Agenda

This interactive workshop bridges the gap between understanding SafeStart and consistently applying it in the flow of daily work. Beginning with a high-level 30,000-foot view of SafeStart, participants will quickly move beyond theory into practical application—learning how to naturally incorporate SafeStart concepts, techniques, and mitigation tools into everyday safety and performance conversations.

This session explores how to embed tools like SafeChat, Rate Your State and other communication strategies into existing engagement opportunities such as Gemba walks, pre-shift briefings, toolbox talks and informal field interactions. Participants will gain practical approaches for recognizing human factors in real time and turning routine conversations into meaningful interventions that reduce risk.

Special focus is given to applying SafeStart principles within specific worksite processes, dynamics, and real-world situations—such as unplanned downtime, production pressures, and unexpected operational challenges. Participants will leave with clear, actionable strategies to make SafeStart part of “how work gets done,” strengthening both safety outcomes and overall performance through consistent, human-centered communication.

Additional registration required.

We hear a lot of talk about AI—it seems to be everywhere. But most safety and operations professionals are asking themselves the same question: What can I actually do with it?

This hands-on, demo-rich workshop answers that question by putting AI directly into your hands. Grounded in human factors and human and organizational performance (HOP) principles, this highly interactive session goes beyond theory to real application. Participants will explore how AI can support error reduction, improve decision-making, and enhance operational performance—without losing sight of the human element at the center of work. It addresses a common misconception: AI is not here to replace people or to solve human factors challenges on its own. Systems, context, and conditions influence human error, and AI is most effective when it supports better thinking, not replaces it.

Participants are required to bring their laptops and real-world challenges. Through live demonstrations and structured guided practice, they will learn how to use advanced prompting techniques and apply AI tools like Claude to analyze incidents, enhance communication, identify system weaknesses, and generate practical solutions in minutes. Participants will leave this session with applied skills, tested use cases, and a clear starting point for integrating AI into safety and operational excellence efforts—augmenting human judgment and strengthening performance right at the sharp end where it matters most.

Additional registration required.

Jamie Clarke knows a lot about leadership and uncertainty. He has spent his entire adult life embracing the unknown. From his days as a world-renowned adventure leader and elite climber to becoming a successful business builder and professional sports consultant to a Stanley Cup-winning hockey team, Jamie has navigated countless high-pressure and challenging landscapes. Even though teams and individuals consistently ignore this certainty, Jamie knows it: Uncertainty leads to indecision. Indecision leads to fear. Fear leads to chaos. Chaos ends in failure. Always. Jamie will take you inside the mindset and the leadership qualities that build team cultures that don’t shrink from uncertainty. They succeed when others fail. What to do when your old map no longer works? These cultures are everything from teams of business professionals, expeditions struggling to survive negative 70-degree blizzards in the death zone of 25,000 feet, or professional sports teams finding their collective way to break through past failures and become champions. With an infectious sense of humor and palpable, authentic passion, Jamie challenges audiences to think differently about success, failure, hard work and fear.

Not every organization needs the same approach to building an effective human factors management plan—and choosing the right focus can make all the difference. This highly interactive session is designed to help you understand SafeStart’s capabilities and pinpoint what your organization needs in order to map the most relevant path forward. For over 25 years, SafeStart has helped organizations strengthen personal safety awareness and skills. Through live polling and guided discussion, participants will assess their current challenges, pressures, and priorities, while gaining a clearer understanding of both SafeStart’s offerings and the SafeStart Human Factors Framework. Plus, gain insight into how the framework can be used as a practical tool to diagnose gaps and guide decision-making. Start here if you’d like guidance on which solutions—and Forum sessions—best align with your needs. And come ready to participate, reflect, and leave with a clear sense of direction.

