www.KevBurns.com Why aren’t production and safety working out of the same office yet? Start with the common ground between safety and production. On this Episode 51, how production and safety can work better together. Companies associate the success of the operations department with efficiency, productivity and profits. But, in safety, success is determined by a complex formula ending in TRIF rates and with the prevention of occupational injury and illness. How do you make these two...

www.KevBurns.com Be positive about your safety program and the way it helps to protect and value your good people. On this Episode 50, four ways to promote your safety program positively. To promote something is to advance a cause or a program; to support it or to actively encourage. So, when you tell your people to be safe, you are promoting safety. When you pepper your workplace with posters as safety reminders, you are promoting safety. When you hold a safety meeting, you are promoting...

www.KevBurns.com Good employees who have special skills and talent take pride in their work and they protect that pride by engaging in safety. Here on Episode 49, 3 Ways to Improve the Effectiveness of Your Safety Program. Without getting into long descriptions, good workplace safety culture is the result of attitudes and personal and corporate values aligning. If there's apathy in the workplace, very little attention and care will be given to safety. You can't change the safety culture...

Effectiveness in safety is about how little effort it takes to inspire people to do the right things. On this episode, 3 key tips to help you become a more effective safety leader. As a safety person, manager or front-line supervisor, you already know that your work can be thankless. But you still have a responsibility to drive down the best practices and advice onto those employees at the front-line. Just because you may have the position or title doesn’t mean that you’re effective at what...

Safety is a shared responsibility with each individual being accountable for their actions. On this weeks episode, how safety leaders define responsibility and accountability. On a recent LinkedIn post about accountability, I was asked to explain the diiference between responsibility and accountability in safety. I too, used to think they were two interchangeable words. In fact, the dictionaries interchange them at least once on each word. So, it's not surprising that your clients and...

Stop discussing the negatives of not being safe. Instead, focus on the positives of buying-in to safety. On this episode, 4 ways to make your safety program more positive. Ask employees about how they perceive the safety program and they will most likely answer that it's dull, boring, repetitive, mind-numbing, disengaging, and it tries to scare you into compliance. That's because safety has been focused on following rules and avoiding injury or accidents. But like everything else in life,...

www.KevBurns.com Data is not how you build a safety culture. Leadership is. On this episode, 4 things that employees need most from safety. -- Safety is about preparedness - yet most times even the safety meeting does not meet that standard. Seriously. How many times have you seen your own safety meetings get thrown together at the last minute, start late, run long and be so full of stuff that it left attendees wondering what was the important stuff? Every part of safety needs to be...

On this episode, we are going to look at four different ways that you can connect safety to leadership. Leadership is not forced or thrust upon anyone. It’s voluntary. And personal safety leadership builds great teams. A commitment to teamwork and safety. It’s all you need to go from newbie or lowly front-liner to leader. To become a safety leader requires a commitment to the welfare of your teammates. You can't build a strong team without caring about the safety of the members of the team....

www.KevBurns.com To be a safety leader, you have to be not only better at the job than the others, but willing to pick yourself up when you stumble. Coming up, three reasons safety leaders stumble. The best organizations give world-class safety performance. They don't do it with a mediocre effort, mediocre standards or mediocre supervisors and safety people. They do it by surpassing industry average targets, a focused engagement with employees and with safety people and supervisors on top...

www.KevBurns.com You may not be talking about it, but you have to. On this episode, get your people engaged in safety by talking about four things at your safety meeting. Safety meetings started out as a legal requirement. You had to have them, they had to be recorded and the subject matter had to satisfy the Code. But nowhere does it state that you can’t add items to the safety meeting or that you can’t have fun and to speak-up in the meetings. The problem is, safety meetings...

www.KevBurns.com On this episode, we are going to tackle complacency creep as we look at the Top 4 Strategies to Stop Safety Complacency Creep before it takes hold in your workplace. Who could have ever foreseen that you could get so good at your work that complacency would become a safety issue? Safety processes and procedures are done so well that your crews have become exceptional safety performers. And because they do work they can be proud of, they take satisfaction in how well they do...

www.KevBurns.com Safety leadership is not just for those with a title. On this episode, we will talk about 6 Ways To Become A Respected Safety Leader. To become a safety leader, you have to first understand what safety leadership is not: it is not safety management. Since there is no requirement to be in management to be a leader, then it only makes sense that you don’t have to be in safety management to be a safety leader. Safety leadership is not just for those with a title. Safety...

