Ask, Don’t Tell: Using Questions to Improve a Safety Meeting

Asking questions to improve our safety meetingsThe ultimate goal of a safety meeting is to communicate a message that raises safety awareness in the minds of your audience.  The problem , as we’ve already noted in the introduction video of this series, is that the majority of these meetings look more like one-way conversations.  You’ve delivered a message, but communication hasn’t happened. [content_protector password=”meeting-ask-03″ identifier=”meeting-ask-03″]

You want to facilitate a safety meeting that engages?  One that raises safety awareness?  One that transfers ownership for safe behaviors?  One that accomplishes two-way communication?  Then start asking open-ended questions.  What’s an open-ended question?  Well let’s look in as I explain what this is in a past workshop I conducted on improving the quality of our safety meetings (see video below).

Using open-ended questions to facilitate a safety meeting moves that safety meeting from a one-way monologue to a true, awareness-raising, conversation that will linger in the minds of those who are part of that meeting long after the meeting has ended.  And in the end real safety communication will have taken place.

That’s all the time we have for this edition of Recordable INSIGHTS. Until next time be sure all your safety talks are built in, not bolted on.

~ES

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About the Author

Eric Svendsen
Eric Svendsen, Ph.D., is Principal and lead change agent for safetyBUILT-IN, a safety-leadership learning and development organization. He has over 20 years experience in creating and executing outcomes-based leadership development and culture change initiatives aligned to organizational goals, and he personally led the safety-culture initiatives of a number of client organizations that resulted in “best ever safety performance” years for those companies.