To make a change in an industry’s safety performance, the first necessary element is a guiding coalition/steering team that will help work with the various idea/solution providers and the wide ranging customer base and its leadership. My team, Caterpillar Safety Services, has worked with similar guiding coalitions in: the wind industry; the electrical transmission and distribution industries, an OSHA strategic safety partnership; the North West Public Power Association (NWPPA); the National Mining Association, as well as large, decentralized industrial companies.

There’s a lot that goes into making a workplace safe.

A commentary appeared in a recent edition of a national safety magazine.

Tens of millions are spent reminding workers to work safely and be mindful of the many hazards they will inevitably face in the course of their workdays, but scare little focus has been cast on one of the biggest contributors to workplace injuries: the lack of sleep.

Have you ever had a discussion with someone who honestly believed they held safety as a value, yet they were so off the mark you were left speechless?

I use a concept called the Six Levels of Safety Performance as a practical model that takes an organization from a fundamental safety regs approach all the way through to an organization that is passionately engaged in leading the relentless pursuit of a zero-incident safety culture.

I read your rules article in the March 2013 issue of ISHN and would add that someone should point out the dangers of seat belts. My philosophy is that everything in life is a trade off. You say wear the beat belt for safety. I say don't wear the seat belt for safety.