Facility Rockstars

Kaloutas

5.0 (13)
Management
Updated Weekly

This is Facility Rockstars! The podcast that celebrates the unsung heroes of our daily lives – facility professionals! I'm your host, Jay Culbert. Join me as we honor these leaders - sharing stories, insights, and expertise that empower us all to learn and grow together. Facility Rockstars is sponsored by Kaloutas, operating the way you operate in order to make your life easier. Learn more at: https://www.kaloutas.com

4d ago

Stop Blaming People: Build Better Systems with Ron Gantt

What if the biggest problem with workplace safety is the way we think about failure? In this episode of Facility Rockstars, Jay Culbert sits down with Ron Gantt, Vice President of Environmental Health and Safety at Beale Infrastructure, to challenge some of the traditional thinking around human error, incident investigations, and workplace safety. Ron explains why mistakes often aren't simply failures of the individual, but signs of a mismatch between people and the environments they're working in. Instead of asking who made the mistake, he encourages leaders to look at the demands people face, the resources available to them, and what can be changed to help them succeed. Jay and Ron also explore psychological safety, creating stronger relationships with contractors, moving away from punitive safety cultures, and why meaningful change doesn't always require a massive organizational initiative. Sometimes, the best place to start is with the part of the system you can actually control. Takeaways: Get the right people in the room when solving problems. The people closest to the work often have context that leadership doesn't. Ron stresses involving the people who will actually be affected by a decision instead of designing processes for them without their input.Human error is often a symptom, not the root problem. Rather than assuming a mistake lives within an individual, Ron encourages leaders to examine the mismatch between a person and their environment. Look at what made the task difficult, what pressures were present, and whether the person had the resources needed to succeed.Build systems that account for the fact that people will never be perfect. Mistakes are inevitable, especially in complex and changing environments. Strong safety systems don't just try to prevent errors. They include safeguards that help people recover when something does go wrong.Incident investigations should help you decide what to do next. Understanding what happened matters, but Ron argues that the real value of an investigation is using what you learn to improve how the system operates today and tomorrow, rather than simply assigning blame for the past.Safety is more than the absence of accidents. Ron defines safety as the capacity to succeed even when conditions change. That means understanding the demands workers face and ensuring they have the resources, tools, training, and support needed to adapt.Ask, “What did we actually fix?” Punishment, retraining, or corrective action can make it look like an organization responded to an incident without addressing the conditions that contributed to it. The better question is whether the response actually made future work safer.Start small and focus on what you can control. Meaningful change doesn't always require a massive initiative or complete buy-in from senior leadership. Ron encourages safety professionals to change what they can within their own sphere of influence, demonstrate that it works, and allow those small wins to create momentum. Quote of the Show: “Human error is a problem that lives in a mismatch between the person and their environment.” Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ron-gantt/ Email: rongantt@hotmail.com Website: https://bealeinfra.com/
Aug 27

Show Up for the Jobs That Suck with Sean Dearnley

The best facility leaders don’t just tell their teams what needs to get done. They show up and do the hard work alongside them. In this episode of Facility Rockstars, Jay Culbert sits down with Sean Dearnley, GxP Facilities Manager at CRISPR Therapeutics, to talk about the lessons Sean has learned working his way from hands-on HVAC and maintenance roles into facilities leadership. Sean shares why small acts of discipline can have a major impact, how thoughtful planning can turn an intimidating facility shutdown into a smooth operation, and why creating a strong maintenance culture requires constant reinforcement. He also explains how his years as a technician continue to shape the way he plans, communicates, and leads today. From predictive maintenance and GMP documentation to communication and team building, Sean offers a practical look at what it takes to keep critical environments running while building a team that trusts one another. Takeaways: Do the work upfront. Strong planning, preventative maintenance, and redundancy can make difficult situations much easier to execute when the time comes.Leadership doesn’t require a title. You can lead from any position by recognizing opportunities, communicating clearly, and helping the people around you succeed.Show up when the work gets difficult. Leaders build trust through action, especially when they are willing to work alongside their teams during the jobs no one wants to do.Listen to the people closest to the equipment. Operators and technicians often have valuable information that can make troubleshooting faster and more effective.Communication and documentation matter. In GMP environments especially, completing the repair is only part of the job. The ability to clearly communicate and document what happened separates good technicians from great ones. Quote of the Show: “I don't think there's any better team-building exercise than being in a crappy situation and figuring it out with your team and getting through it.” Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sean-dearnley-171a1399/ Website: https://crisprtx.com/
Aug 20