We're giving you the keys, so come and explore the SafeStart Portal—a gateway into everything you need for sustaining SafeStart. Participants will quickly get their feet wet with an introduction to the SafeStart Portal and then they will fully immerse themselves in the practical application of the portal with a guided tour and a scavenger hunt to quickly locate key resources like meeting topics, handouts, and home/family safety materials. This session also takes participants “from the portal to the floor,” engaging them in scenario role play to act out the practical application of the portal. The portal team will then highlight strategies for extending SafeStart beyond the workplace, using family-focused resources to reinforce a 24/7 safety mindset. By the end of this session, participants will leave with a clear action plan, increased confidence in using the portal, and practical ideas to keep SafeStart alive through consistent, meaningful engagement. *This is an interactive session that requires you to bring your own laptop (make sure it's fully charged before the session) and your company SafeStart Portal access code.

Lori and Stacey will begin by posing a few questions to participants to help shape the session. Working with the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, Boys & Girls Clubs of America adapted four tools for building a positive workplace climate that will be shared with participants: emotional check-ins (designed to help participants recognize emotions in themselves and others and develop strategies for regulating or managing emotions), group agreements (shared vision created by participants to build an emotionally supportive environment), the meta-moment (helps participants handle strong emotions to make better decisions for themselves and their community) and the restorative roadmap (helps participants manage conflicts and their aftermath). Participants will engage in exercises using these four tools and gain a deeper understanding of how leaders can help create a positive climate in which everyone feels connected and supported, respected and valued, inspired and excited, and emotionally safe and comfortable. When people feel supported, respected and safe, they are more likely to engage in impactful activities and positive interactions. Participants can expect facilitated discussions, video examples and situational exercises.

Organizational complacency feels like an oxymoron until you realize it’s often built into the very systems designed to drive performance. Most organizations don’t see it until the consequences show up. Human factors rarely operate in isolation—they’re shaped and reinforced by the systems people work within every day. Complacency isn’t just a mindset; it’s a system condition that individuals adapt to over time. This session takes a closer look at how organizational norms, structures, and pressures quietly influence behavior, decision-making, and ultimately performance. From the familiar “we’ve always done it this way” mindset to production-driven environments that normalize mindsets that increase risk, we’ll explore how these patterns become embedded—and why they can be so difficult to change. The interactive conversation will also challenge the risks of becoming comfortable with the status quo, including how it can limit innovation, reduce adaptability, and create blind spots around risk. By discussing models from specific case experiences, you will be engaged in real-life scenario discussions and subsequent insights that can help leaders recognize these systemic influences (and subsequent pitfalls) and shift from simply managing outcomes to intentionally shaping the conditions that drive them. Participants will leave with a clearer understanding of how to embed human factors into organizational systems in a way that supports operational excellence.

If information alone prevented injuries, safety would already be solved—yet incidents still happen. So, what are we missing? This engaging and interactive session will challenge the common assumption that people make mistakes simply because they “don’t know better.” Instead, it will explore how the brain is actually wired to rely on habits, shortcuts, and emotional responses—especially under pressure, fatigue, or distraction. Participants can expect to engage in some “brain exercises” as they explore the basic concepts of neuroscience and human factors and how they shape everyday decisions. More importantly, this session will reframe feedback—not as correction or criticism—but as a powerful tool that works with the brain, not against it. Participants will leave with practical, easy-to-use strategies to deliver feedback that sticks, influence behavior in the moment, and strengthen safety conversations across their teams. Expect to tap into your brain to reflect, participate, and walk away thinking differently about why people do what they do—and what can help them to do it better.

If information alone prevented injuries, safety would already be solved—yet incidents still happen. So, what are we missing? This engaging and interactive session will challenge the common assumption that people make mistakes simply because they “don’t know better.” Instead, it will explore how the brain is actually wired to rely on habits, shortcuts, and emotional responses—especially under pressure, fatigue, or distraction. Participants can expect to engage in some “brain exercises” as they explore the basic concepts of neuroscience and human factors and how they shape everyday decisions. More importantly, this session will reframe feedback—not as correction or criticism—but as a powerful tool that works with the brain, not against it. Participants will leave with practical, easy-to-use strategies to deliver feedback that sticks, influence behavior in the moment, and strengthen safety conversations across their teams. Expect to tap into your brain to reflect, participate, and walk away thinking differently about why people do what they do—and what can help them to do it better.

