SLC 2025 Preview: Why Safety Improvement Must be Circular, not Linear

We often like to think of life—and of progress—as a straightforward path, but we know there’s peaks and valleys or times when we take one step forward and two steps back.

That’s why Dick Flynt, senior consultant at the National Safety Council, says it’s more helpful to think of improvement as a cyclical, iterative and ongoing process.

Flynt, CSP, CIT, has developed the CIRCLE method to explain how to make substantial progress through incremental risk reductions and improvements. Over time, this will gradually increase engagement, bolster collaboration, create opportunities for proactive interventions.

For over 21 years, Flynt has been leading safety in various manufacturing sectors, including food and beverage, automotive and pharmaceutical. He will be sharing his insights on improving safety performance at Safety Leadership Conference 2025, being held October 20-22 in Phoenix. More information, including registration, can be found at www.safetyleadershipconference.com. Below is a preview of what to expect from Flynt’s presentation.

Your presentation will discuss a mindset switch from checking a box on safety to a never-ending journey of continuous improvement. How can we do that in a way that doesn’t feel daunting?

Supervisors have always been held accountable for the quality of the work because that quality can be easily measured. They are equally held accountable for meeting their production goals because that can also be easily measured, but they are rarely held accountable for the safe conditions in their areas. That is because the risk posed by these conditions has not been properly measured, making continuous improvement of those conditions spotty at best and nonexistent at worst. Once those risks are measured and scored, improvement is simply a matter of eating the elephant one bite at a time, as the old joke goes.

Why is an incremental approach helpful or necessary with regard to continuous improvement?

Well, anyone who has tried to get into shape, learn a new skill, or lose weight knows that small, regular, incremental changes are the key to success.

There’s a big difference between stretch goals and unattainable goals. How do you advise safety professionals to set key performance indicators or leading safety metrics?

That is very much a part of this method: scoring the risk, setting up proper accountability, advising the team on mitigation strategies, and reducing that risk by a measured amount per year.

How would you characterize the relationship between safety and operations at present? What would you like to see in the future?

Throughout my career, I’ve seen organizations consider safety and operations to be opposite sides of the coin—to be competing goals. My job has always been to convince others that two interests are NOT in competition. There should only be safe operations.

How do you breathe life into risk assessments?

Involve those closest to the work! Operators, maintenance mechanics, etc.

What’s something you hope attendees take away from your presentation at the Safety Leadership Conference?

Everywhere I go, and wherever I speak to EHS leaders, I find that there is a hunger out there for a return to the fundamentals of safety. So many conferences I go to are chock full of breakout sessions on advanced, nuanced, psychology-based programs. I find these all to be very good, but while we can all learn from these more advanced ideas, I’d like to remind people that there is still a tremendous amount of good that can come from mastery of the fundamentals of safety. Continuous improvement of unsafe conditions is one of those fundamentals.