Proof of concept
I've Got
Your Back.
A workplace safety behaviour-change campaign for construction. Turning safety from a rule you obey into a promise you keep to the person next to you.
Commercial in confidence
Proof of conceptContents
This is a concept piece built by Hungry Minds to show how we would design a safety behaviour-change campaign, so there is no client yet. Sector figures are real and sourced. Anything that would normally come from a client's own incident system is shown as illustrative and captioned as such, to demonstrate the device rather than to state a fact.
Proof of conceptExecutive summary
I've Got Your Back changes one behaviour that decides most incidents: the two-second choice to say something to a mate before a job goes wrong. It runs as a spaced, multi-channel campaign across a site, led by crew leaders at the pre-start, over about twelve weeks and sustained after. Not a course. A rhythm the crew runs, until looking out for each other is just how the site works.
The idea
Care, not compliance. A two-way pact between mates, and four moves that loop: See it, Say it, Back it, Thank it. Each lap makes the next easier.
What it delivers
Ambient and guerrilla, posters, a hero film, four leader toolbox talks, a reframed observation and coaching kit, a recognition wall, and two things the crew can scan on any phone.
Why it works
Built on psychological safety, social norms, modelling and rehearsed words, reinforced across channels and owned by the crew's own leaders, not a poster on a wall.
If this design hits the mark, we move into build. The one page to read next is the program structure, opposite, which shows the whole campaign and what the site commits to make it work.
Proof of conceptThe program structure
- Leaders not freed up for the pre-start. The whole campaign rests on five minutes a week of leader time. If that is not protected, it becomes a mail-out. This is the first commitment we confirm.
- Launch without management in the room. If site management does not front the launch, the crew reads the pact as head-office paper. Fallback: no launch until a site leader can open it.
- Embed with no way to say thanks. If there is no simple way to recognise the mate who spoke up, the behaviour has no reward and fades. A shout-outs board and a weekly call-out are in scope.
- A named campaign owner on site who carries the rhythm.
- Five minutes of leader time at the pre-start, once a week, for the wave talks.
- Site management visible at launch and at two later moments.
- A way to thank a mate who spoke up, so speaking up is seen to be worth it.
These are not training deliverables. They are what turns a set of assets into a change on the ground, and they sit with the site, not with us.
Proof of concept
The context
Where the risk really sits on a construction site, and the one small moment the whole campaign is built to change.
Proof of conceptWhat the work tells us
Illustrative. These bars show the shape of the barrier the campaign targets. On a live job they carry the site's own reporting and pulse data, read from the incident system in discovery.
The barrier is social, not technical. People know the rule. What stops them is the two-second decision to say something to a mate, against the fear of dobbing, slowing the job, or being wrong. So the campaign is not more rules. It lowers the cost of that one moment, and makes looking out the thing the crew expects of each other.
Proof of conceptWhat we hear on site
The hazard is usually spotted. Perception is rarely the gap.
The two-second decision to speak stalls on status, awkwardness and pace.
Unspoken, the near-miss is never a lesson, and the next crew meets the same trap.
The design follows the gap, not the hazard. The crew already sees. The whole campaign works on the space between seeing and saying, and on making sure that when someone does speak, it is met well enough that they do it again.
Proof of conceptPoint A to Point B: the crew
The distance from A to B is a handful of small habits, rehearsed until they are automatic. That is a behaviour-change job, not a training job, which is why it runs as a campaign over weeks rather than a session in a day.
Proof of conceptPoint A to Point B: the site
Expect near-miss reports to go up in the first weeks, not down. That is visibility improving, not safety getting worse. A campaign that gets people speaking will look busier before it looks calmer, and leaders are told this at the start so the rise is read as success, not alarm.
Proof of concept
The crews
Who is on the site, who is closest to the two-second moment, and whose buy-in makes the whole thing hold.