www.KevBurns.com Safety is fast-becoming the new leadership. So consider this a primer. On this episode, we will connect safety to leadership in seven different ways. Leadership has nothing to do with management. Safety leadership, therefore, has nothing to do with safety management. You don’t have to be in management to be a leader. Leadership is not a position. It is an attitude - management is the position. One has nothing to do with the other.  Companies are waking up to the fact that...

www.KevbUnrs.com Safety meetings are not supposed to be boring, but they are. So, on this episode, we'll explore two big problems with boring safety meetings and three strategies to fix them. Safety complacency is a big problem today but never moreso than safety meeting complacency: the lack of focused engagement in preparing engaging safety meetings. Safety folks don't invest any time or effort into fixing their meetings. They are complacent with the way things are. Attendees are bored and...

www.KevBurns.com On this episode, we're going to arm you to get ready to have those one-on-one Conversations with your crews that help you better influence them to buy-in to the safety program. The one thing that will connect your continuous-cash-flow, your long-term investments and and the kind of legacy you leave behind, is safety. Without safety, everything is at risk. The safety department complains that it’s difficult to get workers to buy-in to safety. But really, is it any wonder...

www.KevBurns.com On this episode, we are going to test your People-View: how you talk about your crew to other supervisors or even your buddies behind the crew members' backs. People-view is how you view people. Plain and simple. It's the way that you pre-determine the quality of the people you are working with. People-view is how you talk about your crew to other supervisors or even your buddies behind the crew members' backs. People-view is the predetermined opinions you have about...

www.KevBurns.com If you won't engage crew members on a human level, you will limit both yourself and your crews. On this episode, three places to start to switch your focus from process to people. Safety people and supervisors who lack a healthy dose of willingness to engage crew members on a human level will limit both themselves and their crews. It doesn’t happen on purpose, but it happens. The inexperienced supervisor who doesn’t know how to motivate and develop individuals on the job,...

http://www.kevburns.com Downloading generic safety messages from the Internet can undermine your own safety program. On this episode, why the phrase "be safe" is a terrible safety message. Safety people and supervisors get concerned when their employees won't buy-in to safety. They also complain about employees' lack of engagement and a lack of accountability in the safety program. But what if the safety messaging is aimed below the intellect of the same people you're trying to reach? What...

http://www.kevburns.com If you want to improve safety meetings, you have to improve the level of respect you have for your people first. On this episode, three east steps that can transform your safety meetings from boring to engaging - and build respect. Safety people would make a bigger effort if they got paid for the quality of their safety meetings. But that’s not happening anytime soon. So, for now, you will have to accept that safety meetings are notorious time killers.  How about...

http://www.kevburns.com The biggest roadblock to safety culture improvement is a lack of focus on safety. On this episode, three ways you can begin to shift the level of focused attention. Lack of engagement is a problem in every corner of every organization. Safety calls this problem complacency. The biggest roadblock to safety culture improvement is a lack of purposeful focus on safely doing the work. Here are three ways you can begin to shift the level of focused attention on safety...

http://www.kevburns.com If you want to become an effective and respected safety leader, you're going to need to become exceptional with people. On this episode, the top 4 character and personality traits of respected safety leaders.   Good people skills have a lot to do with character and personality traits. Good people with great character are just good people-people. They are good with others and they tend to be able to get closer to their co-workers, get trust from them and are put in...

http://www.kevburns.com In order for a safety partnership to work, there has to be mutual benefit. On this week's episode, how to build successful safety partnerships with employees and why it's important. The television shows Shark Tank (USA) and Dragon’s Den (Canada, UK, Australia) feature a panel of investors looking for a great product or idea to get behind. The entrepreneur makes a pitch to the investors. If the pitch is successful, the venture gets backing. If the pitch misses, or if...

http://www.kevburns.com Improve an employee's motivation to do the work and you improve their motivation to do the work safely. On this episode, we will explore four easy steps to improving employees' motivation in safety. As a front-line safety person or supervisor, you may not be aware of it but you have the greatest impact on employee motivation. In fact, the front-supervisor and safety people have far more influence on safety culture at the front-line than any senior managers ever will....

http://www.KevBurns.com This time around, we are going to focus on building solid performing teams in safety. This is Part 4 and the next 3 of the Traits of Safety Leaders. To build a solid team requires more than just a collection of good team members. It requires the right mindset from the team leader; in this case, the safety leader. This time, we are going to cover off three new traits that really drive inspiration and motivation to want to contribute to the team. In the first three...