The Safety Guru

Eric Michrowski
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  • Management
  • Every two weeks

Real leaders leave a legacy. They capture the hearts and minds of their teams. Their origin story puts the safety and wellbeing of their people first. Great companies ubiquitously have safe yet productive operations. For those companies, Safety is an investment, not a cost for the C-Suite. It’s a real topic of daily focus. The SAFETY GURU with host Eric Michrowski, a globally recognized Ops & Safety Guru, public speaker and author explores through leader interviews how to leave a safety legacy. Your legacy success story begins now.

  1. 2 days ago

    Servant Leadership in Safety: Building Community in the Workplace with David Sarkus

    What can we learn from servant leadership in safety? “Servant leadership has such great breadth and depth in terms of establishing a great philosophical and applied foundation for greater learning and performance in safety.” In this energetic and engaging episode, we welcome David Sarkus, Chief Servant Leader and Founder of David Sarkus International Inc., who explores what servant leadership truly means in the context of safety and how it can transform safety culture by building a strong sense of community in the workplace. David introduces the Five Dimensions of Community and shares how safety leaders can foster greater belonging, trust, and connection through caring, listening, and meaningful relationships, creating an environment where people feel valued, heard, supported, and committed to protecting one another. He also explores the concept of the “risk ceiling,” revealing why organizations can plateau in their safety journey and the profound impact this can have on long-term safety success. Don’t miss this episode filled with actionable strategies to implement servant leadership to strengthen community, build trust, and enhance safety performance across your organization. Tune in now! About the Guest: David J. Sarkus, MS, CSP, is the Chief Servant Leader and Founder of David Sarkus International Inc., a leading health and safety management consulting and training firm. David is a motivational safety speaker who delivers keynotes, training, and consulting in various industries. With more than 30 years of experience, he has successfully applied strategies and tactics across a wide range of work environments to achieve measurable and sustainable improvements in safety performance. He has proven that these results can be scalable and sustainable. David holds master’s degrees in Safety Management and Organizational Psychology and has been recognized by ISHN as one of the “Top 50 Leaders” in the field. He is also the author of five books and more than 100 evidence-based articles and works with some of the world’s leading organizations to advance sustainable excellence in safety. For more Information: https://davidsarkus.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    Servant Leadership in Safety: Building Community in the Workplace with David Sarkus

  2. 3 Sept

    Proactive Risk Management: The Board's Role in Safety Leadership with Dr Mark Taylor

    In this compelling episode, Dr Mark Taylor, a leading industrial psychologist and founder of Behavico Ltd, joins us to explore the board’s role in safety leadership and how proactive risk management can help transform safety culture into a strategic organizational advantage. Dr Taylor explains the complex relationship between safety culture, human behavior, and the systemic conditions that shape safety outcomes. He discusses the factors that contribute to incidents and how organizations can move beyond reactive approaches to recognize and act on early warning signs before conditions escalate into serious events. He also highlights the dangers of over-relying on certain lagging indicators and shares valuable insights on governance, leadership, and effective risk management to help build safer organizations and strengthen safety performance. This episode is packed with solid research, real-world examples, and practical strategies, offering a thought-provoking perspective on how boards and executives can strengthen safety culture and build a more proactive and resilient organization. Don’t miss it! About the Guest: Dr Mark Taylor is a leading practitioner in industrial psychology and founder of Behavico Ltd, a specialist boutique consultancy focused on safety, human factors, and organisational resilience in high-hazard industries. He has held executive leadership roles, advised boards and executive teams, and helped transform safety performance across numerous organisations. He contributed to crowd safety for the London Olympic Games and serves as a Board member of the Tripod Foundation, supporting the advancement of incident investigation and organisational learning to help organisations prevent major accidents. For more Information: https://behavico.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    Proactive Risk Management: The Board's Role in Safety Leadership with Dr Mark Taylor

  3. 20 Aug

    Managing Psychosocial Risks to Build Safer Workplaces with Kylie Long

    Don’t miss the latest episode of The Safety Guru! Join us as Kylie Long, a seasoned expert in workplace health and safety, explores the critical role of managing psychosocial risks to build safer workplaces. She provides a practical guide for leaders to better understand psychosocial risks, their business impacts, and how they can be effectively managed across organizations. Kylie explores the psychosocial risks that can impact workers’ mental health, including the importance of identifying and addressing aspects of work design and management that may cause harm. She also dives into the significant financial and cultural impacts psychosocial risks and injuries can have on organizations, from burnout, high turnover, and absenteeism to broader impacts on workplace culture and performance. Learn practical strategies for overcoming leadership challenges, managing psychosocial risks, and creating sustainable improvements. Tune in for valuable takeaways on strengthening psychosocial safety in your organization, building safer, more supportive workplaces, and enhancing overall performance and well-being. Listen now! About the Guest: Kylie Long is passionate about creating safe, healthy, and thriving workplaces where people feel valued, supported, and empowered to perform at their best. As the Founder of Support & Safety Solutions, Kylie brings over 20 years of experience in work health and safety, psychosocial risk management, and workplace wellbeing across industries including resources, mining, construction, healthcare, rail, manufacturing, education, and government. Her career began as a Registered Nurse, where she saw firsthand how health, leadership, and culture shape safety outcomes. That experience now underpins her consulting approach, helping organizations go beyond compliance to build workplaces where people genuinely feel safe, respected, and engaged. Kylie is known for her calm, strategic, and people-centered approach, as well as her ability to translate complex work health, safety, and wellbeing requirements into clear, actionable steps that make sense in real workplaces. For more Information: www.supportsafetysolutions.com.au Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    Managing Psychosocial Risks to Build Safer Workplaces with Kylie Long

