Most of what gets sold as safety leadership is a thicker rulebook and a nicer slide. That is compliance with a microphone. Culture is what people do when the auditor has gone home.
I have run this work on the floor with people who already had the binders. Land O’Lakes, BAE, General Mills. They did not need another program. They needed leaders who could coach. That is the job. The rest is noise.
Eric Svendsen, Ph.D., is Principal and lead change agent for safetyBUILT-IN, a safety-leadership learning and development organization. He has over 20 years experience in creating and executing outcomes-based leadership development and culture change initiatives aligned to organizational goals, and he personally led the safety-culture initiatives of a number of client organizations that resulted in “best ever safety performance” years for those companies.
