July 14, 2025 • 15 mins
The weight of responsibility in laboratory safety can be crushing. Between emergencies disrupting your carefully planned day, colleagues who seem determined to argue with every safety measure, and the peculiar invisibility of successful prevention efforts, it's no wonder safety professionals often feel isolated and undervalued.
Sean opens this heartfelt episode by sharing the loss of his friend Ellen, a laboratory safety professional who was experiencing significant job-related distress shortly before her passing. This profound moment serves as a gateway into exploring the emotional and psychological challenges that safety professionals face daily. Dan adds his perspective, describing how safety work can feel thankless and lonely, especially when you feel like you're the only one who truly cares about preventing accidents and injuries.
A critical misconception many safety professionals carry is believing they must personally enforce all safety measures – essentially functioning as the "safety police." Sean emphasizes that this mindset is fundamentally flawed: "Safety professionals' job is to say I see something here that concerns me, I'm raising a flag, I'm raising an alert." The responsibility for driving organizational change rests with leadership, not with individual safety personnel. By reframing this understanding, safety professionals can shed unnecessary burden and focus on their true role as advisors and advocates.
Professional coaching emerges as a valuable solution for those navigating these challenges. Unlike counseling, which examines past events, coaching focuses on forward movement and goal achievement. Sean describes his approach of daily 15-minute sessions spread across four days each week, creating bite-sized opportunities for growth and reflection. This methodology recognizes that our thought patterns become habitual, just like behaviors, and that sustainable change requires consistent attention over time.
Reach out to us through our websites if you're struggling with safety challenges or feeling overwhelmed. We're committed to supporting laboratory safety professionals not just through information, but through personal connection and encouragement.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to the Lab Safety Gurus Podcast.
I'm Dan Scungio.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
And I'm Sean Kaufman, and together we're providing
safety insights for thoseworking in laboratory settings,
doing safety together.
Well, welcome back everyone andDan, welcome back to you.
How are you doing?
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Sean Kaufman, it is great to be here with you today.
I'm doing great.
How about?
Speaker 2 (00:26):
you we're doing.
Well, I can't believe it, dan.
We've been doing this over ayear.
I can't believe it, and we'vejust been sharing some stats
lately.
I mean I can't believe we'vehad 100 downloads of the podcast
(00:48):
this month, which is, you know,people may say, well, that's
really.
I mean, when you look at JoeRogan and you look at some of
these big podcast names, I meancome on, we're.
You know we're small, but ahundred, you know, dan, we set
out on this podcast to make asmall difference in the world.
You know people working inlaboratories all around the
world and I think we're slowlydoing it, dan, we're doing it.
I mean this is good stuff.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Yeah, I just I is good stuff director.
He said wow, what a great nicheyou have in lab safety for a
podcast.
You need to try it out and wehave.
So I appreciate everybody who'sbeen listening and I hope we've
been helpful useful and justhelping to make your lab a safer
place.
What are we going to talk abouttoday, sean oh?
Speaker 2 (01:39):
wow.
Well, so we are going to talkabout a professional coach, and
let me explain, let me put alittle background into this.
Dan, just recently I don't knowif I mentioned it, I probably
did if it was in our lastpodcast, but if it wasn't, I
mention it now I lost a good,good friend of mine who happened
(02:00):
to be in laboratory safety andher name is Ellen and she worked
with me and I worked with herand supported her and she was
just an exceptional individual.
And it's sad, I have to behonest, dan, it was sad.
The last conversation I hadwith her, about four days before
(02:22):
she passed away I had with herabout four days before she
passed away, she was in distressand and it was job related, dan
, it was uh and and and, as youknow, being a safety
professional, it gets tough inthe trenches.
I mean, it really does you, youcome into work and and you think
(02:45):
you know what you're going todo that day and all of a sudden,
everything you had on yourschedule gets blown up because
you had an unexpected emergencyor something that was unforeseen
.
Maybe an auditor shows up orsomebody comes in.
You're undervalued.
You're undervalued.
(03:15):
Yeah, you're undervalued, andwhat I mean by that is is the,
the, the things you put intoeffect and the differences that
you make in the job place arenever seen, because if you're
doing your job, you'repreventing incidents and
accidents, and so the onlythings that are ever seen are
the bad things that happen.
