Aramco (GO): safety leadership for non-HSE managers
A full-day workshop that showed senior managers how their own behaviour shapes safety on site.
Safety is often seen as the HSE team’s job. This workshop was for managers and senior staff outside HSE, to show how their leadership directly affects safety, cost and performance.
Participants arrived wanting to reduce accidents and costs, influence others and improve team performance.
How the day worked
What we saw
Early on, participants moved fast and focused on finishing tasks, often without pausing to assess risk. By the later exercises, teams planned mitigations in advance and spotted hazards they had missed at the start. In one exercise, a team’s own safeguard prevented the failure.
Behaviour change can be visible and immediate when it is guided by structured reflection.
Outcomes
How the day worked
- Hands-on exercises under time pressure to surface instinctive behaviour
- A simple three-question method for safety conversations
- A short check on what motivates people to work safely
- Reflection on how hierarchy and ego affect commitment to safety
Outcomes
- A clear view of why safety matters financially, socially and operationally
- Recognition of each leader’s influence on safety outcomes
- Practical tools to influence others without conflict
- Agreement on building safety culture deliberately
Key points
- For managers outside HSE.
- Experiential exercises linked leadership behaviour to safety.
- Teams moved from rushing to planning mitigations within one day.
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