Over my years acting as a safety consultant, I have several times been brought in because of the unfortunate (yet common) occurrence of otherwise successful companies failing to achieve even the least ambitious safety goals, having spent disproportionate amounts of … Read More
Author Archives: Jim Loud
Is Safety Management Too Expensive?
Many well-intended companies are drowning in a sea of rules, cardinal rules, complicated procedures, and high dollar “quick fixes.” The result is often a prohibitively expensive and overly complex workplace, where getting anything done “by the book” (including safety management) … Read More
Incident Investigations: What’s the Point?
During my many years in safety, I’ve led dozens of incident investigations and, in general, enjoyed doing them. “Playing sleuth” appealed to my innate curiosity, and I felt confident that I was performing the task well. I have known many … Read More
Why All the Fuss About “Psychological Safety?”
Back in the 80s, before I had even heard of the term psychological safety, I was the Safety Director for a nuclear plant that was weeks away from startup. As we prepared the plant to operate, several whistleblowers came forward … Read More
Relationships Are Not Built Behind a Desk
“If you don’t believe in the messenger, you won’t believe the message.” –Kouzes & Posner Much of my career and my writings have focused on building trust and productive partnerships between organizations’ workforce and leadership through personal and adult-to-adult interactions. … Read More
Watch Your Language – Time to Rethink Our Safety Vocabulary?
Over 40 years ago, the legendary founder of Lean Manufacturing and Total Quality Management, W. Edwards Deming, wisely told organizations to “Drive out fear so that everyone may work effectively for the company.” This is point eight in Deming’s famous … Read More
