The S.M.A.R.T Principles are five fundamental skills that you must learn to support a culture of safety. They are easily learned and once these principles become second nature you can apply them to any situation. The good news is you probably already use most of these principles. In any situation you should be thinking, “How can my behavior now prevent something from happening in five minutes?” Or, what can I do today to prevent an incident from happening tomorrow? It's all about eliminating challenging behavior before it even begins. We can do this with what we call the S.M.A.R.T Principles.

After completing this module, you should be able to:

• List the five S.M.A.R.T Principles
• Describe at least two examples of each principle
• Define the purpose of the S.M.A.R.T Principles
• Identify strategies for applying the S.M.A.R.T Principles in various settings
• Describe the Minimum Impact Concept