And so you feel undervalued.
And and then there's the people,dan, that just argue with you.
You feel undervalued, and thenthere's the people, dan, that
just argue with you.
And it's not your fault, it'snot your fault.
I mean, they're just dumpingtrash all over you.
They're arguing with youconstantly.
They don't listen to what youhave to say, or at least it
(03:35):
appears they don't.
And I can go on and on, dan.
I mean anything come to mind onyou, tell me about the trenches
, because you're right there.
You're working in the frontline of when you're in the
trenches.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
You said exactly.
It can be lonely, it can be.
It can feel like you're theonly one who cares about safety.
You may go to your leadershipand they're talking about you
know finances or differentprojects that are that are more
primary on their on their listthan safety.
Uh, you can be you.
Can you?
You catch somebody?
Or you try to coach somebody inthe middle of them doing
(04:09):
something wrong and they respondwith anger.
It can be very stressful.
There's a lot of things thatcan sort of not help your day go
along smoothly when you're insafety, and it doesn't matter
the size of the organization.
You could be in a single smalllaboratory and again you might
feel like you're the only personwho's caring about safety,
(04:30):
noticing issues, trying to fixthem, but getting pushed back at
every corner.
Or even if you're in a system,are you fighting system goals?
Are you fighting?
You know the organizationalgoals?
Are you aligned with them?
And does it feel like you'revalued with what you're doing
because they're more concernedabout you?
Know a different kind ofoutcome it is.
It's stressful, it has itslonely days and it has its days
(04:54):
where you feel like you're introuble when you're trying to do
the right thing all the time.
You feel like you're trying todo the right thing, but you kind
of doubt it sometimes.
I understand that stressdefinitely.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
Well, and this is where you and I we've been
working together.
I do want to put a shamelessplug in, of course, dan, come
join us January 31st the firstweek of February.
We have a leadership instituteon board a Royal Caribbean
Cruise Line.
It's amazing.
We are trying to refreshenthose individuals serving the
(05:25):
front line.
I mean seriously.
Not only do we do it moreefficiently on a cruise ship
where we spend seven days out atsea, but we give you 24 hours
of professional development andcredit and lectures and training
and networking opportunities.
We're trying to refreshen thegroup.
But I want to talk, dan, abouta service that I'm providing,
(05:47):
and it's a service that I'vebeen providing for quite a long
time, and it's coaching.
It's intrinsic coaching.
Actually, it's a an approachthat I've been using for many
professionals.
I've served many professionalsin safety, but I've even served
people personally who are goingthrough tough times.
But, dan, let me just off thebat.
I mean, what do you think?
Do you think a safetyprofessional could benefit from
(06:10):
a professional coach?
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Oh, definitely, especially if you're new to the
field and you don't know what'sgoing on.
There are so many aspects oflearning the job.
First of all, you got to knowthe rules and regulations, you
know.
Can a coach help you there?
Sure, but the people part, therelationship part, is so
important in the role thathaving somebody guide you and
(06:35):
lead you in that is extremelyimportant.
You know, when working withsomebody I've had somebody as an
employee, I've had a coupleemployees in my role as a safety
officer where I work, and thebiggest piece that I coach on,
teach on, is the people part.
It's so the relationship part.
(06:56):
It's so important to developthe relationship, to put money
into that relationship bank sothat when the time comes that
you have to work on a seriousproblem or a safety issue or you
need to coach on something, youhave the ability to do that,
you have the relationship to dothat, you have the skills to do
that, but you can't learn any ofthat, you can't learn any of
(07:16):
that without somebody helpingyou to do that.
As a coach I often work with Ibelong to an organization called
the National SpeakersAssociation and I'm not
advertising for them, uh justbecause sometimes I speak.
They help.
They help you know, they helpteach about the craft.
But there's a lot of peoplethere who are trying to become
coaches, uh, but they want tocoach the C-suite, they want to
(07:40):
coach, you know, life, uh, lifecoaches and things like that.
