Phil La Duke to Speak At The Michigan Safety Conference

Jan. 29, 2011 - PRLog -- (Monroe, MI) Monroe-based business optimization services company, Rockford Greene International announced today that internationally renowned speaker and writer, Phil La Duke would return to the podium at the Michigan Safety Conference in Lansing, MI (April 19 and 20).  This will be the  fifth consecutive trip to the prestigious event for La Duke  who first presented at in 2006 when he co-presented "Better Than Average" with Williams International Vice Presidents Cal Schalk and Dave Carr and Williams safety manager Ron Gebhardt.  La Duke had worked with the Walled Lake aerospace manufacturer in implementing a revolutionary new approach to worker safety.

"Even though my portion of the presentation was quite small I really enjoyed speaking at the Michigan Safety Conference, and even though this wasn't my first speaking at large venue (La Duke also spoke at an Automation Alley event in April of that year) this was really exciting because of the professionalism shown by the conference organizer" recalls La Duke.

This year La Duke will present, "A Culture of Myths" a presentation based on a popular article La Duke penned for Fabricating and Metalworking magazine.  "'A Culture of Myths' is one of my most popular articles," reflects La Duke, "it grew out of my growing disenchantment with safety professionals who kind of talk out of both sides of their mouths.  These are people who call for the heads of workers who violate rules but then speed on their way to work.  It just occurred to me that one day that a lot of what we are telling people about safety just isn't true.  The workers know it and we lose all credibility; it's an important topic and I thought it needed to be addressed," continues La Duke.

La Duke is a highly sought after speaker whose written work has been published in numerous magazines and journals.  In March of 2010 La Duke traveled to Lima, Peru to present "Selling Safety in Tough Times" at the 14th Annual Symposium on Mining Safety and had a his journal article, Creating Safety Cultures in Off-Shore operations was accepted for presentation at Loss Prevention 2010 in Brugges Belgium.  "Unfortunately I had to decline the invitation" explains La Duke "The conference was the week before I presented an executive session at the American Society of Safety Engineers in Baltimore and there just wasn't time for me to do both.  In the end I decided that it wasn't fair to either audience to speak unless I was able to give it my absolute best, and given the time and logistics of traveling to Belgium it would have taken too much energy; I presented in Baltimore instead."

The article can be read at: http://www.fandmmag.com/print/Fabricating-and-Metalworkin...

Phil La Duke is an internationally recognized writer and speaker on culture change and performance improvement topics, particularly worker Health and Safety and Lean Manufacturing. He has over 20 years manufacturing experience and has provided manufacturing training in five countries.

LaDuke is currently a safety and training expert with Rockford Greene International, a Monroe, MI-based business optimization services company. Prior to that he served as Director of Performance Improvement for O/E Learning (Troy, MI) a firm that specializes in productivity solutions. In his role, he was a lead developer of SafetyIMPACT!, the first Culture-Based Safety System that is currently sweeping industry.

Before joining O/E, he spent eight years as Director, Training & Organizational Development for ASC Incorporated, a global tier-one automotive supplier where he was responsible for designing, developing and executing organizational change interventions; founding the continuous improvement department; advising the Exec Team on corporate change strategies; and developing and administering ASC University. In addition to Safety, La Duke has extensive experience in problem solving techniques, Lean Manufacturing, Quality Operating Systems, and Trans-Cultural Training.

As an accomplished and engaging speaker, he has presented at the National Safety Council; the Michigan Safety Conference (on multiple occasions to standing room only audiences); the Northern Utah Manufacturing Alliance (NUMA); the National Safety Council?s Texas Conference and Expo; the Canadian Society for Safety Engineering (CSE); and Automation Alley; the Society for Mechanical Engineers (SME) EASTEC?s Lean and Green symposium, the Society for Applied Learning Technology Washington Interactive Technologies Conference, the International Symposium on Mining Safety in The Andes, multiple sessions at the National Safety Council?s National Conference and Expo, and the American Society for Safety Engineers.

He is the author of "Performance Support: The Changing Face of Safety Training" for the November 2009 issue of Facilities Safety magazine, and What?s Wrong with Safety Training and How to Fix It for the August 2009 edition of Fabrication and Metalworking magazine. He was interviewed for the Industry Spotlight feature of the June 2009 issue of Safety+Health magazine, and his presentation ("Selling Safety in Tough Times") was the subject of an article in the August 2009 edition of EH&S Today. In addition to his articles, La Duke is author of a popular blog www.philladuke.wordpress.com.

LaDuke is a graduate of the University of Michigan, where he earned a Bachelor?s of General Studies in Education and a Certificate of Training Development and Design.

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Rockford Greene International provides business optimization services for all of the key business elements: Safety, Quality, Delivery, Cost, Morale, and Environment.