I am a people person and may be a little too social but I am a fan of just talking to people, getting to hear their story. Since taking over the role as President I have spoken to a lot of people!

Just the other day, I was chatting with one of our members about small businesses. They said something that really stuck with me - that their goal was to work themselves out of a job. At first, I thought what?! It sounded a bit confronting. But the more I considered it, the more it made sense. Their point was simple: when we support small businesses, we train, inspire, and empower them to lead on safety themselves. And that’s exactly how it should be.

I think with the small guys we often hear the same rhetoric: " it's too hard", "it's too difficult" or "I don’t have time". The temptation for us, as practitioners, is to step in and just get it done - but is that really the right approach? Shouldn't we be guiding and supporting rather than taking over? Sure it's easy for us, we can do all that is needed in the blink of an eye and the flick of the pen. But should we?

I like our member’s approach. A lot of small businesses really just need someone to sit with them and give them a plan to work too. It's just about getting the basics right. Before there is a flood of emails to the President's email address, bear in mind I am not talking about high risk operations in complex environments with lone specialist workers; I am talking about the Mum and Dad business that is doing routine work.

It’s not hard - it’s just part of running a business. Realistically, is it that difficult to teach a willing person how to run a toolbox talk, do a workplace inspection, or post a hazardous goods list at the entrance? Not really. I know we get pushback - I run a business too. And yes, there are tasks I don’t enjoy either. But often, the resistance comes from not understanding, and let’s be honest - we all fear what we don’t know. That’s where we come in. We do the legwork - the reading, the webinars - so we can make it easier for others. Of course it’s tempting to skip the safety stuff and head off early to go fishing. But if we give small businesses a clear plan and a simple path, then it just becomes a matter of checking in and asking, “How’s it going? Is there anything I can help with?”

I once had a small business owner ask me to run the Monday toolbox talk while they attended to a family matter. They returned about 15 minutes after we’d finished. I waved them over and said, “We had a great meeting - here are the notes. Just take a moment to read them and sign on.” A simple three-minute task.
Instead, they spent 20 minutes arguing about why they shouldn’t have to. (We all know that guy!) Situations like that are never fun. We often find ourselves justifying safety and our role - launching into facts, quotes, and wisdom from respected leaders - when really, it shouldn’t have to be that hard.

With a small business, our job is to guide, support and help people build confidence. If you help them run the first toolbox, and support them as they teach their Supervisors, you’ll get much better buy-in. Going back to the member’s comment at the start of my story - if we’re upfront that there’ll come a time, once we’ve done our part, when we’ll step back and they’ll be the ones leading from the front - that’s a great place for any business owner to be. And if we get them there, we’ve succeeded.

Until next time.

Mā te wā

Karl Berendt
NZISM President