August 24 2026
By: Shawn M. Galloway
If you want to know what your safety system is really hiding, change the questions you ask in the review. Stop asking only about results. No injuries can be due to luck.
Instead, ask four harder questions. Are your controls merely present, or genuinely verified? Would your people recognize an abnormal situation and respond, or would they hesitate? Does safety show up in your toughest business decisions, or only in your reports? And does your workforce comply, or does it help to improve?
None of those can be answered by the color of a scorecard. All of them can be answered by the signals your organization sends every single day. Performance metrics are rear-facing and easily satisfied by good fortune. Capacity is forward-facing and cannot be faked. Investing in it is how you convert a lucky quarter into a resilient organization. The organizations that endure built the capacity to stay safe especially when the calm ends.
Shawn Galloway, CEO of ProAct Safety, is an expert in safety excellence. With almost thirty years of experience, he is a highly sought-after advisor, keynote speaker, and expert witness. Shawn has become a trusted partner to leading organizations across various industries worldwide. He ranks in the top 1% of the most prolific writers in his field, having authored over 500 articles and several bestselling books. He also launched the world's first safety podcast, Safety Culture Excellence©. As a recognized authority in safety, Shawn has received awards such as being named among the Top 50 People Who Most Influence EHS and a Top 10 Speaker, among others.
He is a regular guest on Bloomberg, Fox News, The Daily Mail, Dubai One, U.S. News & World Report, Sirius Business Radio, Wharton Business Daily, and leading safety magazines and podcasts. Shawn also serves as a member of the Harvard Business Review Advisory Council, Forbes Business Council, and Fast Company Executive Board, enabling his influence to shape safety thinking and strategy at the executive level.
