Visual Literacy: Why Don't We See the Things that Can Hurt Us?

Date: June 17, 2021
Time: 12:00pm - 1:00pm
Webinar Via Zoom
The link to join will be shared in the registration email. Everyone who registers will receive a recording of the event.

Surveys of COVE workshop participants indicate that most incidents that occur in organizations are not major unpredictable events. Most are the result of hazards that exist that are right in front of us, but we don’t see them. They become part of the noise and part of the background. They become the story of “I’ve walked by that a thousand times and I didn’t see it until the incident occurred.” Why is this and what can we do about it? This session examines why we don’t see things that are right in front of us and hide in the background.

Grounded in lessons learned from art education, tools exist that allow us to see more completely by improving how we look at the environment and the tasks we must complete. Improving our visual literacy skills improves our ability to work safely and more effectively. Highly interactive, participants in this session will:

• Understand what visual literacy is and why it matters to each of us

• Understand how visual literacy matters to our safety processes

• Understand how simple tools and techniques can be utilized to improve our ability to see the things that can hurt us

• Understand how the brain controls what we see and why improving our personal safety requires proactive identification and mitigation of the hazards around us. We can’t improve what we can’t see and visual literacy is key to our success.

Presentation By:  Doug Pontsler, Chairman and Managing Director for COVE: Center of Visual Expertise

Doug Pontsler is Chairman and Managing Director for COVE, and is dedicated to the application of visual literacy for industrial and service applications with an emphasis on safety. Prior to his current role, Doug was the former vice president of operations sustainability and EHS for Owens Corning (retired). He joined Owens Corning in 2002 and held leadership positions including director of corporate services and vice president of global sourcing. Doug served as a member of the National Safety Council (NSC) Board of Directors and as the Chairman of the Campbell Institute at the National Safety Council. He is a recipient of NSC’s 2019 Distinguished Service to Safety Award.