Spiritual Preparation for Safer Work

The previous articles in this series examined two factors that strongly influence personal safety. Accountability is the idea that meaningful improvement begins when workers accept responsibility for their own safety decisions. Through mental preparation, workers gain an understanding of the ways in which temperament, emotional triggers and habits affect their judgment under pressure.

This article builds on those concepts by addressing spiritual preparation, a third factor not nearly as commonly discussed that nevertheless plays a critical role in how people behave on the job.

Spiritual preparedness is not necessarily about religion (although it could be) or belief systems imposed by organizations. Rather, it is an individual’s collection of commitments, fueled by an internal source of strength that provides identity, purpose and meaning during adversity.

Taking Risks When We Know Better
In safety-critical lines of work, clarifying and honoring one’s source of strength and associated commitments often helps employees follow the rules they know are right instead of taking shortcuts that feel easier in the moment.

Many serious injuries have occurred because people knew better and broke the rules anyway – not because they weren’t aware of the rules. Every day, lineworkers and other employees make tradeoffs because they think, “The odds are low that this will go wrong,” “I’ve done this a hundred times,” or “This will only take a second.”

These decisions feel completely rational in the moment, like jaywalking when traffic seems light. No one wants to be hurt or killed, naturally, but people don’t always experience risk in a consistent manner.

In a nutshell, safety professionals strive toward zero risk. Frontline workers manage perceived risk.

When a worker’s task appears routine with little probability of harm, rules can feel like inconveniences whose costs outweigh the benefits. It is in that gap – the one between how organizations think about risk and how frontline workers experience it – where people get hurt.

So, how do we bridge the gap? What can we do to help people further lower their injury risk even when it doesn’t feel necessary to them? The answer isn’t more rules. It’s spiritual preparation: strengthening the internal commitments that guide human behavior when risk feels acceptable.

The Limits of Policies and Procedures
Organizational policies and procedures are developed under the assumption that employees will act rationally and consistently in all conditions. Realistically, stress and fatigue affect human decision-making. When those influences are strong, even well-designed rules can lose their power. This is why incident investigators so often discover that the individuals involved understood the hazards and knew the correct procedures yet still made different choices.

Such behavior is not primarily driven by training or policy but by what the individuals valued most in the moment (e.g., speed, group acceptance, avoiding hassle, simply getting the job done). That behavioral shift is exactly why spiritual preparation matters; it is when a person’s moral code enters the picture.

Lineworkers rely on pole partners near energized conductors because a second set of eyes can catch things a lone worker might miss. Professional divers operate the same way underwater. However, these systems only work when both people genuinely believe they are responsible for each other’s safety, not just their own.

Written rules are not the source of that belief. It is a deeply held internal standard, a personal moral code that firmly states, “I don’t look the other way when someone next to me is at risk.”

The U.S. military provides a clear example of how powerful this can be. When a fellow soldier is injured in combat, our self-preservation instinct tells us to seek cover. Yet soldiers stay put because they are anchored to the commitment that they will not leave anyone behind despite their own fear. The strength of their personal and collective moral codes is what enables them to act against their instincts.

Civilian work is different, but the mechanism is the same. Employees who have clarified their own moral code – those values and commitments they refuse to violate – are far less likely to drift into unsafe behavior under difficult conditions.

Spiritual Preparation and Safety Performance
Again, spiritual preparation is the work of identifying and strengthening that code. It addresses a segment of safety performance that exists below conscious human awareness, influencing what happens when someone knows the right thing to do but feels pressure to do something else. Without making clear commitments, people are more susceptible to fatigue, rushing, overconfidence and unspoken group norms. Moral clarity makes those pressures easier to resist because decisions are anchored to something deeper than convenience or habit.

In practical terms, spiritual preparation helps turn ideas like “I am my brother’s keeper” into consistent behavior, not merely situational intent.

Building a Spiritual Foundation
Developing a personal moral code doesn’t happen by accident. Employees in high-risk professions have long relied on proven approaches to clarify their values and strengthen their ability to act consistently under pressure. Three of these proven approaches are described below for the reader’s consideration.

1. Arete: Excellence of Character
Rooted in classical philosophy, “arete” (ah–reh–tay) means excellence of character. It’s the idea that under pressure, people fall back on who they believe they are rather than what they intend to do.

