From “Who” to “What” Improving Your Safety Culture

Written by Eric Petersen, CIC

For most tree care owners, safety is always top of mind. Yet when something goes wrong, the first reaction is often to ask: “Who messed up?” While that question might give a quick answer, it doesn’t usually solve the real problem.

If your goal is to truly improve safety culture, the better question to ask is: “What failed?”

This simple shift, from focusing on the individual to focusing on the system can transform the way your team thinks about safety and risk.

The Problem with “Who Failed”

When the focus is on who, blame takes center stage. An employee gets singled out, morale drops, and everyone else learns one thing: keep your head down and don’t admit mistakes.

The result? Missed opportunities to learn and improve. Instead of uncovering the root causes of incidents, organizations patch over the problem and hope it doesn’t happen again.

Blame may feel like action, but it fixes nothing.

The Power of Asking “What Failed”

When you shift your thinking to ask what failed, you move the focus from punishment to problem-solving. You start asking questions like:

• Was the equipment adequate for the task?

• Did the team have the right training?

• Were the expectations clear?

• Were production pressures or time constraints influencing decisions?

This type of thinking opens the door to learning. It helps leaders see the bigger picture and identify systemic weaknesses that set people up for failure. When your team knows they won’t be blamed, they’re more likely to speak up about mistakes, near misses, or risky conditions. Shifting from blame to curiosity shows your crew you value solutions over punishment. Trust grows, and so does buy-in for safety.

So how can you start putting this into practice?

• After the next incident happens in your company, avoid the knee-jerk question of who did it. Instead, lead with: “What contributed to this happening?”

• Encourage open dialogue during tailgate safety meetings and debriefs. Make it clear the goal is learning, not blame.

• Involve your crew in identifying solutions. They know the work better than anyone and often have the best ideas for improvement.

• Celebrate when problems are solved at the system level, because every improvement makes your entire company safer.

At ArboRisk, we believe safety culture grows strongest when leaders stop blaming individuals and start improving systems. People will always make mistakes, that’s part of being human. The real question is whether your business is designed to learn from those mistakes or simply punish them.

Shifting from “Who failed?” to “What failed?” builds trust, strengthens your team, and creates a safer, more resilient company. If you are struggling improving your safety culture, reach out to an ArboRisk team member or get started with our Thrive Safety Package today!

The 4 Principles of Safety Differently

Written by Eric Petersen, CIC

At a recent TCIA Winter Management conference, Tim Walsh gave an excellent presentation to challenge us to think differently about safety. He built his presentation off of ideas that Todd Conklin wrote about in his book Pre-Accident Investigations: An Introduction to Safety Differently. The main concept is that safety isn’t just about following rules, it’s about creating an environment where your team can succeed every day, even when things don’t go perfectly. 

Instead of relying on blame or rigid compliance, Safety Differently challenges us to rethink how we approach risk and build safer, stronger companies. Here are the four key principles:

1. Error is Normal

Your crews are human. No matter how well-trained, they’re going to make mistakes. The goal shouldn’t be to eliminate errors, it should be to build systems and processes that anticipate them. When you expect mistakes and plan for them, you prevent small missteps from turning into big problems.

Don’t expect perfection. Build resilience into your operations.

2. Blame Fixes Nothing

Pointing fingers after an incident might feel like action, but it doesn’t solve the real issue. Blame shuts down learning and discourages open conversations about what actually happened. If your team fears punishment, they won’t share the insights you need to improve.

Replace blame with curiosity. Focus on fixing the system, not punishing the individual.

3. Learning is Vital

Every close call, every mishap, every “near miss” is an opportunity to learn. Your team knows where the risks really are, because they live it every day. If you create space to listen and learn from their experiences, you’ll uncover hidden dangers and find smarter, safer ways to work.

Your employees are the experts. Use their perspective to drive safety forward.

4. Context Drives Behavior

No one makes decisions in a vacuum. Production pressures, unclear expectations, limited resources, all of these factors influence behavior. If we only look at “what someone did wrong” without examining the conditions that led to that choice, we’ll miss the real opportunity to improve.

To change behavior, adjust the environment your team works in.

Safety Differently helps shift your mindset from control and compliance to trust and continuous improvement. It allows you to build a culture where your team feels supported, learns from mistakes, and contributes to lasting change.

If you are struggling to strengthen your safety culture within your company, reach out to an ArboRisk team member or get started with our Thrive Safety Package today!

Near Misses

Written by Eric Petersen, CIC

One of my favorite parts of being a former arborist turned insurance agent is when I join tree care companies for their safety meetings. Seeing first hand how dedicated most tree care companies are to improving their safety culture and being a part of that is extremely rewarding for me. It also is great to see the variety of safety meeting formats, both in length and structure, but one common item almost everyone includes is a discussion on near misses. 

OSHA defines ‘near miss’ as a potential hazard or incident in which no property was damaged, and no personal injury was sustained, but the easier definition is that of a close call. Something happened whether it was intentional or not, that could have caused an injury or accident. 

Near misses are great learning opportunities for everyone within the company as it creates discussion around what could have or should have been done differently to avoid the close call.

Do you discuss near misses at your company? 

If you haven’t incorporated a discussion on near misses into your safety meetings yet, don’t fret, here are a few simple tips. 

