Sharon Lipinski, Author at Habit Mastery Consulting

Making The Most of Safety 2022

Safety2022 is the national conference by the American Society of Safety Professionals. It brings to together more than 5,000 people for 3 days of educational events and exhibits. With an event this size, it helps to have a few tricks up your sleeve.

We asked our fellow presenters and attendees for their insights, and they delivered! Check out our panel discussions below.

Educational Sessions

There will be more than 150 educational sessions to attend. Hear from our panel on what they’re looking forward to, their strategies for planning their schedule, and what, if anything, they’ll remember when they get home!

Networking

One of the advantages of an in-person conference is the opportunity to meet fellow safety professionals. Hear tips and tricks for networking at the event and maintaining those relationships after the event is over.

Expo

With 470,000 square feet of exhibit space, the expo hall is full of interesting products and services. We talked about what should not be missed as you explore the expo hall… hint, ice cream is involved.

Extracurricular

All work and no play makes #Safety2022 a dull day. Join me for a conversation with a few people who will be having some fun during the event.

Coming soon! Join the event on LinkedIn to watch us live: https://www.linkedin.com/video/event/urn:li:ugcPost:6938445148808781824/

Employee Stress Roundtable

Resources

Recently, we gathered safety professionals from around the country to discuss employee stress. Between pandemic fatigue, sometimes unreliable supply chains, and increasing work loads, stress has made it harder for employees to keep their minds focused on their work. And that can impact their safety on the job!

Roundtable attendees represented the safety departments of construction, manufacturing, research laboratories, utility, oil and gas, military, maritime, and the wind energy organizations. Over the course of their discussion, they shared ways they are reducing, managing, and transforming stress, so employees can be safer and more productive. We captured their experiences and strategies, and you can get a copy of these insights by visiting: https://habitmasteryconsulting.com/employee-stress/

Also, check out the video below where we set the stage for our conversation by defining what stress really is and how to transform it from a negative experience that people want to avoid into a growth opportunity people embrace. It also reveals the 3 key areas for stress management programs. One of these is often overlooked, and it keeps corporate stress management programs from having an even bigger impact.

A Case Study: Well-Being & Driving Habits

Case Study

We recently wrapped up an interesting engagement for a utility company with some great results. We SUBSTANTIALLY increased our attendees targeted behavior (182% and a 157% increases) and MAINTAINED that change several months later.

Originally designed as a single 4 hour training event for their team’s all hands meeting in May, but, like many things, our training had to be rescheduled and re-envisioned due to the Coronavirus.

The new vision: 2 separate 2-hour training events held a few months apart. At each training, attendees would choose a specific behavior they wanted to be doing on a daily basis. After each training, we would begin our signature program, a 60 Day Habit Challenge, to give employees the opportunity to stick to a new behavior long enough to actually turn it into a habit.

July

We held the first training in July and focused on coronavirus prevention procedures and stress management strategies. Attendees worked on habits like exercise, stress management, technology boundaries, eating healthier, and wearing their masks.

The Results

The first training and challenge improved stress management skills precisely at a time when the pandemic was adding even more stress to employees’ lives. We discovered that managing stress was more than just a personal benefit. Many attendees reported that their habit helped them create boundaries between work and home that made them more productive and effective at work.

By the end of the 60 Day Challenge, they increased their targeted behavior on average by 182%. In a follow up survey 5 months later, they reported not only sticking with it but also being very confident they would continue to stick with it.

Success Story

My habit was to exercise for stress relief. Since working from home, I was sitting down all day on phone and suddenly it would be 5. I’d be exhausted. With exercising, I had energy again for personal things that were important to me, and it helped get out pent up stress. It also impacted work, and let me take a step back, gather my thoughts, prioritize, and be more patient with people. I used to feel like I didn’t have time to take a 20 minute break, but I realized that it gave me more energy and the chance to identify the priorities. I felt less frustrated and got one or two more hours of work done a week. Program Participant

October

For the second training and challenge, attendees focused on safe driving practices like back-in parking, avoiding distractions, keeping their eyes moving, and leaving more room between vehicles.

Participants had already been through extensive driving training over a period of years, so we designed the “Amazing(ly Safe) Race” as a gamefied training experience to remind attendees of the safe driving strategies they already knew and then provided them with the post training support to make it a regular part of their driving experience.

The Results

This was a clear case where knowledge wasn’t the problem. By the end of the 60 Day Challenge, they increased their targeted behavior by 152%. 3 months later, they reported they had stuck with this new behavior and were very confident they would continue to drive with this new safe habit. When employees have been trained but haven’t changed, that’s a clue that the missing piece is the post-training support.

Most participants reported that their new safe driving habit made them safer on the road helped them avoid potential incidents. One said, “There was at least one occasion on slippery roads in which this extra distance could have played a factor in eliminating an accident.”

Success Story

My habit was to avoid distractions. I would ask myself, “Am I fit to drive?” And repeat my mantra: “Driving time is driving time.” I put a notepad in the center console, so I could write down thoughts before I left. I find that now I leave earlier and arrive with a lot less stress. This has directly impacted my productivity. I’m less stressed when I arrive on site, so I’m more approachable and my thoughts are clearer. My messages are received better. I used to drive multi-hour work trips and not remember the trip. Now, I feel much less prone to accidents. Program Participant

In Conclusion

While the first event alone was successful, the second training gave employees the opportunity to hone their habit creation skills and master habit creation strategies. Many employees remarked that they already have used or will use these strategies for other areas.

