
A Real Safety Leader
In this month’s Managing Safety Performance News, as you rightly assumed, Paul has turned over the reins to one our consultants, Wayne Pignolet. Wayne shares his story about deers and safety leadership.

In this month’s Managing Safety Performance News, as you rightly assumed, Paul has turned over the reins to one our consultants, Wayne Pignolet. Wayne shares his story about deers and safety leadership.

Some companies have a rule about working under a suspended load: in a word, DON’T.
Every company safety rule on the planet exists for a simple reason: something bad happened, and the rule will make sure it doesn’t happen again.

In this month’s Managing Safety Performance News, as you probably assumed, Paul discusses the assumptions we all make… and don’t assume you know what he is going to say. You might be surprised.

When it comes to our personal safety – at work and at home – we make a huge number of assumptions about things and people every day. Little ones and big ones.

In this month’s Managing Safety Performance News, Paul starts with an investigation into a fatality, sure there’s a lot to learn about getting meaningful investigation findings, but don’t stop there this is really about navigating a very large ship, in a very narrow channel, with lots of cross current and other traffic — changing direction. In the end it is about getting great safety performance. They say there is no silver bullet for getting great safety results, that may be true, but there are a few key fundamental things that are the difference that make the difference. Paul reveals them this month. I’ll be interested to hear what you think after you finish “Common Practice”.

Culture is best defined as “the way things really are around here.” That means every operation everywhere in the world has a safety culture.

In this month’s Managing Safety Performance News, from a restaurant in Siberia, Paul examines the differences and similarities of the challenges supervisors and managers face leading people to work safe the world over, including one very important challenge.

In our classes, we like to ask Darn Good Questions. Here are a few that you might want to answer – or, even better, ask others.

In this month’s Managing Safety Performance News Paul examines the case of a self-driving car and cyclist—actually a cyclist walking her bike across the street. You might have read the headlines. Below the headlines there is a lot to learn and take back to the shop floor to make sure every one goes home alive and well at the end of each and every shift. By the way, when I started to read Paul’s article I did not see his take on the lessons to be learned coming at all.

In your opinion, which is more dangerous?
Entering a confined space
Entering a pedestrian crosswalk on a busy street
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
This month, Paul takes on one of the toughest challenges every leader faces — managing hazards. Not just the big, obvious ones that make the “A List,” but the ordinary, everyday things that cause most of the injuries. He reminds us that managing hazards isn’t about eliminating every risk; it’s about handling them — and the people around them — “with a degree of skill and care.”
In this months Flash we look at the importance of Safety Rules, and a very critical concept about the rules that ensures they help keep us safe.
In this month’s Managing Safety Performance News Paul takes on the challenge of trust and credibility in leadership—he discusses why they’re eroding at the top, why supervisors hold the real advantage, and what that means for influencing followers to work safe. He makes the case that trust is not a given but a hard-earned reward—and the most powerful tool any leader has for sending everyone home safe, every day.
In this month’s Flash we take a look at setbacks, and the unique opportunity they provide to a leader in ensuring followers know and understand what is most important.
In this month’s Managing Safety Performance News Paul reflects on the investigations into Challenger and the Titan submersible. From Richard Feynman’s ice-water demonstration to the Coast Guard’s scathing report, Paul points out that history shows how truth can be buried, warnings ignored, and lives lost.