Episode 189: Training for All

In this episode of Leading and Learning Through Safety, Dr. Mark French highlights the moral imperative of safety as a foundation for leadership. He emphasizes that prioritizing people’s well-being opens the door to empathy, innovation, and stronger organizational culture.

Recent safety incidents underscore persistent risks. Roadway accidents—particularly during summer travel—remain frequent, reminding us of the dangers of distracted or inexperienced driving. Dr. French shares a personal reflection as his 17-year-old prepares for independent driving, noting both the risks of injury and the lifelong consequences of liability. He encourages listeners to remind novice and distracted drivers of their responsibility behind the wheel.

Another concerning trend involves workplace electrocutions, often due to inadequate lockout/tagout procedures or arc flash protections. Despite regulations, preventable incidents continue, highlighting the need for ongoing refresher training and toolbox talks, especially for electricians and maintenance staff.

A specific case from Ohio illustrates the consequences of insufficient training: a 21-year-old worker was fatally injured in a forklift accident. Community reactions revealed widespread misunderstanding of forklift hazards, underscoring the gap in proper operator instruction. Dr. French draws a parallel to driver’s licensing—while society mandates certification for cars, many workplaces still allow untrained workers to operate heavy equipment. He stresses that respect—not fear—of hazards should guide training and behavior.

Closing with a reminder that September is Suicide Awareness Month, Dr. French urges listeners to look out for one another, reinforcing that safety encompasses both physical and psychological well-being.

