Articles are suitable for use in safety contacts, meetings and as supplemental material for training you are conducting.  Simply make a selection of the topic you want to cover, and *print the number of copies you need for your meeting. More than 65 articles currently available.

The following are excerpts from each article:

5 Fatal Distractions - It is always difficult to read or hear the news of a workplace fatality. Root cause analyses often indicate that someone was distracted on the job, leading to the devastation of a life needlessly lost. Sometimes, though, the root cause analysis doesn’t show all of the other potential areas of distraction. This article will describe five distractions that can lead directly or indirectly to injury or death in the workplace. Click here to download the full copy

A Change in Plans - Description coming soon...

A Series of Bad Decisions - I recently read a sad story in the Casper, Wyoming Star-Tribune about a family who had lost their mother in an automobile crash and their uninsured home and possessions to a fire. Two sons had narrowly escaped death in a rollover auto accident. The family is suffering from a series of bad decisions. Choices were made about driving and about not insuring valuable assets that have left loved ones to determine how they will survive. Click here to download the full copy

A Shortcut to Safety - It’s human nature. People are always looking for faster and better ways to do things. Some even look for a short cut to safety. But, when it comes to safety, there are no short cuts, only short cuts to injury. Click here to download the full copy

Are You a Safety Hottie? - Are you a hottie? That’s a term that most teenagers are very familiar with. You may or may not be a “hottie” based on the current popular definition. If your employees are exposed to high temperatures when doing work either in or out of doors, become a safety “hottie” and learn what you can do to protect workers from heat-related illness. Click here to download the full copy

Are You Taking a Back Seat to Safety? - Why Can’t I Just do My Job? After we presented a program to an association recently, one of the people in the audience came up to us and asked, “Why can’t I just do my job and leave the safety stuff up to the Safety Department?” We said, “Safety is what you do… it’s part of your job!” Click here to download the full copy

Be Sure You Are DWI - Five tips for Driving While Interested I’m a big advocate of DWI – driving while interested. No one should ever be on the road DWI – driving while intoxicated or driving under the influence. DWI, using my definition, is so important because it is so easy to be distracted. Research shows that most drivers are focused on things other than just operating the vehicle: cell phones, loud music, intense conversations with passengers, or any variety of other diversions. Not too long ago, I found myself the passenger in a car driven by a twenty-something year old who suddenly started texting on the cell phone – using a knee to steer the car. That lasted only as second, as I explained the urgency of keeping focused while driving, especially when I’m in the car! Click here to download the full copy

Beware the Latest Distractions - In virtually every injury investigation, we find that someone did something to get themselves or someone else hurt. Why? Maybe it’s all of the social distractions of the day. It doesn’t matter if you are for McCain or Obama, you are likely sick of all political rhetoric. If that isn’t enough, your organization wants more of your time and so does your family. Now add that to the price of a tank of gas for you car, lawn mower or boat and you’ve got plenty to distract you this week! What is a person to do? Click here to download the full copy

Bust: Working While Distracted - How many times have you found yourself running out of the door, rushing to get to work with a thousand thoughts racing through your mind? Think about your trip to work today. Were you focused on driving or were you multi-tasking, perhaps talking on your cell phone, checking your email on your PDA, or even putting on make-up or combing your hair. Or, if you weren’t doing these things, did you notice other drivers who were? Driving distracted is a big issue and it’s even getting lots of attention in the media. While many people drive to their jobs and as a part of their jobs, stop and consider the impact of working while distracted. Click here to download the full copy

Don't Lose Your Voice - Do you realize how valuable your voice is? I’m not talking about the sound of your voice – but rather the fact that you can have a say in a lot of things. First, realize that you have a voice in safety – yours and others around you. Don’t lose your voice when it comes to speaking up when you see something amiss – a hazard that’s being ignored, a safe work procedure that’s not being followed, or PPE or PPE that’s not being used. Speak up! Let others know that you are paying attention and don’t want anyone to take a short cut that can lead to injury. When we don’t speak up, it as if we are in silent agreement with what is happening. Click here to download the full copy