There are 12 distinct paradigm shifts in SafeStart—some of which were discovered somewhat “accidentally” through real-world application and observation. This session explores the stories behind those breakthroughs while providing a clear introduction to the critical error reduction techniques that make SafeStart practical and effective. Larry will keep the session highly interactive, engaging participants with thought-provoking questions, real-world examples, and opportunities to reflect on and share their own experiences. This conversational approach helps bring the concepts to life and makes the learning more relatable and memorable. This session is especially popular with those already familiar with SafeStart, as it offers deeper insight into how these paradigm shifts were uncovered. At the same time, it serves as an excellent starting point for those new to SafeStart, offering a compelling introduction to some of its most impactful ideas.

Jumping into a new training initiative can make people apprehensive. This could be due to a combination of fear of the unknown, time constraints, or a perceived lack of value or relevance. People don’t want to choose a training experience just by hearing information—they want to get a feel for it. The SafeLead Experience is exactly that. SafeLead training doesn’t feel like sitting in a classroom and neither does this session. SafeLead goes beyond compliance by building leadership capability and addresses gaps in frontline leadership by providing new perspectives on human factors, safety conversations and how to lead by example. The result is more engaged leaders, stronger communication, and a more consistent, proactive approach to safety across teams. Participants can expect to be drawn into scenarios that mirror real pressures, real decisions, and real consequences. Coached communication in response to these scenarios is a major part of the session. Participants will share stories, test ideas, and learn from each other, creating an environment with relevant insights that are immediately applicable. Participants will also come away from the session knowing the importance of formulating a specific action plan for applying the learning and if nothing else, they’ll be “glad for the experience.”

A SafeStart Human Factors Analysis (HFA) is conducted as a pre-engagement diagnostic. It helps you understand how human factors are currently influencing risk, errors, and safety performance, and to develop a strategy to positively impact the organization’s climate and culture. SafeStart's best HFA consultants will engage you in this session about why an HFA is important. With HSE standards placing an increasing emphasis on both leadership commitment and employee engagement, this systems-based analysis will help you to identify where human factors exist within your organization’s operations, enabling you to prioritize high-leverage areas for improvement by embracing the principles of human factors management and HOP principles. Participants can expect a scenario-based analysis exercise with role play, discussion and reflection. They will leave with a better understanding of how human factors impact safety, quality and production.

Too many times, you have seen and heard of the theory behind the five principles of HOP, focusing on shifting from blame-based to learning-based approaches, recognizing that errors are normal, context drives behavior, and learning and improving are vital. Although they sound terrific, you might still be left wondering, “How do I do this thing?” Rather than viewing people as the problem, HOP prioritizes looking at deviations from systems and processes and then making adjustments to these systems. Error is normal. No one chooses to make a mistake. No one wants to get injured. This session will highlight tools that can be added to the HOP toolbox to tactically implement the theoretical strategy. HOP is about getting down to the core conversations and learnings and participants will be fully immersed with open dialogue from Tim. Real on-the-job stories will help participants revolutionize their approaches to safety.

Forward-thinking companies that implement SafeStart Now are looking beyond compliance to implement human factors elements into their existing safety management systems. But when it comes to sustaining a SafeStart Now implementation, there typically isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach. It can be helpful to hear what worked for others, and more importantly, what didn’t. SafeStart training allows you to rely less on luck and more on skill. But what if you could rely on work that trusted advisors have already done? Attending this panel will also allow you to consider the methods other sites have tried and tested. The panelists will discuss the four powerful techniques in a successful SafeStart implementation and the benefits of a 24/7 mindset with representation from small and large sites.

Leaders embody the archetype of strategists for safety in organizations and often create the blueprints that organizations can use to direct future safety procedures. And when it comes to using best practices, the best-case scenario is that the hard work has already been done and the prescribed sets of methods and techniques are a foolproof game plan to help you move forward. In the same way that SafeLead provides better leadership skills, this session with the most knowledgeable SafeLead-trained panelists will provide the essential knowledge all leaders need to know to be successful in a SafeLead implementation. Bring your questions and your personal experiences for this interactive panel session.

