Always Thinking About Safety

First an apology. I have been traveling a lot and have gotten out of the habit of writing this blog and material for the web site. I was at a meeting at the end of last week and at the end of the work session someone from the client's knowledge management team stayed behind and then proceeded to thank me for my blog and the material that we had been making available via the web site. They had used it not only during their formal knowledge management studies but also in their role within the knowledge management team. Suddenly all the work of writting case studies and blog became worthwhile.

Those that know me well know that safety is very important to me. I have worked with HSE teams around the world and assessmed how they use knowledge on many occassions. Being safe and ensuring the safety of those around us is part of our personal responsibility but today taught me just how easy it is to slip up. Today I found myself in a potentaily dangerous situation, a situation that I should have been able to avoid.

It was mid afternoon and i was sitting in a hotel room working when there was a power cut. It was still very light in the room so I decided to put my shoes on and go shopping and pick up some of the things that I needed. I was on the third floor and while I knew exactly where the fire escapes were I wondered if there as a public staircase that I could walk down to reception. As I came out of the room I saw one of the staff with a hand held radio and asked them how to walk down the stairs to reception. They said "follow me" which I thought was very helpful and surprise, surprise they took me to a fire exit.

We entered the staircase and it was brighly lit but importantly it was lit by sunlight being let into the stairwell while the door was open. That wasn't immediatley apparent. We started off down the stairs but when the door closed behind us, there was no light. There were no emergency lights in the emergency fire exit stairwell.

At that point I should have insisted we turn back, we were only about 9 or 10 step down into the stair well but for a reason I don't quite understand myself I continued to follow the memebr of staff. I normally carry an emergency torch with me on my keyring but guesss what, it was safely back in the hotel room.

I continue to follow the member of staff down the stairs who was now lighting the way using the light from the display of thier mobile telephone. They even had to hold the mobile telephone up to the wall to try to read what level we had reached.

I am not afraid of the dark but I can reassure you when the mobile telephone when out, it was VERY dark in that stairwell. By now I knew that I couldn't find my way back as it wasn't possible to read the stair level without having a mobile telephone swiched on. I had mine in my pocket but didn't want to risk taking my hand off the hand rail (and losing my orientation on the stairs) so relied on the very dim light several stairs below me.

As we reached the bottom I sensed an object blocking our exit from the stairs. Someone had pushed a hotel porter's luggage cart into the emergency stairwell. We had to navigate our way around it and then open the door into reception.

I am typing this having returned to the hotel after my shopping and can see the emergency tourch that I carry in my luggage sitting next to the bed. I can even see my small emergency tourch lying next to my security pass but where were they when I need them!

This incident reminds me of how while I have access to the best practice in hotel guest safety, I didn't use it. I knew there was a power cut in the hotel hence the lights and elevators would be out of action. It was highly propable that there would be no or reduced lighting somehwere between my room and the street. Why didn't I pay attention to the best practice of hotel guest safety? To be very honest it was becuase I was going to spend a sum of money that I wasn't entirely comfortable spending eg my mind was on trying to justify to myself that it was OK to spend that much money when it should have been on my safety.

When you want to transfer best practice and ensure that someone impliments it, you need to think about what else in happening in their environment at that time, just assuming that they will impliment it because it is best practice might not work.

And in closing, an emergency tourch is only useful if you have it with you when you need it. It might be great to have it on your security pass during office hours but where are you going to carry it once you in a hotel room / out for dinner etc etc.