We live in such an instant gratification world today. If you’re willing to pay a high premium for shipping overnight, you can get just about anything you want, when you want it. The hottest toys for holiday shopping? No problem. The latest cell phones? No biggie. Last-minute clothing purchases? Easily done. Now is the time of year when “just ship it overnight” quickly becomes the most often heard statement I hear. Of course you can have ice cleats or traction aids shipped overnight, right? Well, the answer is both yes and no.

Recently, I had a conversation with a safety director from a large company that has operations all over the globe. He was telling me about how they used to have a lot of slip and falls due to ice and snow. They investigated ways to reduce winter slip and fall accidents and concluded it was time to invest in ice cleats. He went on to describe how they did all their research, testing, due diligence, etc. and ended up buying what they believed was the best ice cleat at the time. (Disclaimer: This isn’t an ice cleat my company manufactures.)

On particularly cold winter days when I was a kid, my mother would often give me a choice regarding outerwear, “Either wear your winter coat or don’t go outside,” she would say, effectively offering me a Hobson’s Choice - no choice at all. Since I was just a seven-year-old kid, my mom wasn’t interested in empowering me or helping me to build my decision-making skills. She simply wanted me to be warm and not get sick. There are many companies that offer this same “no choice” when it comes to safety items – either comply with OSHA workplace safety or go home.

I was speaking with a corporate safety director the other day about the challenges his workforce faces with employee buy-ins and working in the ice and snow. He has used our ice cleats in the past with good success. Recently, his company started a new safety initiative: ZERO winter slip, trip and fall incidents. This can be hard goal to reach (but not impossible). After our discussion, he realized that just buying winter traction aids and making them available to everyone was good, but not good enough to achieve his goal. Things needed to change.

The other day I was downtown for an important meeting. On my way into the city, the skies began to grow dark and by the time I pulled into the parking lot, the heavens had opened up and were dumping buckets of water all around me. From inside my car, I could see that some enterprising young fellow had opened up a makeshift umbrella sales stand on the corner. Not wanting to arrive to my appointment soaking wet, I parked my car, made a mad dash to his stand and gladly forked over the $20 for the small black parasol.

Resistance to change is simply part of human nature. If you want to see that resistance in action, try introducing a new piece of PPE to an established workforce. I cannot tell you how many times I have heard the following response when discussing ice cleats with a safety manager: “It’s not even worth buying ice cleats this winter. I know my guys. They’ll never bother to put them on.”