safe habits

content

AUDIENCE

• People working in a high risk workplaces

CONTENT

Workplace accidents don’t generally happen because people don’t know the rules. They happen because, in the moment, the rules weren’t driving the behaviour. Up to 95 percent of our daily actions are driven not by conscious decision-making, but by habit. 

The obvious response is training. Inductions, toolbox talks, signage, compliance modules –  those things matter – but they operate on the wrong part of the brain. ‘Knowing’ happens in the prefrontal cortex. Action happens in the limbic system. There’s the gap. Mostly, we know what safe behaviour is and that’s insufficient. This workshop is about converting that knowledge into action.

Action selection is emotionally driven, and that means motivation is the lever. Fear-based motivation (the threat of a fine or job loss) is appropriate in acute situations. Reward-based motivation works where the safe choice produces a visible positive outcome. But both are external. When they are removed, so is the behaviour. For sustained safety performance — the kind that holds up at 6am on day three of a long shift — you need something deeper.

And that’s autonomous motivation: not enjoyment, but genuine ownership of the reason. For most people in high-risk environments, it’s not abstract — it’s getting home to their family. It’s not being the one who caused someone else’s injury. That is a different conversation than compliance training, and it produces a different kind of safety culture.

And finally, we talk about the science of converting a sensible action into a lifelong habit. 

Participants will leave with a concrete method for anchoring safer behaviour to the emotional circuitry that actually runs the show.

format

This theme is best delivered as an interactive workshop.

Attendees complete an exercise in which they specify the particular habits they want to adopt or eliminate. Then they commit to an implementation plan.

Duration: 90 minutes.