But the pieces about coachingthat I've learned that have been
the most value valuable havebeen about the relationship
coaching, uh, and the and theteam coaching.
What is your coaching?
Focusing on sean?
Speaker 2 (07:57):
what you know, dan.
A great question, I so I haveto tell you the the first time
that I ever coached somebody,meaning I was in counseling for
quite some time and I didn'tfind any value in it.
And the difference betweencounseling and coaching is
counseling is looking at, inessence, what's happened to you
in the past and coaching islooking at, well, what are you
(08:18):
wanting?
From this point, moving forward, and to be honest with you, the
very first time I coached Danusing the strategy that I'm
using today, I coached a safetyprofessional who was dying.
He received a terminaldiagnosis and he wanted me to
coach him through the dyingprocess.
(08:40):
And when I you know, dan, youasked a question like what are
we focusing on here?
You know, as a behaviorist, ifyou come and see me and you
attend a training, you know thatI tend to like to focus on
behavior, and I believe thatbehavior drives who you are on
the inside.
But I also know the differentaspect of psychology that says
(09:01):
that we get into a habitsometimes, dan, of thinking very
poorly, thinking poorly ofourselves, thinking poorly of
the job that we do.
We sometimes, for example I'llgive you an example on safety,
one of the biggest mistakes, Ithink, in safety is that safety
professionals actually thinkthey are leadership.
(09:22):
They actually think that theyare the police officers and
they're not.
They actually think that theyare the police officers and
they're not.
They're not.
Safety professionals' job is tosay I see something here that
concerns me, I'm raising a flag,I'm raising an alert, and
(09:45):
sometimes safety professionalswill put all that burden on
their shoulders to try and makethe organization change, when in
reality that's not their job.
Their job is to say toleadership I have concerns, I
have worries, and it is theleadership's job to drive that
ship.
And that is the best that asafety professional can do.
And if the safety professionaltakes everything on their
shoulders, well, dan, they'realmost setting themselves up to
fail.
I don't know.
(10:05):
What are your thoughts on that?
Speaker 1 (10:06):
Yeah, I have to agree with that.
We are actually in ourorganization.
This year we're doing somethingthat's called a safety
refresher for the staff, not forleadership, and one of the
things we talk to the staffabout.
We get them out of the lab foran hour, have a good one-on-one
conversation about safety andrelationships, and one of the
(10:27):
things we have to say, and thatwe do say, is we don't have any
authority as your lab safetyofficer.
I can't write you up.
I can talk to you about asafety issue that I see, but I
have zero authority in this andthat's not what our relationship
is about.
And sometimes we'll have labstaff, you know, sometimes we'll
take photographs of unsafe actsand things like that, and
(10:47):
sometimes people get mad andlike why are you taking pictures
in my laboratory?
I'm like you know, we don't weuse these photos for education,
educational purposes, safety eyeslides, as we call them.
We don't we.
We blank out faces so thatnobody can tell who it is, that,
if, if there's somebodyactually in the picture.
And you know, we only use themfor educational purposes.
(11:10):
But we have to actually sitthere and explain that, because
a lot of people do see us as thepolice and boy, I don't like
that at all.
I don't for a couple of reasons, but one is I don't want you
doing the right thing becauseI'm in the room.
I want you doing the rightthing because it's the best
thing for you and your safety,so that you can go home at the
end of your shift and be happyand healthy.
(11:31):
So yeah, it's a lot to talkabout with people, but you
almost have to educate them inthat way because sometimes the
people you're serving don't knowthe difference.
Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
I think also, too, coaching is, you know, being a
cheerleader, and what I mean bythat is is when you're coaching,
you are an advocate for theperson you're coaching, and not
everyone around them, noteverything, and again the
attention is on them.
It's on a process of thinking,and that's the you know.
(12:03):
Again, as habitual as behavioris, dan, our thinking processes
are just as habitual, and if wecan get people to start looking
at, okay, are your expectationsreasonable?
What is your goal when you wakeup and you come to work?
What skills do you want tofocus on?
Let's create an action plan.
(12:24):
Can I hold you accountable?
These are all things that acoach can do for someone in
bite-sized pieces, and that'sthe key.
