Safety leaders and those involved with workplace injury and illness prevention are indeed “The Keeper of the Spring”. Read this story and see if you don’t agree:
“A former chaplain of the United States Senate, used to tell the story of “The Keeper of the Spring”, a very quiet forest dweller who lived high above an Austrian village along the slopes of the Alps. The older gentleman had been hired many years ago by the town council to clear away the debris from the pools of water up in the mountains that fed the spring of water flowing through their village. With faithful, silent regularity, he patrolled the hills, removing the leaves and branches, and wiped away the silt that choked off and contaminated the fresh flow of water. After a period of time, the village became a very popular vacation destination. Graceful swans floated along the crystal clear spring, various businesses located near the water, farmlands were naturally irrigated, and the view from the restaurants was picturesque beyond description. The village prospered.
Years passed. One evening the town council met for its annual meeting. As they reviewed the budget, one man’s eye caught the salary figure being paid to the obscure keeper of the spring. Who is this old man? Why do we keep him year after year? No one ever sees him. For all we know he is doing us no good at all! By a unanimous vote, they discontinued the old man’s services.
For several weeks nothing changed. But by early autumn, the trees began to shed leaves and small branches snapped off and fell into the high mountain streams and pools, hindering the downward flow of fresh water. One afternoon someone in town noticed a yellow-brown tint in the spring. A few days later the water turned much darker. Within another week, a slimy film covered sections of the water along the banks and a nasty odor was soon detected. The swans left, as did the tourists, disease and sickness reached deeply into the village.
Quickly, the council called a special meeting. Realizing their error in judgment, they hired back the old keeper of the spring… and within a few weeks the river and spring began to clear up. Soon the swans and the visitors returned to bring the town back to life, and the village once again prospered.”
Safety management and injury prevention improve the bottom line. The daily efforts of the safety management process results in improved employee health, better product quality, enhanced productivity, reduced costs associated with medical claims, reduced employee absenteeism & turnover, reduced costs associated with downtime and training, reduced administrative cost, and improved employee morale and labor relations. There is great VALUE in picking up sticks in the workplace.
We should not become discouraged with the seemingly smallness of our tasks, just keep picking up those sticks! Most sticks won’t just come to us, we need to roam the hills along the stream to find them. If you can’t find any sticks, look for some leaves. If you can’t locate any leaves, then wipe away some silt.
