S3Ep16 SafeStart Now: The Next Generation of SafeStart!

We invite the Vice President of Product Development for SafeStart Pandora Bryce to discuss the latest evolution of SafeStart! 

Transcript

Danny Smith
Host
00:08
Welcome back to SafeTalk with SafeStart. I'm Danny Smith, and today we're going to pull the SafeStart curtain back to peek at an exciting project called SafeStart Now. You might say it's the next generation of SafeStart. To help me guide us through the weeds, so to speak, we've asked Pandora Bryce to join us on the podcast. Pandora is SafeStart's Vice President of Product Development. In addition to leading the development of SafeStart Now, she also helped create the Human Factors framework. 

00:38
You may remember that Tim and I recently did a podcast entitled A Guide to Improving Organizational Performance. That focused on the framework. If you haven't had an opportunity to listen to that, I'd encourage you to do so. It's really about looking at things through the lens of human factors to try to improve key performance indicators beyond just the world of safety, including areas such as quality, reliability and efficiency. It'd really be great not only for everyone to listen to that, if you haven't had an opportunity, but also to share that with the other leaders in your organization. Now, as I mentioned, Pandora was at the helm of this massive undertaking that is officially called SafeStart Now. Full disclosure here. I was one of the folks who helped as one of the subject matter experts on this team with Pandora, just as we went through and developed this fresh new update to the SafeStart process. So, Pandora, first of all, welcome to the podcast. 

Pandora Bryce
Guest
01:37
Thank you, Danny. I'm still pinching myself that we're finally here. Danny, you're too modest. Not only did you serve as a subject matter expert, along with others who have decades of SafeStart knowledge and experience, you, along with fellow consultant Kip Boggs, served as trainers for the pilots we did with clients. You gathered their feedback and guided us through the needed adjustments. So for all your contributions, I say a huge thank you. 

Danny Smith
Host
02:04
You're welcome and you're actually far too kind with your compliments there. When you tickled when you said you were pinching yourself. If you're like me, you might not feel it, because I think we're probably all a bit numb after this pretty extensive process. Right, it is so exciting, though it's one of those feelings that have a bit of exhaustion, but we're also extremely excited when I reflect back on this project. I mean it's just truly this herculean effort involving a lot of folks. 

02:35
So I mean so you mentioned Kip Boggs already he was one of our subject matter experts and several others that were out there as well Our design team, our marketing department, our account executives who helped us to find the clients to work with us as pilot sites. Also some clients at you and Kevin Cobb and some others talked to up front just to test some of the ideas and get their feedback, even before we put pen to paper with this process, and that was just invaluable to our team. So you know, I don't want to sound like an Academy Award speech here, because it seems like they always leave somebody out, and I'm sure we probably have. So we will certainly apologize for that up front, right. 

Pandora Bryce
Guest
03:20
Yes, and I especially would like to thank Jeff Letossik, who was my right hand through all of this. 

Danny Smith
Host
03:28
Yeah, as I think about Jeff, he has certainly earned a shout out in this process. 

03:33
Thinking back to when Jeff first came on board with our organization, that was in early 2020, just as the pandemic hit so not only was he brand new to the company and brand new to the SafeStart concepts, but his entire onboarding process was just really cut short because of all the travel restrictions and limitations. 

03:56
It was really interesting for me, though, because Jeff brought some really great ideas to the table for some new and innovative activities to do throughout the course, things that have just made it so much more interactive and engaging, and it was just great to see I guess you could say a new perspective from someone like Jeff, who was very experienced in learning design, but yet he was looking at SafeStart with new eyes, if you will. So let's jump directly into this. We're going to be talking now, folks, about two separate products SafeStart as it is today, and then SafeStart Now. The former, we'll refer to as SafeStart in the latter we just said is officially called SafeStart Now the major update to SafeStart. So I think the most obvious question Pandora listeners' minds, is why? Why SafeStart Now? 

Pandora Bryce
Guest
04:50
Yes, well, Danny, that question can largely be answered by clients' requests to deliver a more efficient course, and internally, we felt we could meet their expectations without sacrificing the efficacy of the proven SafeStart process. As you know, Danny, we didn't come to this decision lightly. We researched the question seriously for over a year, and then it took about a year to develop the updated course that we now call SafeStart Now. 

Danny Smith
Host
05:20
Okay, let's first touch on what has not changed as a part of this major update. At the core of this, there are still the concepts that folks are familiar with, that four by four by four technology, four states leading to four errors, but, more importantly, four critical error reduction techniques, or four skills that can help prevent those errors from happening, and that's really the bedrock of SafeStart, and it remains the same. But let's talk about what has changed with the course and first of all, I guess we could start with leadership and maybe think about some of the different activities now that there are for leadership. 

Pandora Bryce
Guest
06:01
Yeah, thanks, Danny. So you know this better than most. A successful implementation begins with that leadership group. So we start the program with a leadership session for senior leaders, those responsible for deciding on the site's KPIs. Also new is we train the supervisors and managers on exactly how to follow up between each of the training sessions so they're better prepared to support their direct reports and achieve the outcomes that the leadership has selected. And in addition to that, we give the leadership a roadmap for how to lead SafeStart Now effectively. 

Danny Smith
Host
06:42
I think that's really smart to start with the leadership. Get them on board first, as opposed to well, I guess you could say, just hoping that the leadership group figures out the impact of the SafeStart concepts on 24/7safety, productivity, production, quality, really any key performance indicator that can be affected by or influenced by human factors. And in reviewing the feedback from leaders, from our existing clients, one of the common things that they told us that they were looking for was less well, I guess we'll call it seat time for each of the participants individually. So a big part of the challenge for the design team was how to deliver the SafeStart content but to teach the concepts in a shorter time frame, and the key point there as well was really to do all of this in a manner that either keeps or hopefully improves the retention rate right. 

