Paul Balmert, Author at Balmert Consulting

Leadership

Behavior – And Safety

This month Paul makes the case that there is no escaping the truth that behaviors must be managed if the goal is everyone goes home alive and well at the end of the day. He considers different approaches that have been tried and discusses whose behavior should be targeted and who ought to manage them. Paul concludes when it comes to appreciating the times when “it’s on them” and when “It’s on me” it would be fair to say that’s the subject of wisdom. Paul leaves us with some of his experience and wisdom.

September 29, 2023 No Comments

Safety Meeting Topics

Looking for Hazards?

In this months Flash, Paul shares some observations about recognizing hazards by simply sharing a photo he took. Sometimes a picture really is worth a thousand words.

September 18, 2023 No Comments

Execution

Tough Safety Challenges

This month Paul discusses what happened in his old company every time it looked like safety performance was declining and introduces the term “political water.” He then dives into the toughest challenges as reported by one industry and compares and contrasts that to what we have heard over the last twenty-two years across a wide range of industries around the world. It leads to a discussion of the root of all challenges and management’s first duties. He shares some very important lessons.

August 31, 2023 No Comments

Hazard/Risk

See Something. Say Something?

In this month’s Flash Paul takes a look at choice as it relates to saying something, or not, when someone is taking too much risk.

August 15, 2023 No Comments

Leadership

About Training

This month Paul talks about the importance of training, more importantly of knowledge, in sending people home alive and well at the end of the day. He discusses how good leaders doing Managing by Walk Around can make a difference when they show up at a class. There are some very important points he makes that make this probably the most important News he has written.

July 31, 2023 No Comments

Safety Meeting Topics

Good Work

In this month’s Flash we take a look at what doing work well really means, and why understanding the definition is so important to sending everyone home Alive and Well.

July 19, 2023 No Comments

Leadership

The Check Step

This month Paul starts by examining Deming’s Plan/Do/Check/Adjust cycle and supplements the discussion with lessons from Drucker and Fayol. Paul uses the lessons as a starting point for a deep dive into the Check step as it relates to sending people home alive and well at the end of the day.

June 30, 2023 No Comments

Safety Meeting Topics

The “Accident Book”

In this month’s Flash, we take a moment to appreciate the difficulty of the work done “on the farm”, and the importance of ensuring that every job ends in a way where no one could have gotten hurt.

June 15, 2023 No Comments

Execution

The Beacon That Lights The Way

This month’s News is authored by one of our senior consultants and teachers: Dr. Edward Aronson. Eddie, as we know him around here, is a former manufacturing executive, whose focus as a management consultant is on what I’d describe as leading from within. Or, as Eddie puts it, “Standing up for what you believe in.”

May 31, 2023 No Comments

Safety Meeting Topics

Choice

This month Gary Rivenes shares a personal story about the perception of choice, and the importance of making the right choices when it comes to safety.

May 16, 2023 No Comments

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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.

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.

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.”

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.

My Supervisor

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.

Setbacks

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.

Blowing The Whistle

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.

Paul Balmert

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