b'HARPUpd ate OS Regulations and S tistics can make for Poor Training HAtaMake Your Training More Interesting . and Effective Frank J. Marino, CSP MRCA Safety Adviser Toooften, wefocusoursafety trainingontherulesandregulations provided by OSHA. As boring asit may seem toconduct these typesoftraining,sittingthrough them can be even worse. This article is designed to provide the safety trainersatyourcompanysome alternatives for providing training to No two employeesyourworkforcethatisnotonly effective, but actually interesting. are the same, whichBackinthelate1990\'s,the means we have toNationalInstituteofOccupational Safety & Heath (NIOSH) conducted assume they mayaon effective tra ing inAsanalternativetocoveringinvolves determining which kind studyin theof miningindustry.ThisstudywasOSHA regulations,u real-liferealexperiences we want to use. respond differently toselife recently published in the July, 2008stories that incorporate the applica The article breaks down the differ-different trainingeditionofProfessionalSafety.bleregulations.Storiesprovideenttypesofstoriesintofoi~ techniques.Although the study revolves aroundinformation about what to do, howgroups:J theminingindustry,I foundtheto do it, and whyis important toHeroStories - T stoitheseries article to have several good pointsdo it artain way.ngiesfeatureanin idual w hce Shari stor div hoas thatareapplicable to theroofingand experiences also clearlyt the storyteller how to percom aught industry.municates the penalty for ignoringformthejobfun safely. ction As I mentioned in the introduc establishednorms, becausetheyT stories usually invo a heselve tion, trainers tend to use languagerelate what happened when some situation where the hero saved a right outof theOSHA standards.onefailedtofollowguidelines.colleague in amecrisis. The ti of According to the article, using lan People tendtopayattentionandunspoken (butcomstronglymuisten guage in training programs that isImoreattentivelytostoriesnicated) message to the listener not common to the culture will notthantheydotoformaltypesofis that the herois a modelfor be effective. While it may be under instruction,makingiteasiertothemandthat thisbehavioris stood, it wiclearly brand the com recalwhattheyheardandputitwhat the culture 11Idemands. municator as an outsider, and willinto practice (Cullen, V Stories - These stories 2008).illain create one morebetween theOften, however, safetytrainersarealso about thevaluesand barrier speaker and the members (Hansen,use regulations, facts, or statisticsnormsof the culture, but from 2005).- a of which is formally codifiedtheshadow side. T stories llhese F toooftenI hear," andsocially relevant infor revealasmuchabout theculartheseclearly employees just won\'t get withthemation- to maketheir point.Ature\'sexpectations as values and progr fromcontractorswhoproblem becom evident wh thedo thestories. am!"esenheroThe message the co is have trained their employees withlearner tends to find bothn to the listener is that th type of sub-par results. Part of the problemtent and the instruction to be bur behavioris unacceptableand actually may be that the employeesdensome, dull and boring (Cullen,should be avoided. in question don\'t buy into the pro 2008).C on5 ontinuedpage gram because they don\'t believe inSohowcanweimproveour theprogram. Thegenesisof thesafetytrainingu storiesand sing problem begins with training.real life experiences? The first step'