By Daniel J. Moran, Ph.D., BCBA-D
Forward-thinking companies aim at improving performance, wellness, and safety in the workplace. Quality Safety Edge (QSE) has developed a suite of training programs aimed at helping leaders and front-line employees cultivate the skills and motivation to act more safely while also maintaining dedication toward productivity. These programs are based on Acceptance and Commitment Training (ACT), an innovative and proven approach to accelerating important skills at the workplace. ACTraining has been used to improve work performance for over a decade, and world-class organizations have been reaping large benefits from these workshops.
The key to all improvement programs is commitment. Our Values Based Commitment® workshops prioritize Safety Commitment as the major focus. A commitment is defined as putting effort toward a valued outcome, even in the presence of obstacles. Values Based Commitment® helps people develop skills in three major areas that contribute to Safety Commitment
Situational Awareness
Scientists who study industries and organizations accept the following definition for situational awareness: “the perception of elements in the environment within a volume of time and space, the comprehension of their meaning, and the projection of their status in the near future” (Endsley, 1995). It’s probably easier to think about situational awareness as knowing what’s going on so you can act the right way. You need to be awake and aware of the environment in order to commit to the actions that will help keep you and your coworkers safe. Values Based Commitment® provides a series of training exercises that can help build skills in mindfulness and situational awareness. A workforce that is better at functioning in the present moment is more likely to be safe, productive, and efficient, and also have improved focus on tasks.
Research suggests that people are thinking about something other than what they are doing for about 47% of the time (Killingsworth & Gilbert, 2010). This suggests that almost half of the workday, employees are distracted by thoughts related to the past or the future, rather than paying attention to what they are doing right now. This is problematic because the only time a person can behave constructively and carefully is in the moment. Being distracted in this way can be dangerous in dynamic work environments and leads to decreased productivity; Values Based Commitment® addresses these concerns.
Values Clarification
In ACTraining, values are considered “chosen life directions” (Hayes & Smith, 2005, p. 155). People are more likely to be motivated to place effort toward goals that are in line with the direction they are choosing to take their life, so values clarification exercises can be very instructive and inspire commitment to safety. When people know where they desire to go, it makes it easier to take the first step, and then to continue taking those steps in the face of difficulty. If people don’t know where they want to go, they aren’t likely to start moving in any direction. Even if they were told which direction to go, if they faced an obstacle, they might be more likely to turn back. Choosing directions that are personally relevant and vital to that individual can bolster effort in the workplace.
One values clarification exercise in Values Based Commitment® includes the “Lifetime Achievement Award” exercise. Participants are asked: “If you were to be awarded for your work contributions, what would you like recognized during the speech? What would you like to achieve? What personal qualities would you like mentioned about your efforts in the workplace?” Participants can be prompted with lists of values, such as: making the world a better place, looking out for my coworkers, innovating new solutions in the industry, cultivating safety, and earning money to provide for my family.
These values are just a small set of examples of personally chosen directions for work effort. Clarifying why you work helps shape how you work. During Values Based Commitment® workshops, people are asked, “Why do you do your job?” and typically the first answer is “For the money!” And the next question is, “Why do you work for the money?” which prompts people to drill down into what they are spending their money on, and seeing that each person has a particular purpose for the money that is linked to how they are choosing to live their life. Some people use the money to pay their mortgage because they value stability for their children, while others use their money to gas up their motorcycle in order to cruise the country with their friends because they value independence and camaraderie. If you ask your employees or colleagues: “Why do you do your job?” you might be surprised how infrequently people tie their work to something meaningful like “to improve the local community” and more often say something proximal, like “to pay the bills.”
Toiling simply to make money can influence workers to look for easier ways to make that money (such as cutting corners) or to feel purposeless at work. Lack of vitality in the workplace can diminish production while increasing stress and risky actions. When a person clarifies what is personally vital, they have something bigger to commit to rather than just a paycheck. Viktor Frankl once said, “Our main motivation is our will to find meaning in life,” so perhaps our main motivation in the workplace is our will to find meaning in our work, especially meaning in safe actions. Values Based Commitment® helps people build their own meaning into their daily activities.
Accurate Procedures
Since commitment is defined as putting effort toward a valued outcome, even in the presence of obstacles, an action plan needs to be defined in order to obtain those outcomes. Accurate procedures need to be in place in order to have something to commit to and put effort toward. In other words, people cannot simply commit to “working safely.” Rather, workers must commit to “wearing fall protection when climbing the 20-ft. ladder,” or “completing the observation and feedback process twice a day.” Those are actions that lead to outcomes, and both of those committed plans will be boosted by situational awareness and values clarification. It is as important to precisely define what needs to be done in order to create a commitment.
Quality Safety Edge’s Values -Based Safety Process® (McSween, 2002) develops accurate procedures for a company. QSE’s checklists, observation and feedback processes, and recognition programs are all scientifically supported ways of improving safety in the organization. Values Based Commitment® workshops help supplement these procedures by integrating situational awareness skills and personally relevant and valued motivators.
Conclusion
One exercise used in Values Based Commitment® trainings can assist in conceptualizing Safety Commitment: Imagine being a bus driver. Good bus drivers embody the main points of ACTraining. They pay attention to the road in the here and now (situational awareness), drive a meaningfully selected route with the aim to help people go sightseeing, commute to work, or explore the country on vacation (valued directions) and have the right equipment, the correct driver’s education, and a map to help them stay on course (accurate procedures). Values Based Commitment® provides educational experiences that accelerate situational awareness, clarify valued directions, and integrate accurate safety procedures to create powerful safety commitment within a workforce.
Dr. Daniel (D.J.) Moran is a Recognized ACT Trainer by the ACBS, a huge fan of heavy metal, and Senior Vice-President at Quality Safety Edge.
References
- Endsley, M.R. (1995). Toward a theory of situation awareness in dynamic systems. Human Factors 37 (1), 32–64.
- Frankl, V. (1946/ 2006). Man’s search for meaning. Beacon Press.
- Hayes, S. C. & Smith (2005). Get out of your mind and into your life. CA: New Harbinger Press.
- Killingsworth, M. A. & Gilbert, D. T. (2010). A wandering mind is an unhappy mind. Science, 330 (6006), 932.