As we know, most leaders, organizations and regulators provide guidance to workers to stop work if they feel the work is unsafe or if an injury could occur if the work continues.  And while this guidance is absolutely on point and correct, it may also be a little insufficient and incomplete.  Instead, we need to include “Stop work” critieria in the planning of the job and to also discuss the “stop work” criteria as part of the tool box talk with the workers who are about to perform the task.  This engagement is critical to 1) reinforce the workers right to stop a job from continuing if something unplanned for is occuring or if an injury is immient because of the unsafe condition, planning, or preparation of the job, but also 2) to review as a work team the conditions and criteria that could occur that would cause the team to stop work, pull back and re-evaluate the work.  

This action is in addition to any “stop work” criteria that may already exist in the work pack.  This is because errors can be made in the planning and the planning may not consider all the conditions that could occur when in the field and on the job.  As it is said “work as done is never the same as work as imagined.”  Engaging the worker in this toolbox talk review of the stop-work criteria could include situations and contingenicies that were not imagined in the work planning and preparation allows the worker and team to get specific about the conditions and criteria that would cause the worker / team to stop work.  This is a critical step in the tool boax talk that is often overlooked, ignored or not thought of doing and providing time for, but is a step that we do need create the space for it to occur.  It is what allows the specifics to be discussed as to what constitutes stopping the job.  

We would never anymore simply instruct a crew to work safely; we would discuss in detail what working safely looks like and feels like, what procedures to be used, what processes to be followed and how working safely translates to the actions in the field; even getting to the detail of where to stand when executing a task.  So in a similar fashion we need to cover the criteria and conditions that might exist that would cause the crew to stop work, fall back and reevaluate.  Like excellence in other things, excellence in safety is in the details and the attention that we pay to these details.