Larry Pearlman steps into the Consultant Spotlight as the newest team member to discuss what he's learned from SafeStart. He also shares his thoughts on just culture, and how people are the solution, not the problem.
Host: Danny Smith
Guest: Larry Pearlman
Larry Pearlman steps into the Consultant Spotlight as the newest team member to discuss what he's learned from SafeStart. He also shares his thoughts on just culture, and how people are the solution, not the problem.
Host: Danny Smith
Guest: Larry Pearlman
Welcome back to Safe Talk with SafeStart. I'm Danny Smith. As SafeStart continues to grow, so does our consulting family, and it's my honor to welcome the newest team member with us today is Larry Pearlman. Larry, first of all, welcome to the podcast.
Larry Pearlman:Well, thanks so much, Danny. I really appreciate it and I have to say you've got one of the most outstanding voices for doing podcasts, so it's an honor to be here with you.
Danny Smith:I've also been told, Larry, that I have a face for radio or podcasting, so that kind of goes along with it as well, Actually. I did radio a bit back in my early, early career, and that was one of the things they always told me was yeah, you've got the face for radio anyway.
Larry Pearlman:I've been told that as well. Without the compliment on the voice for radio.
Danny Smith:So for everybody here, a bit of background on Larry. He has worked for over 30 years in safety, culture, leadership and change management areas. He's literally worked with every level within organizations, from senior leaders all the way down through frontline employees implementing process improvement efforts. His specialties include safety and risk management, leadership, development, process safety change management, meeting design and facilitation, organization design, lean, six Sigma and also employee engagement in industries including manufacturing, transportation and the energy sector as well. Larry has a BBA in economics and industrial relations and human resources from the University of Iowa and an MA in labor and industrial relations from the University of Illinois, and he's also now an adjunct professor there at the University of Illinois. So, Larry, as we go through this, we just go through simply some questions with all of our consultants and we ask all of them the same questions, just as we go through, just to get everybody to know a bit more about you, ok let's do it.
Danny Smith:All right. So first of all, how did you tell us a a bit about your journey to come to work with us here at SafeStart? How did you come to us and be a part of the organization?
Larry Pearlman:Yeah, thanks for asking. One j ust compliments to SafeStart, because when you go to a conference, a national conference, and SafeStart has such an amazing presence, it's hard not to even know about SafeStart, if you're even just looking around. And you know, I've been speaking at conferences and been in the industry for a while, so it's no surprise that I was familiar with SafeStart. But I met Barb and yourself at a conference and we had a nice conversation after a presentation. And what is it? You know, luck and opportunity. When they meet, good things happen. So you know, Barb asked me to join, along with Kelley, and here I am and thrilled to be here I remember it was funny uh, I was.
Danny Smith:I think it was at the National Safety Council at the of Congress, if I remember correctly, and I remember you came to one of the sessions that I taught that. I think it was the same day you presented. And then a bit later, Barb and I came to your session and it was like wait a minute, that's a familiar face. And then finally afterwards we had a chance to talk. It was like, of course, now I put two and two together, because you look at a crowd of 75, 80, 100, 150 people, sometimes it's hard to pick one face out of the crowd. But yeah, it was great to meet you there and I'm so glad that you're a part of our team. Now, tell me what do you find unique about SafeStart and what do you just really love about this process as you've gotten involved with it?
Larry Pearlman:Yeah, so I'll start with what makes every consulting firm or not. And it's just the people and the camaraderie and the intellectual property that everyone brings, and I've been just so impressed with this team and the great leadership that it has and the great expertise it has. What I really love about Safe Start is it's not just at work, it's really the whole self, 100% of the time. You need to be safe at home, you need to be safe on the path to work and you need to be safe at work, and I think that's just a very powerful message. You know, caring doesn't stop when you clock in or clock out. It's 24-7. And I love that message. I think it resonates very well with me and I think it resonates very well with clients and my colleagues here.
Danny Smith:Yeah, it's always amazing that we do have people that you know they've seen. A lot of safety come and go, if you will, a lot of different safety programs come and go. And I think you're right. I think just it becomes very personal when you start thinking about it in 24-7. And that helps to. I don't want to say sell safety, but it helps get people's buy-in, I guess.
Larry Pearlman:Absolutely.
Danny Smith:What do you think? Have you already seen some of the tools and techniques that we're talking about with SafeStart? I know you're fairly new with the process itself, but are you seeing things already that were SafeStart's having an impact with you personally?
