Paul Balmert

Safety Meeting Topics

Near Miss – Or Sure Thing?

In this month’s Flash, we take a look at one near miss that very well could have been a hit. In doing so, we’ll ask one very important question that can help you in sending folks home, Alive and Well.

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Compliance

Earbud Nation

This month Paul examines multitasking and distracted walking. From his own experience as a pedestrian and data in a recent report he draws some lessons that can help us back on the job with earbuds, hazard recognition, and distracted working, including walking and driving.

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Execution

New People

Last month Paul made a presentation in Louisville. His presentation was preceded by two researchers presenting their findings. Paul latched on to the data and started looking for the story in the numbers that would help good leaders send those who follow them home alive and well. His finding of the story in the numbers is fascinating and important.

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Uncategorized

What’s Normal?

This month Paul asks what “normal” looks like when it comes to wearing PPE. It’s a simple question, and one well worth asking.

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Leadership

THE Priority

This month Bill Wilson, one of our senior consultant/teachers, examines the decision making that can lead to people getting seriously injured or worse at work. He discusses why part of the problem may be found in the defining and communicating of priorities. He helps us focus on what really matters when it comes to setting and making THE Priority the priority.

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Safety Meeting Topics

Intervening On – And Off – The Job

In this edition of the Flash we look and the difference in approach required when intervening on safety outside of the workplace. The difference is an important one, and knowing it will help you make a bigger difference back on the job, too.

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Leadership

Responsibility

This month Paul examines the responsibilities of leaders, especially when the goal is to make sure everyone goes home alive and well at the end of each and every shift. He explores the challenges of getting everyone working safely and the supervisor’s responsibility for making sure that happens.

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Safety Meeting Topics

Perceiving Hazards

This month Paul looks into how our minds recognize and perceive different types of hazards. You might not be surprised to hear that we aren’t always the best at recognizing what is most likely to hurt us.

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Execution

A Lesson from the Richest Man in Town

This month Paul unravels the mystery of the handshake. Not only does he solve it, but he ties it together with Jimmy Stewart’s It’s A Wonderful Life AND the goal of sending people home alive and well at the end of the day.

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Safety Meeting Topics

Keeping The Lights On

In this month’s Flash Paul nudges us to remember what is most important, and shares some perspective on how to think better when a task seems critical.

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Popular Topics

Popular Articles

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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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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.

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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.

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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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Managing Hazards

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.”

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Beyond the Rules

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.

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