O Papel Crítico da Liderança em Segurança: Uma perspectiva fundamentada na experiência

Read in English Por meio de nossa experiência combinada de mais de seis décadas no campo da segurança, percebemos que muitas organizações acreditam que os departamentos de segurança e os profissionais de segurança que trabalham neles são os únicos responsáveis pela segurança dos trabalhadores. Embora os profissionais de segurança certamente tragam conhecimentos e habilidades técnicas…

The Critical Role of Safety Leadership: A Perspective Grounded in Experience

Read in Portuguese / Leia em português Through our combined experience of over six decades in the safety field, we have noticed many organizations believe that safety departments and the safety professionals who work in them are solely responsible for the safety of workers. While safety professionals certainly bring valuable technical knowledge and skills to…

Listening to Learn at Work: Research and Practical Application

Read in Portuguese / Leia em português Introduction A primary skill in great leaders is the ability to cultivate strong positive relationships.  These relationships not only help people feel connected to the leader, the organization, and its mission, but also reinforce that they are supported, heard, and set up for success. Safety leaders who prioritize…

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Chapter 4: 7 Insights into Safety Leadership

Culture Sustains Performance — For Better or For Worse This is an excerpt from Chapter 4 of Tom Krause and Kristen Bell’s book “7 Insights into Safety Leadership.” We’ve never met a leader that didn’t want a better culture for their organization. Statements like, “we need to change the culture,” are heard every day in…

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4 Questions Board Members Should Ask About Safety Culture

It was 1993 and Paul O’Neill was attending his first board meeting as a Director at one of the largest companies in the world. Just as the meeting was coming to a close, O’Neill asked, “Where is the safety report?” As the story goes, no safety report was planned but the question had profound effects. It set the company on the path to creating safety excellence and embedding safety as a cultural value. Board member influence can do that — uniquely — and it saves lives while creating business value.

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5 Essential Building Blocks for Improving Organizational Culture

Few leaders can honestly say they know how to create, maintain, and enhance their culture. At the same time, the success of a culture change effort depends on the degree to which leaders understand and relate their own decisions, behaviors, and thought processes to the culture itself. The most challenging part of culture change is…

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CASE STUDY:  The Davis H. Elliot SIF Prevention Story

Zero Fatalities, $5 Million Saved: The Power of Proactive Safety Measures Despite years of rigorous safety protocols and declining recordable incident rates, Davis H. Elliot faced serious injuries and fatalities that continued to haunt the company. The question wasn’t about reducing minor injuries—it was about preventing the life-altering events that were too common. This issue…

The Leader’s Values and Emotional Commitment to Safety

Introduction by Rebecca Timmins Read in Portuguese / Leia em português There is an adage in coaching called the Law of Double Effect — while we judge ourselves by our efforts and intentions, others judge us by what we say and do. This makes it critical for leaders to ensure their behaviors align with their…

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What Does The Practice Of Accountability Mean?

When leaders are asked what they would like to get better at, the answer is often accountability. Usually, it’s thought to be about holding people accountable for non-performance, but the leadership practice of accountability can be so much more! Yes, it is about holding people to account, but it is also an opportunity to grow…

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How to Change Organizational Culture and Avoid Catastrophes

Catastrophes are a risk in organizational life. From a quality issue that causes consumer fatalities and brings reputational damage to a hostile working environment leading to harassment or to employees becoming seriously or fatally injured. These things are usually a surprise to the senior-most leaders. “I knew we had some issues at that facility, but…

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Organizations Are Built on a Cultural Infrastructure

Organizational culture has been defined in numerous ways. To some, it’s about what we as a group really value — production, quality, technical excellence, safety, diversity, growth, profit, engagement, goal attainment, and efficiency. From this perspective leaders start by understanding what they value, then develop what they think we should value. Then they develop a strategy…

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A Bad Workplace Culture Can Result in a Disaster, No Matter the Industry

A bad workplace culture is a hazard in itself. But even a mediocre one can contribute directly to a disaster.  NASA won awards for being the “best place to work” among U.S government agencies. But the Space Shuttle Columbia failure, which resulted in the loss of seven astronauts and countless resources, was directly related to…