Proof of conceptThe crews on site
| # | Who they are | What the evidence says | What this forces the design to do |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The crewTrades, labourers, plant operators. The bulk of the site. | They are in the two-second moment all day, and most near-misses happen to them. Perception is rarely the gap. Speaking up is. | The default cohort. The pact and the four moves are built for them, in their language, and everything else is a variant of the day built here. |
| 2 | Crew leadersLeading hands, supervisors, forepersons. Run the pre-start. | They set the tone the crew copies, and the campaign lives on five minutes of their time each week. Toolbox talks have drifted into a sheet read out. | The hinge. They deliver the wave talks and model the moves first. The toolbox kit is built to be run by them in five minutes, not delivered by us. |
| 3 | Site managementProject and site managers, off the tools. | The crew judges the campaign by what leaders visibly back. A stop-work that is not backed once will not be tried twice. | A short leader session before launch. They front the launch and two later moments, and they back the stop, out loud, every time. |
| 4 | Subbies and labour hireTransient crews, on and off the site, often missing the campaign. | They rotate through, may not know the site's norms, and are routinely designed out of site culture programs. | The pact reaches them on day one through induction and a scan, and the ambient and posters carry it without needing a session. Nobody is on site a day without meeting it. |
Cohorts two and three carry the campaign, not the workshop. Crew leaders run the weekly rhythm and site management backs it in public. Neither is a training deliverable. Both are commitments, and they are named on the program structure page.
Proof of conceptWhat each crew needs
| Crew | Knowledge | Attitudes | Skills | Habits |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The crewTrades, labourers | The two-second moment, and that near-misses peak in routine tasks. The exact words for stopping a job early. | Looking out is what mates do, not dobbing. Being pulled up is someone having your back. Reporting a near-miss is worth it. | Saying one plain line to stop or slow a task. Asking for a spotter. Thanking a mate so the next one speaks up. | Speaking early, before the task. Passing on what nearly happened. Checking in on a mate who seems off. |
| Crew leadersLeading hands | Why the four moves work, well enough to answer "why are we doing this". The simple way to thank a mate and put their name up. | The pre-start is a conversation, not a notice read out. Their reaction to the first person who speaks up sets the whole crew. | Running a five-minute wave talk from a card. Reframing an observation as looking out. Coaching the awkward conversation. | Opening every pre-start with the pact. Thanking a mate in front of the crew. Closing the loop on what changed. |
| Site managementProject, site managers | What the leading indicators are telling them, and how to read a rise in reporting as good news. | Psychological safety as a safety control, not a soft extra. Their visible backing is the campaign's fuel. | Backing a stop-work in public. Naming what the site is fixing, and by when. | Asking about look-outs and shout-outs, not only incident counts. Walking the job and asking what nearly happened this week. |
| Subbies and labour hireTransient crews | The pact and the four moves, met at induction. Who to speak to, and that speaking up is expected here. | This site looks out for each other, and that includes me from day one. | Using the same plain lines as everyone else. Scanning to practise once before the first shift. | Making the pact on arrival, not after a fortnight. |
A program that only fills the knowledge and skills columns can be delivered in a day and will not shift a belief. The attitudes and habits columns are the campaign's real work, and they are the reason this runs over weeks with the crew's own leaders carrying it.
Proof of conceptA crew member up close
Dan is twenty-three, two years in, good at his job and glad to have it. He has seen a few near-misses. A load swung wider than anyone expected. A mate reached into a machine that should have been isolated. Both times he saw it a half-second early, and both times he said nothing, because the bloke doing it had ten years on him and Dan did not want to be the new kid who cried wolf.
He is not careless and he does not need the rules explained. He needs it to be normal to say "oi, wait", he needs the words to be ready so he does not have to find them in the moment, and he needs the one time he does speak up to be met with "good pickup, mate", not a roll of the eyes. Get those three right and Dan speaks up every time. Get them wrong and he goes quiet for good.
The pact and the posters make looking out the visible default, so speaking is not stepping out of line.
