To get people doing the right thing without thinking is often presented as the ultimate goal. I don't agree, and in this article I hope to convince you that the ultimate goal is to have employees talk to themselves before, during, and after their safe behavior. This is not mindless, routine behavior, but rather a state called mindful fluency. Let's look at a simple example of what I'm talking about.
Many people claim they automatically buckle up in their vehicles, without even thinking about it.
Such mindless behavior is commendable, but when you habitually buckle up without any self-talk, you lose an opportunity to reward yourself for going out of your way to be safe. Plus, when you're on automatic pilot, you might not even notice that a passenger in your vehicle is not using their safety belt. Or if you did notice, you might not be willing to ask the person to buckle up. You'd like them to follow the same mental script that you do. When we are mindful of our actions, we talk to ourselves in different ways.