Partnering for Safety Excellence

SAINT PETERSBURG, Fla. - March 21, 2013 - PRLog -- For more information contact: Richard N Knowles, President, Richard N Knowles & Associates, Inc. (716) 622-6467 Richard@safetyexcellenceforbusiness.com www.safetyexcellenceforbusiness.com

The American Society of Safety Engineers invited Dr. Richard N. Knowles, The Safety Sage, to present an important paper at the Region 4 Professional Development Conference on April 5th in Birmingham, AL.

St. Petersburg, Florida: Dr. Knowles, who is known as The Safety Sage for his 50+ years of dedication to Safety in the Workplace, was asked to present an important paper titled; “Partnering for Safety Excellence...Let’s Quit Hurting People”. This paper will be presented at the American Society of Safety Engineers Region 4 Professional Development Conference on April 5th in Birmingham, AL. Dr. Knowles has the unusual combination of hands-on managerial experience, having served as Plant Manager in several large chemical plants over 14 years, and a deep understanding of complexity science theory enabling him to engage the people at all levels in the organization in purposeful ways leading to a big safety culture shift and much better safety performance. As the safety performance improves, more information is shared and trust is built, people begin to look for other things beyond safety that can be improved and the positive culture spreads. In one plant where he did this sort of work, the injury rates dropped by over 95% and earnings rose by about 300%.

His Safety Leadership ProcessTM is unique, proven, robust and works quickly to reduce injuries in the workplace. This 4-step process begins with helping the top management get clear and coherent in their thinking about just what they want to have happen regarding their safety performance. Then a Safety Strategic Plan is co-created with the people in the organization so that everyone has an input. The people are then encouraged to have deeper conversations together about possible improvements, their safety performance progress and accomplishments. As the information is shared and trust is built, the injury rates drop quite quickly.

“Richard possesses deep insights about how organizations work and how to transform their safety culture resulting in reducing injuries and incidents,” says Dave Warnick, Divisional Vice President of Human Resources at Weir Oil and Gas Division. “He’s worked a several locations in the US and Italy. Our injury rates were cut in half in 2012.”

Dr. Knowles approaches the shift to a culture of safety excellence from the perspective of complexity science and has created many complexity tools, including The Process Enneagram©. His approach is

unique, proven and robust working quickly and effectively. Dr. Knowles is described by those who know his work as the “Deming of leadership”.

About:

Richard N. Knowles, Ph.D., is president of Richard N. Knowles and Associates, Inc. His focus is in helping organizations become more effective through becoming coherent, the elimination of the waste of dysfunctional behaviors, injuries, and the resistance to change. His work with teams at all organizational levels has helped them release their energy and creativity, leading to extraordinary improvements in all dimensions of performance. He has worked with teams in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the UK and Italy over the last 17 years.