The safety talk let’s
get it right!!
Over the years I have had the opportunity to witness some
professional motivating raft safety talks and unfortunately some painfully poor
safety talks.
I wanted to share some of my thoughts behind a safety brief.
This post will hopefully share some of my ideas with and hopefully start a
productive discussion.
I want to divide the topic into a few separate areas.
1 The setting & introduction
2 The delivery & content order
3 The unspoken messages finding the humour balance
4 The wrap up & mantra
5 The language& communication thing
1.
The setting and introduction
Let’s imagine you are going onto stage to perform. In order to perform at your best you need
everything around you to fall into place and work in harmony to make an
effective performance (after all that’s what a safety talk is).
Let’s look at a few things to help get the setting right.
A. Mental setting
You should clear your mind of any distractions for the next
20 minutes. No phones, no outside distractions. Your only focus is making sure
your customers receive the best possible safety talk possible to enable them to
have the best possible trip.
I constantly use the mantra as a trip leader
“Poor safety talk poor
trip” or “outstanding safety talk
outstanding trip”
Appearance
Would you be taken seriously at that job interview if you
were not dressed properly or using the correct body language?
Here are few hard
fast rules I use.
No sunglasses if
possible, eye contact is everything.
Fully kitted and ready
for action.
Look, talk, and think professional and the
rest will follow.
B Setting (environment)
You need to make yourself the sole focus of the customers
for the duration of your safety talk. Take away any distractions. Once your
customers are distracted it’s really hard to get them back. Below are a few top
tips.
Move them if possible to a quiet secluded place. If this is
not possible have them sit or stand with their back to the river.
“A common mistake I
see during a safety talk is with the customers looking out onto the river. This
makes it really hard to keep their attention especially if there are other
companies or a big rapid at the put in point.
Your customers will look at the impending doom and never focus on you or
your safety talk.”
Take away any reasons to fidget. Make sure all helmets &
pfds are already fully adjusted. All cameras, go pros are to be left alone and
banned for the duration of the safety talk.
If possible have the customers with the sun & wind
behind them. Buses can be used as wind breaks.
If your customers are standing get the small people to the
front along with any customers who might not speak the same language as you so
that they can get a clear view of the talk.Do not have any customers behind you or out of your field of
vision.
“As a guide it is
important to be able to make eye contact with all of your customers during the
safety talk. Making eye contact with your customers will make then focus on you
more. You will also be able to read your customers feelings by looking at their
faces. From this you will be able to work out the confident from the nervous
customers.
Introduction
Now that you have the attention of your customers,you start by telling them the most obvious things; your name and the names of your guide team. (If you already have not done it earlier)
What you are going to do and why
you are doing it
“Now we are going to
spend 15 – 20 minutes today talking about the trip and the trip safety. It’s important
you listen to me as you will then know how to paddle and what to do if you fall
out of the raft”.
Summary
- · Clear you own head and prepare yourself first
- · Make sure your customers are in a position where you are their sole focus
- · Eye contact is everything
- · Tell them what you are doing and why you are doing it
Now the setting is correct it’s time to give them some
technical information.
2 The delivery & content order
The delivery style of your talk is highly important. On days
when the river is high and you know it’s going to be a seat of the pants trip
your delivery style will have a higher sense of urgency compared to the days
when you are working during lower water levels.
Remember being a good guide is mainly about people skills;
be yourself. Don’t become some type of transfixed military robot reading a
script without an understanding of what you are talking about. Inject some
emotion into your safety talk.
Relax, talk with a smile and be human, eye contact is
everything. Raise your voice when you
need to in order to highlight the important points.
You can always try some role reversal imagine yourself as a
customer going on a scary raft trip. How would you like to be spoken to?
I have had many heated discussion with fellow guides on the
content order of a safety talk. I have taken on board their views and here is
what we came up with.
·
Don’t adjust or take off any of the safety kit
we give without our permission.
·
The paddle and T pieces
·
The raft and your seating position
·
Efficient
forwards & backwards paddling techniques
·
What to do if you fall out. The OBE, outer boat
experience. (smile, hold your paddle,
swim back)
·
The outside line & getting someone back
in
·
Reaching rescue with paddles
·
Aggressive proactive swimming
·
White water swimming position (look around, be
active in your own rescue, don’t just sit there)
·
Throw bags
·
Flips
(physically flip the raft on the land and do a dry land flip drill)
The one thing I will be asking my crew to do more than
anything is to paddle so it is worth a little extra time working with the crew
on their paddling technique and timing.
“I used to work for a company that would deliver a really
comprehensive safety talk, but no time would be given on showing the customers
how to paddle. Yes, all of our customers were well briefed on what to do if the
raft flipped but none of them could paddle.”
Get your customers to paddle well to avoid getting into
situations where they will be swimming.
- Mark