Fools Rush In: What We Really Expect

“For Fools rush in where Angels fear to tread.”  — Alexander Pope I once led some process safety training that involved people from several different plants from around the world. After almost a week together, the people in the training became pretty comfortable with one another.  One of the last topics of the training was [...]

By |2025-01-17T10:33:29-06:00October 10th, 2019|Procedures, Workplace Safety|Comments Off on Fools Rush In: What We Really Expect

Changing the Bet: The Safety Experience

“When you gamble with safety, you bet your life.”  Slogan on an industrial entrance mat The biggest obstacle to getting people to heed safety training is that unsafe behavior does not result in certain death. The problem with a safety slogan like, “When you gamble with safety, you bet your life,” is that most people, [...]

By |2025-01-17T10:34:32-06:00October 3rd, 2019|Training, Workplace Safety|Comments Off on Changing the Bet: The Safety Experience

Someone Else’s Experience

“Experience: that most brutal of teachers. But you learn, my God do you learn.”  — C.S.Lewis We all learn from experience. When it comes to brutal lessons, though, it is better to learn from someone else’s experience.  In the course of our work, clients have shared some experiences with us that everyone can learn from.  [...]

By |2025-01-17T10:35:06-06:00September 26th, 2019|Process Safety, Workplace Safety|Comments Off on Someone Else’s Experience

Unsafe Behaviors and Unsafe Conditions: What’s the Difference?

“I did everything right.  I don’t understand why it happened.”— Aleksandr Akimov, Chernobyl engineer You’ve probably heard of the new HBO miniseries, Chernobyl.  The show is a fairly accurate retelling of the events preceding and immediately follow the nuclear disaster that occurred in Pripyat, Ukraine on April 26, 1986.  Like any dramatized television production, it [...]

By |2025-01-17T10:47:35-06:00August 1st, 2019|Workplace Safety|2 Comments

Emotional Stress and Its Effect on Safety

“When dealing with people, remember you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but with creatures of emotion.”  — Dale Carnegie Perfect lives don’t exist.  We’ve all experienced loss, misfortune or pain.  No one is a stranger to emotional stress.  And emotional stress affects work performance, particularly safety.  A study conducted by the U.K. Royal [...]

By |2025-01-17T10:48:09-06:00July 25th, 2019|Workplace Safety|Comments Off on Emotional Stress and Its Effect on Safety

Dangerous Jobs: Why Do Some Choose Them?

The fishermen know that the sea is dangerous and the storm terrible, but they have never found these dangers sufficient reason for remaining ashore. -Vincent Van Gogh There are some professions that top the list of dangerous jobs year after year: commercial fishing, loggers, roofers and trash collectors. The average fatality rate for all jobs [...]

By |2025-01-17T10:51:42-06:00June 12th, 2019|Workplace Safety|Comments Off on Dangerous Jobs: Why Do Some Choose Them?

Man Down: Knowing When Someone is Hurt

“If knowledge can create problems, it is not through ignorance that we can solve them.”  Isaac Asimov We recently facilitated a Process Hazard Analysis (PHA) where the question came up, “What if there was a release and an operator was suddenly overcome? How would we know?” The PHA team considered several possible safeguards: rounds, radio [...]

By |2025-01-17T11:59:22-06:00February 22nd, 2018|Procedures, Process Safety, Process Safety Management, Training, Workplace Safety|Comments Off on Man Down: Knowing When Someone is Hurt
Go to Top