An injury-free workplace requires effective ongoing engagement of all employees actively caring for the safety of themselves and their coworkers. This research-based 160-page workbook explains and illustrates how to make that happen. Readers learn ten safety-outcome objectives, each containing six evidence-based safety-action directives relevant to successfully address the human dynamics of injury prevention and cultivate an AC4P culture.

The 60 safety-action directives explicated in this occupational health and safety (OHS) workbook reflect a variety of domains from psychological science, including the behavioral-science principles of positive vs. negative reinforcement, observational learning, and behavior-based feedback. Other directives reflect humanism, from empathy and interdependency to systems thinking, and self-transcendence. We derived additional safety directives from social psychology, including principles of social influence and dynamics of group decision-making.

The ten teaching/learning safety objectives selected for this OHS workbook are directly relevant for improving the human dynamics of occupational safety, and each objective reflects a distinct teaching/learning outcome—an OHS-improvement proficiency relevant for cultivating an actively-caring-for-people (AC4P) work culture by applying six safety-action directives per objective.

Each safety objective (i.e., chapter) and relevant directives includes explanatory text and elucidating illustrations, a conclusion, discussion questions designed to inspire critical thinking and applications of specific safety directives, and the relevant references from the research literature. The first safety objective and six action directives provide an overview of the complexity of human nature. Consider this chapter an overview of the fundamental challenge addressed in this workbook––optimizing individual and interpersonal human dynamics for OHS. Safety Objective 2 with six directives initiates our focus on behavior by addressing the impact of behavioral consequences on occurrences of at-risk and safe behavior, and illustrating how to apply consequences effectively to motivate occurrences of injury-preventive behavior. The six safety directives for Safety Objective 3 connect select principles of humanistic psychology to behavior-based safety (BBS) in order to address the critical human dynamics of perceived empowerment and self-motivation. We provide answers to two critical questions: 1) What does it mean to feel empowered and self-motivated? and 2) How can people promote and support safety-related empowerment and self-motivation within themselves and among others?

The next safety objective and six action directives are relevant for conducting a more accurate, unbiased, and useful analysis of a close call, injury, or property damage. Then, Safety Objective 5 and relevant safety directives address the potential application of six social-influence principles to enhance employee engagement for OHS.

The six action directives for Safety Objective 6 address the crucial interpersonal coaching component of improving behavior, which many organizations have not accomplished effectively when attempting to implement a BBS process. The next objective and six directives teach the value of practicing interdependency and systems thinking in order to achieve synergy––an optimal OHS system with the whole greater than the sum of its parts.

Safety Objective 8 addresses the cultivation of a healthy OHS mindset within oneself and among others. The safety directives for this objective explain why and how to: a) accept stress but stifle distress; b) distinguish between personal control and personal concern; c) accept Type A behavior but stifle Type A emotion; d) apply constructive self-talk or intrapersonal conversation; and e) adopt a lifelong mindset of continuous learning and teaching.

Safety Objective 9 introduces humanistic behaviorism—the research-based foundation of the psychological science reflected throughout this OHS workbook. Note the connection to actively (behaviorism) caring (humanism) for people (AC4P). The final safety objective summarizes each of the prior safety objectives and most of the action directives by explaining and illustrating their relevance to cultivating and sustaining a Total Safety Culture (TSC). Here we explain three basic and practical strategies for initiating, achieving, and nurturing a TSC.

Discussion questions are included at the end of each chapter (i.e., a safety-outcome objective) to inspire reader engagement and bring the safety/life lessons to life. It would be very beneficial to discuss answers to these teaching/learning questions among members of a group of workbook readers or workshop participants with support from a facilitator with some knowledge of psychological science. However, individual readers can certainly write answers to the various questions for significant benefit to their personal learning and real-world application of the safety-action directives per each chapter, resulting in a teaching/learning safety objective/outcome.

Each safety objective or chapter is essentially independent, and can be understood and applied without the information conveyed in any other chapter. Unlike most textbooks, the chapters in this workbook are not sequenced so the information in one chapter builds from the content of earlier chapters. Therefore, you can begin reading this workbook at any chapter, depending upon your current interest or a desired safety outcome (or objective). Likewise, a workshop facilitator could select a few of the chapters for a particular safety topic. For example, a workshop on behavior-based safety might include three chapters—Safety Objectives 2, 6, and 8. A workshop on incident analysis would focus on Safety Objective 4, and a group discussion of “safety culture” would only need to cover the contents of the last chapter in this workbook—Safety Objective 10.

We estimate it would take at least three eight-hour workshop days to cover adequately all ten safety objectives presented here. Thus, most applications of this workbook will likely involve a select number of safety objectives. Of course, a ten-week series of three to four-hour OHS workshop discussions per week would be an ideal approach to covering the entire contents of this workbook. Although the order of presenting the safety objectives can vary, we recommend starting with the first chapter because it introduces the complexity of human nature and hence the unique challenges involved in improving the human dynamics of OHS and achieving an injury-free workplace. We also suggest covering Chapter 10 last, because this Safety Objective on cultivating a Total Safety Culture reviews much of the content presented in earlier chapters.