The Say it wave hands him three plain lines, rehearsed once on the walk, so the moment has a script.
Leaders are coached to thank the catch, every time, because that is what makes the next one happen.
Proof of concept
The design
The moves, the waves and the channels, and the learning science underneath every one of them.
Proof of conceptDesign principles
Care, not compliance
Aim at the mate, not the rule. People wave away rules aimed at themselves and act for each other. We heard it in "you don't want to be the bloke who stops the job", so the whole campaign is framed as looking out for your crew.
Work the moment, not the manual
The crew already sees the hazard. The gap is the two seconds between seeing and saying. So we spend the design there, on that one decision, not on teaching rules people already know.
Hand over the words
Speaking up should not rely on nerve. We give the crew short, rehearsed lines for the moment, so acting is a script they already have, not a sentence they have to find while the pressure is on.
It has to be met
The first time someone speaks up and gets a roll of the eyes is the last time they speak up. Every design move makes sure a call is backed and thanked, so the behaviour is rewarded, not punished.
Owned by the crew's leaders
Campaigns that live on walls die on walls. This one is carried by the crew's own leaders in a weekly rhythm, because behaviour change sticks when the frontline leader owns it, not when head office broadcasts it.
Proof of conceptWhy this will work
| The principle | What it means, plainly | Where it lives in this campaign |
|---|---|---|
| Psychological safetyEdmondson | People speak up when it feels safe to be wrong in front of the crew. | The whole pact, and the "it has to be met" principle carried into leader coaching. p.17, 26 |
| Social norms | We do what we see the people around us doing, more than what we are told. | The pact said aloud together, and ambient and posters that make looking out the visible default. p.17, 23 |
| Implementation intentions | A rehearsed "if this, then these words" beats a general intention to speak up more. | The three plain lines in the Say it wave, picked and tied to one job that day. p.20 |
| ModellingBandura | We copy what credible people around us are seen to do. | Leaders go first and invite their own crew to pull them up, and the hero film shows a real, undramatic save. p.19, 24 |
| Reinforcement over fearNudge, habit research | Reward makes a behaviour repeat. Fear appeals spike, then fade and get tuned out. | Thank it as a move in its own right, and the shout-outs board that makes speaking up high-status. p.22, 27 |
| Spaced, multi-modal reinforcement | The same message, spaced over time and across channels, sticks far better than one hit. | Four waves over weeks, each one reinforced by every channel at once. p.18 |
| RelatednessSelf-determination | Care and belonging motivate more durably than compliance and consequence. | The mateship framing, and a pact between equals rather than a rule from above. p.8 |
A campaign shifts behaviour and culture. It does not remove a hazard that engineering or a control should remove. I've Got Your Back sits alongside the hierarchy of controls and the site's safety system, sharpening the human layer, never standing in for the ones above it.
Proof of conceptThe four moves, and why they loop
Notice the thing while it is still a near-miss. Attention is a skill the campaign trains, not a mood.
Say something early. "Oi, wait." We hand the crew the exact words, so the moment has a script.
The mate backs the call, and a leader backs the stop. Speaking up has to be met, or it stops.
Say cheers, not "yeah yeah". The thank is what makes the next person willing to speak.
I've got your back. Have you got mine? Nobody is the hero watching over passive workers. Everyone is both the one looking out and the one being looked out for, which is what makes it a mate's promise rather than a manager's rule. Each move gets one colour, carried through every wave, poster and toolbox card so the crew learns the loop by sight.
Proof of conceptThe campaign on a timeline
- Each wave is a fortnight: one leader talk, then a week to let it land and be reinforced by the channels.
- Colour marks the move, carried from here through every poster, card and observation.
- The waves overlap the launch and the embed, so the campaign never goes quiet between phases.
After week 12 the campaign moves to a monthly rhythm the leaders own: one refreshed talk, a fresh save celebrated, and the creative rotated so it never becomes wallpaper. Sustain is where most safety campaigns quietly stop, and where this one is designed to keep earning its five minutes.
