Two-day in-house workshop · Frontline supervisors & team leaders
Lead the crew, not the paperwork.
Two practical days for the people who stand where the safety system meets the work. Built on David G Broadbent’s book Beyond Compliance.
Wednesday afternoon, third week of a shutdown, four days behind. The pressure check takes forty minutes. Nobody has said a word about the schedule. Nobody needs to.
What the supervisor says next decides what the crew does.
Why supervisors
Where the system meets the work
Most safety effort goes into systems: procedures, audits, dashboards. They matter. But the safety a crew actually lives is decided in moments no system controls: the pre-start, the shortcut nobody mentions, the concern raised once and then dropped.
Supervisors stand in those moments every shift. Beyond Compliance argues that safety is a leadership problem before it is a systems problem. This workshop takes that argument to the front line and turns it into things a supervisor can do tomorrow morning.
The procedure says one thing. The job does another.
The gap is rarely recklessness. It is good people adapting to real pressure.
Silence is usually the sensible choice.
People speak up when the last person who did was glad they had.
Crews believe what you do, not what you say.
Credibility is built after the pre-start, not during it.
What your supervisors will do differently
- Spot where the crew’s real work has drifted from the procedure, and ask why without blame.
- Take bad news, a stop or a concern in a way that makes the next one more likely.
- Run a pre-start the crew actually believes: real hazards, real questions, no slogans.
- Lead a near-miss conversation that asks what made the decision reasonable, not who was at fault.
- Know their own default style under pressure, and practice a better one.
- Leave with a 30-day practice card and a buddy to keep them honest.
The program · 08:30–17:00 both days
The two days
Every session follows one shape: a short story from the book, a practical activity on the participants’ own work, and a rehearsal they can use the next shift.
Day 1
The work as it really is
- A Wednesday afternoonOne decision, seen from the technician’s, supervisor’s and manager’s seats.Reader tool: Work as Imagined, Work as Done
- The procedure and the jobWalk your own procedure against how the crew really does it.Reader tool: Work as Imagined, Work as Done
- What the new starter learnsWhat a newcomer is told in week one, and what they learn by watching.
- When someone speaks upRehearse taking bad news, a stop and an admitted mistake.Reader tool: Psychological Safety
- “The way we do it here”When crew pride makes it harder to slow down or ask for help.
Day 2
Leading the crew
- Nine ways to show upThe same scene played three ways, from the Invisible Man to the Carer.Reader tool: Transformational Safety® Leadership
- Eyes on the workHigh reliability at the work face; rehearse a stop-work call.Reader tool: High Reliability Organizing
- Pre-starts that landRewrite tomorrow’s pre-start and run it live.Reader tool: The Trust Equation
- After something goes wrongA near-miss conversation using the substitution test.
- Where my crew sitsPlace your crew on the five-level maturity model, with evidence.Reader tool: Safety Culture Maturity
- My 30-day practiceOne leadership habit, one weekly learning walk, one buddy.Reader tool: ATLAS Leadership Development
Before Day 1, each supervisor completes the free Psychological Safety reflection. After Day 2, the ATLAS tool supports their 30-day practice. Each session marked with a reader tool has a matching free reflection on the Beyond Compliance Reader Resources page.
Week 2
A buddy call between participants.
Day 30
A 90-minute follow-up session on the practice card.
Managers
Briefed before the workshop, and invited to hear what supervisors need.
Mostly practice
Ten-minute inputs, then rehearsal of the conversations supervisors face every shift.
Their own work
Participants bring a real procedure and a real near-miss. Nothing is hypothetical.
Used next shift
Every session ends with something they can do at tomorrow’s pre-start.
The book behind the workshop
Beyond Compliance
Rethinking Safety Through Leadership and Culture
Every session in the two days draws on David G Broadbent’s book. Its stories open the sessions, and its models give supervisors a shared language for what they see on the job.
Every participant takes home their own copy.
In-house delivery
Bring it to your site
The workshop is delivered to one organization at a time, for its own people, on its own work.
- Format
- Two consecutive days, 08:30–17:00
- Group
- 12–20 supervisors per program
- Delivery
- At your site or a venue you choose
- Investment
- Customized to Need
Includes a copy of Beyond Compliance for every participant, all workshop materials, the pocket practice card, a manager briefing and the Day 30 follow-up session.
Your facilitator
David G Broadbent
Registered psychologist and Safety Psychologist, and originator of the Transformational Safety® Leadership framework. Author of Beyond Compliance: Rethinking Safety Through Leadership and Culture. More than 20 years’ consulting across mining, petrochemical, aviation and healthcare worldwide.
Booking for your site managers and senior leaders?
See Workshop A: Beyond Compliance: Leadership Beyond the NumbersBook a program
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