Art Fettig’s Monday Morning Memo
June 1, 2009
In This Issue
o Safety and Human Behavior
o Say Something Good
o Visit Our Website
o Points To Ponder
o A Little Humor
o Quote of the Week
Safety and Human Behavior
In the very early seventies I started working with a noted psychologist from Notre Dame University to learn more about employee behavior. I was trying to figure our why we had such a rotten safety record and what we might do about it. I had been handling the investigation and settlement of employee injury claims since the late forties and “human error” seemed to be the stated cause for most injuries and it got me interested in what caused “human error.” Actually, my job with Dr. True was to write fresh humor for his lectures. I didn’t realize at that time that I was studying psychology or human behavior either. Those topics were so foreign to the railroad industry that I would have been banished from the property if that were even suspected. We were still in the stone ages in regard to the role of human behavior in regard to safety.
As I stumbled along, somehow, thanks to a brand new, highly dedicated and innovative corporate president, I was given a new job and freedom to explore my thinking. The results were quite impressive and mostly because of the efforts of others. Nevertheless, this enabled me to move about the corporate world sharing my ideas with others. Of course a lot has changed since I began my work in 1948. Just the same the term “human error” keep cropping up as the stated cause for so many employee injuries. We used to joke that the cause of most accidents is people and the cause of most people is accidents. I guess that is still true today and nothing changes. Just the words we use to describe things. Some engineers I have met believe that the way to eliminate human error is to eliminate people and recently, it appears, that a lot of CEO’s are following up on that idea for a lot of employees are being eliminated.
What I discovered along the way is that when people make personal commitments to one another and take responsibility for not just their own safety but that of their fellow workers safety, thus becoming brother’s and sister’s keepers, and when they give one another a signed permission for others to interact in a positive manner, then folks just naturally work a lot saver and you get outstanding results. Oh yes, we introduced a simple 101 hand signal to avoid a lot of confrontation and people actually started communicating. Now that might not be a whole lot for a person to figure out in just sixty-one years in the safety field but that is the best I have to offer.
Say Something Good
Commencements. My step grand daughter is graduating from high school with all sorts of honors and I attended a program held in the school gym. It lasted almost forever and the seats were hard but it was a thrill to hear of the achievements of so many students. Many of them had received impressive scholarships and awards and as I listened I started thinking about how we never hear or read about this segment of the education scene here in America. So many wonderful students accomplishing so many awesome things and all we read about online or in the papers or see on TV is that two students broke into the school and trashed two classrooms or the report on another car crash involving students. Here in America we have a situation where we can be mighty proud of the achievement of the many, however, we only hear about the few. May God bless our students and our graduates and keep them safe. May God bless our troops and keep them out of harms way and may God continue to bless America.
Points To Ponder
I guess that one of the most important things I’ve learned is that nothing is ever completely bad. Even cancer. It has made me a better person. It has given me courage and a sense of purpose I never had before. But you don’t have to do like I did…wait until you lose a leg or get some awful disease, before you take the time to find out what kind of stuff you’re really made of. You can start now. Anybody can. Terry Fox
A Little Humor
A committee is twelve people doing the work of one.
Quote of the Week
Constant success shows us but one side of the world; adversity brings out the reverse of the picture. Charles Caleb Colton