See, dan, I don't meet withfolks as a coach once a week.
It's every day for 15 minutes,for four days, monday through
Thursday, four days, every day,15 minutes.
(12:46):
Because I believe that small,bite-sized pieces over a
prolonged period of time isgoing to make a big difference
when we are trying tore-establish the habit of
thinking and delivering safety.
What are your thoughts?
What do you think about that?
Yeah, that is a great approach.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
You know we have in our organization over 20 labs
and over I don't know, over 50some safety coaches and I wish
we could meet with them on adaily basis like that.
But there are some smallergroups, like in our reference
lab.
We have a smaller group ofsafety coaches and we get to
(13:25):
meet with them at least monthlyand do some of that coaching.
And it's so much better becauseyou get to hear about their
day-to-day, you get to find outwhat their struggles really are,
what the hard parts really areof their job.
And you know, one of the safetyphrases I don't know if you
want to call it a buzzwordaround our organization is
called peer coaching and we alsohave to teach people that.
(13:49):
You know everybody's your peer.
You got to get rid of the powerdistance in the lab because
sometimes, sometimes you know onthe clinical side of labs
they've got the pathologistcomes in.
Well, oh, I can't coach adoctor.
You know I can't say anythingto a doctor.
Yeah, you can.
Oh, here comes a nurse who'sbringing a specimen in from
another department, you know,wearing gloves and touching my
doorknobs and all that.
(14:09):
I can't coach her.
She works in another department.
Yeah, you can.
She's your peer too, so weteach a lot of that because we
want to be able to have thatcommunication that you're
talking about every day.
But you also have to do it witheverybody.
You have to broaden your net alittle bit in order to coach
everybody.
When it comes to those coachingmoments, boy, I think it would
(14:35):
be great if I could have SeanCoffin, 15 minutes every day,
telling you know, and I couldtell you what my barriers are to
coaching.
My barriers are to safety in mylab and help me think about
ways to overcome those.
That sounds fantastic soundsgreat.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
All right, dan, I'm going to sign you up.
Okay, you're, we're, we'll getthe service for free, dan.
You can call me anytime.
You know that.
That so all right.
Ladies and gentlemen, listen,dan and I, you know we are very,
very religious guys, or holyguys here, and we pray for all
of you out there that you arestrong and successful and happy
(15:11):
and that you remain blessed, andwe thank you for your service
on the front lines, dan.
Any closing?
Speaker 1 (15:16):
words.
Yeah, I just want to say to allthe listeners out there too you
know we are here to help you.
If you have a need and youreally are struggling with
something, please reach out toeither one of us.
Our numbers are public.
They're on our websites.
You can reach us and pleasefeel free to do that.
And if you just need somebodyto pray with about something,
we're happy to do that tooAlways.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
Thank you so much, Dan.
Take care, we are the LabSafety Gurus Dan Scungio and
Sean Kaufman.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
Thank you for letting us do lab safety together.
Welcome to the Lab Safety Gurus Podcast.
I'm Dan Scungio.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
And I'm Sean Kaufman, and together we're providing
safety insights for thoseworking in laboratory settings,
doing safety together.
Well, welcome back everyone andDan, welcome back to you.
How are you doing?
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Sean Kaufman, it is great to be here with you today.
I'm doing great.
How about?
Speaker 2 (00:26):
you we're doing.
Well, I can't believe it, dan.
We've been doing this over ayear.
I can't believe it, and we'vejust been sharing some stats
lately.
I mean I can't believe we'vehad 100 downloads of the podcast
(00:48):
this month, which is, you know,people may say, well, that's
really.
I mean, when you look at JoeRogan and you look at some of
these big podcast names, I meancome on, we're.
You know we're small, but ahundred, you know, dan, we set
out on this podcast to make asmall difference in the world.
You know people working inlaboratories all around the
world and I think we're slowlydoing it, dan, we're doing it.
I mean this is good stuff.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Yeah, I just I is good stuff director.
He said wow, what a great nicheyou have in lab safety for a
podcast.
You need to try it out and wehave.
So I appreciate everybody who'sbeen listening and I hope we've
been helpful useful and justhelping to make your lab a safer
place.
