Kevin Burns Blog

3 Strategies For Safety Leadership Now

Posted by Kevin Burns on Jun 17, 2014 4:48:00 PM

Safety leadership is just like regular leadership - only these ones buy-in to safety as a personal value.

There is a difference between simple safety compliance and becoming an active safety leader. As I’ve mentioned in the past, leadership in safety has nothing to do with management. You don’t have to be in management to be a safety leader, mentor or influencer. All that is required is a commitment to wanting to embrace safety as a personal value and to be willing to not allow the shortcuts, risky behaviors or condemnation of safety of others to influence your choices.

Stating The Case For Getting Employees to Buy-in to Safety

Posted by Kevin Burns on Jun 5, 2014 5:27:00 PM

5 Reasons To Choose Personal Leadership In Safety

Posted by Kevin Burns on Jun 2, 2014 5:48:00 PM

Personal leaders in safety are those who lead themselves in their own lives and make decisions that are best for themselves and those around them.

When consulting with companies to help them improve their safety meetings, I routinely meet with safety managers, supervisors and foremen in a round-table discussions. In these round-tables, I get a better understanding of staff participation levels, identify what is working well and what is not and establish safety culture baselines.

From Safety Grunts To Leaders

Posted by Kevin Burns on May 28, 2014 6:39:00 PM

Leadership is not forced or thrust upon anyone. It’s voluntary. That’s why there are few safety leaders and many followers.

Personal Development! It’s all you need to go from grunt to leader. Of course, you have to actually buy-in to what you learn and you have to want to be better, and you have to discipline yourself to improve every day. But it can be done. People do it it all the time.

Are You A Safety Fan, Safety Participant Or Safety Spectator?

Posted by Kevin Burns on May 22, 2014 2:36:00 PM

There are many spectators at safety meetings but very few fans - and even fewer safety participants.

On a trip to Minneapolis, Minnesota last week, I attended a major league baseball game between the Minnesota Twins and the Seattle Mariners at Target Field - perhaps the most impressive ball park in North America. It was the ball game that made me think about the different levels of safety attitude and participation.

How To Make Safety Meetings Lively

Posted by Kevin Burns on Apr 28, 2014 5:01:00 PM

Here are three things you can do right now to improve participation in safety meetings and make them lively.

You’ve sat at the back of the room at safety meetings, arms crossed, watching the clock on the wall, going over in your head the things you still had to do that day and waiting for the meeting to be over. You’ve even secretly hoped that no one had any questions so you could simply get out of the meeting and back to work.

Why Safety Rules Are Not Most Important

Posted by Kevin Burns on Apr 21, 2014 2:41:00 PM

Cops enforce the rules. Coaches work on technique and inspire a burning desire to win.

Which of these three was your last safety meeting about: the rules, technique or a desire to win?

Drive-By Safety Meetings Must Stop

Posted by Kevin Burns on Apr 9, 2014 10:28:00 AM

Are you asking your safety meeting attendees to be participants or spectators?

Drive-by safety meetings are a waste of time and energy and should be considered an insult by meeting attendees. Those who have been forced to sit through drive-by safety meetings dread them and will find an excuse to get out of attending them. Those who bother to show up are likely the ones who couldn't find an excuse. But when they get there, they are not planning on remembering anything, writing anything down or being held to any sort of accountability standard to be able to recall the information later. In other words, meeting attendees are simply driving by.

13 Management And Safety Contradictions

Posted by Kevin Burns on Mar 18, 2014 1:50:00 PM

Organizations say they want to build a culture of safety and then, what they do about it, is a contradiction.

I had the pleasure of speaking at a safety meeting last week that broke the mold of boring safety meetings. They organized a quarterly safety event which replaced their monthly safety meetings. According to the safety manager who organized the event, my book, The Perfect Safety Meeting, played a big part in their new attitude toward safety meetings.

How Dumb Workers Improve Safety

Posted by Kevin Burns on Feb 6, 2014 12:20:00 AM

Just when you think you’ve sanitized your workplace, some joker finds something you overlooked in safety.

I travel all over North America speaking at safety meetings. I wander through a lot of airports, stay in a lot of hotels and eat in a lot of restaurants. I’ve gotten pretty good at traveling. It doesn’t bother me much. My favorite, though, is driving into the rural parts of this great continent.