Driving and Texting Costs Thousands - WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood Wednesday called distracted driving a serious epidemic with more than 5,800 annual U.S. traffic deaths tied to motorists who failed to keep their eyes on the road. Click here to download the full copy

Finding the Path to Safety - Often organizational leaders ask what the answer is to their safety issues – unrecognized hazards, broken rules, complacent employees and injured workers. It’s as if they want a very specific road map to lead them to a workplace where nobody gets hurt. Rather than looking for the perfect predefined path, set the course for safety in your organization and stick with it. The reality is, safety is more like a compass than a map. Click here to download the full copy

First Break All the Rules - I‟m guessing that when you read the title of this week‟s article you thought, there he goes, Carl‟s finally lost his mind. Nope. I haven‟t. Here‟s why. Click here to download the full copy

Get Competent to Work Safe - Taking the Mystery out of Competency In the business of safety, we talk about competency and use the term “competent person.” OSHA refers to and requires competent persons in several of its standards and defines the term as : "one who is capable of identifying existing and predictable hazards in the surroundings or working conditions which are unsanitary, hazardous, or dangerous to employees, and who has authorization to take prompt corrective measures to eliminate them". Click here to download the full copy

Getting to Know Safety - What you don’t know can get you hurt and what you think you know can get you hurt as well. When it comes to safety the person who is at risk for injury must be aware of the hazard and what can be done to control the hazard and prevent injury. This is one of the three e’s of safety : evaluation, education, and enforcement. Click here to download the full copy

Great Leaders Ask Great Questions - Questions – A tool for leaders Did you ever play the game “Twenty Questions” as a kid? Maybe your mom liked to ask you questions, such as “Where were you?” “Who were you with?” “Do you know what time it is?” Most of us don’t like to be hammered with questions, but we do like to give our opinions. Great leaders understand that about people and work to find ways to ask questions that invite input and stimulate dialog. When it comes to safety, leaders can use questions to gain significant insight into the state of the organization. Click here to download the full copy

Hijacking Safety - Not long ago my wife, Deb, and I were standing in line at the bank to do business when a lady in the line next to us began a tirade about a check she was trying to cash. I'm not clear what the problem was, but the teller tried diligently to communicate with the customer that the transaction was not legal. After some very loud, obnoxious comments by the customer, the guard woke up and took notice and he and one of the bank supervisors came over to help calm the situation. Click here to download the full copy

Hit the Reset Button for the Year - Greetings for a New Year – It’s the beginning a new year – and a time to refresh and restart. It’s our favorite time of year with a new calendar filled with opportunities and adventures. When it comes to safety, it’s the time of year when many reset the counters to zero. There’s something energizing about getting to start over with a new year. It’s part of the rhythm of life. Click here to download the full copy

How Hard Can Safety Be? - A Common Question One of the most asked questions by managers and supervisors is “why can’t employees just work safe?” That’s a good question! Managers and supervisors often don’t know or have forgotten how hard it is to incorporate safe work practices into the job. Sure, it’s easy for a manager or supervisor to put on a hard hat, safety glasses, and ear protection. But what about the workers who have to deal with machine guards on an assembly line, wear fire retardant clothing in sweltering heat, or put on thick, heavy rubber gloves to tighten a screw or fasten a bolt? Sometimes working safe can be downright hard. Click here to download the full copy

How to Stay Focused When Times are Tough - When the economy is in a slide, as it is now, executives in virtually all industries start asking managers to cut budgets and spending. Once that effort begins, everyone from the individual contributors to the top executives starts getting anxious. Stop and think about it – before you started reading this article, you likely had a conversation sometime today about the economy and your concerns: your job continuity, your retirement funding, your mortgage interest rate, or some other personal economic factor. Click here to download the full copy

