'But I don’t wanna: Closing the gap between training and behavior'

Education Session Highlights – ATSSA’s 51st Annual Convention & Traffic Expo

By Sharon Lipinski, CEO of Habit Mastery Consulting

Influencing your employees and team members is one of the most important and challenging parts of being a leader, but it’s essential if you’re going to create safe and productive workplaces. Unfortunately, employees don’t always listen to or follow through on your guidance. Sometimes that’s because they really don’t know what they need to do. But it might also be that they’re unclear on what action to take and when. Or maybe there are obstacles in their way. However, the real reason might be deeper than that. Maybe the person you’re trying to influence thinks they know better than you or maybe they don’t like being told what to do.

Often the inclination is to address all problems as knowledge problems which means providing your employees more information on what to do and when. But if it’s a deeper motivation, that isn’t going to help. It might even backfire. Even the best-intentioned leaders can unknowingly make the situation worse by using communication styles that trigger more resistance.

The key to quickly and effectively changing your employees’ behavior relies on getting clear on what’s driving the non-compliance. From there, you can create a plan of action that will not only result in greater compliance but in employees who WANT to follow your safety procedures.

I hope you’ll join me for my session, “But I Don’t Wanna,” on Feb. 9 at 1 p.m. at ATSSA’s 51st Annual Convention & Traffic Expo, held online Feb. 8-12 and 16-18. You’ll discover the six reasons employees might fight your safety guidelines, three communication tactics that you or your organization may be using that make the situation worse, and I’ll walk you through the six steps to crafting a plan to successfully influence your employees.

If you’re a safety manager or senior leader responsible for improving their employees' behavior, this a not to be missed session. You will leave with insights on why employees do what they do and strategies for how to change it.

Sharon Lipinski is the Habit SuperHero and CEO of Habit Mastery Consulting, which helps organizations increase their targeted safety behavior by up to 150%. She is a Certified Gamification for Training developer, certified CBT for insomnia instructor, speaker, TV personality and coach dedicated to helping people be happier, healthier and safer at home and in their work.

Check out this and other education sessions at ATSSA’s 51st Annual Convention & Traffic Expo, held online Feb. 8-12 and 16-18. Take this opportunity to make vital connections with members of the roadway safety infrastructure industry.