Safety Labs by Safety Products Global

In this episode, Mary Conquest speaks with Diane Chadwick-Jones, a former BP safety leader and long-time researcher whose work has shaped how organizations think about safety incentives. Diane explains why linking pay and bonuses to injury rates often creates unintended consequences, including suppressed reporting and reduced learning. Drawing on years of internal and external research, she shows...

In this episode, Mary Conquest speaks with Leslie Rex Stockel, Associate Professor of Fire Protection and Safety Engineering Technology at Oklahoma State University and a long-time leader in safety education. Drawing on decades of experience and teaching, Leslie reflects on how safety ideas evolved from Taylor and Heinrich to behavior-based safety and human performance. And assesses the impact of...

In this episode, Mary Conquest speaks with Martijn Flinterman, a sociologist, researcher and author, specializing in how organizations deal with safety. Drawing on the work of Niklas Luhmann, Martijn challenges many assumptions that underpin traditional safety management. He explores why focusing primarily on accidents can obscure crucial safety insights, and why categories such as “safe” and “uns...

In this episode, Mary Conquest speaks with Ben Goodheart, a human-centred safety consultant and podcast host who advocates a design thinking mindset to improve safety outcomes. Ben introduces EHS professionals to the concept of design thinking and its practical application in workplace safety. He explores the importance of workers’ experiences, small-scale experiments and incremental change - and...

In this episode, Mary Conquest speaks with Aaron Potash, an experienced EHS Design Program leader with a background in emergency response and diving instruction. Drawing parallels from these two high-pressure, unpredictable environments, Aaron explores why rule-heavy approaches often fail to support real-world decision-making. He explains how practice, repetition and exposure to realistic scenario...

In this episode, Mary Conquest speaks with Donna Carter, a psychology-informed transformational safety consultant with extensive experience of suicide prevention in remote workplace situations. Drawing on compelling stories from her frontline work, Donna discusses the complex challenges of suicide prevention and how EHS professionals can support workers in this extremely sensitive area. She explor...

In this episode, Mary Conquest speaks with Dr. Ashley Gill, an experienced safety consultant whose passion for developing the next generation of EHS professionals led her to teaching. Through her work educating the next generation of EHS professionals, experienced practitioners and engineers, Ashley has firsthand knowledge of the habits, assumptions and gaps that shape how students understand safe...

In this episode, Mary Conquest speaks with Jake Mazulewicz, a former firefighter, EMT and paratrooper, who is now a Human Reliability consultant and author . Jake translates ideas from Human and Organizational Performance (HOP) and High Reliability Organizations (HRO) into clear, practical actions EHS professionals can use on the job. He explains why incidents rarely have a single root cause and s...

In this episode, Mary Conquest speaks with Dr. Fred Sherratt, a world-leading academic in the field of construction safety and the founder of Straight Talk Safety. Drawing on her decades of experience and research, Fred explains why safety in construction is never static, and why, at its heart, safety is a people’s game. She describes the unique challenges of an industry where crews, work areas, a...

In this episode, Mary Conquest speaks with Dr. Matt Law — certified safety professional, researcher, strategist, author, and podcast host. Matt explores why safety research often fails to actually help EHS practitioners in the workplace. He breaks down what makes research “bad,” the roles of qualitative and quantitative methods, and how statistical findings can be better translated for real-world...

In this episode, Mary Conquest speaks with Ron Gantt, Vice President of EHS at Beal Infrastructure and a leading voice in safety management. Ron helps safety professionals navigate the challenges of working with contractors, where hidden coordination costs and fragile common ground often undermine safety. He explains why contractors add complexity, how authority differentials distort information f...

In this episode, we’re conducting a thorough investigation of the different theories and frameworks Safety professionals can adopt to keep their co-workers safe. There’s been a palpable shift in attitudes towards workplace safety over recent years, with multiple more-human-centred approaches emerging. But their key differences and relative effectiveness often polarize the safety profession. We’ve...

In this episode, Mary Conquest speaks with Greg Smith, an international award-winning author and qualified lawyer who has spent more than two decades specializing in Safety and Health management. Greg is also regarded as a leading provider of Safety training, particularly in the areas of management responsibilities and contractor safety management. Describing himself as ‘Safety agnostic’, Greg doe...

