Leading Safety

Study Worker Behavior to Implement Real Change, Optimize Efficiency

peter.furst@gmail.com (Peter G. Furst) — Tue, 05 May 2026 00:00:00 -0400

In studying worker behavior as they go about performing their tasks, one may realize that the worker’s attitude was manifested in how they performed their work.

How to Move Past Unconscious Biases to Improve Safety Performance

peter.furst@gmail.com (Peter G. Furst) — Fri, 17 Apr 2026 00:00:00 -0400

Research has shown that human judgment and decision-making are distorted by biases inherent to cognitive, motivational, and perceptual processes.

Improving Performance, Quality and Safety by Identifying Unconscious Biases in Operations

peter.furst@gmail.com (Peter G. Furst) — Thu, 12 Mar 2026 00:00:00 -0400

Everyone has biases which unconsciously influence our actions and/or perceptions and can be both positive and negative in nature. This invariably can manifest itself in any work performed by employees.

Hidden Drivers of Safety Error Include Rationality, Which Affects Human Behavior

peter.furst@gmail.com (Peter G. Furst) — Wed, 07 Jan 2026 09:00:00 -0500

To truly understand why and how things happen in the way that they do, we need to have an inside perspective into a worker’s rationality principle.

Implications of Employee Morale Significant for Safety Management

peter.furst@gmail.com (Peter G. Furst) — Mon, 15 Dec 2025 09:00:00 -0500

When the workforce feels that they can trust the people they work with and for and that they are treated fairly by management, they tend to think of the organization as a good place to work.

The Role Belief Plays in Risk Management

peter.furst@gmail.com (Peter G. Furst) — Thu, 09 Oct 2025 09:00:00 -0400

Several research studies have identified that workers (as well as management) have different perspectives on risk and the potential negative resulting outcomes from exposure to them.

Why Traditional Safety Metrics Fail

peter.furst@gmail.com (Peter G. Furst) — Thu, 11 Sep 2025 09:00:00 -0400

The effectiveness of traditional ways and means utilized to avoid accidents and injuries in the workplace is not highly efficacious.

The Effect of Mindfulness in Construction Communication

peter.furst@gmail.com (Peter G. Furst) — Thu, 12 Jun 2025 09:00:00 -0400

Common construction practices pose various challenges to productive and safe operations and the prevention of worker injuries.

The Role Beliefs Play in Safety

peter.furst@gmail.com (Peter G. Furst) — Wed, 14 May 2025 09:00:00 -0400

Studies have shown that people’s behavior is driven by their underlying belief systems. This has an effect on hazard management, exposure assessment, and accident prevention.

Supervisors Require Diverse Skillset to Manage Employees

peter.furst@gmail.com (Peter G. Furst) — Wed, 09 Apr 2025 09:00:00 -0400

An important element of organizational success depends on its employees' effective and efficient performance of their assigned tasks.

The 5 Pillars of a Highly Effective Safety Management Process

peter.furst@gmail.com (Peter G. Furst) — Mon, 10 Mar 2025 08:00:00 -0400

Focus on a robust, value-based safety program rather than uniformity driven by standards for an injury-free workplace.

The Importance of Influence in Safety

peter.furst@gmail.com (Peter G. Furst) — Mon, 03 Feb 2025 11:00:00 -0500

Safety personnel must be able to influence worker behaviors so that they are cognizant of risks associated with their tasks and perform their work in a safe manner.

Effective communication is required for optimal safety at worksites

peter.furst@gmail.com (Peter G. Furst) — Mon, 16 Dec 2024 14:30:00 -0500

Understand how different types of messages make a difference and improve safety at industrial worksites.

Attribution — A hidden risk factor

peter.furst@gmail.com (Peter G. Furst) — Sat, 19 Oct 2024 10:00:00 -0400

Attribution refers to the cognitive process that people use to find reason for either their own behavior or that of others.

