The first thing John Goodpaster does every morning is make his bed (sometimes even when his wife is still in it). As a former commander in the U.S. Navy, he thrives off of routine and structure, and those character traits have served him well in his post-military career.

John got into safety while he was running a parts distribution center in Michigan. He’d just finished his work supporting a SEAL team in Hawaii and, after a tough winter transition, was settling in when the company received an OSHA citation. He was then asked to transition into a safety position. According to John, if it weren’t for that citation, he’d likely still be on the logistics/operations side.

“The hardest thing was, when you're an officer in the Navy, you expect certain things to go a certain way,” John says on this episode of the No Accident podcast, presented by TRUCE. “In the service, they do things without having to be repeatedly told stuff. Whereas in the corporate world, sometimes you’ve got to spend more time to educate because they don't react the same way.”

Lucky for John, he has a master’s degree in adult and higher education from the University of Oklahoma, which helped him find a way to engage his employees in safety trainings and other educational settings. The trick, he said, is focusing on explanations rather than commands. You have to explain the importance behind safety precautions, he said, because that’s the only way to get buy-in.

Currently, John is the Director of Environmental Health and Safety at the Abilene, Texas-based company Briggs Equipment, where he’s drastically improved safety conditions.

“That was really when the ‘Safety First’ program came in, about when I came in in 2017,” he says. “At that point, we were spending multiple million dollars in workers' comp injury costs. We had a lot of cases. Implementing what we have, we are right now looking at being less than a $100,000 this year. … We've [also] gone from having 50-60 accidents a year to now we're on track to be under 20.”

In this episode, John discusses the importance of getting out in the field and listening to the employees doing the dangerous work to gain a new perspective on safety, and how it’s possible to make safety-first a way of life rather than just a slogan.

Featured Guest👉 Name: John Goodpaster

👉 What he does: As the Director of Environmental Health and Safety at Abilene, Texas-based Briggs Equipment, John uses his structured military background to lead award-winning safety initiatives.

👉 Company: Briggs Equipment

👉 Key quote: “It’s about taking care of people. Safety is all about the person. Nobody wants somebody to be put in a situation that they get hurt, or even worse, killed. So safety's all about risk reduction so that they aren't put in that risk situation.”

👉 Where to find him: LinkedIn

Safe Takes⚠️ “Safety first” can and should be more than a slogan — it should be a way of life. John says his employer believes safety is much more than a catchphrase. It’s something the higher-ups recently designated as the organization’s fifth core value “because that's the foundation of everything we do.”

⚠️ Great safety leaders care about gaining perspective. Sure, you can sit in an office and calculate risks. But if you want to be effective as a safety leader, you have to get on-site and talk to those doing the dangerous work and get their input. (It also helps to get your hands dirty for more of a firsthand perspective.)

⚠️ If you want employees to engage with a safety program, explain; don’t command. John says he had to switch mindsets when he went into the corporate world from the Navy because adults outside the military don’t simply follow commands. To get them to buy into a safety program, he argues, you have to explain the dangers of not following certain precautions and elaborate on why your risk-reduction tactics are effective.

Resources⛑️ Operation Iraqi Freedom –– The formal name of the Iraq War, which is the operation John was pulled back into active service for when he was working in a parts distribution center.

⛑️ 2020 Green Cross for Safety Award — The award for which Briggs Equipment, John’s employer, was a semifinalist this year.

Top quotes from the episode:“That was the biggest transition. … You’ve got to get their buy-in. You've got to get them convinced because in the military, orders are given and people follow them. In the regular corporate world, that is not the case. … I believe it was a good thing because the better ideas come out because you have that ability to educate and discuss what needs to be done.”

“When you're in the military, things are very structured. I like to have the structure and develop the structure and the backbone to everything. Probably the worst thing coming from the military was I had to learn to be more flexible.”

“We have shown over and over again that investments in our safety return tenfold. … When I came in, unfortunately, Briggs had gone through some very tough times. They had four fatalities in three years, some OSHA citations. … At that point, we were spending multiple million dollars in workers' comp injury costs. ... Implementing what we have — we are right now looking at being less than a hundred thousand this year.”

“That is our way of life. When we talk about ‘Safety first,’ we truly, truly mean it and believe it. That is what we live every single day. Whether you're at work or at home in your community, you live safety first.”

“We were running well over $700,000 a year in automobile accidents — at fault. … This year, [we are] looking at finishing somewhere around $110,000, still too much. ... [But] we have driven down our accidents. We've gone from having 50-60 accidents a year to now — we're on track to be under 20. And again, you have less of them, [so] you have less cost of them.”

“To be a great safety leader, you have to be willing to listen. You do not have all the answers — anybody that thinks they have all the answers has already failed at step one. You have to be willing to listen and explore other ideas.”