As a motivational safety speaker, I know all-too-well that there are the “official way of doing things,” and the corner-cutting. Before I became a safety keynote speaker, and before I worked in management on sales teams, I was a worker in heavy manufacturing companies. I worked in steel mills, leather tanneries, construction and transportation. My management was good at saying the right things and sending the right messages. However,...
What do layoffs, mergers, location changes, acquisitions, new production facilities and changes of management all have in common? Hint: it’s not what you think – and that’s the problem. As a safety speaker who has been delivering safety keynote speeches on safety for many years, I will be “pleased” to give you the answer: whenever a change occurs, it is a virtual guarantee that serious accidents will increase. Of...
As a safety speaker, who speaks on safety nationwide, I often regret how the best source of safety data, U.S. Department of Labor, includes so many tragic accidents under the heading of “Slips, Trips and Falls.” The banner almost sounds like a song, a joke or the name of a jazz trio! Whatever “Slips, Trips and Falls” may sound like to you, the category resulted in 15-percent of all...
AI Won’t Prevent an Accident As a safety speaker who has been speaking on work place wellbeing for many years, I have a serious fact to relate: AI (artificial intelligence) doesn’t prevent work place accidents. While some workplace safety keynote speakers (not me) undoubtedly use AI to write safety articles, factory safety signage, and for all I know, safety slogans on T-shirts and coffee mugs, 2023 is still lining...
As a safety speaker who started his career in a manufacturing environment, I have been around a lot of holiday parties. The parties have changed over time, and that’s a good thing; no company wants to serve alcohol at a company party and then have some fool get in a car and drive home. Most company parties are not all that memorable however, after giving a talk on safety...
As a risk management safety speaker, who has spent many years talking to risk management professionals, I am asking you to take a leap of faith. And, I suppose I ask this not as a safety speaker who speaks on risk management, but as a someone who began his work life in steel mills and manufacturing. In a real sense, my trip up the corporate ladder was sometimes on...
Speaking to groups across the country as a stress and safety speaker, I realize that among the many effects of the COVID pandemic, was the amount of stress ratcheted up on workers in construction, manufacturing and transportation. The problem with stress is that it diverts awareness. That fact may not mean much in an accounting office or insurance agency, but to a person driving a forklift in a busy...
A Safety Silo is not a Disney Ride One of the highest purposes of my life is to be a motivational safety speaker. Speaking on safety is personal to me, because of the early years of my career. Long before I went into sales and became a keynote speaker, I worked in factories and steel mills. I saw far too many injuries that could have been avoided. “If you...
Is Your Circle of Safety too Small? As a workplace safety keynote speaker, I often share with my audiences that I did not “come up” in industry in the typical manner. I like to speak on safety because I worked in steel mills, construction and manufacturing. In fact, not long ago, I was introduced to a manufacturing group by the CEO who called me “the working guy’s best friend.”...
Don’t Take This Personally, Take This Very Personally My decision to work as a safety meeting speaker didn’t start because I was reading a book on safety one day. My role as a safety meeting speaker started many years ago when one of my buddies on the job was badly injured. In fact, he could have lost his life. My first jobs weren’t in a stuffy office but in...
If Safety is #1, What Comes Next? In my talks as a Negotiating Safety Motivational Speaker, I often ask my audiences the following question: “So if safety is number one, what comes next?” The question is often met with blank stares, shrugs and sometimes humor, with answers including “Lunch,” “Going home,” or “Winning the lottery!” What Does Come Next? Truth is, I would argue that negotiating safety is the...