May. 13, 2015 —Speaking at the 2015 Indiana Safety and Health Conference in March, Debbie Dickinson, CEO and Director of Development for Crane Industry Services, engaged health and safety professionals from a wide variety of industries about the important role they play.

More than 70 people attended the session and participated in an activity to demonstrate how distractions detract from the core message of a tool box or pre-shift safety talk.

Teams were tasked with giving basic directions for the best way to teach a simple and familiar task. During the leader’s presentation to a small group, individuals outside the group intentionally became distractions. One person walked by talking loudly; another almost walked into a group, head down, looking at a phone. As a half dozen different distractors circled the room, each group noticed two or more of the distractions. When polled after the presentation, the workers receiving the direction usually could only recall one of the points made by the leader. Read more