What are we going to talk abouttoday, sean oh?
Speaker 2 (01:39):
wow.
Well, so we are going to talkabout a professional coach, and
let me explain, let me put alittle background into this.
Dan, just recently I don't knowif I mentioned it, I probably
did if it was in our lastpodcast, but if it wasn't, I
mention it now I lost a good,good friend of mine who happened
(02:00):
to be in laboratory safety andher name is Ellen and she worked
with me and I worked with herand supported her and she was
just an exceptional individual.
And it's sad, I have to behonest, dan, it was sad.
The last conversation I hadwith her, about four days before
(02:22):
she passed away I had with herabout four days before she
passed away, she was in distressand and it was job related, dan
, it was uh and and and, as youknow, being a safety
professional, it gets tough inthe trenches.
I mean, it really does you, youcome into work and and you think
(02:45):
you know what you're going todo that day and all of a sudden,
everything you had on yourschedule gets blown up because
you had an unexpected emergencyor something that was unforeseen
.
Maybe an auditor shows up orsomebody comes in.
You're undervalued.
You're undervalued.
(03:15):
Yeah, you're undervalued, andwhat I mean by that is is the,
the, the things you put intoeffect and the differences that
you make in the job place arenever seen, because if you're
doing your job, you'repreventing incidents and
accidents, and so the onlythings that are ever seen are
the bad things that happen.
And so you feel undervalued.
And and then there's the people,dan, that just argue with you.
You feel undervalued, and thenthere's the people, dan, that
just argue with you.
And it's not your fault, it'snot your fault.
I mean, they're just dumpingtrash all over you.
They're arguing with youconstantly.
They don't listen to what youhave to say, or at least it
(03:35):
appears they don't.
And I can go on and on, dan.
I mean anything come to mind onyou, tell me about the trenches
, because you're right there.
You're working in the frontline of when you're in the
trenches.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
You said exactly.
It can be lonely, it can be.
It can feel like you're theonly one who cares about safety.
You may go to your leadershipand they're talking about you
know finances or differentprojects that are that are more
primary on their on their listthan safety.
Uh, you can be you.
Can you?
You catch somebody?
Or you try to coach somebody inthe middle of them doing
(04:09):
something wrong and they respondwith anger.
It can be very stressful.
There's a lot of things thatcan sort of not help your day go
along smoothly when you're insafety, and it doesn't matter
the size of the organization.
You could be in a single smalllaboratory and again you might
feel like you're the only personwho's caring about safety,
(04:30):
noticing issues, trying to fixthem, but getting pushed back at
every corner.
Or even if you're in a system,are you fighting system goals?
Are you fighting?
You know the organizationalgoals?
Are you aligned with them?
And does it feel like you'revalued with what you're doing
because they're more concernedabout you?
Know a different kind ofoutcome it is.
It's stressful, it has itslonely days and it has its days
(04:54):
where you feel like you're introuble when you're trying to do
the right thing all the time.
You feel like you're trying todo the right thing, but you kind
of doubt it sometimes.
I understand that stressdefinitely.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
Well, and this is where you and I we've been
working together.
I do want to put a shamelessplug in, of course, dan, come
join us January 31st the firstweek of February.
We have a leadership instituteon board a Royal Caribbean
Cruise Line.
It's amazing.
We are trying to refreshenthose individuals serving the
(05:25):
front line.
I mean seriously.
Not only do we do it moreefficiently on a cruise ship
where we spend seven days out atsea, but we give you 24 hours
of professional development andcredit and lectures and training
and networking opportunities.
We're trying to refreshen thegroup.
But I want to talk, dan, abouta service that I'm providing,
(05:47):
and it's a service that I'vebeen providing for quite a long
time, and it's coaching.
It's intrinsic coaching.
Actually, it's a an approachthat I've been using for many
professionals.
I've served many professionalsin safety, but I've even served
people personally who are goingthrough tough times.
But, dan, let me just off thebat.
I mean, what do you think?
Do you think a safetyprofessional could benefit from
(06:10):
a professional coach?
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Oh, definitely, especially if you're new to the
field and you don't know what'sgoing on.