Proof of conceptSee it: catch it while it's small
| Time | Purpose | Learning design | Content and activities | Resources |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0-2 minOpen | Land the pact | Said aloud together, the promise sets the norm before the skill. | Say the pact, ask the crew to say it back. Signpost today is about seeing it early, before it is a problem. | Pact card |
| 2-5 minReal moment | Make it theirs | Starting from a real near-miss activates what the crew already knows. | Ask for one time this week something nearly went wrong. Highlight the two seconds where it could have gone the other way. | Prompt on the card |
| 5-8 minThe idea | The line of fire | One concrete concept beats a list of hazards to memorise. | Reveal the line of fire: where the energy goes if it lets go. Do a round, each names the line of fire on today's job. | See-it card |
| 8-10 minLock it | Set the habit | A single if-then plan beats a vague intent to "be more careful". | Ask each to pick the one routine job today where autopilot hides the risk, and to look twice before it. Transition to work. | Hi-vis back print |
Looking twice at the routine job, before it, not after. Treating a near-miss as a lesson worth a word.
This week the campaign goes visible: the back print appears on every hi-vis and the posters go up at the gate and the ramp, so the words are already around the crew.
Proof of conceptSay it: the words for the moment
| Time | Purpose | Learning design | Content and activities | Resources |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0-2 minOpen | Land the pact | A shared promise, said aloud, sets the norm before the skill. | Say the pact and ask the crew to say it back. Signpost today is about the words, not the rules. | Pact card, poster |
| 2-5 minReal moment | Make it theirs | Starting from a real near-miss activates prior experience before new words land. | Ask for one time this week someone nearly copped it. Do not solve it. Highlight the two seconds a word would have changed it. | Prompt on the QR card |
| 5-8 minThe words | Hand over the script | A rehearsed line lowers the cost of acting in the moment. | Reveal three lines: "Oi, wait." "Give us a second set of eyes." "I'm not comfy with this, let's check it." Do a round, each says one out loud. | Say-it card |
| 8-10 minLock it | Set the habit | A single if-then plan beats a general intention to "speak up more". | Ask each to pick their line and the one job today they'll use it on. Scan the code to practise once on the walk. | QR: Spot the moment |
Saying something early, in your own words, before a task, not after an incident.
Posters and this card carry a code to Spot the moment: a 30-second scenario where you choose whether to say something. No login, any phone.
Proof of conceptBack it: speaking up gets met
| Time | Purpose | Learning design | Content and activities | Resources |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0-2 minOpen | Land the pact | The promise is a two-way one, and this wave is the second half. | Say the pact. Signpost today is what happens after someone speaks up. | Pact card |
| 2-5 minThe other half | Being backed | Reciprocity: the response decides whether speaking up survives. | Ask what happens on this site after you speak up. Surface the times it went well and the times it did not. | Prompt on the card |
| 5-8 minBack the call | What backing looks like | Modelling: the leader shows the exact response to copy. | Reveal backing is "good call, let's check it", not "she'll be right". Say plainly: a genuine stop-work will always be backed here. | Back-it card |
| 8-10 minLock it | The leader's promise | A public commitment from the leader binds the norm. | Do: the leader commits out loud to back the next call, and asks the crew to back each other's. Transition. | Leader card |
Backing a mate's call in the moment, and a leader backing a stop-work in public, every time.
This week site management backs a real stop-work in public, and posters carry "Back the call." One visible backing is worth a hundred posters.
