Let’s Get Focused

On the job safety – there is no choice…

My personal safety message may be a little unconventional, however it is real. During my adolescent years my father was a bit of a risk taker. I had more hours flying in his private planes before I was 16 years old than many people have in a life time and I lived through some close calls – what we in the nuclear world call “near misses”. My mother and father both rode motorcycles so it is fairly understandable that I started off on mini-bikes and ended up racing motorcycles. My first race was at the age of 12 – actually on the ice. During my racing years I was invincible. In one memorable race I broke my hand in the first turn on a post that was in my way. The first turn usually only has a few good lines that 40 riders funnel in to. Racing on adrenalin I was able to finish the race in a good position regardless of the broken hand. My point is I grew up accepting personal risk and my motto was and to a lesser degree still is “ Risk takers don’t live forever but non-risk takers don’t live at all”. I still ride motorcycles. The week-end before Christmas was beautiful in my area of South Carolina. I took a bike out for a ride. No jacket ,no helmet and I broke the century mark a few times (exceeded 100MPH). So I’m still a thrill seeker, it’s still part of me.

Can I carry this way of life into my professional nuclear life? No way not even in part. Why haven’t the things I’ve learned and preach in my nuclear life affected my personal life? Well first I’ll point out I do use many things from my nuclear professional life. I’ve always valued having my senses’ – you know the sense of touch, taste, hearing, smell, and sight. So I wear my safety glasses using the weedeater, I wear gloves handling tools etc. I don’t like the thought of going through life blind or not being able to hear.

Let’s Get Focused (continued)

So those things from the job I use. The key difference is my motto of life away from nuclear is a personal choice that I and only I have responsibility for. When it comes to working in a nuclear plant we don’t have a personal choice it’s a condition of employment that we not only work safely but we follow the safety rules and we look out for the safety of our co-workers. It is our job, our obligation and our commitment to prevent injuries to ourselves and others. Simply put safety is about the prevention of injury. Now days the expectation is Zero injuries and anything outside achieving this means not meeting expectation. There is not a measurement scale of success there is Zero and everything else. I’ve worked nuclear for over 3 decades so I’ve lived through what was acceptable on the scale over the years up to what is acceptable now. I’ve certainly had to adjust my thinking in regards to on the job safety over the years. The bar of measuring success has consistently been raised to where it is now.

So my message is this. We are all individuals with various backgrounds beliefs and experiences and have choices (although limited) on how we live outside nuclear. As a manager with Bartlett I don’t try to change you as an individual I am however one of the people responsible for what you do on the job. Working safely at a nuclear plant is not a choice, you can’t think of ways to take a short cut or justify in your own mind why you don’t need to follow the rules. The rules and requirements must be followed and you must do all you can to achieve the Zero injury expectation.

Jim PettyDirector of Operations—Duke EnergyBNI

Diversity Quote

"To effectively communicate, we must realize that we are all different in the way we perceive the world and use this understanding as a guide to our communication with others.”

Tony Robbins

One of the most effective means of reducing accidents and illness is Hazard Recognition. The definition of a hazard is a source of danger: a possibility of incurring loss or misfortune. Anything that has the potential to cause harm to people, damage to property/environment, or loss to process. Recognizing safety hazards may not always be an easy task. Hazards can cause serious injury or even death to employees. Through awareness and being able to recognize a hazard in the workplace, potential hazards can be avoided or even abated to reduce employee injuries.

Hazard recognition should begin with the pre-job planning. Discussing the evolution completely will often bring to light potential hazards and allow steps to be made to eliminate, avoid or protect against possible sources of injury. Looking at the work area prior to the task, even if the task has been performed in the past, is a good way to discover hazards. Job Hazard Analysis (JHA) is a very useful tool when it comes to hazard recognition. JHA have information in them regarding recognized hazards associated with jobs previously performed, and actions/ steps to be taken to avoid or eliminate the hazard.

Think they started the day knowing this would happen?

Get into the heads of our experienced and seasoned co-workers. A wealth of information is contained with experienced workers. Folks who have worked on the equipment or with the tools before should share their knowledge and experience with less experienced workers. Sharing past experience will increase everyone’s ability to recognize hazards that may not have been as visible before. Conduct post job reviews or briefings that are focused on any lessons learned from work activities—document and share your lessons learned as they are also a good source of information for hazard recognition.

Humor In SafetyA Safety Professional crosses a road when a frog calls out to him, "If you kiss me, I'll turn into a beautiful princess."

He bends over, picks up the frog and puts it in his pocket. The frog speaks up again and says, "If you kiss me and turn me back into a beautiful princess, I will stay with you for one week."

The Safety Professional takes the frog out of his pocket, smiles at it and returns it to the pocket.

The frog then cries out, "If you kiss me and turn me back, I'll do whatever you say!"

Again the Safety Professional takes the frog out, smiles at it and puts it back into his pocket.

Finally, the frog asks, "What is the matter? I've told you I'm a beautiful princess, I'll stay with you for a month and do whatever you say. What more do you want?"

The Safety Professional says, "Look, I'm a Safety Professional. I don't have time for a girlfriend, but a talking frog, now that's cool!"

The goal is to make hazard recognition second nature for all. How do we do this?

• Review safety procedures for your job and work area on a daily basis.• Understand how unsafe acts can lead to accidents.• Use your safety knowledge in all aspects of your job, every hour of the day.• Help instruct new workers in identifying potentially hazardous situations.• Correct Potential Hazards• Hazard recognition is valuable only when corrective action is taken.• Report all potential hazards to your Supervisor.• If work scope changes or new activities are being performed, get your Supervisor involved

before starting the work—a walk-down is necessary to identify new hazards.• Work with your Supervisor to make sure the hazard is corrected and communicate with

co-workers so they don’t cause any potential hazards.• If you are not sure what to do ASK!

Skill Based Errors—Doing Things on Autopilot

Skill based errors occur due to complacency and familiarity with performing a routine task. We are comfortable performing these tasks without putting much thought into them. When we fail to maintain a questioning attitude about the jobs we are performing, we are placing ourselves in an error likely situation.

Do you remember how focused you were when you first started driving a car? Maybe a little nervous, but very attentive to what was around you. Everyone should maintain a healthy uneasiness about every task we perform, no matter how many times we have done the task.

Most of us have driven to work so many times that it’s a routine task. That being said, do you remember your drive in to work this morning or were you on Autopilot?

Values…….

When asked, “What are your Values in Life?” what thoughts and images comes to mind? Many will think of family, employment, integrity, good work ethic, honesty, loyalty, health…...and the list goes on and on.

So when you think about your values, those things that mean the most to you in life, do your decisions always reflect your values? They should but I am positive each of us can think back to a time where that is not the case. Times where you find yourself saying “Why did I do that?”.

Behavior Based Safety doesn’t stop with Actions or Behaviors like many other safety programs. It goes beyond this to get to the human factor, the real heart of what drives each of us to do what we do and why we make the choices that we make.

With every decision, work or personal, your values should always be reflected because you can be assured that they most definitely will be impacted. Are you making unsafe choices at work or in your life? If the answer is yes, then it’s time to re-evaluate and start making choices that are safe and reflect what we say we value the most out of life.