Trebuchet MS
Friday, August 15, 2008 at 6:31 As someone new to safety incident investigations I took the back seat for the five days the team was together, offering input only where it was seen fit cos’ I don't care to repeat what has already been said nor do I speak to hear my own voice. But I did take the lead when it came to drafting the report and it was not because I was oh-so-willing to help out, no. It was because I saw a report from a prior incident and was rather appalled by it - I could not have my name on anything looking remotely similar to that. I have my pride.
So I kept the cover page (only because I liked it) and literally did away with everything else - the layout, format, content, sections, down to the line spacing, colours and font which had to be Trebuchet MS size 9 for normal text and size 8 for tables. The end result told a story, much like a picture book with engineering calculations inserted here and there with an accompanying description of the different work processes and systems and how they broke down along the way. The logical approach to the subject was clearly visible and whilst I would have liked to have to worded certain things differently, the fact remains that to have produced such detail for a final report within the remaining two days for all management was a noteworthy effort.
The response was more than I could have expected. Reports like these are circulated to the entire organization and this one was very well received - so when I heard that some persons were displeased I was naturally curious as to why and there were two reasons for that. The first was that some chose to not read it objectively and took certain aspects of it to heart as if blame was being cast – you can't help that, but the second reason was rather surprising. The thing is that certain key individuals were claiming this as the "best safety incident investigation report ever" and this had left a somewhat sour taste in the mouths of those members of management that authored several reports of this nature throughout their careers at this company. Maybe they should have used a better font.
Reader Comments (2)
Somehow I'm doubting it was the font. So proud of you :D
Ha ha, cheers! Live n shine, baby.