A well-run steering committee has clearly defined roles and responsibilities, provides governance, ensures a unified point of view is reached among the mix of staff who make up the committee, focuses on collaboration, manages risks, has executable goals, and effectively communicates and prioritizes regular meetings. It can also be the difference between sustainability goals that stall and those that truly take hold. This fireside chat will explore what it really takes to successfully sustain a steering committee—from setting clear direction and maintaining momentum to navigating competing priorities and organizational pressures. Through candid conversation and real-world examples, you’ll gain insight into how to effectively align leaders and stakeholders, foster accountability, and keep initiatives moving forward without losing focus. This session will also dig into common pitfalls that derail committees and share practical strategies to keep yours purposeful, productive, and impactful. We’ll also invite participants to bring their own stories to the table—both successes and challenges—to enrich the discussion and learn from each other’s experiences in real time.

Intense. Primal. Effective. These are all words that have been used to describe traditional bootcamp. And with good reason—bootcamp is designed to reprogram a person’s bad habits. This immersive storyteller’s bootcamp will prepare participants for combat against ineffective safety training. Since the topic of safety is typically dry or boring, many safety professionals and trainers struggle to keep their sessions fresh, engaging and memorable. Storytelling is so much more than just telling a story. A good storyteller can take the underlying message of the story and make listeners have a meaningful connection with the story. The reason that better engagement is obtained through storytelling is that people are hardwired to think in narrative terms. If storytelling is done correctly, it can have lasting effects over time which makes stories a useful teaching tool—a link of cause and effect is exactly how people reason. Participants will be whipped into shape, taking away actionable tips to sharpen their craft and become more powerful and authentic trainers

Young leaders have the drive, knowledge, and new ways of thinking in order to succeed, yet they often struggle to be taken seriously due to age bias, stereotypes, and perceived inexperience. Join Christien as he shares his perspective on leadership—including a deep dive into why emerging leaders must be identified early, how being a top performer does not necessarily make someone a strong leader, that succession planning is strategic, not optional, and why leadership training is essential. Major key: leadership impacts on KPIs, engagement and culture. Participants will take part in a “recognizing unconscious bias” activity. They will also leave the session with an understanding of how poor communication and weak succession hurts an organization, they’ll take away frameworks and tools for identifying talent with practical steps to develop and empower high-potential employees and understand the cost of not participating in leadership development.

Blame suffocates culture—but it's not always easy to see why. For many people, leaders and workers alike, blame is tangled with accountability, which is a necessary component of how businesses learn and grow. If you can't point a finger, how do you fully recognize a mistake, misjudgment or error? The key is to acknowledge, take responsibility and learn without the culture-killing aspects of blame. The solution is positive accountability. This session will give participants the know-how to diagnose blame within their own work cultures—highlighting the common causes of blame and the misconceptions that allow it to thrive—as well as the tools to cut it out of your organization. Start curating the positive accountability necessary to strengthen your operations and enhance safety. Participants can expect table group discussions and a live exercise of building an accountability map.

What if the most valuable safety indicators in your organization aren’t found in incident reports, but in the everyday conversations happening on the shop floor? This session explores practical approaches to measuring and improving safety culture through frontline engagement. Participants will see firsthand how short (2–3-minute) worker interviews can generate actionable quantitative data that supports continuous improvement efforts and provides meaningful insight into workforce engagement and safety culture. Using the Michelin Safety Barometer tool, participants will examine how organizations can assess the state of their safety culture, including alignment with regions of the Bradley Curve and the frequency and quality of workplace interactions. Additional areas of focus include identifying patterns of positive and negative reinforcement, understanding the primary focus of shop floor interactions, and evaluating potential exposure to serious injury risk. This session will also explore a case study on the development of an AI-based application designed to support the ongoing improvement of safety culture. Participants will gain insight into how technology and frontline data can work together to strengthen engagement, identify trends earlier, and support more proactive and predictive approaches to safety culture management.

