Bob Davies

Topics

The 1.2% Factor (90 minutes requested) 
This is how one small behavioral change leads to a large increase in production. The small change is a system for accountability. The audience learns how to compete with the limiting aspects of human nature and how to create habits that increase focus. This is new information with immediate impact for any experience level. The result is the audience will handle multiple priorities and still get more done. 

Implementation of Keynote I plus the added bonus of becoming an expert communicator. (90-120 minutes requested) 
This program gives new information on how to successfully use the take away from Keynote I, behavioral contracting, for yourself and others. There is a communication dynamic inc luded that gives the audience an EXPERT level of competency as a coach for themselves and others. This enables each individual to bring this back to their organizations and implement with their peers. 

It’s All ATTITUDE (60-120 minutes requested) 
This is the users manual for the brain. It includes the latest scientific breakthroughs in human perception with actual step by step strategies to reduce stress, frustration and the 3 R’s, resistance, resentment and revenge. This results in a healthy outlook and peace of mind. 

Behavioral Economics-Understanding Why Your Clients Take on the Mind of the Market and What to do About it” 
The presentation is really about mass control. I talk about how people (advisors clients) respond to authority and I illustrate this through the Stanley Milgram experiment. He is a Yale psychologist who studied how far a person would go to inflict pain on another when they were told to do so by an authority. The results were that 62% of the subjects put their sense of right and wrong, morality, aside in favor of obedience to the authority. I will then relate this to the behavior of the advisors clients. (The authority in this case is CNN, Mad Money, Suzi Orman, and other “media financial experts”) 

I also talk about the concept of group think-herd mentality. A famous study by Solomon Asch had subjects sit together in groups and answer questions that supposedly tested visual perception. Only one was an actual subject. All of the others were instructed to give answers that were clearly wrong. The results, 75% of the test subjects abandoned their own judgment and went with the group at least once. 

I use statistics for this via the frequency distribution curve which everyone in the audience will know about. The concept on group think is called “packing” where there are society forces for conformity. The extremes are dangerous. I also relate this to the moves of the market. 

The next part is about behavioral economics. We are genetically coded to avoid pain and seek comfort. “A dollar lost in the market will hurt more than the pleasure of a dollar gained.” This also leads to the next section of the presentation with covers irrational fears. The media creates the fear and imposes it on the clients. For example, the lifetime risk of being killed by lightning is 1 in 79,746, of drowning in a bathtub 1 in 11,289, of dying in a car crash, 1 in 84. The risk posed by terrorism as a public health context would fall within the range that regulators call, de minimis: too small for concern yet check out the lines at airport security! The average American becomes subject to confirmation bias latching on to whatever information they come across to support their belief while ignoring or dismissing whatever does not. (I illustrate this with my “snake eggs” example) I show the group a video of a rattle snake being harassed by a rabbit, very funny, and then I bring a 
volunteer on stage for a demonstration that show confirmation bias!) 

Next I conclude by relating best practices of top advisors regarding how they counsel their clients in turbulent markets. 

A Culture of Safety-The Behavioral Approach”
Philosophy
Without a doubt behavioral safety processes are a powerful tool in the war on occupational injuries. Processes include;

• Identify unsafe behaviors.
• Develop appropriate observation checklists.
• Educate everyone and train observers.
• Assess ongoing safety behavior.
• Feedback
• Goal Setting, training, incentives/consequences.

These processes are routed in daily actions. They include daily observations focused on work groups utilizing participative goals with multiple feedback mechanisms. The research is clear that this will reduce injuries by 30% to 60% and realize average financial benefits of significant amounts per man hours worked.

The structural design of a behavioral safety process determines the degree of incident reduction and corresponding ROI. It is clear that behavioral change equals incident reduction. The key to implementing a culture of safety is supervisor and manager action. Actions may include:

• An industrial engineer might conduct job safety analyses, breaking the work tasks down into small steps to identify how the work is done and concentrating particularly on how work can be done safely.
• Workers might be encouraged to suggest critical incidents, events that if they are executed correctly, will keep the worker safe or, if they are executed incorrectly, will likely cause injury.
• Workers might be encouraged to report near misses, instances in which someone came close to being injured. These might then be analyzed to identify what behaviors would avoid the near miss.
• An ergonomics expert might be asked to examine how work is currently being done to identify ways in which cumulative trauma disorders are likely to occur.
• Groups of workers might suggest safe ways to do specific jobs.
• Injury/accident reports might be analyzed for ways in which specific behaviors may have contributed to injuries. Then, safe behaviors would be developed to replace each of the previously indentified unsafe behaviors.

There is no doubt that companies intend to comply with OSHA regulations and want to have a safe working environment. Despite good intentions one of every five workplace fatalities is a construction worker. Falls from elevation account for one third of all deaths in construction. One in four “struck by vehicle” deaths involve construction workers, more than any other occupation. The fatality rate for excavation work is 112% higher than the rate for general construction. There was an average of 362 fatal falls each year according to OSHA statistics from 1995 to 1999.

The intentions are clear. Also, what to do and how to do it is very clear. Companies have the knowledge or access to the knowledge to implement, measure, report, review and reward proper safety practices.

Then what’s the problem?
The key is human behavior itself. What motivates human beings? What are the limits of human perception? What determines what we pay attention to? Is it possible to build a culture of safety and habits of safety versus getting the job done quicker? How do you design a culture and build habits?

“What you do speaks so loudly I can’t hear what you say!” Ralph Waldo Emerson.

The solution

“How to Build a Culture of Safety-It’s All Attitude” [Specific outline depends on the amount of time for the presentation.]

Part I The Problem-Human Nature

The human brain. Think-Feel-Act.

• How your thoughts impact what you pay attention to.
• The limits of human perception.
• The essential driving force that motivates all people.
•  How avoiding pain and seeking comfort leads to complacency and increases the probability for incidents.

Part II The Solution-Accountability

• The role of participatory measurement in increasing focus.
• How to create habits of safety.
• How to use accountability for implementing safety best practices.
• How to create and maintain a mindset of safety.