The Business Training Fortune 500 Employees to Stay Safe at Work Makes Millions of Dollars for Its Unlikely Creator: ‘Sort of Magic’

What tin a Fortune 500 institution study from an creation museum? Quite a lot, it turns out. 

The Toledo Museum of Art successful Ohio (TMA) has spent the past decade building its business, the Center of Visual Expertise (COVE), which educates labor connected ocular literacy, allowing them to spot and debar hazards connected the job. 

In 2024, employers reported astir 2.5 cardinal nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses successful backstage manufacture and much than 5,000 fatal work-related injuries crossed each sectors, according to the astir caller disposable information from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

COVE’s benefits are important and twofold: Not only does the business thief trim workplace incidents, but it has besides generated millions of dollars for TMA complete the past respective years, during a clip erstwhile museums are facing financial pressures and decreased attendance. 

“ We were attracted not conscionable to the revenue potential, but to the thought that creation humanities expertise could beryllium productized successful a measurement that keeps group safer and saves lives,” TMA head Adam M. Levine says. “As creation historians, we are helping group spell location successful the aforesaid position they travel to work, [and that’s] benignant of magic.”

Image Credit: Jennifer Beachy. COVE’s president and managing head Doug Pontsler, left, and TMA’s head Adam Levine, right.

Building connected ocular literacy and a way grounds of safety

The thought for COVE began to return style successful 2015, acknowledgment successful portion to the instauration laid by Levine’s predecessor Brian Kennedy, who prioritized ocular literacy astatine TMA. 

Mike Thaman, past the CEO of Fortune 500 institution Owens Corning and a depository committee member, commented connected really ocular literacy mightiness thief companies deliberation otherwise astir workplace safety.

The thought stuck pinch Doug Pontsler, past the vice president of operations, sustainability and biology wellness and information (EHS) astatine Owens Corning. 

Owens Corning has a beardown way grounds of safety. The institution won the Green Cross for Safety from the National Safety Council (NSC). Additionally, Pontsler served arsenic president of the NSC’s Campbell Institute, which shares champion practices to thief organizations of each sizes amended workplace safety and operational performance. 

“ In the EHS space, the situation is, really do you proceed to get better?” Pontsler, now president and managing head astatine COVE, says. “Because if you’re not making advancement successful each aspects of biology wellness and safety, you’re going backwards. You can’t conscionable tread water.”

Image Credit: Courtesy of COVE

Nonprofit doesn’t mean for loss: COVE brings returns

Applying TMA’s ocular literacy expertise to on-the-job hazards was a earthy adjacent step. The TMA squad developed a business plan, received committee support and launched COVE successful 2017.

The depository committee signed disconnected connected a definite magnitude it was consenting to put successful COVE, and successful the first year, for illustration astir startups, the business operated astatine a mini loss, Levine notes. However, each twelvemonth since, COVE has returned money to the museum. 

“ We are a nonprofit, but nonprofit doesn’t mean for loss,” Levine says. “If you are a nonprofit that has fixed assets, past you must tally a structural surplus, aliases other you are deferring maintenance. Sure, you could opportunity that that’s what a superior run is for, but it would beryllium bully to turn the statement alternatively than bail the statement out.”

To date, COVE counts galore nationalist and privately held companies, including Owens Corning, PENTA Building Group, American Axle & Manufacturing and DTE Energy, among its clients.

The shop model, foundations of hazard identification

The logic of COVE resonated, but an first situation laic successful really to person the intelligence spot wrong an creation discourse to 1 that would beryllium useful for a frontline worker, Pontsler says. 

COVE adopted a shop model, chiefly taking spot successful museums and led by group pinch EHS experiences from awesome companies crossed industries.

The business besides offers licensing and train-the-trainer modules, empowering organizations to standard information consciousness crossed teams and locations, and relies connected speaking engagements to widen its reach. 

Image Credit: Courtesy of COVE

Today, COVE hosts 10-12 workshops a twelvemonth unfastened to labor from different companies, alongside dedicated workshops for circumstantial clients.

COVE’s halfway workshop, Seeing Safety: Foundations of Hazard Identification, introduces participants to what ocular literacy is and why it matters to group arsenic individuals, past explores the relationship betwixt that and the activity wrong EHS.

“ We do go habituated to our environment,” Pontsler says. “We’re  around thing truthful overmuch that we conscionable nary longer spot it. So we want to make the activity situation caller and caller each the time.”

The workshops, which harvester a speech and interactive components, use creation historians’ system approaches to recognizing hazards successful the workplace. 

For example, conscionable arsenic artists usage the 5 elements of creation (line, shape, color, worth and texture) to create a composition, COVE harnesses those elements to decompose a creation successful the activity environment. A hunt for lines could move up a stray cord. Another for shapes mightiness uncover a precariously perched box. 

“ When you’re utilized to seeing stairs, you look, and you spot stairs,” Levine adds. “When you’re utilized to looking for texture, you spot that the tread’s worn. So successful immoderate ways it’s arsenic elemental arsenic giving personification an alternate model to scan their environment.”

Additionally, each COVE shop features a back-to-back drafting exercise. In pairs, 1 personification selects an entity successful the creation assemblage to picture to the other, who past sketches it show unseen. 

Image Credit: Courtesy of COVE

“ They’re intimidated initially because it involves drawing,” Pontsler says, “but it’s really not a drafting exercise. It’s a communication exercise. And erstwhile group recognize that, they get a large footwear retired of it.”

The pricing building for workshops and modules varies, often limited connected the size of the customer organization. 

With these methodologies, the starring parameter of occurrence is an summation successful the number of hazards reported and a alteration successful incidents reported, Levine says. He notes that 1 early customer doubled the number of hazards its labor reported. 

Art and business: Reflect connected the past for a amended future

Now, COVE’s activity has expanded crossed North America, Europe and Australia, pinch plans to proceed growth.

As a business successful the thought leadership space, 1 of the biggest challenges remains fostering capable engagement to amended group connected COVE’s mission, Pontsler says. 

“ It’s not a merchandise personification tin bid from Amazon that shows up astatine their desk, and they tin do thing with,” Pontsler explains. “We’re building quality capacity to beryllium amended captious thinkers, problem-solvers and communicators.”

To that end, COVE must perpetually analyse its messaging to find what’s resonating and what isn’t, Pontsler says.

Image Credit: Courtesy of COVE

Having spent astir 40 years astatine 2 Fortune 500 companies, Pontsler appreciates COVE’s willingness to move connected from what doesn’t activity and advancement quickly. 

“ There’s a batch successful the arts astir reflecting connected the past and what it’s taught us, and taking it and drafting mentation from that successful position of what it mightiness mean for our future,” Pontsler says. “And that’s what we’re trying to do successful business. We’re conscionable trying to study and get better. Or astatine slightest understand wherever we are and why.”