“My overall takeaway is that you can do anything you set you mind to, but you gotta take it one step, one day at a time.” Program Participant

Download the full case study here: https://habitmasteryconsulting.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Case-Study.pdf

How Confident Humility Improves Workplace Safety

Uncategorized

Adam Grant’s new book, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know may be one of the most important books of our time, because it delves into an incredibly important skill: rethinking.

Rethinking is essential, because it helps people determine…

What they don’t know…
When what they know has changed…
When they’re looking in the wrong place or asking the wrong questions…

There are so many ways this skill can improve workplace safety, and I suspect you’ll get lots of great ideas from the book.

Specifically, I want to highlight Grant’s concept of confident humility. On the one hand, confidence is great. Confident employees are more likely to take action and get things done. Plus, people enjoy doing work they’re confident they can do well. And since they may have spent years doing this work and honing their skills– they should feel good about it! They are actually good at it!

But confidence is also potentially a problem. When people are confident, they sometimes stop being curious. They sometimes stop noticing details. They sometimes stop growing their skills and learning.

Adam Grant writes that confident humility is “having faith in our capability while appreciating that we may not have the right solution or even be addressing the right problem.” In my words, it’s about knowing that whatever it is, I can handle it (or at least figure out who can handle it), but I better be sure about what it is that needs to be handled.

This is a skill that can be taught, nurtured, and turned into a habit.

We’ve identify 5 key behaviors for individuals, so they can develop their own confident humility and critical thinking skills. Plus, we’ve identified 5 key behaviors for managers, so they can create work environments that foster and promote confident humility and critical thinking.

How Much Longer?

Mental Health, Resources

January was a bit of a rude awakening. Closing in on a year of pandemic, I realized that the end is still not in sight. When this all started, I couldn’t have imagined how long it would go on and the profound and varied ways it would impact us. Even in December, I didn’t fully appreciate it. So, in January it felt a bit like running into a wall.

I don’t think I’m alone in this, as I’ve read articles talking about “pandemic burnout”, “psychological hibernation”, and “‘frustrative non-reward”. Frustrative non-reward. I didn’t know what that meant, but it certainly made sense when I read that it’s the idea that you go through something difficult or challenging with the hope that you get something out of it. But so far, no reward! And frustrating is an understatement!

In case you and/or the people you are working with are also feeling stress, frustration, disappointment, fatigue, distraction, and/or that their coping skills have been exhausted, I wanted to share a few resources with you.

1. Abby Ferri on the Safety Justice League’s podcast did a great interview with Frank King, the mental health comedian. This interview was in August, but so much of the advice they share is timeless.

2. Cope Notes sends daily exercises, encouragement, psychology facts, and more via text message. The messages arrive at a random time each day, and Forbes recently wrote that they were “the next evolution of digital mental health support.”

3. Give an Hour provides free mental health services to veterans, and they have also been working to raise awareness and reduce the stigma around mental health. This video by Chris Stapleton comes with a discussion guide that while geared towards young adults, might a good starting place as you think about how to have these discussions with others.

4. Some people will struggle through these difficult times more than other. Those who are having suicidal thoughts can call 1-800-273-8255 or use the chat feature at the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline website for assistance from a trained counselor.

As we all navigate the unknown waters in store for us over the next few months (or how ever much longer this ends up being), be gentle with yourself and gentle with others. We’re all just trying the best we can to get through a very difficult time.

What Groundhog Day Can Tell Us About Complacency

Complacency

“Groundhog Day” is my favorite movie. I love it so much that it even inspired a visit to Punxsutawney, PA on Groundhog’s Day. Spoiler alert: it was everything I hoped it would be, and I totally recommend going.

Why do I love this movie so much? Let’s just start with the facts that it stars Bill Murray and was written and directed by Harold Ramis, so it’s funny. But it’s also deep. It’s about discovering what’s really important in life. From a professional perspective it interests me, because it’s about repetition. If you’ve heard me talk, you know I keep repeating myself about repetition. Repetition is the mother of habit, but in this movie, it’s also an opportunity.

In the movie, it’s the same day over and over again. In real life, it’s not the same day over and over again. But it kind of is. Maybe even more so during the last 12 months as the pandemic has eliminated so many other activities. We wake up, we brush our teeth, we eat, we take care of our families, we work, we go to sleep. Repeat. It’s so familiar that we can stop thinking very much about or paying attention to these activities.

When Bill Murray’s character realizes that every day is the same, he discovers that he’s free to change. He can talk to new people, discover new places to go, and learn new things. By the end of the movie, he’s changed. Arguably, he’s a better and happier person.

It’s true for us, too. Each morning the alarm clock goes off, and we begin a new day. And in that day we aim to earn a living, be good spouses and parents and neighbors, and to do all those other things that make up our lives and give them meaning. But how we do them is up to us, and we can bring more of our attention and intention to those activities.

And it’s true for the daily grind of our work. Each day at work may look very much like the last day at work with many of the same activities and same people. The repetitive reality of work prompts a relentless drive toward complacency as it becomes so familiar that we can stop thinking very much about or paying attention to these activities.

However, it is possible for more attention and intention within that repetition. Check out our infographic on The Biological Basis of Complacency that offers a scientific definition of complacency and 6 tips to help safety professionals target the root cause of this hazard.

This Groundhog’s Day, we’re sending you warm wishes that you discover and cherish what is most important in your life, and if you and your team members need help avoiding complacency at work, we’d would love to be the first expert you reach out to for help.