Larry Pearlman:Yeah, I think the concept of self-triggering is just so critical and really intriguing. Again, I find that to be a very unique attribute within Safe Start the concept of the individual. You know recognizing the states and being able to self trigger on them. And you know I know even simple tasks that I do walking the dog and you know putting my phone down and paying attention to what's going on around me and my dog, of course, to when you're driving and you get that temptation to do a text or something like that, you're like no, I'm not going to do it. And I heard such powerful stories around self-triggering from our clients that are just unbelievable racing to the hospital to see your wife who's going to be in surgery and is critically ill, and the ability to say no, we don't need two people in the hospital Self-trigger, follow the speed limit, pay attention to what you're doing, lower your body's physical reaction. So I really love that aspect.
Danny Smith:It's really amazing and that one has helped me so much. I guess perhaps one of the things with myself is I've noticed that I tend to be a chronic rusher, and some of that, as we often talk about, is self-imposed, I think, but certainly I tend to have juggling a lot of balls at the same time. I guess you could say, and because of that I end up causing myself to rush a good bit from time to time, and, like you said, there are times you just have to take that step back and self-trigger and say, hey, wait a minute, let's pause here and kind of go through this orderly, make sure we don't make a mistake that could get you hurt or even have other consequences. Right, absolutely. You mentioned hearing some of the great stories during some of the sessions that you've been a part of already. What are some of the other exciting things that you've seen as a part of Safe Start?
Larry Pearlman:Yeah, I think you know you mentioned stories. But the power of the story and the individual telling that story of you know what happened and how it could have been worse and that personal vulnerability when you tell a story is just so powerful. I love that. I love that component of it. Myself, I love getting out on the factory floor and I love the coaching and the observations and the interaction in that and I think Safe Start has a unique approach to it and you know, the whole human factors component to me is amazing and I love the neuroscience behind it. I love the presentations that Safe Start has, the intellectual property that comes with that and I really do believe that. You know if we're going to get to the next level of safety performance across industry. You know neuroscience is one of a handful of things that we've got to figure out. You know how to coach and how to help leaders take action and how to help individuals take action based on that to recognize situations, reduce risk, take action, do the right thing and do it all over again.
Danny Smith:Sure, yeah, and it's funny. I was thinking earlier this morning, prior to our call here, that you know it's Safe Start really gives us an opportunity to look at human factors without blaming folks, and that's the great thing. It gives us the ability just to talk to people and give them tools that they can use to help improve and reduce the accidents themselves. We currently still do the traditional safety management things that we always have done with compliance and other things, but we're just really giving folks some additional tools, right?
Larry Pearlman:Yeah, absolutely, and in a very complicated area. You know, for 20 years it's been called just culture and that term is so loaded that when people hear it they have even within themselves three, four, five different definitions of what just culture can be. But I think, when you start thinking about it, that people are the solution, not the problem. You know people will make mistakes and let's think about it in terms of neuroscience and self-regulation. I think it puts an easier spin not simple, but easier.
Danny Smith:Exactly, yeah. As our producer, Kevin Cobb, often says, you know, there's nothing simple about neuroscience or human behavior. There's certainly nothing simple about that, but it does give us, I think, an orderly framework to look at this, and that's what we're really looking for, right, yeah?
Larry Pearlman:Absolutely Danny, I agree.
Danny Smith:Well, Larry, thanks so much for joining us today. It's always great to have new folks be a part of our team and I'm really, really excited to have you be a part of this. And just if you would tell everyone how to get in touch with you.
Larry Pearlman:Yeah, absolutely. This has been really really enjoyable. So thank you, and I've been inspired by the colleagues that I've met and you know what a great group of people here To get in touch with me. Simple, it's larry. p at safestart. com. That's larry. p at safestart. com, all right?
Danny Smith:So Larry. p at safestart. com. Make sure you put the .p on there, otherwise, you're going to end up with our other Larry, Larry Wilson, right? So he's just Larry at Safestart. So this is Larry. P before Larry Pearlman. So Larry. P at safestart. com For everyone, thank you first of all, Larry, for being with us again and thanks for everybody for joining us today. I hope you enjoyed the podcast getting to meet Larry a bit here and, on behalf of Larry and the entire team here at Safe Talk with Safe Start, I'm Danny Smith and I really hope you just have a great day.