Article Category
Leadership
Browse Balmert Consulting articles about Leadership, with practical safety leadership ideas for frontline teams and managers.
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MSP News
Behavior – And Safety
September 29, 2023
This month Paul makes the case that there is no escaping the truth that behaviors must be managed if the goal is everyone goes home alive and well at the end of the day. He considers different approaches that have been tried and discusses whose behavior should be targeted and who ought to manage them. Paul concludes when it comes to appreciating the times when “it’s on them” and when “It’s on me” it would be fair to say that’s the subject of wisdom. Paul leaves us with some of his experience and wisdom.
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MSP News
Tough Safety Challenges
August 31, 2023
This month Paul discusses what happened in his old company every time it looked like safety performance was declining and introduces the term “political water.” He then dives into the toughest challenges as reported by one industry and compares and contrasts that to what we have heard over the last twenty-two years across a wide range of industries around the world. It leads to a discussion of the root of all challenges and management’s first duties. He shares some very important lessons.
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MSP News
About Training
July 31, 2023
This month Paul talks about the importance of training, more importantly of knowledge, in sending people home alive and well at the end of the day. He discusses how good leaders doing Managing by Walk Around can make a difference when they show up at a class. There are some very important points he makes that make this probably the most important News he has written.
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MSP News
The Check Step
June 30, 2023
This month Paul starts by examining Deming’s Plan/Do/Check/Adjust cycle and supplements the discussion with lessons from Drucker and Fayol. Paul uses the lessons as a starting point for a deep dive into the Check step as it relates to sending people home alive and well at the end of the day.
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MSP News
The Beacon That Lights The Way
May 31, 2023
This month’s News is authored by one of our senior consultants and teachers: Dr. Edward Aronson. Eddie, as we know him around here, is a former manufacturing executive, whose focus as a management consultant is on what I’d describe as leading from within. Or, as Eddie puts it, “Standing up for what you believe in.”
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MSP News
A Huge Misunderstanding
May 1, 2023
This month Paul discusses two tools of leadership – Leading by Example and organization power. He makes the point that by the time anyone is promoted into a position of leadership they know about the important leadership practice of Leading by Example and while it may seem simple “there’s more to it than first meets the eye” and not always easy to do. Leading by Example is easier to understand than organization power and this month Paul does a deep dive into organization power and how not understanding it can lead to huge problems and catastrophic outcomes. He examines a case where the misunderstanding was deadly.
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MSP News
Crisis Management
February 28, 2023
You probably guessed that recent headlines about a train in Northeast Ohio jumping the track has caught Paul’s attention. In that event and others of the same ilk Paul has found some lessons to share that can make a difference helping us send people home alive and well, particularly when things go bump in the night.
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MSP News
The Journey To Zero
January 31, 2023
This month Paul discuss the annual performance review process on The Journey to Zero. He reflects on safety goals and the measurement of safety performance and if there is a measurement there is a need for comparison — aka benchmarking. This is where it gets really interesting — compared to what? Then he points out the part of the process that in his experience is not done well. I think you’ll find his conclusions quite interesting and even useful.
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MSP News
Seeking Understanding
November 30, 2022
This month Newton Scavone, one of our senior teacher/consultants, who was born and raised in Brazil, shares his thoughts on many aspects of understanding and why it matters to sending people home alive and well at the end of the day. He shares his journey seeking understanding and explains the difference, in his terms of art, between “square feet” and “cubic feet” of understanding.
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