The Lessons That Stuck: A Facility Rockstars Summer Recap

This summer brought some incredible conversations to Facility Rockstars, but across different industries, roles, and experiences, the same lessons kept showing up. In this special solo episode, Jay Culbert looks back at the conversations and experiences that defined the summer, from Facility Rockstars events and the special EHS series to discussions about curiosity, adaptability, leadership, safety, and building stronger relationships. Jay reflects on lessons from Tim Reynolds, Maria Ruiz, Nick Petrosino, Rich Martelli, Pete Susca, Lindsay Seiberling, Jason Hyde, Darin Goodwin, and several past EHS guests, while sharing the ideas that have stuck with him most. The biggest takeaway? Great facility leaders don't just understand their buildings. They understand their people. Jay also gives a preview of what's ahead this fall, including upcoming events, new collaborations, future guests, and more opportunities for the Facility Rockstars community to connect. Takeaways: Stay curious enough to ask questions and humble enough to admit when you don't know something. Leadership isn't about always having the answer. Sometimes it's about knowing which question to ask.You can't control every challenge, but you can control how you communicate, respond, and bring people together.Safety only works when you get the human side right.Build relationships before you need them. Trust is much harder to create in the middle of a crisis.Behind every process, piece of equipment, safety program, and facility are people. Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jay-culbert-2675998/ Facility Rockstars Website: https://www.facilityrockstars.com/ Shoutouts: Tim ReynoldsMaria RuizNick Petrosino Rich Martelli Pete SuscaLindsay SeiberlingJason HydeDarin GoodwinColleen WalkerVanessa BradyLori SantoliJessica GoodhueDon BezekDon Watson
Aug 13

Why Great Vendor Relationships Are a Competitive Advantage with Troy Hollenbeck

Behind every well-run facility is a network of trusted relationships, thoughtful planning, and leaders who know that success isn't built alone. This week, Jay sits down with Troy Hollenbeck, an experienced facilities and operations leader, to discuss what he's learned after more than 25 years in the industry. From managing reactive maintenance environments and navigating post-COVID supply chain challenges to building strong vendor partnerships and creating exceptional customer experiences, Troy shares practical lessons that apply to every facilities professional. Throughout the conversation, he explains why patience, empathy, and continuous learning are some of the most valuable tools a leader can have. Takeaways: Strong relationships produce stronger results. Troy believes the best way to improve vendor performance is simple: make people want to work with you. Building trust, showing respect, and understanding the challenges vendors face creates partnerships that consistently deliver higher-quality work.Patience is one of the most valuable leadership skills. Facilities work is naturally reactive, but slowing down long enough to fully assess a problem often prevents bigger mistakes. Taking a measured approach leads to better decisions and more effective solutions.Preventative maintenance creates operational stability. While emergencies can't always be avoided, investing in preventative maintenance helps reduce downtime and gives teams a better chance of resolving issues quickly when they do occur.Standardization makes maintenance more efficient. Maintaining consistent equipment across facilities simplifies repairs, improves parts availability, reduces inventory complexity, and allows teams to respond faster when equipment fails.Customer experience extends far beyond the building itself. Whether it's curb appeal, store presentation, or amenities for EV charging customers, every detail shapes how people perceive a facility and whether they'll choose to return.Never assume you know everything. Troy encourages leaders at every stage of their career to stay curious, continue learning, and recognize that every team member brings valuable experience and perspectives to the table. Quote of the Show: "The simple thing is don't expect that you know more than everybody else." Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/troy-hollenbeck-65717221/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/troy_hollenbeck72/ Company Website: https://www.cumberlandfarms.com/
Aug 6

