Appreciative investigations provide positive, proactive opportunities for members of a workplace to consider which safety practices are working well.
Photo credit: iStock.com/andresr
Most of the time, in a workplace, there are no incidents and things go pretty well. But when it comes to safety investigations, we usually look at what went wrong, so we can prevent it from happening again.
Safety leader Ron Gantt says we can also gain much by looking at what’s right. He’s giving a workshop for operations managers and safety and human resources professionals to explore the concept of Appreciative Investigations (AI) and explain how they’re done.
“You not only learn about stuff that could prevent accidents, but you also get to understand what is actually working in your organization, which is not something you think about often. A lot of times you assume – especially in safety – that ‘This new rule is in place and now there’s no accidents so the rule must be working.’ But is it? How would we know?”
Ron’s talk on AI at the Bridging the Gap construction safety conference last October piqued delegates’ interest, says Candice Thomas, Safety and Injury Management Advisor with the BC Construction Safety Alliance, which planned and hosted the conference. That’s why BCCSA worked with Ron to develop the forthcoming workshop.
“We wanted to continue the momentum of inspiration by providing industry professionals with the opportunity to learn how they could integrate positive investigations into their own management systems,” Candice says, and describes how AI gets more people involved in the safety process: “This is an invaluable tool to get unique insights on the inner workings of an organization you wouldn’t normally hear. People at all levels have an opportunity to voice their ideas about the way work is carried out, and to collaborate on unearthing areas of strength and those needing improvement in a proactive, positive way, rather than a reactive, blameful way.”
Ron’s Appreciative Investigation Workshop, hosted by the BCCSA, will take place on Thursday, February 2, in Vancouver.
