Safety Culture with Behavior-Based Safety by Terry McSween. A member of the Association for Behavior Analysis and the Organizational Behavior Management Network. Recipient of numerous scholarly awards. M.S., Industrial/Organizational Psychology, Western Michigan University. Ph.D., Applied Behavior Analysis, Western Michigan University.

This unique team of behavioral science experts, led by popular BSN keynote speaker, Dr. John Austin, will reveal their secrets of success in improving business and safety.  This workshop will be an engaging, interesting, informative, and enjoyable experience.  The team will be using all of the latest in-class teaching technology and will share the data on how this technology has dramatically improved knowledge transfer.  You will carry out the simple BMT Federation safety continuum questionnaire, which will help you define particular opportunities for improvement in your safety culture.

In this workshop you will learn:

• How to carry out a simple health check on your own safety process & culture
• How to analyze your current safety leadership
• How to increase the likelihood of getting honest feedback
• How to create and measure effective lead indicators
• How to remove 20% of your paperwork

Presenters

We’ll see how employees take ownership over their own safety through employee-based implementation teams and talk about a change to a Total Safety Culture. Finally, we’ll discuss how to maximize Actively Caring through communication skills, that maximize usefulness and acceptance of feedback, and through the use of data to reinforce the gift that employees give each other and your company through their participation.

Presenter

Tim Ludwig, Ph.D.

Tim Ludwig earned his Ph.D. at Virginia Tech researching the benefits of employee-driven behavior based safety programs under E. Scott Geller. He has continued this research for two decades integrating his empirical findings into his safety consulting. Before joining Safety Performance Solutions, Tim provided his expertise in TQM, strategic planning, and human resources development to numerous private and government organizations over the past 15 years. Clients include the US Navy-Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA), US Department of Energy, US Department of the Interior, National Grocers of Canada, the Deaconess Hospital System, Boyles Furniture, and Alex Lee Inc. of North Carolina.

In addition to being a Senior Consultant with SPS, Dr. Ludwig is a full professor at Appalachian State University where he was named a University Deans’ Distinguished Graduate Faculty for his contributions to the nationally recognized Industrial/Organizational Psychology and Human Resources Management Masters program. Tim’s teaching has been recognized with the North Carolina University Board of Governors’ Excellence in Teaching award and he has been inducted into Appalachian State University’s Academy of Outstanding Teachers.

Dr. Ludwig is currently serving as the Editor of the Journal of Organizational Behavior Management. He is the author of dozens of scholarly articles that empirically document the successes of methods to improve safety and quality in industry through behavior-based management. His book Intervening to Improve the Safety of Occupational Driving reviews 10 years of behavior-based safety in the product delivery industry. His upcoming book, Best-in-Class Safety benchmarks how companies with the best safety records succeed.

Dr. Ludwig serves on the Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies’ Behavioral Safety Accreditation Board that reviews best-in-industry safety practices and offers independent, objective feedback on safety programs. With Safety Performance Solutions, Tim has promoted safety programs at TRW Automotive, Eastman Chemicals, Domino’s Pizza, Carolina Medical Center, and Nucor Steel.

What should a manager do today and tomorrow to ensure a safe work environment? What can a manager do to help create a culture that truly embraces safety? After a very quick review of behavioral science, this workshop will outline four general ways that leaders (supervisors, managers and executives) can have a positive impact on safety.

Examples of specific leader behaviors will be provided. In addition, exercises throughout the workshop will allow participants to apply the concepts to their own organizations. This workshop is designed for (1) those in leadership positions, (2) those who are coaching leaders to better support safety, and (3) frontline employees who are trying to influence safety leaders.

Presenters

Presenter

Recent clients include:

This workshop will explore methods for examining systems that identify deliberate change needed to reduce process failures. Attendees will get practical ideas for recognizing when current process improvement efforts are approaching a plateau of effectiveness and ways to engage people closest to the opportunities in making them reality. This will truly be a working workshop, rich with examples, practical applications and experience-specific takeaways.

Participants will be immersed in the challenging question, “Which is most sustainable: changing individual behavior, or shaping the systems that drive or support that behavior?” Workshop applications will stretch beyond safety and, where possible, tie in with Six Sigma, Kaizen, Lean, and other process improvement processes that depend on sustainable behavior change for success. Target Audience:

• Companies that are looking for new ways to gauge the effectiveness of their safety process,
• Companies that have experienced difficulty establishing effective continuous improvement strategies,
• Companies that want to know more about relationships between deliberate change and discernable effect,
• Companies that want to be more effective in demonstrating value in behavioral safety processes,
• Anyone currently involved in a BBS installation.

Presenters

Mike Diehl, CSP

Senior Technical Consultant – Organizational Safety Performance Liberty Mutual Insurance Group

Mac Bell, CSP

Senior Technical Consultant – Organizational Safety Performance Liberty Mutual Insurance Group

Jim Houlihan, CSP, ARM

Jim’s current responsibilities include development of process and resources to support Organizational Safety Performance consulting services delivered to customers worldwide.

• Over 33 years of safety consulting and management experience with Liberty Mutual Loss Prevention,
• Works with large, multi-site customers to assess, develop, and implement comprehensive performance improvement processes,
• Over one hundred presentations delivered to professional, dedicated or customer conferences including over three dozen keynote addresses.
• Broad based geographical exposure having worked in Northeast, Southern and Middle Atlantic Regions while traveling nationally for large customer projects over the course of three decades.
• Outstanding training and facilitation experience and success with all organizational levels across a spectrum of industries. Noted for his ability to address senior management or hourly workers, connecting well with each.
• Consulted on the design, piloting and implementation of a phased safety process improvement strategy for a large, international contractor. The comprehensive strategy is still unfolding eleven years later with dramatic, validated results and recognizable culture change at all levels through most all of the 140 companies.
• Participated in the creation and support of LMIG’s AOSE™ consulting model and Performance Leadership™ behavioral safety process through direct customer consulting engagements, mentoring of customer and internal champions, development of training and marketing resources, validation of risk reduction returns and data collection technology.
• Introduced and facilitated the Performance Leadership™ process to the nation’s largest passenger rail service; achieving quantified risk reductions in areas such as handling luggage, changing couplers , training and detraining safety, and operating track-laying machines
• Involved in projects that assess or develop “upstream safety indicators,” cultural or performance change strategies and world-class safety interventions.
• Ability to facilitate highly diverse teams to achieve objectives efficiently and deliver creative, hard-hitting outputs.
• Recognized as a spontaneous, engaging public presenter, comfortable working without notes in large groups while staying on time
• Bachelor of Science in Business Management – Virginia Commonwealth University
• Master of Arts in Theology – Eastern Seminar
• Certified Safety Professional (CSP)
• Associate in Risk Management (ARM)

This unique team of behavioral science experts, led by popular BSN keynote speaker, Dr. John Austin, will reveal their secrets of success in improving business and safety. This workshop will be an engaging, interesting, informative, and enjoyable experience. The team will be using all of the latest in-class teaching technology and will share the data on how this technology has dramatically improved knowledge transfer. You will carry out the simple BMT Federation safety continuum questionnaire, which will help you define particular opportunities for improvement in your safety culture.

In this workshop you will learn:

• How to carry out a simple health check on your own safety process & culture
• How to analyze your current safety leadership
• How to increase the likelihood of getting honest feedback
• How to create and measure effective lead indicators
• How to remove 20% of your paperwork

Presenters