  4. 6 Aug

    Ergonomics Meets Human Factors: Building Safer, Smarter Workplaces with Dr. Era Poddar

    In this week’s episode of The Safety Guru, we’re joined by Dr. Era Poddar, who shares her extensive expertise in ergonomics and human factors to explore what these principles are, why they matter, and how organizations can proactively integrate them into workplace design to transform safety outcomes, boost productivity, and build safer, smarter workplaces. She discusses the wide-ranging benefits of integrating these principles, including better decision-making, reduced cognitive load for employees, fewer errors, a lower risk of serious injuries and fatalities, and measurable returns on investment (ROI) through improvements in quality, productivity, and overall safety performance. This insightful discussion also highlights how leaders can champion ergonomic improvements, leverage emerging technologies that are reshaping workplace design, and foster a culture of continuous learning and improvement. Tune in to discover how ergonomics and human factors work together to build safer, healthier, and more productive organizations. Don’t miss this episode! About the Guest: Dr. Era Poddar is a Canadian Certified Professional Ergonomist (CCPE) and safety specialist, with broad international experience across North America, the Middle East, and Asia. With more than twenty years in consulting, coaching, training, and research related to ergonomics, human factors, workplace accommodation, and safety, Dr. Poddar helps organizations meet goals in health and safety, ergonomics, and MSI control. Her expertise covers industry, academia, corporate, and government sectors. She holds a Ph.D. in Industrial Ergonomics, a NEBOSH International General Certificate in Occupational Health and Safety (practical applications), and a mini-executive MBA from the Sauder School of Business, UBC. For more Information: https://ergoera.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    Ergonomics Meets Human Factors: Building Safer, Smarter Workplaces with Dr. Era Poddar

  5. 23 Jul

    The Power of Coaching: Building Safety Habits That Create Lasting Impact with Dr. Nicholas Weatherly

    Join us for a compelling conversation with Dr. Nicholas Weatherly, CEO of Deliberate Coaching International and a seasoned expert in applying the science of behavior to safety, leadership, and performance systems. In this episode, Dr. Nic explores the power of coaching, how to bring it into your organization, and how leaders can use it to drive meaningful and lasting change. He explains how small, consistent coaching interactions build safer habits, strengthen teams, and create a culture where people are set up for success. Discover why the safer path is the best path, how intentional coaching conversations drive meaningful behavior change, and why habit formation is essential to improving safety culture across an organization. Dr. Nic also shares practical coaching strategies leaders can apply immediately, including the power of asking open-ended questions, having brief but purposeful conversations, and consistently reinforcing positive behaviors. Tune in to discover how intentional, consistent coaching can transform safety culture one behavior at a time! About the Guest: Dr. Nicholas Weatherly is an internationally recognized leader in the application of the science of behavior to safety, leadership, and performance systems and serves as CEO of Deliberate Coaching International, where he and his team use behavioral strategies to drive culture change and improve organizational and safety performance. With over 25 years of experience in behavior-analytic safety, leadership, and coaching, he has led and advised organizations across industries worldwide, including manufacturing, energy, construction, and healthcare, helping transform safety cultures, align performance systems, and improve critical business and safety outcomes. For more Information: http://www.deliberatecoaching.org/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    The Power of Coaching: Building Safety Habits That Create Lasting Impact with Dr. Nicholas Weatherly

  6. 9 Jul

    Making Systems More Resilient: Elevating Situational Awareness and Critical Thinking with Craig Clapper

