Hazard/Risk
Safety Rules Illustrated: Crossing the Street
How many safety rules are there? Nobody knows for sure. But one thing is for sure: every rule exists for a simple reason…
March 15, 2019
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Leadership
Defining Moments
In this month’s Managing Safety Performance News, Paul examines defining moments of some amazing leaders. Paul discusses the key lesson to be learned from their “defining moments.” It would be nice if all defining moments were also shining moments.
February 28, 2019
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Hazard/Risk
Inspect Equipment Before Use
There’s always a reason for every safety rule, and it’s not the least bit difficult to figure out what the reason is for that piece of advice.
February 18, 2019
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Execution
What’s Your Plan?
In this month’s Managing Safety Performance News, Paul dives into planning for the New Year. Specifically, planning to send everyone home alive and well at the end of each and every shift. January is the time we seem to be most focused on planning and Paul’s got a few words of good advice.
January 24, 2019
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Hazard/Risk
A Simple Task
If there is one good thing to be said about the hazards all of us are regularly exposed to as we make a living, it is this: people are hard targets to hit. It takes a lot for the stars to align…
January 17, 2019
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Leadership
Not On My Shift!
In this month’s Managing Safety Performance News, Paul looks back to the lessons learned on his last trip of the year that included developing a new teacher for Balmert Consulting in Germany. But that is not the story, not this month.
This month Paul finds safety leadership in the most unusual place and follows the thread back fifty years to his first boss and the plant manager.
December 13, 2018
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Hazard/Risk
No Laughing Matter!
Safety is serious business, but that hasn’t stopped some from poking fun at the way those of us who work for a living get hurt. Before he became famous as a Cajun chef….
December 7, 2018
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Uncategorized
Information, Please!
In this month’s Managing Safety Performance News, Paul describes role-modeling a successful technique used by Malcom Forbes. In our circles, we have a familiar name for the practice. You can read about it in his book, Alive And Well, or you can come to one of our open enrollment sessions and learn it first hand from Paul, who certainly practices what he preaches.
This month Paul also discusses some basic principles to measure safety performance. They can be found in more detail in the chapter, Measuring Safety Performance. It’s the longest chapter in his book.
November 27, 2018
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Hazard/Risk
Ranking Hazards
If you’re someone who works with your hands, on the list of hazards you face doing your job, how high would you rank Power Tools? …….
November 15, 2018
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Hazard/Risk
Failure To Learn?
In this month’s Managing Safety Performance News, Paul examines the problem of failing to learn and there is a lesson we should not fail to learn. He focuses on the real problem of the perception of risk, aka, probability.
October 31, 2018
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Popular Topics
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.
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