A successful SafeStart implementation doesn’t begin at kickoff—it’s built well before the first session is delivered. This fireside chat brings together SafeStart’s steering committee co-chair Jenn Bennett and SafeStart champion Paul Thompson to give you the facts about what you really need to achieve a successful implementation. The conversation will focus on the critical role of the steering committee in shaping direction, building alignment, and removing barriers early. This session will also explore how to thoughtfully select and prepare trainers who can connect with the workforce, model human factors principles, and sustain momentum beyond the classroom. Participants will gain a clearer picture of benefitting from leadership visibility and communication strategies, as well as how to integrate SafeStart into existing systems and daily conversations. Expect an open, interactive dialogue where real challenges are discussed, lessons learned are shared, and participants can ask questions specific to their own context. Whether you’re just getting started or refining your approach, this session will help you avoid common pitfalls and set your implementation up for lasting impact.

SafeStart implementations are often treated as simply a four-step training program because of the four core units. But real sustainability efforts don’t start after completing Unit 4—they start on Day 1. This session challenges the idea that sustainability is something you “get to” at the end of your implementation. Instead, it explores how to embed SafeStart into the organization every day via conversations, reinforcement activities, and integration routines from the very beginning—so you don’t drop the ball once the initial 4-unit rollout is complete. This interactive session will have participants explore what actually keeps the concepts alive after the initial push: leadership behaviors, frontline engagement, reinforcement strategies, and the role of human factors in shaping habits over time. Participants will take part in scenario-based discussions and be involved in real-time problem-solving. David will also unpack common pitfalls to why organizations struggle with sustainability—like over-reliance on training alone or waiting too long to think about sustainment—and share practical ways to build momentum for the SafeStart journey early and maintain it. Participants will leave this session energized with a penchant for sustainability and a plan to ensure their success.

A positive organizational culture and a positive safety climate are very closely linked. Both are essential to improve productivity, quality, retention, employee engagement, morale—and reduce injuries. This session will define key leadership skills that can improve your workplace safety climate. Participants will be part of the discussion with a key person from SafeStart about specific ways individual leaders can influence safety and engagement, and how your organization can support the vital actions for safety climate enterprise-wide to improve safety and culture. Pete will share examples that will help participants see how leadership skills influence safety climate. Discover how to distinguish climate from culture and why it matters, and take part in activities that demonstrate how building leadership skills can have positive effects in the workplace. By the end of the session, participants will become the safety climate and culture catalysts, knowing how to drive positive change, improving the workplace safety climate and fostering a stronger safety culture.

Rather than treating safety as a standalone program or compliance activity, this session reframes it as a way to improve decision quality and consistency across operations. Come and explore how safety, culture, and operational performance are deeply connected through the everyday decisions people make, especially under pressure. Drawing on real examples from manufacturing environments, this session examines how common human states—like rushing, fatigue, frustration, and complacency—quietly contribute to injuries, quality defects, downtime, and turnover. Participants will discover how the same habits that prevent injuries also reduce errors, scrap, and reliability issues. Through facilitated discussion, practical examples, and a case study, we’ll ascertain how a culture of care fosters psychological safety, strengthens trust, and supports workforce stability, which remains one of the biggest business challenges today. This session is designed for leaders and practitioners who want to build safety initiatives that actually support operational excellence rather than compete with it. An interactive activity will challenge participants to distinguish between human error, at-risk behavior, and reckless behavior—and determine the most effective leadership response in each case. Participants will leave with the tools and insights to apply these principles, leading to improvements not only in safety metrics but also in quality, reliability, and employee engagement.