There are so many aspects oflearning the job.
First of all, you got to knowthe rules and regulations, you
know.
Can a coach help you there?
Sure, but the people part, therelationship part, is so
important in the role thathaving somebody guide you and
(06:35):
lead you in that is extremelyimportant.
You know, when working withsomebody I've had somebody as an
employee, I've had a coupleemployees in my role as a safety
officer where I work, and thebiggest piece that I coach on,
teach on, is the people part.
It's so the relationship part.
(06:56):
It's so important to developthe relationship, to put money
into that relationship bank sothat when the time comes that
you have to work on a seriousproblem or a safety issue or you
need to coach on something, youhave the ability to do that,
you have the relationship to dothat, you have the skills to do
that, but you can't learn any ofthat, you can't learn any of
(07:16):
that without somebody helpingyou to do that.
As a coach I often work with Ibelong to an organization called
the National SpeakersAssociation and I'm not
advertising for them, uh justbecause sometimes I speak.
They help.
They help you know, they helpteach about the craft.
But there's a lot of peoplethere who are trying to become
coaches, uh, but they want tocoach the C-suite, they want to
(07:40):
coach, you know, life, uh, lifecoaches and things like that.
But the pieces about coachingthat I've learned that have been
the most value valuable havebeen about the relationship
coaching, uh, and the and theteam coaching.
What is your coaching?
Focusing on sean?
Speaker 2 (07:57):
what you know, dan.
A great question, I so I haveto tell you the the first time
that I ever coached somebody,meaning I was in counseling for
quite some time and I didn'tfind any value in it.
And the difference betweencounseling and coaching is
counseling is looking at, inessence, what's happened to you
in the past and coaching islooking at, well, what are you
(08:18):
wanting?
From this point, moving forward, and to be honest with you, the
very first time I coached Danusing the strategy that I'm
using today, I coached a safetyprofessional who was dying.
He received a terminaldiagnosis and he wanted me to
coach him through the dyingprocess.
(08:40):
And when I you know, dan, youasked a question like what are
we focusing on here?
You know, as a behaviorist, ifyou come and see me and you
attend a training, you know thatI tend to like to focus on
behavior, and I believe thatbehavior drives who you are on
the inside.
But I also know the differentaspect of psychology that says
(09:01):
that we get into a habitsometimes, dan, of thinking very
poorly, thinking poorly ofourselves, thinking poorly of
the job that we do.
We sometimes, for example I'llgive you an example on safety,
one of the biggest mistakes, Ithink, in safety is that safety
professionals actually thinkthey are leadership.
(09:22):
They actually think that theyare the police officers and
they're not.
They actually think that theyare the police officers and
they're not.
They're not.
Safety professionals' job is tosay I see something here that
concerns me, I'm raising a flag,I'm raising an alert, and
(09:45):
sometimes safety professionalswill put all that burden on
their shoulders to try and makethe organization change, when in
reality that's not their job.
Their job is to say toleadership I have concerns, I
have worries, and it is theleadership's job to drive that
ship.
And that is the best that asafety professional can do.
And if the safety professionaltakes everything on their
shoulders, well, dan, they'realmost setting themselves up to
fail.
I don't know.
(10:05):
What are your thoughts on that?
Speaker 1 (10:06):
Yeah, I have to agree with that.
We are actually in ourorganization.
This year we're doing somethingthat's called a safety
refresher for the staff, not forleadership, and one of the
things we talk to the staffabout.
We get them out of the lab foran hour, have a good one-on-one
conversation about safety andrelationships, and one of the
(10:27):
things we have to say, and thatwe do say, is we don't have any
authority as your lab safetyofficer.
I can't write you up.
I can talk to you about asafety issue that I see, but I
have zero authority in this andthat's not what our relationship
is about.
And sometimes we'll have labstaff, you know, sometimes we'll
take photographs of unsafe actsand things like that, and
(10:47):
sometimes people get mad andlike why are you taking pictures
in my laboratory?
I'm like you know, we don't weuse these photos for education,
educational purposes, safety eyeslides, as we call them.
We don't we.
We blank out faces so thatnobody can tell who it is, that,
if, if there's somebodyactually in the picture.