1. Establish the Purpose and Ground Rules – To be effective, a conversation about near misses needs a defined purpose and ground rules set by you, the leader of the organization. Make sure to explain that the purpose of this conversation is simply to help others avoid an injury or accident by learning from someone who had a close call. The ground rules are also simple but also very important. You must establish the trust within your team to let them know that they will not be punished for sharing a near miss and you will not tolerate anyone belittling someone for sharing details of a close call. Without an open trusting environment, your near miss discussion will not be effective. 
2. Start with a Personal Example – As the leader of your organization, you may not be involved in the day-to-day production work anymore, but everyone of us has had a close call to recount or can think of one from their personal life. When the leader begins to share and makes him/herself vulnerable to their team, it sets the stage for anyone in the organization to be able to share a near miss situation. 
3. Ensure Everyone has a Chance to Share – Without letting the meeting get too long, it’s important for everyone on the team has a chance to share their near miss. When someone feels like they didn’t have a chance to share when they were ready to, they are less likely to share the next time around. 

If you are struggling with what to include during your Safety meetings or how to begin discussing near misses with your team, reach out to an ArboRisk team member or sign up for our Thrive Safety Package today.

Job Briefing

Written by Eric Petersen, CIC

Job Briefing. Job Hazard Analysis (JHA). Job Safety Analysis (JSA). Pre-Work Checklist. 

There are many names that tree care companies use to describe the activity a crew goes through before they begin working at a jobsite but for the purpose of this article, I’m going to use the term Job Briefing. 

Before I get too far along, it is important to note that the technical function of a JHA is slightly different to a JSA or Job Briefing, but the concept I want to dive into is…

What should a tree crew discuss before working at a jobsite?

For starters, the Job Briefing may be the singular most important moment of each job. It is the time for all crew members to understand the work that will be done, the specific site hazards involved and create an emergency plan for an accident. 

Let there be no doubt, Job Briefings save lives. On top of that, the Job Briefing helps each job be completed in a more efficient and profitable manner than a job that didn’t have a briefing. 

So what should your crew be discussing during their Job Briefing? The Job Briefing doesn’t need to be a long drawn meeting, but it should address several key items including specifics about the work to be done at this location, and site specific hazards and special equipment needed along with a discussion about the work zone setup. The crew should also discuss emergency procedures, who will call 911, who is the backup caller, where is the nearest hospital or urgent care clinic, where is the first aid kit. 

To help your crew remember to discuss all of these topics, utilize a paper or digital form that each employee signs to acknowledge that they understood the specifics of that job. You can include more than this, but in my opinion, the bare minimum information that should be on your Job Briefing form should be:

• Date
• Jobsite address
• Start time
• End time
• Crew Leader
• Physical Hazards/Obstacles specific to this location
• Simple description of Work Plan including a sketch of work zone
• Questions/Comments from the crew
• Signature lines for each crew member 
• First Aid kit location
• Who will call 911 and who is the backup caller?
• Specific equipment necessary for the job
• Specific PPE requirement necessary for the job

A copy of the Job Briefing should be kept on file in case an accident does occur as this can be a key piece of defense that your tree care company will want to have if being sued by someone after a job-site incident. 

Lastly, don’t over complicate this process for your team. Make it easy enough for them to do before each job, yet detailed enough to get the right information to everyone. 

If you are struggling with what to include during the Job Briefing or how to improve your pre-job meetings, reach out to an ArboRisk team member or sign up for our Thrive Safety Package today.

Elements of a Safety Program

Written by Eric Petersen, CIC

Most tree care companies have a written safety program or Injury and Illness Prevention Program (IIPP) in place, however, we often get asked, do we have everything we should in our written document? The answer, of course, depends on the specific operations of your company, however, this article highlights the six general elements that you want to include in your written safety program.

Commitment to Safety and Assignment of Responsibilities

We all know that the commitment to a safe workplace must start at the top, with all levels of ownership and management. Your written safety program should contain a clear and concise statement of how important safety is to the leadership of the company. This section will also outline the fact that the responsibility of a safe workplace falls on everyone in the organization and that everyone will be encouraged and expected to report unsafe conditions when they see them. It is in this section that you should mention that your organization will adhere to the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) Z133 Safety Requirements for Arboricultural Operations. 

Safety Communication System

The next section of your written safety program should focus on how safety will be communicated throughout your organization. This is the place to outline the foundation of your Safety Meetings and your Safety Committee. You should also make note of the training that will be provided to your team, not only for new employees, but what training will be done on an on-going basis. 

Safety Rules and Work Procedures

This section will start to get into specifics on the type of conduct your team is expected to have, what good shop housekeeping looks like as well as the appropriate usage of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). You can use this section to address weather related exposures such as rain, ice, snow, dangerous temperatures both heat and cold (if applicable). We also recommend putting your driving and fleet safety rules in this section. Setting the expectation for getting to and from the jobsite safely and how the company will monitor driving records is a very important part of this document. Make sure to include language on Fall Protection along with how a team member will be disciplined for violating a safety rule.  

Hazard Assessment and Control

In this section, you will want to state how your team assesses the hazards that they face on each jobsite. Your jobsite setup and briefing procedure is an integral part of this section. You can also focus on specific equipment that you use or special procedures that may be unique to your company here. 

Incident Reporting and Accident Analysis

Creating clear incident reporting and accident analysis procedures is part of this section. Here you want to identify the responsibilities of each person involved in an accident and give guidance on what information must be gathered at the time of the incident. You should also include how your company will handle employee injuries from a Return to Work/Light Duty standpoint as well as what the follow up will be when a safety violation or incident has occurred. 

Documentation and Employee Acknowledgement 

The final element that your written safety program needs is a procedure for documentation and record keeping for all of the safety items. Along with the documentation expectation, you should have each employee sign an acknowledgement form showing that they have been trained on the document and that they understand their responsibility for their own and their team’s safety. 

It’s important to note that your written safety program doesn’t need to follow this exact format, but should contain these elements at a minimum. If you’d like more help with your written safety program, contact an ArboRisk team member today and get signed up for our Thrive Safety Package. We will work with you one-on-one to help you develop the best written safety program possible and boost the safety culture of your organization.