Collect

Collect, Prepare, Promote

By Tim Ard, Forest Applications Training, Inc.

I am so fortunate to be part of an occupation and the operations of collecting, preparing and promoting information that eventually makes someone’s life easier, more efficient, profitable and hopefully safer. In whatever you endure and pursue in life the most gratifying is when you are afforded the opportunity to hear of and see positive results of your efforts. For someone’s life and wellbeing to be transformed by your actions and knowledge.

Years now I have been making an annual, sometimes bi-annual, trip to New England to hold workshops. From a training standpoint it has evolved from basic chain saw safety demonstrations, to having several three-day totally committed programs. Organizers are always striving to have large numbers of attendees at the demonstrations and to fill the specific programs. We by design know chain saw safety demonstrations were, and still are today, to excite attendees to continue forward. Continue forward with what training is all about - hands on events, then followed by practice and application. This makes training worth the time, cost and effort. The organizers in New England have done an awesome job with building an amazing training culture. People seem to love training in New England.

The training process related to any chainsaw application or operation doesn’t however end with the last day of a workshop or program. The process must continue in practice, updates and a continued search by the organizers and participants to stay aware, strengthening their safety culture - collecting, preparing and promoting.

Collect- Training in chainsaw applications and safety is a collection of processes. The process of collecting and understanding what you need in equipment, technique and application to make it all work with and for the person that picks up a chain saw.

Prepare – Training should prepare the chain saw user for the future task or operation. It must provoke them to think and plan, excite them to find out more and to use what they learn. It should prepare and provide them with a basis to build upon.

Promote – Training must promote a work habit, one that is used, spreads and grows from the inception. If it’s not fluid, if its not alive, the training will not evolve into a culture. Great training will and should be magically promoted by attendees to other work partners, crew, company and or organization.

Where to begin?

Well back to the chain saw safety demonstration. If it is to work successfully, training must excite an attendee to seek more. The first step of training according to most manufacturers and even OSHA is the operator’s manual. This is the written handbook or guide that accompanies the product. This product instruction manual usually covers basic switches, function basics, maintenance outlines and most likely any concerns involving generic safety of the item or product. All of you are very familiar with this information right? That’s the same with the second step and the reason for the large demonstration. It’s the second step in the process. It covers some basics in demonstration.

At 2am in the morning, with your headlights on a tree across the road, most likely you are not going to pull the owners manual out of your back pocket to review. It’s the reason to continue on with your training advancement to pick up processes or techniques to handle a different task easier.

That’s why it must be a culture like…. Collect, Prepare and Promote.

I present the reason for Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), how the products work, the design and why it’s needed. I’ve done this in every demonstration I have made for years. The attendees are asked if they have chainsaw leg protection available and use it? If they do have it, over 70% don’t raise their hand that they use it every time they operate a chainsaw.

What about the other stuff- Hardhats, safety glasses, hearing protection?

It’s not a culture until it exists and is habit! More Collect, Prepare and Promote is necessary. Our ForestApps training can help you successfully change these issues.

Find out more on training and chainsaw related applications and safety at www.ForestApps.com Contact- info@ForestApps.com or 770.222.2511

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