Join hosts Scott Cuthbert and Dorothy Riviere as they kick off this 3-part series designed to help safety professionals think more strategically, elevate their impact, and align with business goals.

🎙️ In this episode, we sit down with Dr. Maria Silva-Palacios—a seasoned safety leader and educator who’s passionate about reshaping the way safety is perceived in the business world.

Maria shares her journey from frontline safety roles to influencing organizational strategy, offering real-world advice on:

✅ Speaking the language of business

✅ Becoming an internal consultant

✅ Navigating organizational culture and politics

✅ Moving from compliance enforcer to strategic advisor

If you're ready to transform your role and make a bigger impact in your organization, this is the conversation you’ve been waiting for.

👉 Don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe for Parts 2 and 3!

What if everyone on site—operators, accountants and executives alike—described risk the same way? In this follow-up conversation, Scott and Peter explore his third article, The Business Value of a Common Safety Language, revealing how shared definitions of “hazard,” “risk” and “safe” become a force-multiplier for operational excellence. Connecticut Department of Labor

Inside the episode

Why safety jargon often sounds foreign to other functions—and how a plain-English glossary dissolves friction and speeds decision-making. Connecticut Department of Labor

Peter’s “Good-Day vs. Bad-Day Controls” analogy (seat-belt vs. air-bag) that helps leaders instantly grasp the difference between behavior-dependent and engineered protections. Connecticut Department of Labor

A simple three-tier model—safe enough, not safe enough, unsafe—that lets frontline teams calibrate risk in seconds and act without waiting for permission. Connecticut Department of Labor

How a unified safety language fuels stronger hazard recognition, sharper metrics and a culture where everyone owns the conversation.

Listen in and discover how speaking the same safety dialect accelerates everything else you care about—quality, productivity and, yes, the bottom line.

In this follow-up episode, Scott chats again with Peter Susca to explore how safety professionals can evolve from compliance enforcers to respected business advisors. If you haven’t listened to part one, we suggest going back, it lays the groundwork for this powerful conversation.

This episode unpacks Peter’s second article from his Business Class series in Professional Safety Journal, focusing on seven strategies to elevate influence within an organization. Drawing from over 45 years of experience, Peter shares candid stories and practical lessons for navigating workplace dynamics, aligning with leadership, and building credibility across departments.

You’ll learn how to:

✅Identify if the barrier to influence is you, the organization—or both

✅Speak the language of business and align with your company’s value drivers

✅Build cross-functional relationships, especially with finance and operations

✅Shift the perception of safety from a “brake” to a “business accelerator”

✅Avoid the trap of “fixing safety” and instead improve the process behind the risk

✅Understand organizational silos and how to break through them tactfully

✅Calibrate risk perception so safety becomes everyone’s responsibility

Whether you’re new to the safety profession or a seasoned expert feeling stuck, this episode offers a powerful roadmap for becoming a trusted voice in strategic decisions. As Peter puts it: “You’re too valuable to spend your life being frustrated.”

🎧 Tune in to hear how a fresh lens on risk, relationship-building, and operational fluency can transform your impact and career path.

Ready to flip the traditional “safety silo” on its head? 🎙️ In this episode of Safeonomics, Scott sits down with Peter Susca, MS, CSP, ARM—author of the eye-opening article It’s Always Bigger than Safety and a champion of weaving safety into the very fabric of business operations.

Peter makes a compelling case that injury rates are just the tip of the iceberg. We dive into:

✅Reframing the conversation from “cost of compliance” to drivers of performance and resilience

✅Linking safety metrics to the measures the C-suite already cares about—productivity, reputation, and long-term value

✅Real-world stories where looking beyond incident counts unlocked breakthrough results across quality, morale, and profitability

✅Practical strategies for safety pros to earn a seat at the planning table before decisions are baked in

✅How to spark leadership buy-in, foster cross-functional ownership, and build a culture where people feel safe to speak up and innovate

Whether you’re battling the “safety is separate” mindset or searching for fresh language to influence executives, Peter’s insights will help you elevate the conversation—and your impact.

🔊 Hit play to learn why the biggest wins come when we remember: it’s always bigger than safety. Then let us know—what bold question will you ask your leadership team this week?

Unlock unlimited CEUs in the Safeopedia Community and attend exclusive live events, like our community meetups, along with your pass to our annual online safety conference, Safety Connect where you can earn another 2+ CEUs! All for just $197 annually!

Join the Movement ➡️ https://members.safeopedia.com

Join us for a lively session on the next episode of The Uncertainty of … with Zach Granzow discussing Measuring Safety Performance on Friday, March 21 2024 at 11am Eastern Daylight time.

Is your organization aware that you may be “metric fixated”? As humans we like to impose regulations, standards, policies, compliance rules, best practices on our workforce. Then we measure everything we can despite receiving unintended negative consequences.

✅Why do we have this inherent need to measure safety performance?

✅What value are you getting from the safety metrics you are tracking?

✅How can we adapt a performance system that enables safety, not danger, to emerge?

