Spreading the word. Library of Congress on Flickr
People talk. Messages from different people and companies, in different situations, are going out to different groups of people.
People listen, and maybe ask questions. Then they leave and go home. But how can we encourage them to take away the ideas we offer?
Recently I heard a great suggestion on how to do this. It’s a way we can encourage people to keep talking about the ideas we share when they go out in the world, after the safety talk.
“Tell one other person about something you saw today,” said Trudi Rondou, who showed winning youth safety videos at the 2010 Safety Forum, which I wrote about recently.
Refreshing messages from a youth perspective
One of the videos was in stop-motion Lego. It must have taken so much work! I’ve watched my son and his friends attempt stop-motion Lego films and they are no easy feat.
Passing on stories
Trudi’s message to “tell one other person” is a powerful way to spread the word. Most people (with some exceptions, I’m sure) love sharing stories with their loved ones, so this encouragement is likely to get people talking.
In my case, I shared a story almost right away, when my son called me on my cellphone to say hi at lunch time. I told him “I’m supposed to tell this to one person today, so I’m choosing you.”
I told him about the stop-motion Lego video on workplace safety. He got all excited and rushed off to Google it. My task was completed.
After reading about the student videos mentioned by Trudi Rondou,I showed a few to my 12-year-old son. He’s not working yet (save the paper route) but work is only a few short years away for him. He enjoyed the videos for their humour and creativity, but also for the messages they delivered. When I asked him if he felt he learned something, he said he had no idea you could say “no” to an employer if they asked you to do something unsafe. He thought more kids should know that. I agree that sometimes just telling one other person can make a difference.
Hello All,
After reading this post I wanted to pass this on to every supervisor in our organization, word of mouth in this organization spreads like wild fire why should it not be for something positive and building up people rather than to tear them down. I think this technique would help to reinforce because you learn what you teach.
Further to Robin comment I had an experience when my son had a paper route that kinda got kindled that I would like to share. My son had a paper route and when the weather was cold I would drive him to do his route. He was on his way down the street and I pulled up at the end of the street to meet him.
While sitting there in my idling truck I noticed the last house on the block was having some work done to the front steps that required some cribbing and that the spikes did not have covers on them and the stairs were really trecherous to try to reach the mail box.
I got of my truck and waited for him to approach the house then I pointed out to him the hazard. We then approached the home owner to ask if there was alternative place, rther than the mail box he could leave the paper. The home owner definitely agreed that he did not want for my son to try to appempt to put the paper in the mail box with the existing hazardous conditions and alternate arrangements were made. I encouraged my son to notify the paper of the hazardous condition and that I special note should be put on the route informaiton to not put the paper in the mail box.
It worries me to think that the paper had instructed him that he had to put the paper in every mail box but did not ever explain to him that there may be circumstances whereby it just may not be a safe thing to do. How often do we find in our work places?
I am pleased that our youth are being given mre training on how to be assertive when it comes to safety more than any other genertation.