Paul Balmert, Author at Balmert Consulting

Execution

What Now?

This month Paul examines the customary beginning of a new year thinking about goals and results. He reminded me of Jim, only Paul’s search is for ’cause’ around the leading and lagging indicators used to measure safety performance. Anyone who knows Paul knows he tends to have a different and insightful perspective. He truly is a Rebel With a Cause — to help leaders like you send people home alive and well at the end of each and every day.

January 29, 2020 No Comments

Hazard/Risk

A Close Call!

Near-miss. Near-hit. Close call. Call it whatever you want: something happened; it wasn’t good; fortunately, nobody got hurt.

January 15, 2020 No Comments

Leadership

Your Gift

This month Paul, during this season of giving, examines lessons learned from the past that might suggest the best gifts you can give if your goal is sending your followers home alive and well at the end of the day. It really got me thinking and I think it will for you as well.

December 30, 2019 No Comments

Hazard/Risk

Working Alone

In this edition Paul poses some important questions anyone who ever works alone needs to ask – and answer – for themselves.

December 13, 2019 No Comments

Execution

A Simple Job

This month Paul examines lessons learned from a fatality doing a “Simple” clean-up job at a restaurant. The discussion is central to understanding how we perceive hazards and take risks. He provides some very interesting insight into the things that can get someone hurt, hurt seriously, or worse.

November 29, 2019 No Comments

Hazard/Risk

Ever Vigilant

Recognizing what can hurt you is a constant and never-ending process. No matter who you are, where you are, or what you happen to be doing, you need to be on the lookout for what can hurt you.

November 15, 2019 No Comments

Compliance

Earbud Nation

This month Paul examines lessons learned from a highway construction fatality where earbuds were involved. The discussion is central to understanding hazards and risk both personally and for those you work with. This may be the most important newsletter that Paul has written and he has written a lot of good ones.

October 31, 2019 No Comments

Hazard/Risk

Fatal Assumptions

Making assumptions may make work and life easier, but it does not make life and work safer. In fact, it often works in exactly the opposite way.

October 16, 2019 No Comments

Execution

Work Done Here

This month Paul examines lessons learned from improvised tools and work methods where the odds of a hazard are a lot higher and there is a potential for creative problem solvers to be taking too much risk.

September 30, 2019 No Comments

Hazard/Risk

Improvisation

Sometimes solutions are the stuff of genius. But not every one of those solutions turns out to be great – or safe. Here’s just such a case.

September 16, 2019 No Comments

Popular Articles

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.

The Holiday Season

This month Paul shares that for twenty-five years, our work has been grounded in disciplined observation, analysis, and testing. That process has shaped how we identify the leadership practices that most directly influence safety performance—the same ideas we teach.

Accountability

This month, we are pleased to feature an article by Newton Scavone, one of our most experienced members of the Balmert teaching team, based in São Paulo. Newton started as a client learning and using the MSP tools, then became one of the leaders developed to teach the course inside his company. For the last six years, many of you have known him as a Balmert Consulting teacher. He brings deep operational credibility and a clear understanding of what it takes to make these tools work in the real world.

Enough Said?

In this month’s Flash, we take a look at a very important first step to ensure conversations go as well as they ought to when expectations around safety haven’t been met.

Paul Balmert

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