For each one of my Advanced SMS courses, I always start the course by having the students list the 16 Elements of the SAFTENG Safety Process/SMS in order of importance. I tell them there is no right or wrong answer. Over the past couple of years, I began to keep the answers to the questions as there is a distinct difference between how we, as safety pros, see the elements and how operations, maintenance, and engineering leaders see the elements. I wanted to see if a trend would emerge, and WOW has one emerged.
I also give the teams riddles to solve as we enter a new SMS/Process Element. I give several descriptive characteristics of the element and ask them to figure out which element I am talking about. As corny as it is, it is one of the favorite parts of the course based on feedback. In my most recent course, a student who participates in the SAFTENG social media groups suggested I play the game with the safety pros in the two (2) groups to see if they have better luck than the management teams that attend my course(s).
This first riddle, “What am I?” is ALWAYS in the Top three of my list of elements to implement, but it is always in the bottom quarter with my students.
