What OHS Can Teach Covid
Everyone understands the need for temporary rules and restrictions until we get the COVID pandemic under control.
However many people like me wonder why excessive rules have been repeatedly imposed on the community without learning from previous episodes or new research that would allow us to refine our response.
For example, the learner driver who was fined during the first Melbourne lockdown for having a driving lesson with her mother from the same household, where there was NO exposure to anyone else and NO risk of spreading the virus.
We are very lucky to be in Australia during this pandemic and overall, despite many criticisms, our politicians and public servants have done a good job dealing with unfamiliar and quickly evolving circumstances.
Not withstanding this I think good safety leadership training can offer several tips that may help moving forward.
1. Good Rules Have Clear Benefits
To be a safety (or public health) rule it must have a safety benefit.
It is highly questionable what the benefit of having old people wear a mask is when walking in their street, or stopping people going fishing, which is essentially a solitary pastime.
Maybe better to ask, “please wear a mask when close to other people”?
2. It is OK to Challenge Bad Rules
It is OK to challenge a suspected bad rule, but not to recklessly disobey them.
Politicians say restrictions are based on science. If so, prove it and show us the evidence. But remember, win or lose our challenge we still need to obey the spirit of the law.
3. Politicians Govern – Not Health Officials
Politicians are elected to govern and are responsible for balancing the ever-present competing community needs, and cannot hide behind decisions made by unelected public health officials who only have one consideration.
For example, if someone’s sole responsibility is to stop the virus spreading, then don’t expect the crushing costs, family heartache and stress, inconvenience or excessiveness of the rules to receive significant consideration.
Why? Because public health officials only have to achieve one thing and will probably then look for a bonus for achieving their single goal.
Some think if we had our public health officials in charge of reducing the road toll, which claims more lives every year than COVID in Australia, we would have 20kph speed limits in all built-up areas (towns) and 60 kph limit on country roads.
This extreme approach would reduce the road toll but at a massive cost to the community and economy and is therefore deemed unacceptable.
Therefore, we must insist our politicians, at state and federal level, take responsibility for all important decisions, and stop pretending they are powerless during this pandemic and defer to health officials for decisions.
4. Don’t Ask Officials What We Can’t Do
The safety principle is “tell us what you want to do, and we (safety specialists) will tell you how to do it safely”, as opposed to fanatics who will ban things without exploring options for proceeding safely.
No COVID risk, but banned.
Therefore, do not ask public health officials what restrictions are needed to prevent the spread of COVID. Instead, we should insist that they provide us with a comprehensive list of what can be done safely, thereby the community understanding safe behaviours vs unsafe, and are better informed to support sensible restrictions.
When we bother to explore what is safe we will likely find things like: go fishing alone or with household members, go for a long bike ride or drive, play golf, or going hiking in the mountains are all safe. Just add do not meet or socialise with others while out alone.
5. Follow the “4 to 1 Rule”
We are quick to tell others what they did wrong, but tend to be sparing in our praise when they do the right thing.
When interacting with other people always remember and follow the ‘4 to 1 rule’, which translates to 4 positives for every negative.
Therefore, we need to provide positive feedback (at the ratio of 4 to 1), in order to be credible when speaking to others about their behaviour, and not just being negative all the time.
6. Every Observed Breach is Intervened
Good safety leadership teaches us to speak to the person immediately and provide constructive feedback when we are concerned about something.
Instead, we hear of people calling the police, WorkSafe or health department, as suggested by some radio talk-back shows.
Research shows people do change behaviour if they receive the right type of feedback eg 4 to 1 positive, respectful and helpful. An example could be “I see you don’t have a mask, please take my spare one”.
If people follow the social isolation rules and good hygiene practices there is no science to a 5km lockdown rule versus 10km or 20km. Therefore, it would be more truthful and rational to say something like,
“We need to restrict the speed of spread to help get this outbreak under control and ask you not to visit any venues or people beyond your suburb for the time being.”
Our goal is to set good rules and everyone willingly follow them.
