When we launched the Flash seven years ago, our objective was to provide suitable content for the Ask, Don’t Tell© process, and in so doing, offer one practical step to improve the quality of safety meetings.
This month Paul examines what matters most to working safely. You might be surprised that the real First Line of Defense is not what leaders often focus on. But it is not enough to know what it is, every leader needs to understand the process, the best process, for obtaining it. This may be Paul’s most important message for good leaders like you.
In this month’s edition Paul discusses procedures and offers a simple lesson along with a tragic example of what can happen when they are not known or understood.
In this month’s Managing Safety Performance News Bill is back to dive deeper into improving safety performance this time through the lens of Root Cause Failure Analysis. In this new article, he focuses on applying the tools and concepts of RCFA on the challenge of rule compliance, or if you prefer, the challenge of rule non-compliance. Bill admits it took him a long time to learn some important lessons. He shares them with you here, so you don’t have to learn the hard way.
Everyone knows the point of troubleshooting is to fix a problem. But there’s a world of difference between trying to fix a problem and successfully correcting the problem.
It’s easy to be lulled into making assumptions. People make them all the time. This month Paul discusses assumptions as they relate to safety and provides a tragic example of how they can prove fatal.
Imagine situations where the clock is ticking, fast, and lives hang in the balance. This month Paul examines cases where getting it right matters and identifies some key lessons that can make a huge difference in sending people in your organization home alive and well at the end of the day.
More than a decade ago, Chesley Sullenberger faced a problem. He had less than two minutes to come up with a solution, and finding an airport was not an option. His decisions provide an important insight when it comes to troubleshooting a problem.
It is hard to believe tomorrow is February and this month Paul is talking about resolutions and commitments. Fortunately, he is not examining mine, but rather is talking about a commitment he has made, and he is going to ask your help for him to… well, I am not going to steal his thunder as I think this news, and it is big, should come from him along with his request for your help. Help Paul, help you and your leaders make a difference.
In this edition Paul shares a few thoughts about experience, wisdom, and a Wyoming State Trooper’s advice on avoiding tragedy.
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.
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