Six Tips to improve Safety Toolbox Meetings

12/08/2016

At Sigma, we held Toolbox Meetings very carefully and methodically. As we know, the 15-minute meetings are actually a real drag with disinterested staff and they have the ability to change the behavior and mood of the employees in a way that the safety managements coach.

In "The New Science of Building Great Teams" by Alex "Sandy" Pentland printed in Harvard Business Review, April 2012, new research has found that there are three factors that contribute to a great team - energy (how team members contribute to a team as a whole), engagement (how team members communicate with one another) and exploration (involves communication that members engage in outside their team).
To improve our tool box talks, so that people are working together, Sigma has focused on making the meetings more positive. By doing this, our staff are always full of energy, engagement and exploration. Let's take a look at how Sigma transforms our safety meetings.
1. Explain the new positive approach
- Let everyone know that from now on, safety tool box meetings are going to be different. That we're all going to start being positive about safety, as by being positive, Sigma has all greatly improved our safety record and enjoyment of work. Our leaders of the group always make these meetings sound fun and inclusive. We encourage people to speak or cover issues that are being ignored to ensure that we could notice when something is being left unsaid or someone cannot get their say.

2. Focus on 3 positives to 1 negative comment

In the book, Positivity by Barbara Frederickson, her research found that to lift morale of your workforce, an easy method is to focus on three positive comments for every one negative comment (in fact, for high performance teams the ratio is 6 to 1, but if you've got real morale issues, working towards three positives is a good starting place).

Accordingly, Sigma let all members know that when talking about safety issues, three will be three positive comments first and then a negative opinion. This approach leads the toolbox meetings to welcome a new day full of energy, more positive opinions than negative once always makes every member feel more comfortable and pleasant.

3. Focus on what is best for the company or group rather than people overly focusing on themselves.
We are always aware that the interests of the company are the priority and let people know that they need to act in the best interests of the group. If we realize that someone has brought up an issue that is for their own personal agenda, then we clarify this and get them to work on a group solution. If group members criticize someone or the company get them to open with "I might suggest..." rather than criticizing. Besides, Sigma encourages people to ask questions when they do not understand issues or someone's point of view rather than resorting to negative comments.

4. Start with Gratitude
This is going to be difficult one for some, but being grateful is an extremely powerful way to make people feel happy and comfortable with one another. Understanding that, Sigma usually starts our meeting with our staff thinking about positive things. This enables our workers to bring more ideas and workable solutions to any problems discussed in meetings.

In fact, many Sigma teams which have been working together for many years used old process, the interesting thing is that when the leaders applied this new process to get people all working together, the results were startling surprisingly. Productivity was increased significantly and there were more sharing issues. Since then, the team members enjoyed being with each other much more than before we started being grateful.
5. Tell stories to reaffirm correct safety behavior
At Sigma, Toolbox meetings are practical, cuz we know that no one wants to hear doctrinaire theories. We usually give examples of the types of behavior that we want to see repeated.
6. Annoucing Safety Rewards
Currently, Sigma has applied to award individuals who have outstanding safety performance to promote employees working more efficient. This is extremely plausible because it helps individuals perform well his work.

Summing it Up
To get disengaged staff more engaged in toolbox talks, Sigma really improved the energy levels by making the meetings more positive. By introducing things to be thankful for at the start of the meeting and ensuring that our meetings have at a minimum three positive comments to one negative, we really changed the dynamics of the meetings. Moreover, that everyone has a chance to give feedback and that all participants feel safe to talk is what we focus to have good-quality Toolbox Meetings.

Six Tips to improve Safety Toolbox Meetings

At Sigma, we held Toolbox Meetings very carefully and methodically. As we know, the 15-minute meetings are actually a real drag with disinterested staff and they have the ability to change the behavior and mood of the employees in a way that the safety managements coach.

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