People Are the Safety Strategy with Six EHS Leaders

To close out our six-week series dedicated to environmental health and safety leadership, this special compilation episode brings together highlights from Jay Culbert's conversations with six standout EHS professionals: Colleen Walker, Vanessa Brady, Lori Santoli, Jessica Goodhue, Don Bezek, and Don Watson. Rather than a single interview, this episode weaves together their most memorable stories, from redesigning lockout/tagout procedures to make them intuitive on the plant floor, to navigating management-of-change processes for new equipment and chemicals, to rethinking how facilities are designed with universal accessibility in mind. Across every story, one thread holds the whole series together: EHS is fundamentally a people profession. Guests reflect on building cross-functional trust, using automation to eliminate hazards without eliminating jobs, balancing safety requirements against food-safety regulations, and the lasting lessons learned from leading teams through COVID-19. Whether you've followed the whole series or are just tuning in, this finale distills six weeks of hard-won wisdom into one conversation about why the technical side of safety only works when the human side comes first. Takeaways: Make safety procedures visual, not just verbal. Complex lockout/tagout steps became far more reliable once translated into color-coded, numbered visual indicators that workers could follow in the moment — not just recall from training.Build a cross-functional review process for management of change. Before bringing in new equipment, chemicals, or technology, loop in a team to review risks, permits, and training needs upfront — it's cheaper than discovering the gap after the fact.Automate to eliminate hazards, not to eliminate people. Look for opportunities to remove human error from dangerous manual tasks while redirecting — not replacing — the people who did them.Understand your industry's unique constraints. Safety solutions that work in one sector (like food manufacturing, with its strict food-safety rules) may need to be adapted rather than copy-pasted from another.Design facilities around all users, not just the average one. Applying universal design principles — equitable use, simplicity, low physical effort — early prevents costly retrofits and creates genuinely inclusive workplaces.Lead with relationships before you need them. Getting to know coworkers across departments — their interests, their pressures — makes it far easier to gain buy-in when it's time to introduce a safety change.Communicate constantly, even when you don't have all the answers. Consistent, two-way communication between the floor and leadership builds the trust that safety initiatives depend on to actually stick. Quote of the Show: "At the end of the day, it's a person, then it's people, and then you're back to people." Links: Colleen WalkerLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/colleenm-walker/ Website: https://www.stanleyblackanddecker.com/ Email: colleen.able@sbdinc.com Vanessa BradyLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vanessa-a-brady-ms-cih-csp-0096316/ Charles River Laboratories Website: https://www.criver.com/ American Industrial Hygiene Association: https://www.aiha.org Lori SantoliLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lori-santoli-csp/ Jessica GoodhueLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessica-goodhue-b50744271/ Website: https://channelfish.com/ Email: jgoodhue@channelfish.com Don BezekLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/donbezek/ Website: https://griffithfoods.com/ Don WatsonLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/donwatson94/ Website: https://www.oracle.com/
Jul 30

Safety Is the Foundation, People Are the Job: James Chapdelaine on Building Trust from the Floor Up

In the 5th installment of our special EHS series, host Jay Culbert sits down with James Chapdelaine, Senior Manager of Environmental Health and Safety at CIRCOR International, shares how nearly two decades in EHS taught him that his real job isn't safety; it's people. He explains why the strongest safety programs are never built behind a desk, but developed alongside the employees who use them every day, and how listening, communicating, and following through are what actually earn buy-in on the floor. James also walks through how a failed pre-shift inspection program at his former company, Stanley Black & Decker, evolved from a generic paper checklist to a fully digital process, a case study in his personal motto, "small improvements, lasting change." He closes with a candid conversation about staying "steady in the storm" as a leader, breaking down silos between EHS, facilities, and HR, and what drives him outside of work. Takeaways: Lead with trust, not authority. Safety programs succeed when people believe in why they exist — not just because they're written well.Invite every concern, safety-related or not. Being willing to help with small, non-safety issues is often what opens the door to bigger trust.Close the loop, every time. Even when a fix takes time, communicating progress keeps people from feeling ignored — and keeps them coming back with feedback.Expect to fail, then adapt. James's pre-shift inspection program went through three iterations — generic paper, detailed paper, then digital — before it worked.Make incremental progress your operating philosophy. "Small improvements, lasting change" keeps overwhelming projects from becoming paralyzing.Stay steady under pressure. A calm, consistent leader gives a team permission to stay focused instead of panicking.Break down departmental silos. EHS, facilities, maintenance, and HR need to move together — rolling out a program without the right partners in the room is a setup for failure. Quote of the Show: "You can have the best written safety program or procedure in the world... but if people don't understand it, they don't believe in it, then it's just set up to fail right out the gate." Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesezrachapdelainecshm/ Website: https://www.circor.com/
Jul 23

