David McPeak, CUSP, CIT, CHST, CSP, CSSM

About the Author: David McPeak, CUSP, CIT, CHST, CSP, CSSM, is the Director of Education for Utility Business Media’s Incident Prevention Institute (ip-institute.com) and the author of “Frontline Leadership – The Hurdle” and “Frontline Incident Prevention – The Hurdle”. He has extensive experience and expertise in leadership, human performance, safety and operations. McPeak is passionate about personal and professional development and believes that intrapersonal and interpersonal skills are key to success. He also is an advanced certified practitioner in DISC, emotional intelligence, the Hartman Value Profile, learning styles and motivators. Reach him at david@utilitybusinessmedia.com.

Make It Safe To …

October 1, 2024 | David McPeak, CUSP, CIT, CHST, CSP, CSSM | Frontline Fundamentals

A trainer, speaking to trainees at the start of class: “Welcome, class. You are encouraged to ask questions and participate. Remember, if you have a question, 15% to 20% of the class probably has the same question.” A trainee, a few hours later: “I have a question.” The trainee then asks the trainer a question […]

Preventing SIFs with Above-the-Line Work Planning and Execution

August 21, 2024 | David McPeak, CUSP, CIT, CHST, CSP, CSSM | Frontline Fundamentals

Are the things that hurt people the same as the things that kill people? Should safety focus on preventing serious injuries and fatalities (SIFs)? In this article, I’m not going to attempt to answer either of those questions. Instead, I’m going to do two other things. First, I’ll provide you with insights and resources that […]

START Work Authority

June 17, 2024 | David McPeak, CUSP, CIT, CHST, CSP, CSSM | Frontline Fundamentals

Stop-work authority is crucial in our industry. Understand me when I say this: If people aren’t using stop-work authority, they don’t have that authority even if it’s promoted on a bulletin board somewhere. With that said, I want to propose START (self, task, assess, reduce, thrive) work authority to reduce the number of times you’ll […]

Receiving Feedback

April 14, 2024 | David McPeak, CUSP, CIT, CHST, CSP, CSSM | Frontline Fundamentals

Most leadership development programs talk about the vital skill of giving feedback, as they should. I hope you’ve been trained on coaching and feedback and that you practice and enhance those skills frequently. But what about receiving feedback? That is another skill that can be learned, practiced and improved. And it’s a skill I don’t […]

Game-Planning for Safety

February 22, 2024 | David McPeak, CUSP, CIT, CHST, CSP, CSSM | Frontline Fundamentals

Given a relatively equal amount of talent on both sides, the sports TEAM (Together Everyone Accomplishes More) with the best game plan will likely win. Examining what champions – especially those that create dynasties – do well provides us with insight into achieving excellence in safety. Job and Task Hazard Analyses Most champions excel at […]

The Art of Safety – A New Hierarchy

December 21, 2023 | David McPeak, CUSP, CIT, CHST, CSP, CSSM | Frontline Fundamentals

Given the predictable nature of hazards, how and why do incidents occur? Think about this: If I know the winning numbers ahead of a lottery drawing, it’s simple for me to be 100% successful at winning the lottery money. So, if we know how hazards are going to act and how they cause harm, why […]

Comparing robots and people provides insight into the significance of human performance and human factors – and leads us to some important conclusions.

David McPeak, CUSP, CIT, CHST, CSP, CSSM