Are you leading your organization on the journey to building a better brand, shaping a better safety culture and creating better safety results?

That’s what we’ll talk about today in our first ever Journey to Zero podcast. Hit the play button below, click the button to download or read the transcript below to get started. Enjoy!

Listen to the Journey to Zero Episode 1 below:


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Episode 1 Transcript

A new study by HealthNEXT found that companies with a proven culture of health and a track record of safety excellence outperformed the S&P 500 by over 5% annually.

In other words, companies that excel at safety consistently beat the market. This study adds to a growing body of evidence that points to safety performance driving financial performance in the marketplace.

The study is saying that safety performance delivers value to the market. This value is the sum total of your brand, your culture and your safety results.

Now you might be thinking:

This all sounds good, but how is an entire company’s brand, culture and results related to me as an individual?

How can I take this 30K foot view of business and apply it in the real world?

Outperforming the S&P 500 is great, but isn’t that a problem for my CEO?

Well, not so fast …

Let’s talk about that.

Your brand

Your company’s brand isn’t the logo. It isn’t the color scheme or the latest advertising campaign or the style guidelines.

It’s bigger than that.

The brand is the product. The product is the experience. The experience is the brand.

From sourcing materials to product design to the manufacturing process, modern consumers are demanding more from brands today.

They are demanding an environmentally friendly experience.

They are demanding a healthier experience.

They are demanding a people-conscious experience on all levels.

Modern consumers want to do business with (and therefore have an experience with) companies that take a holistic view of every aspect of their business.

As a part of a company that delivers products (and therefore experiences) to customers, you are responsible for their experience.

You are the brand.

Your culture

Safety culture is the collective attitudes, beliefs and perceptions of the people in your organization around safety. Culture drives behaviors and behaviors drive performance, for better or for worse.

Culture isn’t made. It’s shaped – day by day, decision by decision, action by action. It’s your job – and everyone’s job – to shape your organization’s culture with the careful attention to detail of an expert craftsman.

Culture is the only thing your competition can never truly copy or imitate. It’s not a policy on a bulletin board, it’s the heartbeat of your company. So what is your attitude toward safety? What is your belief system around safety? What is your perception of safety?

And then, most important of all, are you leading the safety effort or detracting from the cause?

You shape the culture.

Your safety results

At the end of the day, results are the name of the game.

Is it any wonder that companies that excel at safety also excel in many other areas? Organizations that have a passion for excellence often don’t accept anything less. Achieving great safety performance can be a springboard for companies looking to achieve excellence in other areas.

Safety compliance is good. Striving for excellent performance — on the other hand — is a daily decision you make that determines what kind of company you will become.

You create the safety results.

The intersection of brand, culture and safety results

At the intersection of brand, culture and safety results … is you.

You are the brand.

You shape the culture.

You create the safety results.

Embracing this reality is what delivers brand, culture and safety results down from a 30K foot view all the way to a look in the mirror. From the boardroom to the shop floor, it’s what creates value in the marketplace and separates you from the competition.

This unified vision – where all of your people are responsible for brand, culture and safety results – can be a powerful force of change for your organization. It’s a holistic view of business today and, perhaps, a way of finding your place in the world.

The question for health and safety leaders is this: are you leading your organization on this journey?