Hurry Up and Get Hurt - Root cause analysis is a tool that many safety professionals and organizations use to identify "what caused the injury." This is tough work because the injured party usually says, "Oh, it just happened!" As we dig down and get to the root cause, 97% of the time we find the injured person didn't see the hazard and failed to control it. During the investigation (or as I like to call it, "Interrogation") we often find a competent individual who just got in a hurry and got hurt. Click here to download the full copy

I Am Safe - I Am Safe! Closing the Gap Between Knowing and Doing The current American workforce is the most educated of any generation. Yet, annually over 5500 workers die as a result of workplace injury and over $45 billion is spent on hundreds of thousands of workplace injuries. Knowledge and education aren’t the problem. Today, the burning issue is that people do not apply what they know – a deadly scenario when it comes to workplace safety. Click here to download the full copy

If You Want A Safe Environment - It’s surprising how many people we run across in our business that still believe that safety is someone else’s responsibility. Sometimes I think that we’ve made changes in our society that make it “okay” to not take responsibility for a lot of things, to blame others if something is wrong or doesn’t work. I believe the world is ready for those who will step up and take personal responsibility for their own choices and who will work to make the world a better place. A great place to start is in your own workplace with safety – for yourself and those around you. Click here to download the full copy

Insider Job - Often, it seems like the job of the safety director, manager, or coordinator is a “no win” job. Everyone blames the person in charge of the safety department when the safety performance is poor. Moreover, the safety manager just doesn’t understand why the rest of the company doesn’t “get” safety. Sometimes, it’s a matter of perspective about the role of the safety function in the organization. Click here to download the full copy

Is Your Safety Attitutde Hazardous to Your Health? - Why does a worker make the decision to bypass a safeguard, take a shortcut or not wear personal protective equipment? Such unsafe behavior often leads to injury – to the employee or someone else. A safety director in a utility once remarked, “We don’t work in a dangerous workplace, we work in a hazardous workplace that we make dangerous by not following safety procedures and wearing our PPE.” When workers make decisions that change their workplace from hazardous to dangerous we wonder why. The answer maybe found in what we call the Personal Decision Making Model TM (PDMM). Click here to download the full copy

Keeping Up Appearances - Just Keeping Up Appearances Sometimes people show up at safety meetings just to “make an appearance.” Not too long ago, a human resource director came to a safety meeting that was also attended by employees and supervisors. This was all fine and good until the HR director sat down at a table near the back of the room, brought out a laptop and a pile of paperwork and proceeded to work during the meeting. The director seemed to be “multi-tasking” by working and listening to the speaker. Yet, it was disconcerting for others in the room to see this behavior. What kind of signal was being sent here? Click here to download the full copy

Nobody Wants to Be Number One - Most of us have been schooled, in the US at least, to strive to be #1. A major car rental company used to advertise, “When you’re #2, you try harder.” It’s all about being “Numero Uno” – except when it comes to being the first person in the company or the work team to soil the safety record. Click here to download the full copy

Oh By the Way Safety - What’s Top of Mind in Your Organization? What’s the big emphasis in your organization this year? Is it beating the competition? Is it business growth? Is it streamlining operations? Is it business process improvement? In other words, what are the leaders talking about? No matter what the business initiatives are this year, it’s essential that safety be at the forefront of everyone’s minds. Click here to download the full copy

Overcoming the Negative in Safety - Among the employees in your organization you no doubt know people who are negative about safety. Let's face it... they are likely negative about most things that everyone else considers good. However, in my travels speaking and advising companies, I find a lot of bright spots in safety. Click here to download the full copy

Perfect Practice Can Prevent Injury - While standing in line at the bank, the off-duty police officer notices the bank teller’s fearful eyes at the counter, at the front of the line next to him. Watching carefully, he notices the gun in the hand of the bank robber doing the deed. Thinking quickly, his training kicked in. He reached for his off-duty weapon holstered under his shirt, just like he did in training scenarios, but the result of his actions were different. The weapon would not come out of the holster and he nearly ripped his slacks as he pulled hard on the pistol grips. Then it dawned on him… the snap was fastened to keep the weapon from falling out of the holster. All he was able to accomplish was to get the attention of the criminal. Click here to download the full copy

