What if… employees were compliant with all safety rules and policies even when no one was watching?

What if… employees looked for ways to reduce risks and eliminate hazards, and they were actively engaged in implementing solutions?

What if… you could facilitate safety conversations that identified true root causes of incidents or near misses - and these led to permanent improvements?

What if… you could go months or years without a recordable injury?

All over the world, managers, supervisors, and team leaders seek to engage employees in safety discussions in a way that fosters commitment.

The problem is… many supervisors are frustrated because they can’t truly connect to workers. They spend more time policing safety violations than making improvements.

Most plans are developed to reduce incidents AFTER they happen. Employees continue to make mistakes or take risks that lead to injuries, despite a growing list of safety action items.

Managers and supervisors secretly cross their fingers and hope they don’t receive a phone call or text message about the next safety incident.

To achieve sustainable safety excellence, you need a simple set of leadership skills and strategies that successful and safe organizations use every day.

By the end of this course, you’ll discover:

• How an organization’s safety culture is based on its leaders’ core motives.
• How to foster a culture where people are engaged in finding solutions and want to be compliant with safety rules.
• Why most mistakes and many at-risk behaviors are determined by situations or conditions, rather than an employee’s personal flaws.
• A simple, five-step guide to lead productive safety conversations that ultimately result in fewer people getting hurt!

I was fortunate to have a variety of leadership roles during my decades-long career in manufacturing. However, I never received any formal safety training, and I did not serve as an EHS Manager or Safety Director. It might seem odd that someone with this background assists others in improving their safety leadership skills. My motivation is fueled by two significant events.

The first event that shaped my life happened when I contracted a severe case of the mumps as a child. The viral infection destroyed the nerves of my inner ear. I have been profoundly deaf in my left ear since I was six years old. When I was in my fifties, I was fitted with a bone-anchored hearing device that allows me to hear in stereo for the first time in decades. What a blessing!

I appreciate the precious gift of hearing. I’m a staunch advocate for all forms of personal protective equipment, especially hearing protection. It’s never too early to teach others to wear PPE. That’s my oldest grandson with me in the photo. Just as Gared knows to wear a seat belt when he rides in a car, he knows to protect his hearing before he “starts” his lawn mower.

The second event happened when I was a young supervisor. I witnessed an industrial accident that forever changed the lives of two men who worked with me. This tragedy shook me to the core, and (although I did not realize this at the time) it laid the foundation for what I do today. It was an ugly incident that did not have to happen. I remember thinking, “There must be a better way to prevent injuries other than policing for compliance and demanding people don’t make mistakes!”

Many years later (after extensive reading and research on this topic), I realized there IS a superior approach. Safety WALK Safety TALK was born from that horrible accident and my desire to share these fundamental leadership concepts to those who aspire to be a better version of themselves when leading others for safety.

I invite you to walk with me as I reveal a series of Minor Improvements you can make that have Large Effects. It’s a journey I call the Continuous MILE.

Module 1

Start With Why: Embracing a Safety Philosophy of Learning & Improvement

Organizations with a high incident rate spend most of their time and resources on safety compliance. Those with exceptional safety performance over long periods seek an engaged and committed workforce. Understanding the differences between these cultures is a critical first step in creating a healthy safety environment.

In this module, you’ll discover:

• How to determine if your organization is driven by compliance or commitment when it comes to safety.
• A simple model (Defense in Depth) that explains why many people get hurt despite our best efforts to protect employees from hazards.
• Why managing for safety yields short-term improvements, while leading for safety is the path to sustainable safety excellence.

Module 2

Safety Leadership Continuum: Placing Your Organization on a Spectrum

Leaders in organizations with a strong safety culture share a set of beliefs that drive their actions. Specific leadership attributes are critical in establishing a culture of commitment. A brief safety culture assessment provides valuable insights into the perceptions of employees and places an organization on a continuum.

In this module, you’ll discover:

• The eight leadership dimensions that determine an organization’s cultural identity when it comes to safety.
• Where your organization fits on the Safety Leadership Continuum and how this compares to others.
• How an organization’s Safety Leadership Score is a leading indicator of long-term safety performance.

Module 3

Just Culture: Focusing on “What” is Responsible, not “Who”

A Just Culture is a culture where failures or errors are addressed in a manner that promotes learning and improvement, while satisfying the need for accountability. An organization that embraces this culture openly identifies and examines process and system weaknesses. Employees feel psychologically safe when voicing safety concerns.

