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🦀 Sideways is Still Progress

ByShawn

The RSG Safety Series – Crab Edition

Last month was full of personal wins and discoveries.

I completed my update training to continue being an OSHA Outreach Trainer for the Disaster Site Worker program. I was also selected to host an Industrial Round Table at an upcoming safety conference. At the same time, I was informed that I was not selected for a Senior Vice President volunteer role or as a session presenter at that same national conference. It is okay.

All of it matters. Because growth rarely moves in a straight line.

In safety — and in leadership — progress is built layer by layer.

  • Some layers are wins.
  • Some layers are lessons.
  • All layers build capacity.

Volunteer leadership matters. Stepping forward matters. Competing matters. Even when the outcome isn’t what you hoped for.

Like a 3D print, you don’t see the strength in the first pass. It’s the accumulation — the consistency — that creates structure.

This monthly reflection is an opportunity to pause, evaluate, and keep building.

Sideways is still progress, so let’s keep building ourselves — layer by layer.

🦀 The Crab Reminder

The articulated crab I printed last week now sits on my desk as a reminder:

Crabs don’t move straight forward — they move sideways.

  • Progress doesn’t always look like advancement.
  • Sometimes it looks like refinement.
  • Sometimes it looks like resilience.

You don’t win every opportunity…but…you cannot win if you don’t compete.

  • Preparation matters.
  • Effort matters.
  • Showing up matters.

⚠ What This Have To Do With Safety?

Disaster site work teaches the same lesson.

Flood zones, debris fields, unstable structures — risk rarely approaches neatly from the front. Hazards emerge from the side, beneath the surface, and outside our direct line of sight. If we only look straight ahead, we miss what matters.

  • Peripheral awareness
  • Preparation
  • Humility
  • Continuous improvement

Resilience isn’t motivational language. It’s operational discipline.

🧠 The Systems Layer

Safety leadership is not about titles.

  • It’s about consistency.
  • It’s about preparing when no one is watching.
  • It’s about stepping into opportunity even when the outcome isn’t guaranteed.
  • It’s about improving systems after every result — positive or not.

Recognition. Improvement. Compliance. Education.

Plan your directional change!

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