Practical Safety - Just a few days ago I sat down to work with a safety manager who seemed at his wit’s end. His budget was cut to the bone and he was also told to reduce injuries in the coming year. He said, “Cutting injuries won’t be a problem if we have a layoff!” Maybe, maybe not. The numbers will tell the story, but the numbers will not prevent injuries. With the economy in a tail spin it is easy to see why safety budgets are cut. The truth is, every budget is going to be affected by the economy. So how do we make the best of the situation so workers and the bottom line stay healthy. Click here to download the full copy

Pressed for Time, Look Out Below - Recently a colleague who is a parachute instructor told me that the plane he jumps from crashed. As a pilot, that sent chills up my spine. I guess you don’t have to be a pilot for it to concern you. Of course, I started asking questions. What happened? Was anyone hurt? How did it happen? My incident investigator brain kicked in and I started looking for root causes, lessons learned, so on and so forth. What I learned disturbed me. Click here to download the full copy

Professionalism and Safety - As we conduct seminars and workshops around the country, one of the most frequently asked questions is “What are the barriers to a zero-injury job?” We have asked many groups of people to answer the question individually and in groups. We get many different answers, yet the one that is the most common and that everyone tends to agree on is attitude. Exploring that answer further, we often hear that a professional attitude is what makes the true difference when it comes to creating a safe workplace. Click here to download the full copy

Prosperous Safety - A prosperous safety culture, one that is steadily improving and growing, can be the hallmark of a company that will succeed through difficult times. Now it seems that organizations and the people in them need to remember this. Everywhere I go people are distracted by the concerns of the day: the war, the election, and the economy. These are very real issues yet we can’t afford for them to be distractions in our workplaces where people can be maimed or fatally injured. Click here to download the full copy

Safe Expectations - “Maverick, Top Gun rules of engagement are written for your safety and for that of your team. They are not flexible, nor am I. Either obey them or you are history. Is that clear?” In the movie Top Gun, the rogue pilot Maverick (Lt. Pete Mitchell) continually fails to follow the safe expectations of a Naval Aviator. Maverick becomes a hero, but in the real world his bravado and rogue behavior would have cost him his career. Click here to download the full copy

Safe On Purpose - Are you aware that some people are safer because they don't intend to get hurt? Recently I was doing some research and found some information that pointed out that many people are more apt to take a risk than others. At first glance I didn't find this surprising, but further research gave me pause to consider this concept. Click here to download the full copy

Safety Bias - Recently a worker (we'll call him Larry) was working on a piece of equipment that has a machine guard. While he was using the machine, Larry cut his hand severely, had to have surgery, and may not have full use of his hand after he recovers. Larry's co-workers will have to pick up the slack and his family will need to care for him by taking on extra household work and driving him to the doctor. Would you agree, injuries affect more than just the injured? Click here to download the full copy

Safety Begins with Getting Briefed - Description coming soon...

Safety Code of Conduct - WHEN SAFETY ISN’T PERSONAL Far too often, workers ignore even the most basic, yet life-saving safety procedures – procedures like using machine guards, applying appropriate protection when working around electricity, and wearing proper personal protective equipment. On further investigation, we often find that these workers just simply don’t like the safe work procedures of their company. They consider safety something that someone is “doing to them” rather than a way to protect themselves, their co-workers, and their families. They don’t take safety personally. Click here to download the full copy

Safety Culture War - Is there a Culture War in your Workplace? Not too long ago an executive of a large company in a high-risk industry proudly displayed his handsome new shirt. The shirt had a company logo. Below the logo was a large “7” in bright yellow and a line below that read: Reduce Injuries to 7 in 2007. Click here to download the full copy