And you know, we only use themfor educational purposes.
(11:10):
But we have to actually sitthere and explain that, because
a lot of people do see us as thepolice and boy, I don't like
that at all.
I don't for a couple of reasons, but one is I don't want you
doing the right thing becauseI'm in the room.
I want you doing the rightthing because it's the best
thing for you and your safety,so that you can go home at the
end of your shift and be happyand healthy.
(11:31):
So yeah, it's a lot to talkabout with people, but you
almost have to educate them inthat way because sometimes the
people you're serving don't knowthe difference.
Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
I think also, too, coaching is, you know, being a
cheerleader, and what I mean bythat is is when you're coaching,
you are an advocate for theperson you're coaching, and not
everyone around them, noteverything, and again the
attention is on them.
It's on a process of thinking,and that's the you know.
(12:03):
Again, as habitual as behavioris, dan, our thinking processes
are just as habitual, and if wecan get people to start looking
at, okay, are your expectationsreasonable?
What is your goal when you wakeup and you come to work?
What skills do you want tofocus on?
Let's create an action plan.
(12:24):
Can I hold you accountable?
These are all things that acoach can do for someone in
bite-sized pieces, and that'sthe key.
See, dan, I don't meet withfolks as a coach once a week.
It's every day for 15 minutes,for four days, monday through
Thursday, four days, every day,15 minutes.
(12:46):
Because I believe that small,bite-sized pieces over a
prolonged period of time isgoing to make a big difference
when we are trying tore-establish the habit of
thinking and delivering safety.
What are your thoughts?
What do you think about that?
Yeah, that is a great approach.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
You know we have in our organization over 20 labs
and over I don't know, over 50some safety coaches and I wish
we could meet with them on adaily basis like that.
But there are some smallergroups, like in our reference
lab.
We have a smaller group ofsafety coaches and we get to
(13:25):
meet with them at least monthlyand do some of that coaching.
And it's so much better becauseyou get to hear about their
day-to-day, you get to find outwhat their struggles really are,
what the hard parts really areof their job.
And you know, one of the safetyphrases I don't know if you
want to call it a buzzwordaround our organization is
called peer coaching and we alsohave to teach people that.
(13:49):
You know everybody's your peer.
You got to get rid of the powerdistance in the lab because
sometimes, sometimes you know onthe clinical side of labs
they've got the pathologistcomes in.
Well, oh, I can't coach adoctor.
You know I can't say anythingto a doctor.
Yeah, you can.
Oh, here comes a nurse who'sbringing a specimen in from
another department, you know,wearing gloves and touching my
doorknobs and all that.
(14:09):
I can't coach her.
She works in another department.
Yeah, you can.
She's your peer too, so weteach a lot of that because we
want to be able to have thatcommunication that you're
talking about every day.
But you also have to do it witheverybody.
You have to broaden your net alittle bit in order to coach
everybody.
When it comes to those coachingmoments, boy, I think it would
(14:35):
be great if I could have SeanCoffin, 15 minutes every day,
telling you know, and I couldtell you what my barriers are to
coaching.
My barriers are to safety in mylab and help me think about
ways to overcome those.
That sounds fantastic soundsgreat.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
All right, dan, I'm going to sign you up.
Okay, you're, we're, we'll getthe service for free, dan.
You can call me anytime.
You know that.
That so all right.
Ladies and gentlemen, listen,dan and I, you know we are very,
very religious guys, or holyguys here, and we pray for all
of you out there that you arestrong and successful and happy
(15:11):
and that you remain blessed, andwe thank you for your service
on the front lines, dan.
Any closing?
Speaker 1 (15:16):
words.
Yeah, I just want to say to allthe listeners out there too you
know we are here to help you.
If you have a need and youreally are struggling with
something, please reach out toeither one of us.
Our numbers are public.
They're on our websites.
You can reach us and pleasefeel free to do that.
And if you just need somebodyto pray with about something,
we're happy to do that tooAlways.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
Thank you so much, Dan.
Take care, we are the LabSafety Gurus Dan Scungio and
Sean Kaufman.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
Thank you for letting us do lab safety together.
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