STKY - Stuff That Can Kill You
Proverbs 4:23
Plan of the Day
I will name the thing that can end my life today. I will not let familiarity rob me of my fear.
Read Proverbs 4:23
“Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.” (ESV)
Stuff That Can Kill You
In Human and Organizational Performance we use a blunt, unvarnished term for the most dangerous hazards on a job site.
STKY…. “Sticky”….Stuff That Can Kill You.
Not significant hazard. Not elevated risk priority. Stuff. That. Can. Kill. You.
The language is intentional. It cuts through the bureaucratic fog that makes danger feel abstract and distant. Electricity is STKY. A suspended load is STKY. A trench without shoring is STKY. Stored pressure in a line you are about to break is STKY. When you call something by its true name you give it the respect it deserves.
The most dangerous moment on any job site is not when people are afraid. It is when people are comfortable.
The veteran electrician who has terminated a thousand breakers without incident. The pipefitter who has broken a thousand flanges without a surprise. Familiarity breeds a quiet, creeping blindness. The voltage does not care how many years you have been doing it. Gravity has never once taken a day off.
King Solomon understood this. He wrote keep your heart with all vigilance — the word translated vigilance here carries the image of a guarded fortress, a place of strict, constant watchfulness. Solomon wasn’t describing occasional caution. He was describing a posture. A permanent, wide-awake awareness of what flows in and what flows out.
The springs of life flow from the heart. STKY flows from a job site where workers have stopped guarding their awareness. Every time you approach the thing that can end your life, approach it the same way you did the first time. With your eyes wide open. Your checklist in hand. The full understanding that today is not guaranteed.
Name the STKY in your work area today. Say it out loud. Make your crew say it out loud. When you name it you see it. When you stop naming it you stop seeing it.
Faith in Action
Witnessing through our work means living these principles where we stand. Here is how you can apply this in your work today.
For the Laborer and Apprentice: Name It Before You Touch It
The Action: Before starting any task near a significant hazard, say out loud to your partner: “The STKY here is ___. If it activates, here is what happens and here is where I need to be.”
The Witness: You are refusing to let familiarity make you blind. Naming the hazard is an act of respect for your own life and for the lives of the crew around you.
For the Journeyman: Teach the Fear
The Action: When orienting a new worker to a task, don’t just show them the steps. Stop and say, “Before we do anything, let me show you what in this area can kill you and why.”
The Witness: You are transferring life-saving awareness. The healthy fear of a real hazard is one of the most valuable things a veteran can give to someone just starting out.
For the Foreman: Build the STKY Review Into the Briefing
The Action: Make the identification of STKY items a required, named part of every pre-job brief and JSA. Ask your crew: “What is in this work area that can end someone’s life today? What are our defenses against each one?”
The Witness: You are engineering vigilance into the system. You ensure that no one walks into the work area without having named the thing that demands their full respect.
Prayer
Lord, I confess that I sometimes let experience make me careless. The things that can take my life are real and they do not respect my confidence. Guard my heart with vigilance today. Keep me awake to the dangers I know so well that I have stopped truly seeing them. Let me approach every hazard as if it is the first time. Protect me and my crew from the blindness of familiarity. Amen.