    Join us for this thought-provoking conversation with Craig Clapper, a seasoned systems engineer and founder of Reliability 4 Life, as he explores what it truly means to make systems more resilient. Craig explains why human error is an inevitable part of complex work and shares how organizations can strengthen situational awareness by helping people recognize where to focus their attention, identify the signals that matter most, and apply critical thinking in complex and safety-critical environments. Drawing on real-world examples from a variety of industries, including healthcare, Craig shares practical strategies for managing risk, improving recovery processes, and building organizational resilience. He also highlights the importance of fostering a culture of continuous learning to create safer, stronger workplaces. Don’t miss this insightful conversation and dive into how to build robust systems and elevate situational awareness and critical thinking within your organization. Tune in to learn more! About the Guest: Craig Clapper is a founder and the chief knowledge officer of Reliability 4 Life, a consulting group specializing in improving human performance in complex systems using evidence-based methods derived from high-reliability organizations. Craig has more than 30 years of experience improving reliability in power, transportation, manufacturing, and healthcare. His expertise includes failure analysis, event analysis, systems thinking, system reliability improvement, and safety culture transformation.  For more Information: https://reliability4life.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    Making Systems More Resilient: Elevating Situational Awareness and Critical Thinking with Craig Clapper

  7. 25 Jun

    The Neuroscience of Safety: Building a Second Line of Defense with Cristian Sylvestre

    This week on The Safety Guru, we welcome back returning guest Cristian Sylvestre as he takes a deeper dive into the neuroscience of safety and shares how applying neuroscience insights to daily operations can help build safer, more mindful workplaces. He introduces the concept of the second line of defense and explains why building attentive habits and learning to better manage subconscious brain modes are essential for preventing incidents. Drawing on cutting-edge research and real-world examples, he explains four powerful ways to reduce incidents: eliminating hazards, improving the effectiveness of controls, strengthening conscious control, and building subconscious skills and habits. He unpacks the dangers of complacency, drift, fatigue, multitasking, and production pressure, and how these hidden factors can quietly increase risk. Tune in for practical insights and evidence-based strategies to help organizations strengthen attention, improve risk awareness, and build attentive safety habits that enable individuals and teams to make better decisions, reduce risk, and keep workplaces safe. Join us for this thought-provoking discussion you won't want to miss! About the Guest: Cristian Sylvestre is a chemical engineer with a Master's degree. He started his 25-year safety career in heavy processing, where he learned to think holistically about safety. His research shows that inattention is involved in 95% of incidents of all severities. His work uses the discoveries of neuroscience to understand what really drives behaviour, how to minimise inattention, reduce errors, and prevent incidents everywhere, not just at work. He authored “Third Generation Safety: The Missing Piece” to help organisations understand the main causes of inattention and what can be done to help their people fail less. For more information: https://www.habitsafe.com.au/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    The Neuroscience of Safety: Building a Second Line of Defense with Cristian Sylvestre

  8. 11 Jun

    Safety Through Design: Preventing Incidents with Proactive Hazard Elimination with Dr. Lianne Lefsrud

    We are excited to welcome Dr. Lianne Lefsrud, seasoned expert in risk management and Risk, Innovation & Sustainability Chair (RISC) in the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Alberta, to The Safety Guru for a fascinating and in-depth discussion on safety through design. Backed by solid research and related industry examples, Dr. Lianne explores a proactive approach to safety by sharing the inverted triangle framework, which applies the hierarchy of controls principle to identify the most and least effective safety measures and create multiple layers of prevention through design. From the normalization of ignoring alarms to the gap between training and true competency, this conversation highlights the critical shifts organizations can make to move from reactive to proactive safety. Throughout the discussion, Dr. Lianne also discusses the importance of thoughtful facility design, how emerging technologies are transforming the way we manage risk, and shares practical steps organizations can take to prioritize improvements that mitigate the greatest risks. Tune in for valuable insights and practical strategies on safety through design, proactive hazard elimination, and embedding safety into organizational system design and operations. Don’t miss this episode! About the Guest: Dr. Lianne Lefsrud, PEng, (CEO) is the Risk, Innovation & Sustainability Chair (RISC) at the Faculty of Engineering, University of Alberta, where she leads interdisciplinary research and teaching in risk management. She has analyzed decades of incident data in diverse, high-hazard industries like hydrogen, mining, construction, railroading, and bioengineering. With a PhD in Strategic Management and Organization, and over 25 years of experience in operations, regulatory affairs, and strategy advising to governments and senior leaders, she brings a unique systems-level approach to risk management. For more information: https://insightrisksystems.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    Safety Through Design: Preventing Incidents with Proactive Hazard Elimination with Dr. Lianne Lefsrud
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About

Real leaders leave a legacy. They capture the hearts and minds of their teams. Their origin story puts the safety and wellbeing of their people first. Great companies ubiquitously have safe yet productive operations. For those companies, Safety is an investment, not a cost for the C-Suite. It’s a real topic of daily focus. The SAFETY GURU with host Eric Michrowski, a globally recognized Ops & Safety Guru, public speaker and author explores through leader interviews how to leave a safety legacy. Your legacy success story begins now.

Information

  • Creator
    Eric Michrowski
  • Years Active
    2020 - 2026
  • Episodes
    164
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyrights All Rights Reserved By Propulo Consulting
  • Show Website
    The Safety Guru

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