Pandora Bryce
Guest
07:43
Yes, that's right and, as you said and I want to emphasize this we were always mindful of the efficacy that's made SafeStart a success all over the world. And, that being said, clients were asking if we could shorten the course. So the SafeStart Now core training, is four hours shorter than the current SafeStart process. Just doing quick calculations, and as an example, this would save a site with 100 employees 400 hours of production time versus time in the classroom. For our larger clients, it could mean tens of thousands of reclaimed production hours. And in addition to a shorter course, the casual observer will quickly notice the new course is four units, not five as in the original SafeStart. 

Danny Smith
Host
08:29
Putting on my former operations manager hat, I can see that that would certainly be appealing there, and I work for years for the chief financial officers as well, and in some previous life, so I'm sure that they would be rejoicing just at the reduced costs there as well. And our consultants, by the way, will still be available for helping with things like kickoffs for unit one For those who really want to just get things off on the right foot. If you think about it, our consultants these these men and ladies are. This is what they do for a living and they're very passionate about this. Not that your trainers won't be, but this is what they do for a living, and so they're really focused on how to kick this off and high-energy that kickoff for you. 

09:13
As a friend of mine puts it might be another way to think of it is. Well, sometimes it's just cheaper to call the plumber first, right? So alright, let's let's talk about this. SafeStart is now down from 10 hours of classroom training to six hours with SafeStart Now, and, as an instructional designer by trade, if you could explain to us a bit about how and why we made some of the changes, in particular to the workbooks. That was another area of concern that's right, Danny. 

Pandora Bryce
Guest
09:45
So the first thing is that the SafeStart Now sessions are far more interactive. The workbooks are activity books that are used throughout the sessions and there's a lot less reading on the participant's part. Also, the redesign sessions use the latest in adult learning principles, for example, brief exercises, smaller sections of presentation and then a wider variety of different ways to absorb the material. Another thing that's new is the introduction of the critical error reduction techniques early and often so. We also use what the industry calls a memory peg to introduce the critical error reduction techniques early, and it's just a simple acronym, but it allows the students to retrieve and practice the CERTs much earlier than before. 

Danny Smith
Host
10:38
And memory peg really matches the sequence of how the original course taught the CERTs as well, the order that the original course taught the CERTs as well. I really like it and I think it allows the students to use the CERTs much earlier. And students in the pilot sessions already have that proverbial light going much, much earlier, not only in recalling the critical error reduction techniques but also in starting to make the application of that. And that's really what this is all about, and I can tell you as a facilitator, there's no better feeling than when you see that light bulb go off right. And I should point out that we're not replacing the CERTs. The CERTs are still the CERTS. They're still the keys that are at the core of SafeStart. It's just a way to help students recall and use those CERTs earlier until they just become second nature. 

11:28
We're also going to be working on several language options as we proceed with this correct. 

Pandora Bryce
Guest
11:32
Oh, yes, to start with, we'll be working on Spanish and French, because those are the priority languages for North America. 

Danny Smith
Host
11:40
I realize it's a bit of a moving target, but when do you anticipate a release for the English version of SafeStart to kick things off? 

Pandora Bryce
Guest
11:49
Yes, we're going to launch in May and while the course is in its final trial phase, there's still a lot to do. We've got, you know, marketing and printing and inventory and some of those things that that we might not think about during the design process. 

Danny Smith
Host
12:06
I always think about that phrase the devils in the details, and, if you project management, there, there's a lot of those little devils around. So for those who are already using SafeStart and wish to continue to use that traditional version of SafeStart, just to be clear, that's okay, right, it's not going away. Your original SafeStart still here right? 

Pandora Bryce
Guest
12:32
Yes, absolutely. We will continue to support the original SafeStart. We should mention that those wishing to switch versions, to transition to SafeStart Now, they'll need to recertify their trainers, and that decision was made fairly early in our process, because the instructional design between the two processes is somewhat different, and the last time we made such a substantial change in the instructional design, many existing clients opted to take the opportunity to run their folks through it as a refresher course. One of our pilots is an existing client who plans to do just that. 

Danny Smith
Host
13:09
Absolutely, and you can get more information from your account executive about that and exactly how to structure that and how to do that as well. Any closing thoughts? 

Pandora Bryce
Guest
13:20
Well, I want to assure everyone that we've taken every precaution to retain what works in SafeStart just more efficiently. In fact, at our experienced pilot site, one that's used SafeStart for over a decade, one of their leaders said after the pilot I think you've hit a home run, Absolutely. 

Danny Smith
Host
13:41
And it was so encouraging to hear that, because we heard that not only from some of the key contacts there, but also some of the existing trainers as well, and that, to me, just solidified that we're on the right track, right and that's what we were looking for. So great to hear that and the suggestions that we've incorporated into this for improvements along the way. So just really, really excited for this process. I hope our listeners can hear that in our voices, maybe through the fatigue that's there, but we are extremely excited about this right. Pandora thank you for this quick insight, for this today and for taking the time to visit with us and give us just this quick look at SafeStart Now. 

Pandora Bryce
Guest
14:23
Thank you for all your help on this massive undertaking, Danny, and for inviting me to speak directly to our clients and potential clients. 

Danny Smith
Host
14:31
Well, folks, that's our time for today. Be sure to share this podcast as well, and if you'd like more information on SafeStart Now, please reach out to your account executive. They would love to hear from you about this. We're all, as I said, just really, really excited about the process internally, and I hope this has piqued your interest as well. Stay tuned. We've got more that we'll be talking about with SafeStart Now in the very, very near future For the entire SafeTalk with SafeStart team. Thanks for listening and until next time, I'm Danny Smith. Have a great day. 

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