Operators' cognitive biases and enemies of learning are critical factors that lead to poor safety decisions. In other words, they should be aware of their limitations and those of others to behave safely. Most importantly, such awareness should be available in every situation. In this module, you will learn how to help people align their perceptions of risk with your organization's acceptable level.

Safety coaching is essentially a conversation or a series of conversations that lead to a specific safety outcome. On the other hand, safety management systems direct people to comply with a set of rules. You will need different types of conversations to manage and coach for safety. In other words, a conversation for compliance is not the same as the one to generate commitment.

If you want to make your organization's safety vision a reality, actions are required, and actions require clarity of what, when, how, how often, and with whom. Determining and helping your employees adhere to these is part of creating the shared vision. We usually give out messages like "safety first" or "zero accidents," which are descriptive conversations. As a coach, you must use generative language and speech acts that can drive action. 

Traditionally, a safety manager's responsibility has been assumed to be ensuring compliance. Therefore, he or she has often been perceived as a "safety-cop" by many. While this is part of the job, it is also the safety manager's responsibility to get buy-in from employees to support the organization's safety vision. In this role, safety coaching is an essential tool for you because its focus is on generating commitment rather than compliance.