Proof of conceptThank it: close the loop
| Time | Purpose | Learning design | Content and activities | Resources |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0-2 minOpen | Land the pact | The last move is what makes the whole loop spin again. | Say the pact. Signpost today closes the loop: the thank. | Pact card |
| 2-5 minWhy thank | Reward beats fear | Positive reinforcement makes a behaviour repeat. | Ask how it felt the last time a pickup got a "cheers" versus a roll of the eyes. Highlight which one makes you speak up next time. | Prompt on the card |
| 5-8 minThe shout-outs board | Make it visible | Recognition makes speaking up high-status, not snitching. | Reveal the shout-outs board: put up the name of a mate who had your back, and the best of the week gets called out. Do: add one name from this week together. | Shout-outs board |
| 8-10 minLock it | The loop closes | A specific next action turns the talk into a habit. | Ask each to thank the next mate who speaks up, and to put up one name from this week. Transition, and the loop begins again. | QR: shout-outs |
Saying cheers to a mate who spoke up, out loud and up on the board, so it is seen to be worth it.
The shout-outs board goes live and the first look-out of the week is celebrated. The reward is public, so the behaviour spreads.
Proof of conceptOn the ground: ambient and guerrilla
The message on the back
On every hi-vis. The promise, walking the site all day.
The posters
At the gate, the ramp and the smoko shed door.
The hard-hat sticker
On the helmet as well as the back, and collected.
The mirror decal
The most important safety device on site.
Ambient does one job: notice and talk. It carries no lesson. It makes the crew feel the pact is already here, so the toolbox talk lands on ground that is already warm.
Proof of conceptOn the wall and on screen
One platform line and a family of action lines, placed where the moment happens.
Each poster carries a scan, so a wall is also a way into the two interactions.
A short hero piece, plus micro-stories of small, undramatic saves. No blood, no sirens. Just a mate saying "oi, wait", and what it meant.
- Opens the launch, then lives on phones and screens through the campaign.
- Models the exact behaviour, so the crew sees it done, not described.
- Real crews, real site, warm and plain, never a corporate safety video.
Proof of conceptThe two things they scan
Make the pact
A 30-second commitment. You read the two-way promise, tap to make it your own, and add the one mate you'll look out for this week. It ends with your pact on screen to screenshot.
Spot the moment
A branching scenario. You watch a routine task, and choose whether to say something and what to say. Every path plays out, so you rehearse the two-second decision with no wrong answer and no one watching.
Built the HTML and Tiiny way, so they are self-contained, work on any phone with a camera, and need nothing installed. Keyboard operable and contrast-checked. What each interaction can capture depends on how it is hosted, confirmed with your team in build.
Proof of conceptLeaders lead it
The toolbox talk cards
One card per wave. A five-minute guided conversation, not a script to read out: a prompt, the words, and one thing to lock in. Built to be run by a leading hand at the pre-start, cold.
The observation, reframed
The site's observation turned from an audit into looking out: peer to peer, counting look-outs and catches, not faults. Same walk, opposite feeling.
The coaching one-pager
How to have the awkward conversation without it landing wrong, and how to thank a catch so it counts. For the moments a card cannot cover.
Say cheers
A simple way to thank a mate in front of the crew and put their name up, so the leader's most important habit takes seconds, not paperwork.
The leader models it first, by asking their own crew to pull them up and meaning it. Everything in the kit is sized to five minutes a week, because that is the one commitment the whole campaign rests on.
Proof of conceptMaking it stick
The shout-outs board
A running board, physical and digital, of the mates who had someone's back this week. It counts shout-outs, not incidents, so the site has a number that goes up for the right reasons.
Look-out of the week
One catch called out each week, by a leader, in front of the crew. Public thanks is what makes speaking up spread.
Stories back to the floor
Real saves become the next micro-story and the next toolbox prompt, so the campaign is fed by the crew, not by us.
This is the reward move, Thank it, made visible. Every shout-out is a reason for the next person to speak up, and for the last one to do it again. It is the flywheel that keeps the loop spinning after the twelve weeks are up.
Proof of conceptLook and feel
Charcoal and hi-vis amber lead, warm not clinical. Away from the road-sign green and red of standard safety signage. Amber nods to the vest without shouting, and each of the four moves keeps its own hue.
A clean, sturdy sans in plain, dry, unmistakably Australian words. It respects the worker. No wagging finger, no gore, no jargon. The kind of line a mate would actually say.
