A recent news report got me thinking the other day about the importance of keeping attentive for the entire cycle of our workday. The news story involved an equipment operator and foreman from a New York sidewalk construction site facing manslaughter charges after a pedestrian fatality.

We all do a good job of paying attention to the task or critical process at hand, but what about when that process ends? What about when we need to move to a different location on the job or to a different jobsite? All too often, as we complete a task requiring intense focus, like precision operation of heavy equipment, we relax our focus as we move to a new task or site. As an instructor, I see this phenomenon often. A new worker concentrates so hard on running a piece of equipment they lose situational awareness.