The first 90 days of employment are critical for the entire employee experience. This period sets the tone for safety, personal success and furthering the overall safety culture. Those first 90 days are typically the most dangerous of any employee’s career. Despite these facts, most organizations fail to engage employees, provide memorable moments or teach them about risk and mitigations. This session explores the imperative to get the first 90 days right, build relationships and set the tone for the organization’s safety culture. Participants in this highly interactive session will take part in group discussions about how the first 90 days integrate within the broader safety culture. There will be a simulation of what the new hire will experience once onboarded, outlining the best practices for managing work and risk. These challenges are particularly relevant as businesses struggle to attract and retain quality employees. Gain innovative examples of techniques to reduce the risk of injury in the first 90 days.

Across industries, the challenge is no longer understanding why safety matters; it is closing the gap between vision and execution. Insights from the ASSP Corporate Listening Tour (CLT) show that while organizations have more data, tools, and standards than ever before, turning them into consistent, measurable outcomes remains a challenge. When standards are embedded into workflows, supported by real-time data, and enabled through technology, they move from static guidance to part of how work actually gets done. This fireside chat focuses on how data, technology, and standards come together to make safety more actionable—please bring your own examples to share. The conversation will explore how organizations are connecting these elements to improve visibility, strengthen decision-making, and drive more consistent performance—moving beyond compliance and into a more operational, integrated approach to safety.

Have you ever wished someone would give you the winning formula for developing an effective environmental, health, safety, and security strategy that supports the business strategy? This session will take you on the journey of a $4 billion manufacturer who developed a clear vision—going from the absence of injuries and illness to controlling risk, building stakeholder engagement, and defining what being the best looks like. You’ll hear about developing a simple, compelling, and motivating vision to communicate a three-year “strategy on a page” with metrics and accountabilities, using a sunray chart as a template. You’ll also learn how to synthesize the business strategy and vision and connect the dots between internal and external data to inform a “current state” assessment and to choose a transformational approach to move an organization to a “future state.” When you’re aiming to be the best, you need a proven EHSS strategy to get you there.

Leadership is never easy, especially where safety is concerned. On top of your own personal responsibilities to follow the rules and stay safe, leaders are accountable for getting their workers through every day on the job alive and in one piece. That takes a full toolbox of technical and soft skills, which many folks spend years developing in training and on the job. That’s why, for new leaders, the role can be intimidating—especially in workplaces where it’s common to promote technicians directly to supervisor and manager roles. This session will open up the toolbox to participants to help them get through the early days of leadership—whether they are becoming leaders themselves or teaching others to lead safety in their workplace. After setting out some core safety principles that intersect work and communication, participants will engage in activities meant to bring forth transferable skills that can immediately improve their leadership abilities. By learning to build trust through transparency, to develop relationships through storytelling, and to navigate difficult conversations, they will be able to lead their teams with confidence as they grow to be stronger leaders.

Leaders must foster a culture of engagement in order to successfully implement SafeStart. They are already tasked with ensuring that their organization complies with all relevant health and safety regulations and standards and SafeStart is an extension of that; it’s designed to complement existing safety efforts. This session will supply practical strategies to secure leadership buy-in and promote active involvement. Participants will be fully immersed in qualitative and quantitative information collection and continuous polling throughout the session, providing real-time data. Explore effective communication techniques, key messaging approaches, and methods to align SafeStart with your organizational goals. Learn how to integrate SafeStart into organizational priorities and metrics. Through interactive discussions and real-world case studies, participants will gain the tools to help leaders champion SafeStart, model safe behaviors, and drive lasting cultural change. Address your challenges in leadership engagement and culture-building and take away actionable items you can apply once you’re back in your facility.

Guided by safety leaders Nick Vranak and Tony Morres, SafeStart has become more than a training initiative at Kokosing—it is now embedded into daily operations, leadership practices, and workforce interactions across the organization. This interactive session will combine real-world examples, live audience polling, and Q&A discussions to take participants on the journey of how Kokosing integrated key SafeStart concepts—states, errors, CERTS, and the BIG 3—into leadership development, field observations, incident analysis, and high-hazardous-energy management (STKY – Stuff That Kills You). Participants will gain practical insight into how the adoption of SafeStart Now, Safety 24/7 Stories, SafeTrack observation concepts and their structured Safety 24/7 Conversation (Observe-Accentuate-Explore-Emphasize-Agree) helped create sustainable engagement and long-term ownership of safety at every level. The session will also explore how Kokosing continues to strengthen integration through leadership alignment, Power BI analytics, and innovations like RiskTalk (an AI-supported pre-shift meeting app). Participants will leave with practical ideas for connecting safety systems, leadership behaviors, and everyday conversations to create lasting cultural change and long-term safety success in their own facilities.