✅ Join the Safeopedia Community at https://members.safeopedia.com

Navigating EHS in a Shifting Regulatory Landscape with Chip Duffie

In this episode of Safeonomics, we sit down with Chip Duffie to explore how political shifts impact environmental, health, and safety (EHS) regulations—and what that means for safety professionals.

With the change of administration, EHS enforcement may face major changes. Will deregulation empower companies to take control of safety, or will it create new risks and uncertainties? Chip shares his insights on what businesses should expect, how safety professionals can stay ahead, and whether less enforcement makes EHS professionals more valuable or more expendable.

We tackle big questions, including:

🔥 What can a president actually do to reshape safety regulations?

🔥 If OSHA weakens, will state regulations, insurers, or industry groups fill the gap?

🔥 Should safety professionals fear deregulation—or see it as an opportunity?

🔥 How can companies maintain strong EHS programs without federal oversight?

No matter what happens in Washington, one thing is clear: safety remains a business-critical priority. Tune in for a deep dive into the future of EHS and what professionals can do to stay ahead in uncertain times.

✅ Join the Safeopedia Community at https://members.safeopedia.com

In this episode of Hard Hats & Heart, we sit down with Andrea Hine, an accomplished safety and operations leader at Suncor, to explore how human-centered design is transforming the way new technologies are implemented in industrial settings.

As Connected Worker Product Owner, Andrea plays a key role in ensuring that innovation isn't just about technology—but about people first. We discuss how Suncor actively involves frontline workers in the adoption process, strategies for overcoming resistance to change, and how feedback loops drive continuous improvement.

Andrea also shares real-world examples of successful digital transformation initiatives, the biggest challenges in aligning tech with workforce needs, and what the future of connected work looks like in the energy sector.

If you’re interested in how thoughtful design and innovation can lead to safer, more efficient workplaces, this episode is for you!

🎧 Tune in and join the conversation!

Unlock unlimited CEUs in the Safeopedia Community and attend exclusive live events, like our community meetups, along with your pass to our annual online safety conference, Safety Connect where you can earn another 2+ CEUs! All for just $197 annually!

Join the Movement ➡️ https://members.safeopedia.com

The Uncertainty of show for January 2025 will be on Safety in Law Enforcement.

Instead of a live session, it’s a podcast that Gary Wong recently recorded with Nancy Hess.

Nancy and Gary are joined by Lou Hayes to talk about his law enforcement experiences in Metro Chicago and the uncertainties that police officers face in their line of duty.

What parallels are there between enforcing criminal and civilian laws that define public safety and dealing with safety laws, regulations, standards that define worker safety?

Do workers understand what situations safety rules must not be broken?

Do they understand when rules may be bent because they sense danger may emerge if they don’t adapt?

Enjoy listening to: Adaptive Thinking and Leadership in Policing

🦺 Safeopedia was founded in 2010 with the mission of supporting and celebrating safety professionals in the workplace and reinforcing safe work practices. Safety professionals are unsung heroes in many workplaces. You work hard every day to ensure that your co-workers go home safe and sound. We aim to support and celebrate you and the work you do by providing health and safety information that is free, accessible and addresses the specific needs of safety professionals everywhere. More about Safeopedia: https://www.safeopedia.com/about

📩 Do you want Safeopedia’s educational content delivered to your inbox?

Become a subscriber: https://www.safeopedia.com/subscribe

✅ Join the Safeopedia Community at https://members.safeopedia.com

How does having a more community-connected safety professional bring more value to their organization? Hold onto your socks, folks, because we dive deep into the value of networking with one of the best in the industry: Tim Page-Bottorff! Whether you’re an easy-going person who loves to connect with people or someone that takes time to warm up to a crowd, there are personal and professional benefits to getting connected with a community. Even more interesting is how those connections can lead to better job satisfaction and even transferrable leadership skills in your day-to-day work. It might be tough to put specific dollars and cents to the value of networking (we try!) but the intangible benefits eventually lead to tangible ones if you’re willing to make the investment of your time. Ready to get started? Listen in as Tim shares some actionable steps to help you build your network and connect with a community of safety pros!

🦺 Safeopedia was founded in 2010 with the mission of supporting and celebrating safety professionals in the workplace and reinforcing safe work practices. Safety professionals are unsung heroes in many workplaces. You work hard every day to ensure that your co-workers go home safe and sound. We aim to support and celebrate you and the work you do by providing health and safety information that is free, accessible and addresses the specific needs of safety professionals everywhere. More about Safeopedia: https://www.safeopedia.com/about

📩 Do you want Safeopedia’s educational content delivered to your inbox? Become a subscriber: https://www.safeopedia.com/subscribe

✅ Join the Safeopedia Community at https://members.safeopedia.com

In this episode, Sarah speaks with Marcin Nazaruk about the practical, scalable solutions he's created that helped to modernize safety and have made it available through various industry bodies, how he's chaired prominent industry groups, and how he's transformed corporate cultures with cutting-edge approaches.

Since 2022, Marcin has helped companies to transform their safety practices through the lens of modern safety science operationalised for practical implementation at scale.

Connect with Marcin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcinnazaruk