Hazard/Risk
Fatal Assumptions
Making assumptions may make work and life easier, but it does not make life and work safer. In fact, it often works in exactly the opposite way.
October 16, 2019
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Execution
Work Done Here
This month Paul examines lessons learned from improvised tools and work methods where the odds of a hazard are a lot higher and there is a potential for creative problem solvers to be taking too much risk.
September 30, 2019
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Hazard/Risk
Improvisation
Sometimes solutions are the stuff of genius. But not every one of those solutions turns out to be great – or safe. Here’s just such a case.
September 16, 2019
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Hazard/Risk
Go – or Stop?
This month in Go —or Stop? Paul examines lessons learned from another first day on the job in industry. This one went totally different than my first day but also made a lasting impression and offers some very important lessons not to be soon forgotten.
August 30, 2019
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Hazard/Risk
Asking “Should?”
Brand new to the world of industry, it’s your first day on the job. You’ve been given your first assignment: a seemingly simple clean up task. Having been given no training, getting ready to start…
August 15, 2019
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Execution
Managing Risk: The Right Stuff
This month in Managing Risk: The Right Stuff Paul examines lessons learned about managing risk in the space program. He provides four very important lessons that need to be understood about risk and sending people, to the moon and/or home alive and well at the end of each and every day.
July 31, 2019
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Execution
Missing The Obvious
Over the first decade of manned spaceflight in the US, no human life was lost in space. In managing risk, there no greater success story…
July 15, 2019
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Compliance
Factoring In The Human
Imagine your momentary queasiness as you start reading…US Airways 1549. You immediately know what that is about and have a pretty good idea Captain Sully has something to do with it. This month Paul examines the human factor when things go bump in the night…or the Hudson River.
June 28, 2019
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Hazard/Risk
Certain
Being sure. Thinking you’re sure. Acting as though you are sure. We do it all the time. In one sense, it’s impossible not to. To live a normal life, you have to….
June 19, 2019
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Leadership
The Power of Example
This month Paul examines the power of example, the power of the examples of leaders. Mimicking or copying the behaviors of others is inbred in us from the time we are young. We do it almost without thinking. If that is true then as a leader it is a powerful way to get people doing what you want them to do.
May 31, 2019
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Popular Topics
Popular Articles
Coaching Leaders
In this month’s Managing Safety Performance News, Gary Rivenes explores what effective coaching looks like when safety leadership moves from the classroom to the field. Gary writes from experience: before joining Balmert Consulting, he spent more than thirty years in mining leadership roles, from supervising a seventy-person crew to serving as Chief Operating Officer. In those roles, coaching leaders was not a theory or a program. It was part of getting the work done safely and sending people home alive and well at the end of the day.
All “Those” Rules…
In this month’s Flash we discuss “dumb rules”, and re-visit an easy way to put on great Tool Box Safety Meetings. Unfortunately those sorts of rules are often unwanted and seen as unnecessary, here’s one idea to help you reduce the chance a new one might be needed in the first place.
A Case Study
This month Paul explains that investigation reports are valuable leadership tools not simply because they identify technical causes, but because they reveal how familiar execution challenges—such as limited training, inexperience, weak supervision coverage, fatigue, time pressure, and inconsistent use of PPE—combine to produce serious outcomes. The primary purpose of an investigation is to help ensure an event does not happen again, but equally important is the Performance Visibility investigations provide: a clearer understanding of what is actually happening where work is being performed.
Situational Awareness
In this month’s Flash we look at static hazard recognition. Knowing and understanding where stored energy exists, which might not always be obvious, helps us ensure everyone goes home alive and well.
Looking In The Mirror
In this month’s Managing Safety Performance News, guest contributor and Balmert Consulting senior teacher Van Long reflects on a simple but powerful idea: the most effective safety leadership begins with self-reflection.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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