Safety, I Want it Now - The commercial for a well-known credit card has background singers proclaiming “I want it now! I want it now!” The ad is all about using the credit card to get whatever you want right now. If you could buy safety in your organization, wouldn’t you? Sometimes, though, it seems like even if we could buy it, safety is elusive. Click here to download the full copy

Safety in the Workplace, Rigorous Not Ruthless - You may have read the book, Good to Great, by Jim Collins. In his book he explains how many companies thought being good is… well, "good enough." In these times of constant change and global competition, it is important to always look for improvement --especially when it comes to safety. Who wants to settle for "good enough" safety? In most cases, good means the company is willing to settle for an injury. "Good enough" safety means setting safety goals based on lagging indicators. (An example is to reduce lost time injuries by 10%.) Great safety means setting a rigorous goal of zero injuries. According to Collins, you want to be rigorous and not ruthless when growing your company. This same concept should also apply to safety in the workplace. Click here to download the full copy

Safety In Tough Economic Times - Lately, everyone is talking about is the economic crisis, the election, the war, and whatever else is on the 24/7 news channels. Sure all of these things - and many more - weigh on people’s minds. Click here to download the full copy

Safety Monkeys - One of the Harvard Business Review’s top two selling reprints is the classic article from 1974, Management Time: Who’s Got the Monkey by William Oncken, Jr. and Donald L. Wass. In this article about managing time, the authors give a visual description of how upward delegation from worker to boss is like having a monkey on one’s back. As the boss takes on more and more from their employees, more and more monkeys are on his back. And if you’ve ever watched monkeys, they are not passive, immobile creatures; they are in constant motion, picking and clawing, playing and fussing. The point of the article is that managers are constantly running out of time while their employees seem to be running out of work. Click here to download the full copy

Safety Opinion - Most of us have strong opinions about certain things. Right now, it’s about politics, candidates, party platforms, super delegates and the like. The 24/7 news channels have a new opinion poll about the current administration, the war, and the presidential candidates on a daily basis it seems. And whether you want to hear others’ opinions or not, it’s hard to stay out of it. After all, politics have results that are near and dear to us, our families and our livelihoods. Likewise workplace safety t has results that can affect our lives tremendously. Click here to download the full copy

Safety Resignation - Have You Resigned? When is the last time you gave some thought to your personal attitude concerning safety? My observation as I travel the country is that too many people have “checked out” or resigned themselves to the idea that “injuries just happen.” Read on to consider how resignation in the workplace affects everyone and is a particularly dangerous attitude. Click here to download the full copy

Safety Respond Ability - In my seminars, I talk to workers, supervisors, and management about their responsibility for creating a workplace where nobody gets hurt. Sure, we all have various responsibilities or duties, obligations, or liabilities. When it comes to safety, the company has a responsibility to provide a workplace free of hazards and employees have the obligation to follow the safe work practices prescribed by the company (CFR 1910.269 General Duty Clause). Responsibility is a noun – as a word, it doesn‟t contain any action. The action comes when we respond to our responsibilities. Click here to download the full copy

Safety Rhetoric - Blah, blah, blah said the safety specialist... "Be safe, drive safe, work safe, be careful, blah, blah, blah." Is it all just safety rhetoric? Sometimes it seems that way when I attend a safety conference where I have been asked to speak. Often when I’m working inside a company, I hear someone say, "Do this work long enough and you are bound to get hurt." More blah, blah, blah! In the business of creating zero-injuries in the workplace I find a lot of rhetoric. Click here to download the full copy

