How to Spice Up Safety Meetings
Much of the success you will have in effectively implementing a safety program revolves around the safety team and its meetings. It is from these efforts that you instill a culture of safety in your workplace. The performance of your employees is predicated upon daily awareness that starts with information sharing. To increase that awareness, make an effort to spice up your safety meetings so they become memorable. It's easy and fun.
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Instructions
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Plan your meetings well. Your meeting will not be engaging if you, as the leader, are simply talking at your audience. Plan to keep your meetings short. Thirty to 60 minutes should be long enough to accomplish your objectives. Plan activities that engage your audience, such as brainstorming, procedure mapping and question and answer periods.
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Prepare an agenda that requires attendees to share a short personal experience relevant to safety. Go around the table and have each attendee share a story in which they experienced a positive result in regard to a potentially hazardous situation. Give them opportunites to pat themselves on the back for jobs well done. At a future meeting, consider asking attendees to share a safety experience in which they made a mistake and learned from it. People love to share stories, and when it comes to safety, experiences on either end of the spectrum will be learning experiences for all.
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Prepare creative presentations that add humor to the mix. Few things are worse than a meeting leader reading a PowerPoint presentation word for word. It's much more memorable if the presenter includes a slide that has nothing to do with the material being offered. If you slip into the presentation a slide with a monkey eating a banana to introduce a break or a photo of you with a comical look on your face, you will revive the attention of your audience.
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Prepare a quiz at the end of your meeting that includes a totally irrelevant, yet humorous question in addition to the topic-specific content. Make this a habit and your attendees will look forward to the next quiz to see what interesting information will be hidden in the questions. The idea is to create a "buzz" that results in active and attentive participation.
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Change your meeting's venue. Some people think of the conference room as a place of dread or the company morgue. Consider regular changes to your meeting locations. Have your safety meeting in the cafeteria and bring a light snack and coffee for your attendees. If weather permits, take your meeting outside, maybe to a picnic area. A little fresh air helps people relax and gives them a fresh perspective. If time and your budget permits, have your meeting at a coffee shop or quiet restaurant.
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Tips & Warnings
Be creative. Creativity captures people's attention.
Be humorous. A good laugh helps people relax and refocus on the topic at hand.
Be enthusiastic. An active, commanding voice won't put your audience to sleep.
Don't dominate the conversation. Nothing will put your audience to sleep faster than a lack of engaging conversation in which everyone is expected to make contributions.
If you use humor, make it appropriate for the business setting. Off-color or otherwise inappropriate humor may offend your audience and lead to disciplinary problems.
