APM Team,

Two weeks past we hosted ~40 new Superintendent candidates at our LDC. It was great to have in person classes back. Even with COVID protocols in place and followed, there was an energy in the LDC I missed and quickly found.

And I received multiple compliments on the engagement of our candidates. We have a good group of new Superintendents entering the field this fall. I have confidence they will perform with excellence.

Much of our new Superintendent content is about Safety, including the fundamentals (ex: LOTO), philosophies (ex: CBS), principles (ex: HOP), and leadership tools (ex: Balmert). Thus throughout the week there was a lot of talk about safety, specifically how APM executes safety.

One theme that emerged from my conversations is around CBS, and specifically around what makes a good commitment (personal, actionable, specific, measurable, consistent, and followed-up on.)

Many actions that we label as commitments are really intentions. “I will drive safely.” -or- “I will drink more water.” -or- “I will wear proper PPE.” Those are intentions. “I will maintain a three second gap between me and the car in front of me.” -or- “I will drink 120 oz of water today.” -or- “I will use leather gloves with a cut resistance of 4.” Those are commitments.

Speaking of driving, I actually had two separate conversations about what it means to drive defensively. “I will practice good defensive driving.” IMHO, that is an intention. “I will pick my lane, drive the speed limit, and signal before changing lanes.” That is a commitment.

As we are now in the last month of summer and as we look ahead to fall outage season, many of us will be on the roads. There will be ample reasons to be distracted – whether it be thinking about the upcoming job or an eight year old boy in the backseat yelling at his eleven year old sister to share the iPad. So to help us understand how to better drive defensively, and also to practice our commitment making, I looked for a list of defensive driving tips. Who better to provide such a list as an insurance company (they have an economic interest in people driving defensively and safely). Please see StateFarm's recommended list here.

I have two challenges for you.

1. Next time you drive, identify one bullet on this list that you could implement to drive more defensively.

Then rewrite the bullet to look more like a commitment per the APM way of making commitments.