Transcript

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This week on the leading and learning through safety podcast, we're going to talk a lot about simple items that make a huge difference in how we conduct ourselves as leaders and safety in the importance of good learning. All this week on the podcast, you welcome to the leading and learning through safety podcast. Your host is Dr Mark French. Marks passion is helping organizations motivate their teams. This podcast is focused on bringing out the best in leadership through creating strong values, learning opportunities, teamwork and safety. Nothing is more important than protecting your people, safety creates an environment for empathy, innovation and empowerment. Together, we'll discover meaning and purpose through shaping our safety culture. Thanks for joining us this episode and now here is Dr Mark French, fish. Welcome to this episode of the leading and learning through safety podcast. I am so happy that you have joined me. Welcome to this journey of what I like to call leading safety first. If we begin with the moral imperative of safety, if we begin by showing we care about people through caring about how they perform at work in a safe way, it opens up the door to a whole lot more in leadership. And that's where I want to begin is looking at some things that have happened in the news as normal and really developing through what more could be done. And I know if you're listening to this, you're one of those who care and are trying to care, and maybe we can have the opportunity to share a little bit more and help where we can, but let's get started. Let's jump right in it. There's always interesting trends, and never in a good way. When looking through data of significant injuries and fatalities in the news, when you scan through and you try to find items that are happening to understand, really the state of safety across the country. Because sometimes we get in our bubble and we are surrounded by people who really care, and then occasionally we see where bad things can happen, but also a lot of the times, it's a company that never thought it could happen, and it could happen, and it happens, and they weren't prepared for it. But this week, unfortunately for summertime, pretty normal, a lot of road accidents, a lot of turnovers, a lot of people hit on the side of the road. It just more and more and more. It just kept piling up. So I know Labor Day is already over, so the summer travel season is kind of coming to an end, but still, there's going to be a lot of workers still out there as we go into the fall season. Watch out. Slow down. Encourage anyone else who is out there driving to do the same. I've had a wake up call to that recently, and I'm going to really give a little personal story here. This is woken I've had to wake up to not just knowing it, but to teach it and to show it, probably more than I ever have before, because my oldest is 17 and has had their permit for quite some time, and has recently determined that they want their license now. Permit wasn't bad for me, because someone me or my wife was in the car could always be looking stop sign there person on the right. Slow down, full stop. You know the typical coaching things a parent will do when they're in the car and they feel in control with that teenager for the first time they were when they've made their interest known of getting behind the wheel without me, without my wife. It's a different world. It feels different. It definitely creates a different level of dread for two reasons. One, both, I think, are very personal, and maybe even look a little selfish when I say it now that I'm thinking about saying it out loud, it does feel that way, but also so very true of just what it is. And one, I don't want to see my child hurt. No one wants that. It's. We know, statistically, getting behind the wheel of a vehicle is one of the most dangerous things we do all the time. Most people get behind the wheel of a car at some point, and statistically, exceptionally dangerous. So there's that worry. But then the second worry is, what if something happens where there's liability? What if? What if, unfortunately, there's the person, and we live in a very rural area, and unfortunately, I have to say, there have been many times at nights, I'll be driving down the road and there is the person walking down the side of the road wearing all black, and it scares the scares everything out of me when I'm trying to like, Oh my God, I've got to miss this person who's on the side of the road. I got to make sure I don't hit them and hurt them. Because for a 17 year old to hit someone, that's life ending for unfortunately, there's someone who's hurt, but also, when I think about the future of that, there's a lot of stigma and a lot of legal proceedings that would come from that. And that worries me, like, I don't want them to hurt anyone, but I also don't want them to have to live with the fact that they've hurt someone. It's huge. It's double edged very much, and I think about that more than I ever have, because I am out of control on that I'd have zero control. And so I encourage you take a moment if you know someone who's a novice driver, or maybe even someone who's not the greatest driver, the one who just can't get off their phone, the one who's always looking in the mirror, the one who's doing other things while driving. Please take a moment and remind them of the responsibility they have behind the wheel and the damage they could do to other people, to other people's things, and even to their own self while doing that. It's, it's, it's real because it continues to show itself in the media, and it's very frequent, and the signs on the side of the road like slow down for workers and work zone enforcement. And yet, still it's happening. So despite all the best efforts, it still can happen, and hopefully there's something we can do about it by bringing awareness to it, by being more aware, be by always doing our best to be aware of what's going on. And that's tough behind the wheel, especially if you've got a long ways to go. It's hard not to get to look around and be slightly distracted, because I've been lucky a few times when, like like I said, I have driven down those roads, and there's been those people riding a bike down a rural country road with no flashers, no reflective gear, just a dark bicycle, someone wearing a black hoodie, pedaling down the road at seven o'clock. What? It's just luck that I could see enough to move. And that rings true to me, because it still rings fresh. And that was years ago when I saw that happen, and I saw that person, but yet I remember it very clearly, because it just scared me, because I thought, What could I don't know what else I could do about that? Hand out reflective vests to people, throw them out the window, like you need this. I've thought about that. By the way. I thought about having, like, reflective vests and handing them out to people who are walking down the road. And I'm like, you know, I'm sure they would appreciate that, given whatever they're trying to do anyway. Random fact about random thoughts that hit Mark while he's driving down the road. The other item that is interesting, statistically, looking at what is happening this week, was a lot of electrocutions, a lot of electrical work where something wasn't turned off, where there wasn't a system in place for someone to turn it off, and there was just it was one. It was it was for the majority. When I looked at the theme of the last few weeks of news, it was cars and it was electricity, whether it be people finishing up their projects or whether it be construction work trying to get done before the days start to get shorter. I don't know. I don't know what would lead to that extra trend of electrocutions, which is something to always be aware of, as there is very stringent regulation on de enterization, of lockout of arc flash of prevention of electrocution, it's items that are controllable, and yet we see this trend raising up. And I look at that and go, What would be the usually in early spring, when people start to do a lot of their work again, start getting out and