What Experience Taught Me: Question Systems, Not Workers
My approach to safety wasn’t shaped by textbooks, but by witnessing exactly what not to do.
Early in my career, I was surrounded by mentors who relied on ‘safety by shouting,’ using bullying, fear and soapbox lectures to demand compliance. I quickly realized that nobody cares how the ‘safety lady’ feels about a rule; they care about their work. I also noticed a systemic gap: production management often offloaded training to para-level employees and then stepped away, leaving a void in true oversight.
This led to a fundamental shift in my philosophy.
Instead of asking, ‘What is wrong with this employee?’ I began asking, ‘Why is the worker doing it this way and why is management allowing it to persist?’
I spent my foundational years on the shop floor, engaging one-on-one to understand the ‘why’ behind the behavior. I learned that a strong safety culture isn’t built on temper tantrums, but on transparency and engineering. It’s about recognizing that when workers don’t speak up about legitimate issues, it’s often a system failure. By listening to those frontline insights, we can implement small engineering controls that don’t just negate injuries, but actually save time and money. Safety isn’t a hurdle; it’s a shared knowledge base that protects both the person and the process.
Essential EHS Skills: Safety Integration through Agile Solving
To effectively manage risk, an EHS leader must be a multifaceted communicator.
You aren’t just ‘bilingual,’ you are squarely in the middle of technical safety, project engineering and the high-pressure dialect of operational productivity. The essential skill here is Agile Problem Solving—the ability to maintain a clear, unwavering direction while fielding conflicting questions from both sides of the line.
My motto over the last six months has been ‘Safety Integration.’ I’ve moved away from the idea of ‘Strategic Empathy’ for operations management, especially when they disregard the frontline opinions that actually lead to solutions.
Every facility is different; even if the product is the same, the people are not. The people are the heart of this field—they are the reason we have a job in the first place. You cannot lead them if you don’t understand them.
My focus is on the moral and operational necessity of the work. Even if EHS is viewed as a cost center, there is no price tag you can put on a human life. The core skill is ensuring that workers have the right tools, supplies and engineering controls to live their full lives without being sidelined by outliers beyond their control. Efficiency shouldn’t come at the cost of a person’s future; it should be the byproduct of a system that is built correctly from the start.
Accountability in Practice: Cross-Functional Wins You See
Accountability shouldn’t be a vague expectation; it needs a structure. I encourage engagement by establishing distinct ‘safety committees’ at every level of the organization— from the shop floor to senior leadership. This ensures that safety isn’t something that ‘happens to’ the workforce, but something they own.
The real magic happens in the transition from concept to implementation. We treat safety improvements like any other critical business project. We track which committees are the most effective at moving an idea through the pipeline. When a high-level concept is identified, we form specialized sub-committees to tackle the ‘how.’ By creating these subcommittees, we give people a seat at the table to solve legitimate engineering or process issues. This structure forces engagement because it moves the conversation away from complaints and toward tangible results. Accountability is naturally built-in when teams can see their own concepts being implemented on the floor. It transforms safety from a top-down lecture into a cross-functional achievement where everyone can point to a specific improvement and say, ‘We built that.
What Shapes EHS Next: Stop Playing Catch-Up, Build Safety First
There is a common narrative that EHS management is defined by rapidly evolving regulations, but I would argue the opposite: the regulations aren’t truly evolving—they are accumulating.
Many current standards are essentially a ‘pile-on’ atop an already confusing code that was never fully followed or understood to begin with. The real challenge isn’t keeping up with new laws; it’s the fact that workplace expectations and regulations have never truly occupied a level playing field.
The systemic hurdle we face is that most businesses build their customer and production models first, leaving safety and environmental protections as an afterthought. We are constantly playing catch-up, trying to find creative workarounds for thoughtless engineering that didn’t account for the human being in the process.
The future of EHS management isn’t about more paperwork; it’s about breaking the cycle of ‘after-the-fact’ safety and demanding that protective measures are baked into the initial design and the business model itself. Until we stop treating safety as a secondary layer, we will continue to struggle with the same foundational issues.
Wisdom From Experience: Know People, Define Yourself
First and foremost, learn your environment. Every facility is different; even if the product is the same, the people are not. The people are the heart of this field—they are the reason we have a job in the first place. You cannot lead them if you don’t understand them.
Second, define yourself early. I mentioned the ‘bullying’ and ‘soapbox’ mentors I encountered. That approach might work in some environments, but it wasn’t me. You have to decide who you’re going to be. If you want to be the person walking around with a clipboard checking boxes and issuing citations, then do it—but stand firm on that soapbox and don’t let the environment wash you out.
Finally, remember why you chose this field. If you just ‘fell into it’ and have no real motivation, you might need a career change. But if you chose this, remember that every person you reach, every system you improve and every engineering control you implement creates a better world for someone else. Your impact is the reason people get to go home to their families at night.
The reality is: don’t expect a thank you. It is a thankless job to everyone except your peers. But that’s okay—at the end of the day, it’s your job, silly!
