Paul Balmert

Safety Meeting Topics

A Little Doubt

Doubt is a feeling of uncertainty; a lack of conviction. Feel unsure, you’ll be reluctant to commit and take action. Thinking that sounds like a bad thing, but it that really true – for safety?

Read More »
Leadership

Owning Safety

This month Paul steps aside so that Gary Rivenes, one of our senior teacher/consultants, can share his thoughts on the responsibility of leaders to own safety — theirs and that of those who work for them. Gary makes the case that owning safety is critical to getting great safety performance but that owning it, without acting on it, is not enough.

Read More »
Safety Meeting Topics

A Reset

This month Paul takes a moment to hit the reset button when it comes to running effective safety meetings, and revisits the simple approach of asking the right questions to help you make the most of yours.

Read More »
Hazard/Risk

Recognizing Hazards

This month Paul does a deep dive into understanding hazards — what can hurt us – and hazard recognition. Actually, that is not exactly correct, he does a deep dive into understanding the failure to recognize hazards and getting to the truth about what really happened. As long as I have known him, Paul has had a fascination of trying to understand what really happened when things go wrong. He puts the “axe of truth” to the reported findings. He has done Root Cause of Root Cause investigations analyzing the findings of reports in his organization and those in the public domains. Whatever your role in your organization, understanding what he shares this month can make a difference sending people home alive and well at the end of the day.

Read More »
Safety Meeting Topics

Knowing And Understanding

There’s a world of difference between knowing something and understanding it. In this edition of the Flash, Paul gives some insight as to how we come to understand, as well as what might be done with that important knowledge.

Read More »
Execution

The More Things Change

This summer Paul has locked himself in his hut, affectionately known as “The Cave”, working on the Second Edition of Alive And Well At The End Of The Day. Last week Paul finished the task and has reemerged from The Cave. This month he shares some of what he was thinking about while writing. He reflects on making change happen, accountability and culture while discussing recent headlines. He’s included some insight into the writing process as well.

Read More »
Hazard/Risk

Hazards, Everywhere

In this month’s edition of the Flash, Paul lends some advice on where to look for hazards and some perspective about the environment around us.

Read More »
Uncategorized

A Safety Ambassador

This month Paul examines influence and influencers. He separates the current trend of self-proclaimed influencers from the real influencers. Especially those who make a difference in industrial organizations sending people home alive and well at the end of the day. He ends up focusing on one particular person who’s influence, even though he does not blow the whistle, has made a huge difference. You will want to know about this Safety Ambassador.

Read More »
Safety Meeting Topics

Performance Feedback

In this month’s Newsflash Paul discusses performance feedback – good and bad – and the important role good and honest coaching plays in sending everyone home safe.

Read More »
Leadership

About Safety Meetings

This month Paul examines safety meetings. Now before you run off saying you have been to and given hundreds and know how to do it well, he wrote this exactly for you. Safety meetings should make a difference and to know if they are making a difference you need to know how to evaluate them. Paul offers you a tool to be able to do that.

Read More »

Popular Topics

Popular Articles

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.

Read More »

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.

Read More »

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.

Read More »

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.

Read More »

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.

Read More »

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.”

Read More »

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.

Read More »

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.

Read More »

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.

Read More »

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.

Read More »
en_USEnglish
Scroll to Top