doing that. Construction work in force. We unfortunately, we see that uptick. Same thing with trenching. We see that uptick around that time, this time of year to see it, it may be an anomaly. It may be statistical. Something happening. It actually may be some correlation out there that has is leading to that. But I would encourage you that if you have electrical workers, if you have electricians and maintenance people, this is a good opportunity to do that reminder, to do that refresher, to do that toolbox talk of, hey, it's happening out there. Let's be aware of it, and let's do something about it where we can or even talk about it. I have one other news story that really stood out as a singularity that I want to talk about, and that is going to be on the second half of the leading and learning through safety podcast dsda Consulting, learn you lead others. The Myers Briggs Type Indicator is an amazing tool. Problem is that it can be easily misinterpreted. Dr Mark French is MBTI certified and ready to help you discover your inner strengths. The MBTI assessment can help with team building, stress management, communication, conflict management, and so much more individual and group sessions are available to help you discover what makes you great. For more information, visit us on the web at T, S, D, A consulting.com you are listening to the leading and learning through safety podcast with Dr Mark French, and welcome back to the second half of the leading and learning through safety podcast. So I said we had one other news story that I really wanted to hit on, that that grabbed me, that I want to deep dive a little bit further. And it comes back again to training. Have we done the right training? Do we have the people who can do this training. So this one comes out of Ohio, and it was a flooring company and a Ford truck injury. It appears, from what we know so far, is that the 21 year old, 21 year old, young person driving the Ford truck drove off the edge of the dock and then was pinned under the Ford truck. Wow, when I think about the layers of protection that come into Fort truck being near an open dock, parking on a dock, seat belt, ride it out, stay in the cab. The cab protects you all the things that are trained to and precautions that are put into place while operating a powered vehicle. I see so many missing here and doing some more research. I think it's a very small company that does some flooring there in that local community, and there was actually a Facebook page that, evidently is like a scanner watch for the area. And they posted, hey, we just got the scanner update of this incident happening at this location. Does anybody know anything trying to get information is like some of those Facebook like police scanner pages do. And there, of course, there was the typical echo, prayers for the person, we hope they're okay. There were some other interesting posts there that struck me as as a safety professional, slightly concerning, to be honest. And one was this lady had received a call from her husband who worked, evidently at a local place near there, and said, Yeah, there'd been a fatality in a Ford truck. He evidently drives a Ford truck, and she says, I never knew they were that dangerous. And then there was another post of someone who said, Yeah, I used to be a Ford truck driver for a couple of years. It always scared me to be behind the wheel. So when I look at these statements independently and also together, there's some interesting, something interesting in the area, I'll have to say. And I would say that maybe there's an opportunity for a safety consultant to move into that area and and market themselves as just a fork truck trainer in that area, for one, for for people to not realize that they're not cars, that they're actually very dangerous vehicles. Is interesting to me, that the risk was, the risk is reduced, minimized, and it happens that way. A lot of people see it and think, Oh, it's just, oh, you jump on it, you drive it, you do things, levers, do stuff, and you do it. And how many places have small companies have that old, rusty bucket for truck setting out back that runs off? Pro. Pain, and they go, Hey, go get on it and go move something. And they do it every day, and then someone else does it. No one's ever gotten hurt. They don't use the seat belt. They don't really know how to operate it. Never had really training, but it's really easy. Pick up a little thing, you move it. No one's ever had an issue. Go do it until there's an issue, until there's an issue. And in this case, there was an issue, and then the other one of I was drove one for years, and I was always scared feel bad for that person, because one of the things of being a Ford truck trainer, it's been a long time since I've done hands on Ford truck training, but I remember enough kind of been a lot of years is that we want them comfortable enough we're not scared. I want you to respect the hazard. I don't want you to fear it. I want you to know what can happen. I want you to know how to control it, and I want you to respect what you're doing, not fear it. I don't want fear because fear leads to a lot of weird things. Yes, Fear leads to the dark side. Young padawan couldn't resist that. One, fear is not what we want in the workplace. We want respect of the hazard that's ultimately where we're trying to get to. And I look at all those things together, another company, this company, 21 year old, and I wonder, was there Ford truck training at all? Was there any type of other than here's how you turn it on, here's the gears. Go get it, I wonder. And some other research would indicate that probably not. Don't think there probably was, but that's high speculation. But it's just looking at other postings, some other a lot of different qualitative data that I came across while doing the search that led to that, and that is where I go. Okay, maybe there wasn't any, maybe it wasn't even thought of that. There was training. And that blows my mind. We don't in I'm gonna now tie it back to the my beginning story about my child getting behind the wheel of the car. I didn't assume they knew how to drove a car, drive a car. I had to teach them. I had to be in the car with them. I had to evaluate and yet, with a Ford truck, there's companies that will just go get on it. It's fine. You drove here today, right? Maybe not. Some people may have taken the bus, may have rode with a friend, may not have ever driven one. And who's going to say no to your new boss? Let's say you're brand new to a job, and they say, Hey, hop on that. Move it. Everybody can do it. It's no big deal. You're not going to say no. In most cases, the peer pressure, the pressure of performance, is going to force you to want to perform. And yet, I wouldn't put my child behind the wheel of a car. We're not allowed to put anybody behind the wheel of a car without getting a state certification of some form, a driver's license. Yet in this case here, there is a high potential that it was done with the zero training and someone lost their life, and a lot of people in that community are confused and mourning because of that. Thanks for joining me on this episode of the leading and learning through safety podcast. One other reminder I want to give September is suicide awareness month. I want to say personally, your story is not over. If you need help, there's a lot of resources out there. I encourage you to reach out to them. If you know someone, reach out to them. This is the time to remember. You know, mental illness can hide itself, but we together can take care of each other a little bit better. And I wish you the very best. And until next time we chat, stay safe. You. Announcer, thank you for listening to the leading and learning through safety podcast. More content is available online at www dot tsda consulting.com all the opinions expressed on the podcast are solely attributed to the individual and not affiliated with any business entity. This podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes. It is not a substitute for proper policy, appropriate training or legal advice you i This has been the leading and learning through safety. Podcast you.