Strong safety outcomes don’t happen by accident—they’re built through thoughtful planning, effective implementation, and long-term integration. Gaps in project oversight can unintentionally create the very human factors challenges organizations aim to reduce, undermining safety climate, participation, and lasting results. This fireside chat will explore how project approaches differ between corporate-wide initiatives and site-level rollouts, and why those differences matter when managing human factors in the workplace. More specifically, participants can expect to discuss the three core elements of a SafeStart project: planning, implementation, and support, sustainability, and integration. Expect an interactive conversation that highlights the critical elements of the planning phase, including logistics like the “why” behind the initiative, onboarding strategies, communication planning, internal marketing, and other considerations that influence the safety climate and contribute to a successful rollout and implementation. Through discussion and shared experiences, participants will gain a clearer understanding of the structured approach required to successfully manage human factors initiatives and sustain meaningful culture change across their organizations.

When organizations excel at designing new processes, equipment, and systems, they often overlook the human beings who must interact with them. This session explores how integrating human factors into Management of Change (MOC) improves safety, operational reliability, and workforce adoption. Discover why change fatigue and resistance are predictable, not personal, and uncover the gap between technical change and human reality. Participants will learn why communicating not just the change itself, but the process used to identify the change—and the why behind it—is essential for trust, engagement, and safe execution. Through interactive real-world scenarios and roundtable discussions, this session will examine actual examples where human factors were ignored—and the costly consequences that followed. Participants will leave with practical tools for embedding safety by design (planning processes and equipment around human capabilities and limitations), improving communication, and ensuring that every change supports both organizational goals and the people who make operations work.

The best workers are often promoted to supervisors, and that can be a challenge. “We lost our best welder and now we have our worst supervisor.” Organizations need skilled and talented supervisors to achieve desired results in safety, quality, production and performance. Managers, supervisors and safety professionals must align in order to achieve organizational goals. That requires supervisors to have effective skills in communication, employee engagement and hazard assessment, as well as the ability to navigate the social change required to manage their former peers. This session will demonstrate the importance of managing the human factors that affect safety, quality and performance at individual and organizational levels. Participants will gain practical insight into how supervisors can play a more active role in workplace safety. This session is designed to be highly interactive, engaging participants in a variety of practical, peer-driven learning experiences. Live polling will be used to surface insights, spark discussion, and benchmark perspectives across the room in real time. Throughout the session, participants will take part in brief pair-share and table group discussions to explore challenges, exchange perspectives, and learn from others’ experiences. Participants will also work through real-world scenarios using a structured job aid, applying concepts in a hands-on problem-solving exercise that reinforces practical takeaways.

When it comes to generational differences in the workplace, it often boils down to more than just a difference of opinion. Misconceptions in the form of stereotypes and biases can significantly impact communication and the way people function and work together. With technology advancing and changing the way workplaces operate (and even communicate), some may ask the question: “Can you teach an old dog new tricks?” Which sparks the counter question, “Are new tricks always necessary when the old tricks are backed with proven stats that they work?” With preconceived notions about each generation, there are bound to be misunderstandings, with each side thinking their way of doing things is the right way. Human factors can impact how we react, and those misunderstandings can create potential safety hazards. By understanding the nuances of each generation's approach, you can learn how to address generational differences in your workplace. Which side will you be on as the presenters each take the stance of their own generation and not only provide their perception of the other generation’s point of view, but also call on the participants to provide their input as well.

