Jürgen Tietz

In this series, I share with you my thoughts on Why Safety Is An Issue For Most Companies. One of the Things We Must Address If We Want To Improve Our Safety Performance is the importance of recognition, constructive criticism, tracking progress and acting on feedback.

As a safety professional or department, you are providing a service to all the employees of your company. It is a challenge to judge how you are doing as a service provider. What is the perceived value you bring to the business? You should see yourself as an independent consultant. What would the people you serve do if they had a choice to use whomever they prefer as a safety provider? Would they rather hire someone else?

The best way to get feedback is to simply ASK for it. ASK the people you serve and do not assume. ASK: “What value did my talk, service, input, advice, etc. add for you?” I have yet to find someone who refused to oblige, when asked.

Here are a few tips on how to ASK:

Keep it simple. One question and not a list of 10.
If the reply is negative, then use the feedback as a foundation for ‘unpacking’ – What? Why? and How?
Record it as a short interview on video or audio, or request an email.
Feedback or survey forms are a waste of time, most of the time. They are prone to the ‘Tick-Tick’ syndrome. Often just one negative comment sticks in your mind and gives you the feeling of ‘failure’.
Do not take it personally if the feedback / criticism is negative.
Always thank the people giving you the feedback for having made the time and effort to point out alternative options.
Ask for feedback right after the event / intervention / service / project.

One of the core motivators for most people is RECOGNITION. Keep a BragBook or file of your achievements. Self-appraisal helps you and your team to re-energise and stay on track. As a keynote speaker at safety events, I get my feedback from:

The audience reaction during my talk.
People who speak to me after the event and people quoting phrases I used in my talk – like ‘YEBO BABA!‘.
People buying my book, because they want a ‘piece of me’ to take home / to sustain the message I gave them.

In addition, I ASK for written feedback or get a video recording of feedback from the event organiser or MC, which gives me a good measure of how well I met their expectations.

See my online BragBook for some of my highly-valued client feedback.