Common Sense
by Kirk Lloyd, Risk Management Services, Inc.
In my work as a safety consultant, I frequently hear statements
to the effect that “Preventing injury really isn’t all that hard,
you just have to use your common sense.” This always takes me back
to working on our family farm during my teenage years in the 1970’s.
During wheat harvest in those days, it was fairly common to see a
plume of smoke off in the far distance where some unfortunate grower
was experiencing a field fire. My sister and I would grill our Dad
about exactly what we were supposed to do if a fire broke out on our
farm. He refused to answer, on the grounds that each circumstance
was different. “You will just have to use your common sense and
figure it out when the time comes.”
That term “common sense” implies a shared pool of knowledge,
experience, and problem solving ability. Because most of us have had
dramatically different experiences in life, it frequently turns out
that we really don’t have all that much “sense” in common. One
person knows a lot about some things, and the next person knows more
about some different things. Dad had been to a lot of fires and I
had never seen one until it happened right across the road from
where we were harvesting when I was about 16 years old.
I rushed over there in one of our old trucks, parked it in front
of the advancing flames, and was headed toward the fire on foot when
I was nearly run down by another neighbor arriving with a tractor
and disc in a huge cloud of dust. He yelled at me to get my person
and that truck out of the way, and suggested that maybe I was
lacking in common sense!
In a way, Dad was right. Each situation is different, and he
could not have told us exactly what to do in a particular case.
However, there are still many lessons to be learned here. First, it
is possible to teach the decision-making process that goes into
determining what to do in case of an unexpected turn of events.
Perhaps even more importantly, establish priorities. (Protect the
people; everything else can be replaced.)
Sense isn’t Common until it’s shared. Talk to your employees and
family members about the ways to minimize risk in each activity they
do. If you assume they will figure it out for themselves, well, your
results may not be what you are hoping for! |
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