Safety Risk and Reward - How safe can you be? As a pilot of a general aviation aircraft, my goal is to reduce the risk to a point where I am 99.7% sure nothing unexpected is going to happen. The .03% is for catastrophic events such as engine failure, a bird strike, or a rare clear air up-draft that could cause structural damage. To handle the catastrophic failure, I train for off-airport landings. If we make it a point to reduce the risk in any activity, the chance of not being injured is greatly reduced. Recently I attended a meeting of pilots where Jack Hastings, a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) medical examiner (ME) spoke on the subject of "Flying Over 50." It was a very interesting topic (since I am 51) and I came away with some idea of how we can use some of his information with regards to industrial safety. Click here to download the full copy

Safety STP - Workplace safety has many different facets. I’ve found in my work with companies across the country that the focus on safety is often directly correlated with an individual’s responsibilities. Three facets are directly related to the business of safety: Strategic, Tactical, and Personal (STP). Executives and senior managers are often concerned about the strategy, or big picture, of how safety fits into the overall business. Tactical activities are more hands-on and tend to get the attention of managers, supervisors, and front-line leaders. The personal focus on safety often lies with the individual contributors, or front-line workers, in the organization. Click here to download the full copy

Safety Up - In Oklahoma, the term “cowboy up” means to get ready to ride or work cattle by putting on your boots, chaps, hat, and other equipment needed for the task. I heard someone who was having some legal issues say, "I guess I need to lawyer up!" So when I say, "Safety up!" I'm saying, "Plan your job by protecting yourself , co-workers, and anyone else from hazards to prevent injuries.” Click here to download the full copy

Safety Wise Guys - We often wonder why some people don’t “get safety” especially when those individuals work in a hazardous environment. The question often is “why won’t they work safe.” What we sometimes fail to realize is that safety is a learned process, not an attribute or a trait that people are born with. Developing a sustainable safety management system is often a matter of engaging employees and leaders in the process of learning about safety through experience and knowledge on a day-by-day, job by job basis. Click here to download the full copy

Saved by Procedures - High fives to this lineman and crew. You don't have to be a lineman to appreciate a good safety story like this. Thanks goes to my good friend Clarence Greene and all-time safety champion in the great state of Kentucky. Click here to download the full copy

Scrub Your Safety Assumptions - Far too often we live our lives and do our work under the same assumptions that we used decades ago. This can be costly, dangerous, and even fatal. Actor Alan Alda said, “Begin challenging your own assumptions. Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in awhile, or the light won't come in.” Sometimes we have to stop and give our assumptions about safety a good cleaning. Click here to download the full copy

Setting Zero Expectations - Setting the bar high for safety performance is a noble cause. We all like to talk about the seemingly elusive target of “zero injuries.” People generally line up in one of two sides of this goal. There’s the “it’s impossible to have zero injuries” camp and then there’s the “why would we target anything less than zero” camp. (If you’ve read anything we have written in the past, you know which camp we hang out in!) The important thing to recognize is that once you set the expectation – whether it’s for “zero” or a goal that assumes someone will get hurt – it’s hard to go back to a goal where someone is injured. That’s why many corporate leaders are reluctant to set the goal at zero injuries. Yet, we have to ask the question I always ask, “Why would you establish a goal that was anything less than zero?” And when we say “less than zero” we mean setting a safety goal that includes an allowance for injuries. If management establishes a goal of 15 lost time injuries, for example, then the expectation is that employees cannot or will not do their jobs safely. Click here to download the full copy

Snowballs, Butterflies and Safety - Getting your organization’s safety culture going in the right direction can be like a snowball or a butterfly. Now, you may ask, what does safety have to do with either one of those things? Click here to download the full copy

So Few People, So Little Time - It’s Tough Out There "Management is pushing us, customers are pushing us, and we don’t have enough help!" This excuse for taking short cuts is becoming more and more prominent in the workforce. It’s enough to make anyone cringe. Click here to download the full copy

The Biggest (safety) Hurdle - I’ve finally figured it out. After nearly 30 years in the business of safety, I’ve identified the biggest obstacle to zero injuries. I was at a conference the other day and I heard someone say something that really got my attention: The gap between knowing and not doing is much bigger than the gap between knowing and not knowing. Click here to download the full copy

