John Wooden, arguably the greatest coach in any sport of all time, once said he would rather lead with a banner than follow with a whip. To build a total safety culture, leaders must give employees feedback through praise in order to build a safety culture. Corrective action is certainly needed at times to correct at risk behavior. However a pat on the back is often times just as powerful. A safety culture is one where safety is integrated into the operations daily activities and never compromised. Most unsafe acts result from poor safety attitudes NOT from a lack of knowledge. To encourage safety oriented attitudes consider adopting the following safety culture practices:

• Actively involve your workforce and have them commit to producing safely
• Report near misses

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Article courtesy of msha.gov