Operating a Powered Industrial Truck requires 2 things above all, and they are to know what you are doing and to pay attention to what you are doing. Sounds easy right? It is just that easy.
The problem is that the basics get overlooked and the essentials get dismissed. Why does this happen? The answer is simple… training. It’s not just simple on paper, it’s also simple in application. The problem is confusion between simple & easy.
Another problem with PIT operations is that we also confuse “leadership” with “management” and training with “education”. Highlighting the differences between genuine & effective and wasting time is the scope of this article.
OSHA Clause 1910.178(l)(2)(iii)
All operator training and evaluation shall be conducted by persons who have the knowledge, training, and experience to train powered industrial truck operators and evaluate their competence.
Perfection is the enemy of growth.
This takes us to the 3 E’s of a competent [PIT] trainer; Enlightened, Engaging, and Experienced. Although the 3E’s should be taken seriously, this is not about perfection. Conversely, just because someone has “experience” on lift trucks, or even training, does not mean they are qualified.
The important thing about selecting candidates or qualified instructors is what’s not listed, and that is attitude. Attitude towards what’s important for PIT operations and increasing the capacity to understand, and lead is what makes or breaks trainers.
Many challenges for selecting instructors/candidates can be solved by understanding that supervisors and managers should take a professional equipment operation class in the first place. They are the trainers. They are not the only ones who can do training, however, if they oversee lift truck operations, they are at the very least responsible for the development of the operators who use the lift trucks.
Therefore, the managers and supervisors who oversee Powered Industrial Truck (lift truck) operations are responsible for the development of those who operate in that environment.
Let’s examine the 3 E’s of trainer/leader.
1 Enlightened
Webster’s Dictionary online defines enlightened as, 1: freed from ignorance and misinformation 2: based on full comprehension of the problems involved
The definition above both clarifies who is eligible for being a trainer, and what should be taught in an instructor class as well as all operator classes. Being free from ignorance & misinformation is a state of understanding. Being growth-oriented means operating as a habit to increase understanding.
Ignorance is not a measure of intelligence, but it is a pervasive problem when it comes to lift truck training and operations. This can be said with confidence because of the glazed look caused by simple questions like “what is the capacity of the lift trucks you operate?”. This is not to say that some people know this without missing a beat, but that is rare. Too rare.
Not only are most misinformed on the technical basics of the forklifts, but also, and more importantly, on what the “law” says about training and who the trainers should be. The real issue is not the misunderstanding of the letter of the law, however, but not understanding what the subtext of the law is. The subtext, or the spirit of the law is what is the most important thing about anything OSHA publishes.
FTS Instructor Training is designed to bring instructors/leaders professional enlightenment. This can also be described as a level of competence/understanding that they can build on. They can use the (required) understanding to properly assess the habits of the operators in real time.
2 Engaged
1: involved in activity : 3: greatly interested
To be a good lift truck instructor, one must strive to be an effective leader. Being a leader requires actively participating in the activities of their reports. There is no such thing as “hands off” leadership and the “hands on, not hands in” style of leadership are another way of saying “hands off”. This is especially true for facilitating a Lift Truck operator training class, and even more so for overseeing operations.
Being engaged is not a personality trait, it’s a tactic. Intentional engagement is not “being one of the guys”, it’s paying attention to what is important. The default of many supervisors is to be so involved in managing the production outcomes of the day that their eyes are fixed on a screen until they hear crashing noises. This is because of the normalcy-of-numbness, caused by a lack of engagement, that has set in.
Active engagement is overlooked primarily because most supervisors are not aware of its importance. Not only is engagement undermined but it is seen as something difficult and therefore everything becomes reactive. In other words, it’s easier to put on classes then deal with mistakes punitively rather than constantly be involved and clean as you go.
Instilling engagement in the workplace is how you work yourself out of a job. Working yourself out of a job means someone else has assumed more responsibility and gained more understanding. Its called development.
3 Experienced
Many, maybe even most, who attend my instructor classes are not all that experienced in the way most think the OSHA policy requires. This is a good thing along with training the experienced because they are learning to focus on what is important. Knowing what to focus on is knowing what you are doing.
In modern culture, there is too much emphasis on “learning from failure”. In a leadership culture, which is what Instructor Training should strive to cultivate, evaluated experience is the best teacher. Leaders know that their experience with “forklifts” is minimally important compared to their experience with “people”. This is not to say that experience on lift trucks is not important, but enlightenment comes by what you get in return for what you send out. The only way to measure returns is to know what is causing them, and evaluated experience is the best training material for that.
To summarize, enlightenment happens when we engage in the process, and experience only matters when it is examined through the eyes of intentional development.