Arete focuses on aligning one’s identity, habits and behavior so that internal standards remain steady even when shortcuts appear tempting. From a safety perspective, this strengthens the internal voice that says, “This risky choice does not align with who I am or how I want to be known.”

“Premeditatio malorum” – Latin for “premeditation of evils” – is one concept I’ve found particularly helpful. The phrase is inscribed on a small coin I keep with me, an unwavering reminder to think through likely problems before they occur. While the coin’s wording reflects ancient hardships, I’ve adapted the idea to modern work situations, including winter storms, incorrect circuit maps, missing equipment and poor planning. Taking time to think through these scenarios in advance makes it easier to respond calmly, deliberately and safely if they do occur.

I also recommend reviewing Brian Johnson’s Philosopher’s Notes (see www.philosophersnotes.com), which combine ancient wisdom and modern psychology in short, easy-to-read installments. They are inspiring to read and directly applicable to our work.

2. The U.S. Army: Spiritual Fitness Under Adversity
Spiritually fit individuals possess an internal source of strength that provides them with identity, purpose and meaning during adversity, according to the U.S. Army. That source could be faith, duty, service, loyalty or promises made to others. In the Army, spiritual fitness is supported by both the chain of command and the storied Chaplain Corps.

Our deeply held beliefs help us sustain disciplined behavior when stress, fear and exhaustion take over. Law enforcement officers, firefighters and emergency responders rely on similar internal moral codes every day, often supported by chaplains, because the codes help them function reliably in high-consequence situations.

I witnessed this firsthand while working as a switching center supervisor during a period of civil unrest in Los Angeles. Several of us stayed on duty for days. First the U.S. Marines secured the intersection outside the station, and then the National Guard moved directly into the facility while we continued to operate the system citywide. It was a tragic situation, but the team drew on a shared sense of duty to restore and maintain service. No one questioned staying or doing what needed to be done.

That kind of reliability under pressure is a product of clear internal commitments – not rules – the same foundation the Army refers to as spiritual fitness.

3. Fuller Seminary: Meaning and Connection
Fuller Seminary’s Thrive model (see https://thethrivecenter.org/explore) suggests that people find meaning when they feel a sense of connection to something larger than themselves. Judgment improves when work is clearly tied to contribution and responsibility to others. Unsafe behavior becomes harder to self-justify.

The Thrive model focuses on preparation rather than control. Since it is impossible to prevent every challenge we will face on the job, it makes sense to concentrate on fortifying ourselves in advance so that we respond well when conditions inevitably deteriorate. In this sense, spiritual health works like physical conditioning, improving how we perform under stress.

What does this require from a practical standpoint? You must clarify what matters most to you; build daily habits that support safe decision-making; stay connected to those you work and live with; and periodically assess whether your actions still match the kind of worker and teammate you want to be.

I found the Fuller concepts invaluable during periods of organizational upheaval, including layoffs, station closures, involuntary reassignments, and in the aftermath of serious injuries and fatalities. Those experiences pushed me to reconsider the broader arc of my life and take comfort in what exists beyond work.

Why This Matters
The persistence of serious injuries and fatalities in the utility industry indicates that safety efforts must continue to evolve. Spiritual preparation is designed to help us better control our behavior. It is much like defensive driving on a larger scale; think of it as defensive working.

This preparation helps people clarify what they stand for before they find themselves under pressure. A worker armed with a clear personal moral code has something solid to rely on when their instincts and emotions could lead to poor choices. Professionals who operate in exceedingly high-risk environments (U.S. Army soldiers, for example) have learned that distinct moral commitments are essential to reliable performance.

There is no reason the same principles cannot apply to us.

Human behavior is often based on unconscious drivers. Spiritual preparation matters because it improves our behavioral consistency when conditions are at their worst. That consistency under pressure is one of the strongest predictors of whether a worker goes home safely at the end of each day.

About the Author: Tom Cohenno, Ed.D., CSP, CUSP, NBC-HWC, is a recognized safety expert and principal of Applied Learning Science (https://appliedlearningscience.com). With deep academic and operational experience as a U.S. Navy veteran, substation chief and former utility executive, he blends real-world insight with evidence-based research to deliver practical, impactful safety solutions.