The Billion Dollar Man - Do you remember the show The Six Million Dollar Man in the 1970’s? I thought it was cool – cyborg Steve Austin – better, stronger, faster than he was before. Now, I’ve decided that I want to be the Billion Dollar Man. Don’t get me wrong – I don’t plan on attaching bionic body parts. I have a different idea – but first let me give you some shocking information. Click here to download the full copy

The Gamble of a Lifetime - It’s getting a little ridiculous – all everyone is talking about is their 401Ks and their stock market investments. The cable news networks have to stock exchange board on the screen all day long. Every talk radio host is pontificating about the financial meltdown and how bad it can get. Of course, everyone is concerned. I am too. But you know what? We can’t as individuals do a lot about these things. We just don’t have a lot of control other than about decisions concerning whether to continue to invest or not. It’s all a bit of a gamble, don’t you think. But there’s one other big gamble that we face every day – and we have a lot more control over it. That’s our personal safety. Click here to download the full copy

The Injury that Never Happens - The process of investigating the cause of an injury is easier than finding the cause of a saved injury. Why? Because we don’t know about the injuries that didn’t occur because of safe work practices. Following an injury incident, many organizations send in the investigation team to collect data, interview involved parties and try to find out why the injured person decided to not follow procedures or wear their PPE. Seldom do we say, “Wow! We finished this task and nobody got hurt.” Recently I provided www.safetybooks.com with a Safety Creed Poster that says,... Click here to download the full copy

The Psychological Contract of Safety - One of the most difficult aspects of safety is understanding the role of employee expectations. When employees have expectations about safety that are different than their employer’s, serious issues exist that lead to distractions and ultimately a culture that is disjointed. One way to understand employee expectations is to consider the psychological contract. Click here to download the full copy

The Safest Person I Know - Ask yourself this question, “Who is the safest person I know?” Did you name someone you used to work with or perhaps someone you work with now? Many people do.  The answer should be, “me.” If you can‟t say you are the safest person you know, then you might want to think about what it means to make safety a personal thing. Click here to download the full copy

The Unrecognized Hazard - Another day- another dollar! How was yesterday? Did you complete the work assigned to you without an injury? If your answer is “yes”, way to go! If your answer is “no,” what will you do today to prevent injuries – including the one you experienced yesterday? In my work with organizations, I find people who forget to reset the clock – today is a new day. What is your safety goal today? If you read my articles or have heard me speak I hope it is “Nobody Gets Hurt.” Click here to download the full copy

Top Three Safety Myths - How many times have you heard people saying something completely ridiculous or that you know just isn’t right? You don’t have to go very far these days to encounter such statements. With everyone having their say on blogs, YouTube, and even the nightly news, you probably hear things that you just don’t agree with or that you know are fabricated several times a day. Safety is not immune. We’ve been hearing “myths” about safety for years. We took an informal poll recently, and here are our top three safety myths – you’ve probably heard them or something similar a time or two in your career. Click here to download the full copy

Turbulence In the Organization - As I work around the country with various organizations to help them understand their safety culture and the underlying factors that affect it, a question often emerges. Are the safety issues, namely a high number of recordable incidents, caused by organizational unrest or does organizational turmoil contribute to a high number of injuries? The answer is “yes.” Click here to download the full copy

Why Did You Put Your Finger in There? - The comedian Bill Cosby does a routine where he describe a conversation with his young son about a patch of hair missing from his head. Cosby: "What happened to your hair?" Son: (with a slight whine) "I don't know" Cosby: "Was your head with you when your hair was cut?" Son: (same slight whine) "I don't know" Click here to download the full copy

Will You Be Safe? - Remember when your mom told you to wear clean underwear in case you are in an accident? It’s an old joke, yet as funny as this seems, maybe your mom was telling you something about your ability to behave safe. We all need to recognize that our behavior has a great deal to do with outcomes. Click here to download the full copy