You are looking for ways to communicate your safety message as effectively as possible because you know what is at stake, the lives of your employees. You want to put more passion and energy into your presentations because you know that safety can be interesting and exciting when presented effectively. You have always known that any content can be made interesting when delivered that way. You wish your employees could feel comfortable offering suggestions to others so that they would take action and talk to someone when they observed an unsafe behavior. A workplace full of "safety coaches" would take you a long way towards your goal. Retention of concepts and ideas is important and you want techniques that can increase retention. Story telling is one proven technique that can help you achieve that. You are looking for ways to use relevant and effective stories to teach. You have many stories of injuries, near hits, close calls, property damage which with some effort could be used to effectively illustrate a concept in a way that people would remember it. If you only had these stories written down somewhere so you could pick and choose which one best taught what needed to be learned. You know you and your safety team members would be more effective when you are able to overcome the discomfort that can occur when giving group presentations. Helping members of your safety team become comfortable when they have the opportunity to present a safety message would have a major impact on them and their audience.
In order to be successful I must take full responsibility for the results of this article. If this article sits on a shelf unread, it is because I didn't make it compelling enough to be read. If those who read it do not make use of its methods it is my responsibility. For me to do anything less than take responsibility for my work will result in less than my best. Too many trainers look at external factors and prepare for themselves an excuse as to why their trainees did not succeed. Excuses do not achieve results, responsibility does. I know there are many factors working on the people you train. Their emotional state, their physical state, their likes or dislikes of the subject, their bosses' support or lack thereof. And on and on and on.. If these circumstances are viewed as situations beyond your control then you will not seek to develop a training which will end in results instead of excuses. When we take responsibility we become leaders striving to motivate others to act with behavior that results in safety.