Safety Meeting Topics
Procedures
In this month’s edition Paul discusses procedures and offers a simple lesson along with a tragic example of what can happen when they are not known or understood.
May 16, 2022
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Compliance
Applying Root Cause Failure Analysis to Safety
In this month’s Managing Safety Performance News Bill is back to dive deeper into improving safety performance this time through the lens of Root Cause Failure Analysis. In this new article, he focuses on applying the tools and concepts of RCFA on the challenge of rule compliance, or if you prefer, the challenge of rule non-compliance. Bill admits it took him a long time to learn some important lessons. He shares them with you here, so you don’t have to learn the hard way.
April 29, 2022
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Safety Meeting Topics
Correcting Problems
Everyone knows the point of troubleshooting is to fix a problem. But there’s a world of difference between trying to fix a problem and successfully correcting the problem.
April 19, 2022
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Safety Meeting Topics
Do Not Assume
It’s easy to be lulled into making assumptions. People make them all the time. This month Paul discusses assumptions as they relate to safety and provides a tragic example of how they can prove fatal.
March 15, 2022
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Troubleshooting
Eye On The Prize
Imagine situations where the clock is ticking, fast, and lives hang in the balance. This month Paul examines cases where getting it right matters and identifies some key lessons that can make a huge difference in sending people in your organization home alive and well at the end of the day.
February 28, 2022
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Safety Meeting Topics
Always The First Priority
More than a decade ago, Chesley Sullenberger faced a problem. He had less than two minutes to come up with a solution, and finding an airport was not an option. His decisions provide an important insight when it comes to troubleshooting a problem.
February 15, 2022
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Execution
A Resolution – or a Commitment?
It is hard to believe tomorrow is February and this month Paul is talking about resolutions and commitments. Fortunately, he is not examining mine, but rather is talking about a commitment he has made, and he is going to ask your help for him to… well, I am not going to steal his thunder as I think this news, and it is big, should come from him along with his request for your help. Help Paul, help you and your leaders make a difference.
January 31, 2022
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Leadership
Sage Advice
In this edition Paul shares a few thoughts about experience, wisdom, and a Wyoming State Trooper’s advice on avoiding tragedy.
January 18, 2022
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Hazard/Risk
Working For A Living
This month Paul examines what happens when the right things aren’t done to make sure the hazards do no harm. He examines the case of Jacob Dean and how the decisions, not just of Jacob, led to a tragedy. There are many lessons to be learned from this case regardless of where you work or what you do that can make the difference between going home alive and well at the end of the day or not going home at all. The Case for Safety depends on doing the right thing.
December 16, 2021
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Execution
Things Went Awry
This month Paul examines what happened on the set at the Bonanza Creek Ranch in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He finds several very important lessons for us to apply where we work when things go differently than the planned or expected course.
November 30, 2021
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Popular Topics
Popular Articles
Coaching Leaders
In this month’s Managing Safety Performance News, Gary Rivenes explores what effective coaching looks like when safety leadership moves from the classroom to the field. Gary writes from experience: before joining Balmert Consulting, he spent more than thirty years in mining leadership roles, from supervising a seventy-person crew to serving as Chief Operating Officer. In those roles, coaching leaders was not a theory or a program. It was part of getting the work done safely and sending people home alive and well at the end of the day.
All “Those” Rules…
In this month’s Flash we discuss “dumb rules”, and re-visit an easy way to put on great Tool Box Safety Meetings. Unfortunately those sorts of rules are often unwanted and seen as unnecessary, here’s one idea to help you reduce the chance a new one might be needed in the first place.
A Case Study
This month Paul explains that investigation reports are valuable leadership tools not simply because they identify technical causes, but because they reveal how familiar execution challenges—such as limited training, inexperience, weak supervision coverage, fatigue, time pressure, and inconsistent use of PPE—combine to produce serious outcomes. The primary purpose of an investigation is to help ensure an event does not happen again, but equally important is the Performance Visibility investigations provide: a clearer understanding of what is actually happening where work is being performed.
Situational Awareness
In this month’s Flash we look at static hazard recognition. Knowing and understanding where stored energy exists, which might not always be obvious, helps us ensure everyone goes home alive and well.
Looking In The Mirror
In this month’s Managing Safety Performance News, guest contributor and Balmert Consulting senior teacher Van Long reflects on a simple but powerful idea: the most effective safety leadership begins with self-reflection.
Expectations and Assumptions
In this month’s Flash we look at the difference between an expectation and an assumption. That distinction might seem subtle at first glance, however the difference found in the definitions proves a very critical point for anyone who leads and manages safety.
Environment And Safety
In this issue of Managing Safety Performance News, Paul looks at why separating “environment” from “safety” misses the point. Using real work examples—from hauling tools over a snowbank to executive debates about compliance—he makes the case that many hazards don’t come from the job itself, but from the conditions in which the work is done. By stripping injuries down to simple “headlines” and sorting them by the source of the hazard, patterns start to emerge that are easy to miss in root cause analysis reports. The takeaway is straightforward: environment and safety are inseparable, and leaders who want better safety performance need to see the work—and its hazards—clearly, from the moment it begins.
Finding “The Source”
In this month’s Flash, we explore where hazards come from—and why that matters. Understanding their sources is a critical step in identifying what could cause harm.
It’s Just Common Sense
This month Paul examines how leaders often misuse the phrase “it’s just common sense”—either to dismiss learning or to assume shared understanding without definition. He argues that many leadership statements presented as fact are really opinions, and that poor communication stems from assuming others interpret words, experience, and expectations the same way.
Resetting PPE Habits
In this months Flash we are re-visiting the fundamental concept of getting folks to follow all of the rules, all of the time. As to how you might move the needle a great place to start is with PPE.
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