the conversation that goes with that piece of paper and the individuals that are having those conversations.”
“ It’ s the engagement of everybody on the team,” McCallan added.“ It’ s not a monologue, it’ s a dialogue.”
New hires with little experience may not recognize common hazards on utility jobsites. Likewise, veteran workers tend to normalize the risk of hazards over time. Both groups can advance safety by sharing their knowledge and observations with each other.
“ If we put out safety guidelines and have a conversation in the field about them, that makes everybody’ s life easier,” Nichols said.
Tell a Story
At CSRA, Upton noted, new research on construction and utility safety has shown the unique value of storytelling in making the safety message hit home.“ If you can pull in some kind of emotional connection to the task that you’ re doing, then your hazard prediction rates are higher in the future,” he said.“ One of the things we’ re trying to do at Georgia Power is tie past incidents to tasks,” Nichols related. That way, when you’ re having these discussions in the field, things that happened in the past build a connection so your risk perception is different.”
McCallan has found storytelling effective for safety as well.“ We learn from past mistakes, we learn from successes,” he pointed out.“ Having somebody share a story is valuable in how we identify hazards.”
Technology Support
“ If you ask a typical supervisor what keeps you in the office, it’ s paperwork,” said McCallan.“ They’ re not out in the field seeing what’ s happening and making sure that things are being done safely and productively. Using a digital process allows them to have more of those conversations now than before.”
Georgia Power is already leveraging technology for its job safety briefings.“ The feed will come from our work man-
10 • 800-247-2000 • February 2026