In this episode, we’re conducting a thorough investigation of Safety metrics to help HSE practitioners measure (and manage) the factors that most accurately reflect Safety performance. We’ve compiled a collection of thoughts, opinions and ideas about safety data, analysis and reporting from 19 of our previous guests discussing various aspects of this diverse and divisive subject. Many question the...

In this episode, Mary Conquest speaks with Christian Harris, the founder of Slips Safety Services, who also hosts the Safety Roundtable and the Safety and Risk Success podcast. Christian, a social media communications expert, joins us today to offer EHS professionals practical guidance to strengthen your online presence. Christian begins this insightful conversation by sharing his life-changing pe...

In this episode, we’re conducting a thorough investigation of a EHS practitioner’s job description to help you focus on the areas of workplace safety that matter most. We've compiled a collection of thoughts, opinions and ideas about Safety professional’s key responsibilities from 20 of our previous guests. All agree that practitioners are no longer “Safety Cops” but what should they be instead: f...

In this episode, Mary Conquest speaks with Carsten Busch - the "Indiana Jones of Safety", who has over 25 years of experience in HSEQ Management. and is a tutor in the Lund University human factors and system safety program. Carsten is also a Safety historian and has extensively researched and written about the work of Herbert William Heinrich - and shares his finding with us in this fascinating i...

In this episode, Mary Conquest speaks with Joelle Mitchell, an organizational psychologist and human factors specialist, who translates academic research findings from psychology, OHS and human factors into actionable risk management insights. Joelle tells the story of her journey to specializing in psychosocial health, and helps simplify psychological safety for EHS practitioners. She explores ke...

In this episode, Mary Conquest speaks with Dr Todd Loushine, a former OSHA compliance officer and EHS practitioner who now teaches the next generation of Safety professionals as an Associate Professor at the University of Wisconsin. Todd uses his wide-ranging experience to improve worker success, satisfaction and safety - and in this highly-engaging discussion, he focuses his wisdom on the importa...

In this episode, Mary Conquest speaks with Dr Peter Brace, a psychological safety consultant who helps organizations link respect and accountability through psychological safety to improve team performance. He begins this engaging conversation by clarifying how much influence Safety professionals can have on psychological safety. Perhaps surprisingly for a consultant, Peter explains that you can’t...

In this episode, Mary Conquest speaks with Murray Ritchie, an experienced OHS practitioner, researcher, educator, and speaker who’s worked with various industries, governments, and NGOs. He joins us to discuss the content of his new book: ‘Seven Bad Habits of Safety Management - Examining Systemic Failure’ (published September 2023). Murray gives EHS professionals an honest, open and comprehensive...

In this episode, we’re conducting a thorough investigation of ‘safety culture’ to help HSE practitioners bring some clarity to this controversial term. We've compiled a collection of thoughts, opinions and ideas about safety culture from 15 of our previous guests discussing various aspects of this nebulous subject. The main dispute is whether safety culture actually exists, but even when we get pa...

In this episode, Mary Conquest speaks with Tony Muschara, a Human and Organizational Performance (HOP) specialist and owner of Mushara Error Management Consulting. He’s also the author of several Safety books, including ‘Risk-based Thinking’, and its follow-up ‘Critical Steps’ -  which is the main focus of this fascinating interview. Tony begins by exploring the role of an EHS professional and rev...

In this episode, Mary Conquest speaks with Stephan Wiedner, an entrepreneur on a mission to abolish apathy in the workplace. He’s the cofounder of Noomii.com , the web’s largest network of independent life coaches and Skillsetter.com , a platform similar to a flight simulator for practicing interpersonal skills. Safety management relies on trust, persuasion, and approachability, yet EHS profession...

In this episode, Mary Conquest speaks with Christian Hunt, author of 'Humanizing Rules' and founder of Human Risk, a consultancy and training firm that brings behavioral science to ethics & compliance. Christian helps Safety practitioners understand and minimize their exposure to human risk, and he begins by explaining why he wrote his latest book. Packed with entertaining anecdotes, this live...