The Hidden Cost of Shortcuts with Darin Goodwin

Creating a strong safety culture isn't about policing people. It's about earning trust, communicating clearly, and helping employees understand why safety matters. In this episode of Facility Rockstars, Jay Culbert sits down with Darin Goodwin, HSE Senior Manager supporting Takeda Pharma Global at CBRE Global Workplace Solutions. Drawing on more than 30 years of environmental health and safety leadership, Darin shares practical lessons on building a culture where people feel empowered to speak up, stop unsafe work, and take ownership of protecting themselves and those around them. From improving training engagement and documentation to changing workplace behaviors through empathy instead of authority, Darin explains why safety professionals are at their best when they work with people instead of against them. The conversation also explores leadership, communication, technology, distracted workplaces, and why every safety decision has an impact that extends far beyond the individual involved. Takeaways: Communication removes uncertainty: Clear expectations and open dialogue eliminate the "gray areas" where misunderstandings and safety issues often develop. Great safety leaders communicate just as effectively with executives as they do with frontline employees.People need to understand the "why”: Rules alone rarely change behavior. When employees understand why a procedure exists and the real consequences of ignoring it, they're much more likely to make safer decisions.Safety culture is built through relationships: Employees respond far better to leaders who coach and support than those who simply enforce rules. Working alongside people creates trust, accountability, and long-term buy-in.Strong processes create safer outcomes: Checklists, documentation, supervisor approvals, and consistent procedures help remove uncertainty and ensure important safety steps aren't skipped when work gets busy.Every incident impacts more than one person: A workplace injury affects coworkers, families, productivity, and the organization as a whole. Safety isn't just about preventing accidents. It's about protecting people's lives both inside and outside of work.Never hesitate to stop unsafe work: Stop-work authority exists for a reason. Speaking up before something goes wrong is one of the most important responsibilities anyone can have in creating a safer workplace. Quote of the Show: "Always be open in communication with people so they know what you're expecting. You get more with sugar than you do with spice." Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daringoodwin/ Website: https://www.cbre.com/services/manage-properties-and-portfolios/facilities-management
Jul 16

Why Safety Culture Starts with Human Connection with Jason Hyde

Part three of our special six-week series spotlighting Environmental Health & Safety (EHS) professionals features Jason Hyde, EHS Manager at SIGCO, Inc., whose approach to safety leadership goes far beyond compliance. Jason shares why building a strong safety culture starts with understanding people, not just policies. From creating personal connections that change behavior to navigating language barriers, mental health, and emergency preparedness in today's evolving workplace, he explains why the best safety leaders focus on trust, communication, and employee engagement. This conversation offers practical insights for anyone responsible for protecting people while building a culture where employees genuinely want to do the right thing. Takeaways: Safety culture is built through people, not policies. Compliance is essential, but regulations alone don't change behavior. Creating personal connections and helping employees understand why safety matters is what drives lasting cultural change.Make safety personal. Every employee has a different motivation for working safely. Leaders who take the time to understand what matters most to their people can create conversations that lead to meaningful behavior change.Your workforce is one of your greatest resources. Instead of trying to solve every communication challenge alone, empower employees to become part of the solution. Leveraging bilingual subject matter experts and involving frontline workers strengthens both understanding and trust.Never compromise what's right. Safety professionals will inevitably face pressure to take shortcuts. Jason explains why standing firm, presenting facts, and leading with integrity is essential for protecting both employees and organizational culture.Mental health is part of workplace safety. Supporting employees also means recognizing when someone may be struggling outside of work. Jason encourages safety professionals to care for both their teams and themselves because difficult situations are an unavoidable part of the job.Challenges create better leaders. Jason reflects on how COVID forced safety teams to rethink communication, training, and operations, ultimately creating new tools and approaches that continue to improve workplace safety today. Quote of the Show: "Never compromise what's right. You compromise that value once, and you'll compromise it every time after that." Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-hyde-b02158144/ Website: https://www.sigcoinc.com/

Trailer

Facility Rockstars Trailer

Facility Rockstars

5

out of 5

13 Ratings

Love this show!

08/13/2025

A.goy

Jay’s a great host! He’s super authentic and always brings the best out of his guests. Keep on rockin!

This is Facility Rockstars! The podcast that celebrates the unsung heroes of our daily lives – facility professionals! I'm your host, Jay Culbert. Join me as we honor these leaders - sharing stories, insights, and expertise that empower us all to learn and grow together. Facility Rockstars is sponsored by Kaloutas, operating the way you operate in order to make your life easier. Learn more at: https://www.kaloutas.com

Creator

Kaloutas
Years Active

2024 - 2026
Episodes

130
Rating

Explicit
Copyright

© Kaloutas
Show Website

Facility Rockstars

Comedy

Comedy

Updated Semiweekly