Come and take a practical look at building a safety culture that goes beyond compliance and into everyday behavior. Using Epiroc’s journey as a backdrop, participants will explore how simple practices—like consistent safety shares in all types of meetings, from production to engineering—can reinforce a safety-first mindset across an organization. This session walks through key phases of a SafeStart journey, including preparation, implementation, and long-term sustainability. It challenges the common “check-the-box” approach to safety training and instead focuses on what it takes to genuinely influence behaviors at work, at home, and on the road. Participants will examine how to set meaningful goals for both team members and leaders—such as increasing engagement in near-miss reviews, strengthening participation in safety conversations, and creating an environment where reporting hazards is encouraged and expected. This session also highlights the role of leaders in responding quickly to concerns and empowering employees to stop work when needed. Participants will leave with actionable ideas to strengthen engagement, improve leading indicators, and create a culture where safety is owned by everyone. Participants can expect a “Stop Work” decision exercise as well as quick polls to surface mindsets, which will open the discussion within the room.

Did you know that 85% of medically consulted injuries and 95% of fatalities happen away from work? That’s why capturing employees’ engagement in safety while they’re at work is so important—it carries through into their lives outside of work. This fireside chat invites participants to bring their own examples to fully explore how organizations are successfully expanding SafeStart into a true 24/7 safety approach that influences not only employees, but also their families and the communities they live in. Others looking for ways to achieve 24/7 safety are also welcome to join. Participants will learn how to design and implement meaningful community outreach initiatives that reinforce safety awareness outside of work, creating stronger engagement and a deeper personal connection to safety. The session will also highlight the new Driving SafeStart Home program as a high-impact opportunity to reach the next generation—equipping young drivers with the skills to recognize states and errors, manage distractions, and make better decisions behind the wheel. This immersive session encourages participants to join in the conversation with Don and Char about extending SafeStart beyond the workplace and comparing examples of what's been done to strengthen culture, increase retention of key concepts, and make a lasting difference where it matters most.

Building on the Reducing Injury Risk by Noticing Change flex unit, this session looks at a simple idea with big implications: change increases risk, not because change itself is dangerous, but because it’s easy to miss and humans are surprisingly good at missing things that are right in front of them. When people are operating on autopilot, small changes in the environment, the task, or the people around them often go unnoticed until something goes sideways. This session explores how routine can help us, but also how it can work against us when familiarity leads to assumptions, reduced awareness, and mind not on task. Using real examples, recent work with management teams, and interactive demonstrations, participants will explore why change often increases injury risk, how the automatic mindset makes it harder to notice, and practical ways to get better at recognizing and responding to change before it creates a problem.

Jack used to be ten feet tall and bulletproof. But time has passed and Jack’s learned from experience that overconfidence is a dangerous form of complacency—a human factor that takes many shapes. Many individuals learn from a young age that there is an acceptable amount of risk they can take on, and that as long as they are “safe enough,” nothing bad will happen. This attitude leads to deliberate risk-taking, and those deliberate risks become habitual errors. Given enough time, those bad habits will turn into injuries or worse, no matter how invincible a person feels. Jack will demonstrate for participants how to reset the bulletproof mindset through storytelling, habit building and analyzing close calls. Engaging participants in activities based on his perspective from having presented the original version of this session to safety audiences for over a decade, Jack will reveal how overconfidence returns in unexpected ways and provides techniques on how to stay safe by keeping complacency away.

Discover how generative AI can revolutionize human factors and enhance SafeStart practices by understanding the fundamentals. Through a powerful combination of conceptual frameworks and live and recorded demonstrations, this session will focus on immediately applicable AI tools and techniques to improve safety, quality, and organizational effectiveness. Audience participation will be used to gauge current AI usage and existing challenges. Participants will leave with practical insights about AI integration that can elevate leadership effectiveness, safety performance, and operational excellence. Explore AI-powered techniques to enhance communication and learning and uncover how generative AI can aid with policies and procedures. Learn ways to leverage AI tools to analyze data and improve individual and organizational response to close calls and incidents and address critical considerations for responsible AI implementation, including appropriate AI-human collaboration, privacy protection, data security, and output accuracy.