Accidents Will Happen

I have the green light as I approach the intersection. I'm on my bike at 7th and Pine and I'm preparing to turn left. Luckily, for me and for the jogger who jumped out in front of me that morning I was paying attention. While I came to a dead stop, the jogger keeps on running. As this occurs, I say kindly, “I had the green light.” Her response was, "I was there first."

“I was there first.” Really?

I had to laugh. But after my first reaction of laughter was over, the second reaction occurred: what stupidity.  Would this jogger have thought the same thing about a car? I then imagined this woman in court trying to explain to a judge how the accident with the car was not her fault because she “got to the intersection first."

My third reaction was what a skewed vision of the rules of the road and how could anyone believe this is the way to approach an intersection.

My fourth and final reaction was I want to share this story with my fellow employees.  The reason is this reminded me that just recently a staff member asked me, “What do I do if I need to call for an ambulance?”  And the reason this employee asked me is because they had asked a couple of other people and received answers that just didn’t add up.

Everyday I Write The Book*

My company does not have an internal blog. But a couple of months ago, I added another type of correspondence that I send to staff that is written in a blog-type style. It’s not crude or nonchalant. But it's in a more informal style and I use it to communicate policy reminders.

For the last article I wrote to staff, I told the same story about the jogger.  I relayed how the incident occurred and how this made me wonder: we all know what to do in an emergency at home or driving; but what about work? Instead of restating all of the details of our safety policy, I mentioned the two most important things in three sentences: (1) what to do if you hurt yourself at work; and (2) what to do if you need to call an ambulance. 

Considering the comments and further dialogue these articles created, I believe that writing this way speaks to people on a more personal level and not just as employees. You can repeat policy until you are blue in the face. But chances are it will be considered HR-Speak and not something important enough to resonate with them.

When writing policy reminders in a blog style, I follow three simple guidelines:
(1) Tell a story [a true one]
(2) Don’t be afraid to show sincere emotion [e.g. honestly I would hate to see anyone get hurt]
(3) Keep it short.

The first time I did this type of correspondence, it happened by accident. I needed a method to promote one of our new initiatives but wanted to go beyond just the normal promotion/reminder email. When I had the opportunity to participate in the initiative, I wanted to express my personal satisfaction with it and share this with my colleagues. Thus my blog for employees was born. 

Accidents will happen. In fact, they happen constantly. Accidents can derail your whole day, your commute to work, or your normal correspondence to staff. Accidents can result in hit-and-runs or home runs. Or they can result in people hearing what they need to hear.

What matters most is what you do after the accident occurs.

(* For your listening pleasure, click the above link to hear the mighty Elvis)