In this module, you’ll discover:

• Why striking a middle ground between constant punishment and no accountability is the preferred leadership strategy.
• Three behaviors that explain most adverse events or undesirable outcomes.
• Leadership actions that build an environment of trust, which is essential to cultivate a healthy safety culture.

Module 4

Mistake Makers: Recognizing Our Fallibility

We all make mistakes. There are certain circumstances when we are more susceptible to human error. If we recognize these situations, we can proactively make small changes to the process or implement countermeasures. Collaboration between supervisors and employees is the key to effective, sustainable improvements.

In this module, you’ll discover:

• Ten prevalent Error Traps (situations or conditions which make it more likely for someone to make a mistake).
• Why the wrong response by a supervisor when someone makes a mistake leads to a higher likelihood of future errors.
• How basic mistake-proofing principles can reduce or eliminate errors that could lead to incidents or injuries.

Module 5

Risk Takers: Learning Why People Take Unnecessary Risks

We are easily influenced to take risks. Leaders who know how to identify the factors that contribute to risk-taking can lessen the chance someone might get injured because that person took a “shortcut.” Diagnosing the underlying reason for an employee not following a standard safe operating procedure requires asking the right questions.

In this module, you’ll discover:

• Four Risk-Taking Factors (situations or conditions which make it more likely for someone to take an unnecessary risk) and how to mitigate them.
• How the concept of Procedural Drift leads most people to take greater risks over time.
• Why both Risk-Taking Factors and Error Traps are present in almost all workplace situations.

Module 6

Safety Conversation Guide: Using a Structured Approach to Lead a Conversation

Many of us spend more time telling rather than asking. By taking this approach, we often fail to identify the reason for an employee’s behavior. Effective supervisors and managers ask the right questions that uncover root causes and encourage collaborative solutions. Every leader should have a guide to facilitate proactive and reactive conversations that enable sustainable safety performance.

In this module, you’ll discover:

• A simple, five-step process that enables anyone to facilitate an effective safety conversation focused on learning and improvement.
• Critical questions that engage the employee and reveal situations or conditions that increase the likelihood for someone to be injured.
• Leadership actions that mitigate risk-taking and mistake-making.
• How to assess whether you have a people problem or a situation problem.

Module 7

The Continuous MILE: Walking the Talk

Creating an injury-free workplace can seem like a daunting challenge. Culture shifts do not happen overnight. Managers, supervisors, and team leaders who embrace these fundamental principles and consistently facilitate safety conversations motivated by caring make a difference in the lives of others. These leaders perform a Safety Walk and engage in Safety Talk every day.

In this module, you’ll discover:

• How a safety conversation that included elements of the Pocket Guide became the cornerstone for learning and a trusting relationship.
• Three simple actions to move toward safety excellence regardless of your role in your organization.
• Your confidence level in facilitating a safety conversation after learning the leadership strategies and approaches in this course.

7-Module Online Course

A series of recorded lessons designed to improve your safety leadership skills and build your confidence in facilitating an effective safety conversation. Total viewing time for the course is 138 minutes. A short quiz follows each module to test your learning.

Safety WALK Safety TALK E-Book

A complimentary e-copy of the bestselling industrial safety book that contains 70+ practical tools and tips for being a more effective safety leader. The book is a companion to the course, as it allows you to read about the concepts in more detail at your leisure. It is an excellent source for additional learning. 

Pocket Guide for a Safety Conversation

PDF of the popular two-sided, five-step guide for leading a conversation, as taught in this course. It condenses all key concepts in this course into an easy-to-follow guide. Over 8,000 people have used this simple pocket tool. It's available in six languages!

Safety Conversation Guide App

Access to a free mobile app that walks through the five steps and has images of the Pocket Guide in multiple languages. It is available in both the Apple and Google Play stores. This free, stable, ad-free application is a convenient way to always have the Pocket Guide with you.

Certificate of Completion

Upon successful completion of the course and answering the quiz questions after each module, a certificate will be emailed to you. You may use this to satisfy your company’s safety training requirements or as Continuing Education Units (CEU’s).

Access to a Learning Community 

Monthly live sessions hosted by David Galloway where you can ask questions and learn from others. Participants are encouraged to share their success stories and challenges. These sessions will be recorded for access later if you cannot attend the scheduled virtual meeting.