Plain, low-literacy English. Short lines a mate would say, readable at a glance from a distance.
Photography is photoreal and documentary, real crews on real sites, never stock-photo smiles. It shows the real diversity of a crew, women included. The full image direction is the ten-prompt set that accompanies this design. Final assets are produced in build.
Proof of concept
Delivering it
What gets built, what it costs, how we will know it worked, and what we need from you to start.
Proof of conceptDeliverables and investment
| Deliverable | What it is | Investment |
|---|---|---|
| Discovery and co-design | Read the site's own data, tailor the pact, the words and the scenarios to this crew. | Included |
| Creative platform | The pact, the tagline family, the four-move system, and the full look and feel. | Core |
| Ambient and guerrilla kit | Hi-vis back print, posters, hard-hat stickers, mirror decals and the placement plan. | Core |
| Poster suite | The platform line and the four action lines, print-ready, each with a scan. | Core |
| Leader toolbox | Four wave talk cards, the observation reframe, the coaching one-pager, thank-and-log. | Core |
| Two scan interactions | Make the pact and Spot the moment, built self-contained for any phone. | Core |
| Recognition kit | The shout-outs board, the look-out of the week format, and the recognition flow. | Core |
| Hero film and micro-stories | The launch film and short saves. Video is the big cost lever, so it comes in tiers: self-shot and edited, or a live shoot with a production partner. | Option |
| Launch and embed support | On-site launch, leader coaching and the twelve-week measurement rhythm. | Option |
A core campaign build, priced as one package, with the film and the on-site support as options you match to your budget. The 123-ABC rate model and a firm quote follow discovery. Illustrative band for a build like this: from the mid tens of thousands, ex GST, with the film tier the main variable.
Detailed pricing and the full run tables are held back from the public version of this concept, so the approach can be shown without being copied wholesale.
Proof of conceptEvaluation and success measures
| Level | When | What is measured | Format | Owner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 · Reaction | Launch, and after wave 4 | Do crews rate it as useful, and not preachy. | Three-question pulse | Hungry Minds + site |
| 2 · Learning | Say it wave | Can the crew use the words, and do they choose to speak in Spot the moment. | Interaction choices, quick check | Hungry Minds |
| 3 · Behaviour | Weeks 4 to 12, then ongoing | Look-outs and shout-outs, near-miss reports, and the pulse "I feel able to speak up here". | Shout-outs data, observations, pulse | Site leaders |
| 4 · Results | 3, 6 and 12 months | Recordable injury trend and the culture survey. | Site safety system | Site |
The pulse statements are the outcomes in the first person, so the measure tests exactly what the design promised: "I've said something to a mate before a job this week." "When I get pulled up, it feels like someone has my back."
Near-miss reporting is expected to rise first, then incidents to fall later. A rising report count is the campaign working, not failing, and leaders are briefed to read it that way.
Proof of conceptProject plan
Dates are indicative and shaped to the site's program in discovery. The build and the launch can run slightly in parallel, so the first crew can be making the pact inside about two months of sign-off.
Proof of conceptRisks and benefits
Leaders not freed up. The whole thing rests on five minutes a week. Response: it is the first commitment we confirm, and the kit is built to run cold in that time.
A stop-work not backed. One unbacked call kills the behaviour. Response: management commits publicly in wave three, and coaching makes backing the default.
It fades after twelve weeks. Response: Sustain is designed in, leader-owned, with a refresh kit and the saves flywheel.
Transient crews missed. Response: the pact is met at induction and carried by ambient, so nobody is on site a day without it.
Fewer incidents, caught earlier. More near-misses spoken about means more traps removed before they become injuries.
A leading-indicator picture. Look-outs and shout-outs give leaders a number that moves before someone gets hurt.
A speak-up culture that lasts. Owned by the crew's leaders, so it holds after we leave.
A campaign the crew is proud of. Warm, human and theirs, not another compliance poster to tune out.