LaDuke Bringing ‘Selling Safety In Tough Times’ to Peru Miners

ALLEN PARK, MI – ‘Selling Safety In Tough Times’ is the title of a discussion to be led by safety pro Phil La Duke the XIV International Seminar in Mining Safety to be held in Lima, Peru later this month.

The conference, which runs from March 24-26, brings together mining professionals who work in the Peruvian Andes and deals with preventive measures to avoid mining injuries.

“I’m incredibly honored to participate in this conference,” said La Duke. “I think this topic is on everyone’s minds these days, but I really don’t see a big difference between selling safety in tough times and selling it in boom times.”

The presentation will be made in English and simultaneously translated into Spanish.

La Duke is no stranger to the speaking circuit, having made multiple trips to the podium at the Michigan Safety Conference, Northern Utah Manufacturing Alliance, the Canadian Society for Safety Engineering (CSSE), the Society for Applied Learning Technology (SALT), Automation Alley, and the Society for Manufacturing Engineers (SME) Lean and Green Symposium at EASTEC.

In 2010, La Duke will make presentations at the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE), the Michigan Safety Conference, and possibly several more.

“I have several journal articles that are in the final consideration for publication and, if so, I may be headed to Europe to present, said LaDuke. “Additionally, I'm in the process of negotiating with publishers for a book based on ‘Selling Safety In Tough Times’ so it’s tough to say how extensively I'll be speaking beyond what I already have booked. I started speaking (on performance improvement issues) about three years ago solely to promote O/E's worker safety management offering, SafetyIMPACT! (www.safety-impact.com).

O/E developed SafetyIMPACT! based on all the things we learned about worker safety over the last 25 years but because it was an innovation we thought we needed to make a concerted effort to promote it, and speaking engagements were just a small part of that PR effort." 

SafetyIMPACT! is an accelerated Health and Safety system based on the beliefs and practices of the world’s safest companies. O/E distilled what it learned from benchmarking the world’s safest companies down to six simple values that governed four basic activities. The companies who have taken worker safety to the next level all believed and did similar things and managed the safety of the workplace just like they did any other business element.

Those who achieved the best results toward reducing worker injury rates all believed that:

1. All injuries are preventable

2. Safety begins with compliance

3. Prevention is more valuable than correction

4. Safety is everyone’s job

5. Safety is a strategic business element, and

6. Safety is owned by operations

“SafetyIMPACT! really is the intersection between Lean Manufacturing, Risk Management, Performance Improvement and traditional worker safety” said La Duke. “We’re seeing sustained improvements in safety data and reductions in injuries and the corresponding Workers’ Compensation cost of over 8o percent.”

La Duke is currently Director of Performance Improvement for O/E Learning, a Troy-Michigan based company that specializes in productivity solutions. In his role as Director of Performance Improvement for O/E, La Duke was a lead developer of UAW-Chrysler’s major corporate change initiative, Bringing Excellence to Safety Teams (B.E.S.T.)

He also led an O/E team in the design and development of SafetyIMPACT! Prior to joining O/E, La Duke was Director, Training & Organizational Development for ASC Inc., a global tier-one automotive supplier.

La Duke is the author of numerous articles, most recently, “Electronic Performance Support: The Changing Face of Safety Training” in the November 2009 issue of “Facility Safety Management” magazine.

LaDuke is a graduate of University of Michigan where he earned a Bachelor’s of General Studies in Education and a Certificate of Training Development and Design.

For more information, contact: Phil La Duke at Pladuke@oe.com, 248.816.4442, www.oe.com, www.safety-impact.com or http://philladuke.wordpress.com.