Deregulation, OSHA, and the Battle of Short- vs. Long-Term Consequences

Given the current administration’s focus on deregulation and deep personnel reductions in government agencies, it’s hard not to be concerned about the long-term impact of these actions on safety. It’…

Preventing Pencil Whipping of Safety Checklists

Safety is filled with checklists. Pre-task checklists, equipment checklists, start-up and shut-down checklists to name a few. Unfortunately, it is all too common for people to “pencil whip”…

Early Warning Signs that Systems are Impacting Safety

About 20 years ago I conducted a safety culture assessment for a large paper products company. They had been working hard on improving their safety performance and like many organizations, had…

Frontline Supervisors: The Key to Safety Culture

Discussions of safety culture improvement often focus on senior leaders, which is appropriate since senior leaders are the ones who must define the desired safety culture, set the vision and values…

Psychosocial Hazards Part II: What Leaders Can Do Now

In Part I of this 2-part series, I presented a primer on psychosocial hazards (PSHs) for readers who might be unfamiliar with or are simply interested in learning more about this topic. As a quick…

Psychosocial Hazards Part I: The Move to Occupational Safety & Health

Introduction to Psychosocial HazardsI recently attended the annual safety conference of the American Society of Safety Professionals (ASSP) in Denver, CO. Often at conferences, I’ll attend a talk…

An Example of (Safety) Leadership Success: Narrowing Focus to Create Results

The best way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time. This eighth blog discusses one leader’s intentional push to move away from everything is important right now to a narrowed, organization-…

An Example of Leadership Success: Building Psychological Safety

Want a team that performs at the highest levels? Make winning fun and learning a critical part of growth? The seventh blog is dedicated to one leader’s determination in developing a high-…

An Example of (Safety) Leadership Success: Creating a Learning Culture

Safety is our number one priority is a nice slogan, but the systems, processes, and management strategies happening inside an organization communicate what’s most important. This fifth blog is…

A Tale of Two Telematics

With the improvements in occupational safety over the past two decades, incidents within the workplace have been greatly reduced. Those organizations for which driving is a requirement have found…

We Just Dropped In to See What Condition Your Culture Was In

Several current and prospective clients have recently approached us at ADI with a request for an assessment of their safety or organizational culture. Requests for this service are not uncommon, but…

An Example of Leadership Success: Putting Safety First

It’s easy to preach “safety is number one” when the sky is blue, but what you do when the sky goes grey is what really matters. This third blog is dedicated to highlighting one leader’s example…

An Example of Leadership Success: Creating a Shared Mission

Without an idea of where you want to go, how would you know when you get there and if you have the right people to help? This blog is dedicated to highlighting one leader’s passion for developing a…

Save Lives by Addressing Systemic Root Causes

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal highlighted a troubling trend on our nation’s airport tarmacs. Safety incidents among ground crew workers are on the rise. The article starts by describing…

Are Habits Bad for Safety?

The debate about whether developing habits should be a goal in safety has been going on for decades. A recent article in Professional Safety (Making Safety a Mindful Value, Not a Mindless Habit, June…

When Safety Systems Work Well

I recently had the opportunity to do an assessment with a company that is a safety culture exemplar. At ADI, we work with a lot of companies that have sophisticated safety management systems, but…

Complacency Is Not a Root Cause

Complacency as a concept in safety has been around for some time. That said, I’ve noticed an uptick in client discussions highlighting employee complacency as a contributing factor in recent…

The Importance of Psychological Safety for Safety Culture Improvement

The term “psychological safety” is having a moment. While on the surface it may seem like yet another organizational buzzword, this one has true merit, especially in safety. The term was coined by…