The Four Dangerous States of Mind

It's been a while since we've revisited what the four dangerous states of mind are, and it's one of those topics that sometimes gets overlooked. It's not attached to any specific activity (trenching, climbing a ladder) and nowhere does OSHA say that you have to talk about any of this. But these are an underlying root cause of many, if not most, incidents.

Our earlier post goes into detail on each state of mind, but we'll add them here too for a review:

- Rushing - If you move too fast, you can make mistakes and miss hazards.

- Frustration - Easy to lose focus, get swept up into emotion, and miss details.

- Fatigue - When you're tired, it's hard to keep your mind on the task at hand.

- Complacency - when you've done the same thing hundreds of times before, it can become background noise.... even when it's hazardous.

Now, making sure that your mind is always on task is never going to be a replacement for a robust safety program with strong training and controls, but it is an important piece of the puzzle not to be overlooked. Companies can step in by implementing measure to emphasize employee mental health, ensuring deadlines are realistic, and making sure training is repeated enough to combat complacency.
 

Keep safety top of mind every time!