Taking A 100-Year Perspective on Safety

I have never tried to look at a safety situation from a point of view that is 100 years in the future. Let me explain!

In a recent episode of the Sospes safety storytellers podcast, my guest said that he likes to think about what safety professionals will be doing 100 years from now, and he tries to bring that perspective to his work right now.

My guest was Jay Hocutt, a Construction/Heavy Equipment Program Manager who works for UCOR, which stands for United Cleanup Oak Ridge LLC. Based in Tennessee, UCOR is the lead cleanup contractor for the Department of Energy Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management.

Here’s Jay’s fascinating quote:

When I took this job over, one of the first things I did was talk to the guys on the ground. [I’d ask them questions like:] “What’s going on here? What can I do to help you? Why are we doing this? Why are we making these mistakes?”

And the first thing out of their mouths was often: “That’s the way we’ve always done it.”

Well, I’m one of those people that doesn’t believe: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

We’re not going to operate like we did 100 years ago. I want to operate like we should be 100 years from now.

Brilliant, right?

As an example of bringing tomorrow’s technology into the here and now, Jay and I also talked about virtual reality (VR) on our most recent podcast.

Check out our conversation with Jay.