Private Investigator to Safety Leader
Cynthia Konkin’s journey from private investigator to workplace safety leader shows how empathy, root cause analysis, and people-first leadership can transform safety culture across industries.
Graham Jackson Wants You to Lose Your Ego
Jackson is the Health and Safety Manager at SkyFire Energy, one of Western Canada’s largest solar contractors. The employee-owned company has been installing solar across the West since 2001. Like a lot of good safety people, he came up through the trades, not a classroom.
Marc Smith on Keeping Safety Human
Marc Smith built an AI tool that turns a recorded safety meeting into a finished field document, so he doesn’t have to. He is his company’s de facto AI lead and teaches the tools to other safety professionals. But he is quick to tell you the tools are not the point. The paperwork never was, and neither is the software that now writes it. What keeps people safe, the way Smith sees it, is the conversation the forms are meant to capture. He is more interested in what a worker will tell him than in what any form will say.
Richard Thorpe on Ignoring the Safety Fads
Richard Thorpe names the opposite. He is a Supervisor of Health and Safety at ATCO, the Calgary-based energy and utilities company, and he came to the profession sideways. His first career was in security management, and at a fork in the road he chose safety over becoming a police officer. He holds his CRSP, the Canadian benchmark certification, along with his CHSC. He spent about 15 years as a technical specialist before moving into leadership four years ago. After two decades in the field, he is still looking for his next mentor, and he will tell you the industry’s latest breakthrough usually isn’t one. What Thorpe wants is unfashionable: do the fundamentals better, and stop chasing the next big thing.
Nobody Wins Alone: Ken Larson on What Real Teamwork Looks Like
In this Safety Spotlight episode, Ken Larson explains why real teamwork depends on trust, accountability, and leadership behavior that proves nobody wins alone.
Manitoulin Transport: Fleet Safety, Driver Culture, and the Road Ahead with Mario Da Silva
In this Safety Spotlight episode, Mario Da Silva explores how fleet safety, driver accountability, and technology shape long-term safety culture in transportation.
From 20 Injuries to Zero: Building a Safety Culture That Actually Works with Tom Fitzgerald
In this Safety Spotlight episode, Tom Fitzgerald shares how shifting safety ownership to the workforce, supported by leadership and accountability, can drive real culture change and eliminate injuries.
Trust Over Policy: Emotional Intelligence and Building Safer Teams with Joan McMillan
In this Safety Spotlight episode, Joan McMillan explores why psychological safety cannot be created by policy alone, highlighting the role of trust, emotional intelligence, and leadership behavior.
Why “Common Sense” is Dangerous in Safety: Rick Sikora on Rigging, Competency & Culture
In this Safety Spotlight episode, Rick Sikora of Cranemasters challenges the idea of “common sense” in safety, exploring how true competency, curiosity, and continuous learning prevent complacency.
Nancy Aboultaif on No-Blame Safety, Stop Work, and Building Systems That Protect People
Nancy Aboultaif explains why effective safety leadership starts with curiosity, not blame. From stop-work culture to system design, she shares practical insights on building workplaces that protect people even when mistakes happen.
