The Safety Guru

Hosted by Eric Michrowski

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Episodes

162

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Aug 2026

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About the show

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.

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60 recent

September 3, 202637 min

Episode 162 - 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

August 20, 202625 min

Episode 161 - 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

August 6, 202632 min

Episode 160 - 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

July 23, 202635 min

Episode 159 - 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

July 9, 202638 min

Episode 158 - 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

June 25, 202639 min

Episode 157 - 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

June 11, 202647 min

Episode 156 - 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

May 28, 202629 min

Episode 155 - Driving Safety Transformation Through Human-Centered Design with Paul Davison

Join us on The Safety Guru for an informative conversation with Paul Davison, former Royal Air Force helicopter pilot and Founder & CEO of PPWD, as he shares what it truly means to drive safety transformation through human-centered design. In this episode, Paul explores the essence of coaching, raising awareness, and improving decision-making at every level. He discusses how psychologically safe learning environments empower people to take ownership of their own safety and that of those around them. He emphasizes that the true value within any company is its people and shares how connection and vulnerability through human-centered design can foster meaningful organizational change and strengthen safety culture. Through real-world examples, including rail and winter sports, Paul brings to life the powerful shift from “doing things to people” to “doing things with people,” unlocking trust, ownership, and meaningful engagement. Packed with practical insights and tangible takeaways, this episode is a must-listen for leaders looking to strengthen engagement, elevate safety culture, and drive lasting safety transformation within their organization. Tune in now! About the Guest: Paul Davison is the CEO and founder of PPWD. Across a diverse range of safety-critical industries through to elite sport, he advocates a compassionate approach to safety. The PPWD team creates environments that accommodate humans for being human and enable cultures of learning, adaptation, and sustainable high performance. For more information: www.ppwd.co.uk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

May 14, 202631 min

Episode 154 - Small Acts, Big Impact: Elevating Safety and Mental Health with Dr. Keita Franklin

In recognition of Mental Health Awareness Month, we’re proud to feature an inspiring conversation with our returning guest, Dr. Keita Franklin. Drawing from fascinating research in her latest book, The Humanity Cure: How Small Acts Can Change the World, we explore how small, intentional acts of care can make a significant impact on workplace safety and mental health. Dr. Franklin discusses how being present, showing compassion, and fostering a sense of belonging can create meaningful change across entire organizations and communities. She also highlights the critical link between mental health and safety, emphasizing how frontline leaders who demonstrate active care, along with peers who consistently support one another, help build psychologically safe workplaces where people feel valued, engaged, and committed to working safely. We also explore the transformative ripple effect of small acts of kindness and how helping others fuels a cycle of connection, resilience, and forward momentum. Don’t miss this impactful episode as we take a deep dive into how small acts can make a big impact in elevating both safety and mental health. About the Guest: Dr. Keita Franklin is a nationally recognized public health leader and senior executive with more than 25 years of experience advancing large-scale systems change across federal and healthcare sectors. Her work has focused on suicide prevention, behavioral health, substance use, and the integration of public health approaches within complex organizations. A recognized expert in suicide prevention and public health leadership, she serves as Co-Director of the Columbia Lighthouse Project, where she leads national and international efforts to support the implementation and dissemination of evidence-based suicide risk screening protocols across healthcare, community, and organizational settings. Dr. Franklin holds a PhD in Social Work from Virginia Commonwealth University. For more information: https://thehumanitycure.org/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

April 30, 202634 min

Episode 153 - Prepare for the Unexpected: Leadership and Safety Lessons from an Offshore Explosion with Lee Ellis

In this powerful episode of The Safety Guru, Lee Ellis from Proud2BSafe shares his firsthand experience of a catastrophic offshore explosion in 2020, involving a commercial fishing vessel off the UK coast, and the critical leadership and safety lessons that emerged from it. Through vivid storytelling, he takes us into the heart of the crisis, revealing what it truly means to prepare for the unexpected. Drawing from this life-altering event, Lee explores essential lessons in safety leadership under pressure, risk identification and mitigation, and the true value of recurring training—not just completing it but truly trusting it when it matters most. He highlights the importance of prioritizing mental health support, fostering a strong debrief culture, and providing ongoing support in the aftermath of trauma. Lee also emphasizes that exchanging experiences and knowledge across teams, along with adopting a growth mindset, is vital to strengthening safety culture and ensuring teams are truly prepared for unexpected situations. Tune in now to experience his powerful story and discover these impactful lessons, as he challenges us to move beyond routine safety practices and actively prepare for the unexpected. About the Guest: Lee Ellis is a seasoned maritime professional and survivor of one of the UK’s most serious commercial fishing incidents in recent years. On 15 December 2020, he was directly involved in the emergency response to a catastrophic offshore explosion that severely damaged a vessel and injured multiple crew members. His message goes far beyond the incident—highlighting the value of training, leadership under pressure, and the critical importance of mental health support in the aftermath of trauma. He challenges teams to move beyond routine safety and truly prepare for the unexpected. For more information: https://www.p2bs.org/safety-speakers/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices