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- Nancy Aboultaif on No-Blame Safety, Stop Work, and Building Systems That Protect People
Since entering the field in 2018, Nancy Aboultaif has worked across multiple sectors and operating environments, from commercial retrofit work across Canada to pipeline construction and renewable projects, and now with the HSE team at ROSEN Group in the pipeline inspection space. That range has given her a broad view of what strong safety programs have in common, and what separates paper compliance from a culture that actually works.
Repeatedly, she comes back to one principle: if a system only works when people perform perfectly, it is not strong enough.
Communication Starts by Leaving the Computer
When asked how she keeps communication open, Aboultaif does not point to a formal system first. She points to presence.
In her view, one of the most important things a safety professional can do is step away from the desk and go where the work happens. Watch the task. Sit in on the toolbox talk. See how crews respond when the scope changes. Pay attention to what workers raise on their own and what they hesitate to say.
“I try my best to speak less and observe more.”
That does not mean staying silent. It means speaking with purpose after the observation, checking whether your interpretation matches what workers intended, and giving them room to explain what is really happening.
She uses the same approach in the shop. Sometimes mechanics show her how a task is done. Sometimes they coach her through it. Sometimes they point out where not to stand, what movement will strain a shoulder, or why a written instruction does not quite fit reality.
Those moments matter. They reveal the difference between a procedure that exists and one that is useful.
A Mature Safety Culture Sounds Different
Aboultaif says one of her proudest professional accomplishments has been watching the safety culture mature around her. She also points to a personal milestone, being recognized by the ACSA in 2024 as the National Health and Safety Administrator (NHSA) of the Year, as a meaningful honour.
But when she talks about progress at work, she does not define it through slogans or dashboards alone. She hears how people speak.
For her, safety culture starts to mature when workers naturally repeat concepts the organization has tried to build into daily practice. It shows up when someone references a procedure on their own, or can explain which work instruction applies to a task and why.
“This is exactly what I’m looking for, that people are really digesting the information in a way that they can repeat those topics.”
That is the turning point. Not when the document is published, but when it becomes part of how people think and talk.
“If nobody knows about them, they are useless.”
It is a blunt line, and an important one. Policies and procedures only have value when the workforce understands them, remembers them, and uses them.
Making Stop Work Simple Enough to Use
Many organizations say they support stop work. Far fewer make it simple enough that people actually use it.
Stop work is one of the topics colleagues come to Nancy about most often. Even in organizations that support it in principle, workers can still hesitate at the moment.
Aboultaif says one issue her team uncovered was that some employees thought every stop-work action had to mean shutting everything down immediately. Once they recognized that misunderstanding, they started reframing the concept in more practical terms.
Stop work can be a major escalation, yes. But it can also be a break between team members. It can be one worker stepping back from a machine that does not feel right. It can be someone taking a minute to ask a question, check a manual, or reconsider a task before continuing.
To reinforce that message, they created a simple card: if you are concerned, unsure, or unsafe, just stop it.
That simplicity matters to her. If a safety concept is too complicated to understand in the field, it will not be used when it is needed.
That is a strong editorial test for any safety program. Not whether it sounds smart, but whether a worker can use it under pressure.
Workers Need to Believe Something Will Happen
Aboultaif shared one example of a worker who came forward about a stop-work issue, but in a way that suggested there was more beneath the surface. As she dug deeper, the reason became clear: the worker had raised something similar in the past and felt nothing had come of it.
That is where trust is either reinforced or lost.
For her, listening carefully includes reading tone, hesitation, and body language, then responding in a way that proves this time may be different. Even if the outcome is that no major change is needed, the worker must know the concern will be taken seriously and followed through on.
That is the difference between encouraging people to speak up and creating conditions where they actually will.
Safety Moments Should Come From the Workforce
Another practice that reflects her style is how she approaches safety moments.
Aboultaif has a personal rule: if she talks about safety all day, she does not need to be the one delivering every safety moment. She would rather hear from the workforce.
The result, she says, has been powerful. Workers bring in examples from their commute, their day-to-day observations, even things they have researched themselves. One employee, after driving through a construction zone early in the morning, noticed visibility issues and used that as the basis for a safety moment about high-visibility gear and how workers protect one another by being seen.
For Aboultaif, those contributions are often better than the polished version a safety professional might prepare.
“Maybe I wouldn’t be able to think about it that way. I might bring something that sounds more complicated or with those acronyms that we love to use. But no, when you let them speak, it’s way better.”
That comment says a lot. Worker participation is not a nice add-on. It is often the clearest path to relevance.
Staying Current Means Looking Beyond Regulations
Like many safety leaders, Nancy Aboultaif keeps up through conferences, webinars, newsletters, and industry organizations such as ACSA and Energy Safety Canada. She budgets for conferences annually and values client and contractor summits as well.
But what stands out is that she does not treat current awareness as only a regulatory exercise.
She reads widely, especially around human behavior, psychological safety, and communication. For her, those subjects are not separate from safety practices. They are central to it.
“If people don’t come to you with their concerns, the safety culture will never get better.”
That belief connects the whole interview. Strong controls matter. Clear procedures matter. Training matters. But none of them go very far in a culture where people stay quiet.
A Practical Model of Safety Leadership
There is a reason Aboultaif’s perspective feels grounded. It is not abstract. It is built around how work is actually done and how people actually behave.
Her approach does not ask workers to be perfect. It asks systems to be stronger. It does not treat communication as a one-way transfer of rules. It treats it as a continuous exchange with the people closest to the task. It does not frame stopping work as a dramatic last resort. It makes it usable. And it does not confuse policy creation with policy adoption.
The through line is consistency. Curiosity instead of blame. Observation instead of assumption. Simplicity instead of jargon. The message is consistent. Curiosity instead of blame. Observation instead of assumption. Simplicity instead of jargon. Follow-through instead of empty promises.
That may not be a superpower in the sense of comic books. But in safety, it is the kind that changes outcomes.
In safety, the difference is not what is written. It is what holds when something goes wrong.
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