Safety Training Net - February '25 📈🔥🥔⚾️
Data Visualization, Burn Prevention Activities, Answer Battle, Health Homerun , and Links
Upskilling in 2025
Last month, I shared the 2025 Upskilling Wheel (if you missed that, you can read more here), and we covered the first topic, Emotional Intelligence. This month, we are addressing the next in line and one of my favorite communication topics - Data Visualization.
Why should you care about Data Visualization?
I have always loved image-based communication. Visual aids not only get and keep attention but can help complex (and sometimes boring) data be more clearly understood. If you are trying to get others’ attention in order to get them to do something, data presented as images are better than data presented alone. Florence Nightingale and her Coxcomb Diagram is the perfect example of how this can work. Through her data visualization efforts, she was able to finally convince the British government to implement sanitary reforms, which ultimately saved lives. You can read more about Florence Nightingale and her use of data visualization in a recent SafetyFUNdamentals blog post.
What would you rather look at?
While using graphs and charts is a start in better communication of data, creative representation of data (my favorite) is something I encourage all safety professionals to experiment with. While creating detailed charts and graphs that go beyond basic bar and pie charts might be something few safety and health professionals are able to easily do, anyone can create ways of sharing data so that it is more easily understood. I have discussed ways to do this in various presentations on more effective communication of safety information. Since there is limited room in this newsletter to share all of this information, I created an introductory video on these methods for anyone who wants to learn more. You can view that here.
Interested in trying it out yourself? First watch the video, then take a dataset related to occupational health and safety and craft a compelling narrative that simplifies complex data for a general audience. Use metaphors or relatable scenarios to make the numbers meaningful. Share what you come up with using the comment button below for more ideas and feedback from subscribers.
I have created a Data Visualization Study Guide with challenge questions for VIPs that can be downloaded using the link in the VIP section below.
Data Visualization Resources
There are many resources available to learn more about Data Visualization, including the following:
Data Visualization and Information Design: Create a Visual Model Domestika Course -($20)
Flowing Data website - lots of resources and tutorials
Safety Communication With Data Visualization Infographic
2013-2023 Data Visualization This is more of an example than a resource but it can provide an idea for your own projects.
👩🏻🎓👨🏾🎓 How to Learn Yourself
There was a great post recently on LinkedIn by Will Thalheimer on how to learn yourself when creating and delivering training. I am sure you do this all the time without even realizing it. If you’d like to check out the post, you can find it here.
Note: Will Thalheimer was featured in the February ‘22 issue of The Safety Training Net Ask the Expert column. You can find that here if you’d like to read more of the advice Will graciously shared.
🌫️👁️ Blur Your Eyes Test
The Blur Your Eyes test is the idea of Stanford design Professor Larry Leifer. It is an easy, low-tech, way to quickly check for clarity, as it relates to design and presentation of written communication. All you need to do is squint! To read more about it, check out this “Sketchplanation” about it here.
Safety Training Calendar
In the 2025 Safety Training Calendar I shared last month, you can see that February is a great month to focus on burn prevention, and wellness, as February includes the American Burn Association’s National Burn Awareness Week and is the American Heart Association’s American Heart Month. The featured activity included with the calendar is Health Homerun, a training activity that can be used to review health-related training information. You can download that here.
As a child, you may have played some version of “hot potato,” a game where an actual potato or other small object is tossed quickly from player to player, standing in a circle, as if it was too hot to hold. Historically, it is believed that this game was originally played with a burning coal! When playing hot potato, there is usually music playing or a timer which will go off unexpectedly. When this happens, the person holding the “hot potato” at this time is eliminated from the game.
The topic of burn prevention aligns itself to the hot potato game (but please don’t use an actual hot object!) It can be used as a review in the beginning of class, or at the end. The “potato” in this case can be a ball, a real potato, or even a crumpled piece of paper.
To convert traditional “hot potato” to a valuable training activity, it is necessary to build in the need for trainees to use their new knowledge or skills when playing. When using training games such as these, you want to make sure you have a combination of chance and skill. If there is too much chance, it’s just a fun game. If there is too much skill, it is nothing more than a test.
To play Burn Prevention Hot Potato, ask trainees to stand in a circle and provide one with a “potato.” The facilitator should ask this first trainee a question about burn prevention (after they have heard this information in a training class, past or present.) After they answer, they should be told to toss the “potato” to anyone else in the circle. The facilitator then asks this person a different question on the topic being reviewed. This continues until the pre-determined number of questions have been answered.
To add a bit of fun, set a 30-second timer and tell trainees that if they are holding the “potato” when the timer goes off, they are eliminated from the game. Reset the timer after every elimination. This extra step should increase the speed and urgency with which trainees try to answer questions. If possible, award the last person standing with a small prize.
I have created a Burn Prevention Hot Potato Activity Packet for VIPs which includes burn prevention review questions and suggested rules of the game. The download link can be found in the VIP Section below.
Also…If you want to upgrade your “potato” you can actually buy one (non-edible) on Amazon. I have one of these to give away! If you’d like to be entered into the drawing, please complete a short two-question survey here. (Even if you do not want to be entered into the drawing, I’d love to have your participation in the survey:)
If you’d like to try a more traditional learning activity, you can download a Burn Prevention Crossword here.
As stated above, February is also the American Heart Association’s American Heart Month. Heart health programs can be part of a Total Worker Health program and there are ways to use games and activities in support of these programs. Check out the Training Activities for Total Worker Health blog post on the SafetyFUNdamentals website for more information.
VIP Subscribers can go deeper by reviewing the Gamification of Total Worker Health ebook, which includes five different training activities. The download link can be found in the VIP section below.
Speaking of TWH, my latest book, The Wiley Guide to Strategies, Ideas, and Applications for Implementing a Total Worker Health Program, is another great resource and is available here and on Amazon.
Game On!
Welcome to a new section of The Safety Training Net where subscribers share their favorite safety training activity. This month, subscriber Kristen Johnson has graciously shared her favorite game, Answer Battle, and provided the website information. Kristen has used many of the templates from this resource, YouthDownloads.com, with great success. Thanks for sharing Kristen!
Kristen received a free year of VIP membership as a thank-you for sharing her activity. If you would like to share your favorite activity and help other safety trainers, please reply to this email and let me know. Thanks!
VIP Section
Hi VIP! Thank you so much for being a paid subscriber and supporting this newsletter. Many of the resources in this newsletter are only available to you and these download links are provided in the section below. The Safety Training Net is still only $50/year so if you know someone who could benefit from these resources, please use the button below to refer them to this site. Thank you!