The Key to Accident Prevention is in the Human Nervous System

Human behavior is the one thing that cannot be eliminated, substituted, engineered, or controlled to create safety on the worksite. The hierarchy of controls is a system of controlling risks in the workplace, a prevention through design strategy to prevent or reduce occupational injuries, illness, and fatalities. Despite the best designed and applied control solutions, there is an independently acting human being that is involved in every workplace injury.

Human performance and safety training/accident prevention have been a passion of mine for many years. With over 25,000 hours of one-on-one patient interaction as an orthopedic physical therapist, and many of these being occupational related injuries, it’s been my observation that many injuries could NOT have been prevented with more safety training and engineering. While a vital part, safety training is just one part of the system. Without an understanding of how and why humans act, training loses effectiveness. The worker must choose the safe act, the safe tool, the safe technique. There is a human involved in every accident or near hit. The subconscious nervous system is in charge of the human’s thoughts and actions 95% of the day; therein lies the key to a safe worksite. 

Safety training involves establishing or changing a behavior.

When we train or teach, we are speaking to the analytical part of the brain, however access to training in the moment of a true emergency is not accessible to some. It lies behind the gatekeeper of subconscious patterns. Patterns that are formed from prior experiences, many of which occurred in the first 7-8 years of life. When choice is involved, the human brain will rely on established patterns and appear to resist change. Breaking these established patterns for new, safer ones, is an involved process that takes awareness, patience, and time. 

Some humans are more tolerant to change than others. The predictability of change tolerance is often found in the story behind one’s eyes. What has been one’s prior life experience with change? Has life thrown several unexpected and unfortunate changes at them? Did life throw a single painful experience at an early stage of life, which set a pattern in their nervous system resulting in their need for consistency? 

People make changes for one of two reasons, out of desperation or out of inspiration. 

Desperation becomes a catalyst for change. I have observed that acute pain gets one’s attention; it screams and demands that something is done NOW. While chronic pain is an underlying, low-grade discomfort that allows one to put off. The voice of chronic pain says; “I can’t keep doing this” or “I can’t keep living like this” Yet, most often a change is not made until the body takes a person out with an acute injury or illness. “Why is this?” I asked myself. I found the answer in my understanding of the autonomic nervous system. 

Humans have a pattern of life, learning and adaptation, a rhythm that becomes familiar and predictable. This pattern, whether healthy or not, becomes recognized by the autonomic nervous system as normal and is perceived as safe. Anything that veers from this pattern can become a trigger; a stimulus that results in an underlying stress response in the body similar to fear. This pattern is exactly why change is so difficult. There is no reasoning this experience, it occurs instantaneously in the body at the subconscious level. You cannot rationalize an irrational response. 

In injury prevention, safety training alone often does not create a long-term change in behavior, but the injury itself can be a catalyst to change. 

It is not the fear of injury that keeps people safe, rather their ability to tolerate behavior change. For example, once a tree care worker has developed a habit of one-handing a chainsaw, that pattern is very difficult to change. However, an injury creates an acute pain resulting in an immediate change in behavior. 

An expert is born from the internal emotional response that can only occur during a real experience. 

I have heard many safety trainers sharing their personal story to inspire others to behavior change related to one-handing a chainsaw. The story of pain, expressed through the authentic vulnerability of another human can also become a catalyst of change for others. The emotional connection and response that occurs through authentic story telling can support the behavior change we are hoping for in safety training. Proper technique, rules, and regulations cannot spawn the same type of long-term change housed in the subconscious.  

I believe the key to worksite accident prevention is in transformation of the human nervous system, which involves both the person in the mirror and a supportive, vulnerable team willing to hold each other accountable and learn though shared experiences. When skillfully done, human behavior can be changed through transformation, creating a safer worksite and world.

Let us walk the path of transformational change along with you.

We are Amanda A. Carpenter, transformational leadership coach and human performance specialist, and Anthony Tresselt, Values based leadership trainer and arboricultural safety consultant, your “Guides on the Side” as you and your team discover the personal key to your own sustainable change. Together we will show you how to unleash the Leadership of Vital Energy that you currently carry within you, one brave change at a time. Join us for Leadership Performance Mastery, our new 6-module coaching program designed to facilitate your self-discovery and transformation of who you are and how you show up as a leader. Want to learn more? Book a Discovery Call with us today!