“The Doc” Mike Williamsen is a nationally recognized workplace safety consultant with more than 25 years of safety and business change management experience. His background includes serving in Engineering, Operations, and Safety Manager positions for companies such as Frito-Lay, Inc., and General Dynamics. Mike has applied high-impact safety principles to Fortune 500 companies such as General Dynamics, Baxter Healthcare, ATCO Electric, Rohm and Haas Co., and BASF. He received his academic degrees from the University of California, Berkeley (B.S.), California State University, Hayward (MBA) and Columbia Southern University, Orange Coast, Alabama (Ph.D., Business).
One thing we can always count on in life is change. And with change comes transformation. Although we are no longer making near as many obsolete technology products, there is always the need for the fundamentals in safety such as regulations, PPE and the like.
My first job out of college was as engineer # 3884 in a large oil refinery. Yield, cost, and throughput were all more important to the organization than the front-line people who were nameless numbers to the higher-ups.
For many years I worked as someone who came into a company or organization which was in serious risk of going under. It seemed strange to me that almost without exception there was a significant resistance to making change / improvement in a culture that most all thought to be terminally sick.
For a recent job assignment I was driving from Copper Mountain, Colorado to Denver, Colorado to catch a flight to the Pacific Northwest. As I prepared to leave, with a significant amount of spare time to make this important flight, I checked the internet for road conditions.
What are boundaries? A practical definition is “the lines or limits that are not to be crossed,” such as not passing a school bus when its red lights are flashing and one doughnut per week. We all create boundaries, some less rigid than others, but they’re meant to benefit and protect us without getting in the way of what we want to accomplish.
Recently one of our potential customers asked this question: For a firm that has a DART rate of 0.5, and would like to get to a DART rate of 0.2, to help make the compelling case for change, what is the likelihood that you’re more likely to experience an SIF event having a DART rate of 0.5, thus the need for change?
The basics of safety like PPE, JSA, OSHA, etc. are good fundamentals. However, achieving true safety excellence must include both the basics and go beyond them.
Recently, I was in the Central American country of Costa Rica. While there I kept hearing the phrase Pura Vida as people greeted one another. As I discussed this with our host he gave me two translations; the word by word meaning is the pure life.
For years, the Las Vegas tiger show wowed audiences as Siegfried and Roy petted the tigers. Slowly and lethally the new normal lulled the entertainers into complacency with their truly dangerous pets. And then one day…