Reversing the normalization of performance deviations can be difficult

peter.furst@gmail.com (Peter G. Furst) — Thu, 03 Oct 2024 09:00:00 -0400

Many organizations suffer from performance deviation despite their best efforts.

The attributes of power and how it impacts safety performance

peter.furst@gmail.com (Peter G. Furst) — Fri, 02 Aug 2024 10:00:00 -0400

How is power distributed in an organization and how does it affect safety?

Insights into effective safety communication

peter.furst@gmail.com (Peter G. Furst) — Tue, 18 Jun 2024 09:30:00 -0400

The effectiveness of workplace communication is reliant on a number of factors, such as environment, skillset and structure.

The foreman’s impact on safe performance

peter.furst@gmail.com (Peter G. Furst) — Thu, 16 May 2024 09:00:00 -0400

An important operational goal of an organization is to strive to create a productive, supportive and safe work environment for its employees.

A look into safety management

peter.furst@gmail.com (Peter G. Furst) — Tue, 16 Apr 2024 09:00:00 -0400

To effectively and holistically approach the problem of occupational accidents, injuries and fatalities needs a major and complete review and assessment.

Improving safety by focusing on risk management

peter.furst@gmail.com (Peter G. Furst) — Tue, 19 Mar 2024 09:00:00 -0400

When it comes to managing the risk associated with employee safety, the risk manager usually looks to the safety department to address that area.

The organizational culture drives (safety) performance

peter.furst@gmail.com (Peter G. Furst) — Sat, 10 Feb 2024 09:00:00 -0500

To make any permanent significant change to companies’ organizational systems, practices, or procedures, one has to modify the culture.

Communication leads to engagement

peter.furst@gmail.com (Peter G. Furst) — Sat, 16 Dec 2023 10:00:00 -0500

Successful execution of organizational strategy hinges on the effectiveness of the supervisor's ability to lead workers to enthusiastically engage in their assigned tasks.

Why do many safety change initiatives fail to achieve expected results?

peter.furst@gmail.com (Peter G. Furst) — Wed, 18 Oct 2023 00:00:00 -0400

Improvement initiatives in safety face challenges due to structural issues in the administration of operations, management and practices.

Why do these safety myths prevail?

peter.furst@gmail.com (Peter G. Furst) — Thu, 21 Sep 2023 00:00:00 -0400

Safety is an outcome of an activity engaged in by a person performing their daily work or task. Let’s dispute some myths.

Human error: Prevention vs. tolerance | Part 2 of 2

peter.furst@gmail.com (Peter G. Furst) — Fri, 18 Aug 2023 00:00:00 -0400

The traditional approaches to managing human performance may not be effective. Here’s a new approach to performance evaluation.

A new perspective on safety management | Part 1 of 2

peter.furst@gmail.com (Peter G. Furst) — Thu, 15 Jun 2023 00:00:00 -0400

Traditionally, performance has been managed by setting goals for employees to achieve or accomplish. Here’s a new perspective.

How to proactively manage construction safety through pre-operational planning

peter.furst@gmail.com (Peter G. Furst) — Mon, 22 May 2023 00:00:00 -0400

Why are workers getting hurt in spite of safety standards, programs, policies, procedures, training, and possibly everyone’s best efforts?

Ignoring or engaging in risky behavior might be a perception issue

peter.furst@gmail.com (Peter G. Furst) — Thu, 27 Apr 2023 00:00:00 -0400

A person’s perception of risk or their tolerance of it, will in one way or another influence their decision-making and impact their safety.

A scorecard for safety

peter.furst@gmail.com (Peter G. Furst) — Wed, 15 Mar 2023 00:00:00 -0400

To manage effectively, information that tells management in real time how well the organizational and operational systems are performing in order is crucial.

Unintentional biases based on personal experience may affect the workplace

peter.furst@gmail.com (Peter G. Furst) — Tue, 07 Feb 2023 00:00:00 -0500

People can make relatively logical assessment of situations and information, but we have to be careful of possible biases in our interaction with others.