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Welcome to Balmert Consulting

We look at things a little differently!™

Practice Overview

Our consulting practice can be summed up in one word: Execution.

Execution simply means “faithfully carrying out the plan.” When it comes to getting results, our careers as managers at some of the biggest names in the industrial world convinced us that execution is the difference that makes the difference.

Sure, policies and procedures pay an important role. So do programs. But they’re just print – until they are converted into action. In the world of operations, line management determines how well that conversion takes place. When it comes to execution, no level of supervision plays a more critical role than that of the front line supervisor.

Whether we’re teaching or consulting, we take a practical, common sense view of problems and solutions.  Our training courses – from the Managing Safety Performance suite to professional development courses, like Influencing Skills – teach what to do and how to do it. Our approach to teaching is based on the Socratic Method, the oldest teaching technique on the planet, but still the best. Our consulting work is built on the Law of the Critical Few: find the real problem and come up with simple and effective solutions. That’s where the critical time and resources of management can be best employed.

We believe that’s what sets us apart from the rest of the consulting world. And why our work has helped make a real difference in the performance of our clients.

Managing Safety Performance™

While the organization depends on front line managers and supervisors for execution of safety programs and processes, rarely are they taught how to lead and manage the safety effort. Management just hopes they'll figure how what to do on their own.

"Hope is not a method."

As experienced line managers, we teach practical leadership techniques that every supervisor and manager can learn and put to immediate use. Our Managing Safety Performance courses provide the "what to do" and "how to do it" for effective safety leadership.

Today, thousands of managers and supervisors around the world are getting great safety results using the techniques we've taught.

Most of our workshops are taught at our client's work location however we offer some public sessions for people so you can come and see what we do.

Upcoming Workshops

Managing Safety Performance

Managing Safety Performance:
Skills for Supervisors & Managers™

2009

May 4th & 5th
September 14th & 15th
December 7th & 8th

 

(Click here to find out how you can attend as our guest)

More Info

Influencing Skills

HSE professionals in many organizations are at the heart of ensuring the safety of every individual in the company and protecting company assets. For HSE professionals, producing successful results takes more than just authoring a new procedure and an occasional speech at a safety meeting. The Influencing Skills workshop gives HSE professionals the practical tools they need - and can immediately begin using - to positively and effectively influence their organization.

Influencing Skills:
for HSSE Professionals™

Rescheduled Due to Hurricane Ike to
December 1st & 2nd - Humble, Texas

More Info

Health, Safety and Environment Assessments

Our consulting practice focuses on improving execution in the manufacturing and industrial services sector. A key step in the performance management and improvement process is conducting an HSE Assessment - determining the current state and identify opportunities and provide specific recommendations for improvement of Health, Safety and Environmental processes and execution - represents. Our definition of an HSE Assessment is “an evaluation against mandatory government requirements and recognized industry best practices.” In the typical HSE assessment we do for our clients, the evaluation cover matters such as management leadership, employee participation, incident reporting and investigation, management and staff organization for the required Health, Safety and Environmental work Our team of consultants brings a world of knowledge and practical experience to the task of understanding the way things really are, and what it will take to achieve the HSE goals that have been set for the operation. Our assessments are helping clients around the globe achieve the level of health, safety and environmental performance they have set for themselves.

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Balmert Consulting is in the business of business process improvement. Our consulting focus - no matter what the problem or where it is found - will always "follow the money" to The Four P's™.

© 2000 - 2009 Balmert Consulting

updated March 3, 2009

Managing Safety
Performance News™

The leading source of Darn Good Ideas™

March 2009

INTRODUCTION:

In November's newsletter, "Training Needs Analysis", Paul started a series on what every leader should know about training. He raised the question; “How good is the training we provide to the enterprise?” Given the amount of money spent, it’s a vitally important question; even more so when the subject of the training is safety and health. 

He shared three recent conversations he had with three different people; three different roles; three different businesses; three different parts of the continent about the dismal state of training. 

In December's newsletter, "The Problem with Training", he concludes the training problem isn’t about not knowing how to train. It’s a performance problem. Good teaching – and therefore good training – demands three things: timing, technique, and teacher.   

This month Paul concludes the series by offering several practical, easy to implement suggestions for you to improve the state of training in your organization.

Past issues are available in the Newsletter archives. 

~ V. Scott Pignolet

Solving the Training Problem

by Paul D. Balmert
Principal, Balmert Consulting
 

 


"The objective of education is learning - not teaching"

~ Russell Ackoff


 

 

In classrooms all over the world, students are bored and learn far less than they ought to. In a sentence, that’s the problem with training. At the core of the problem lie the three T’s: timing, technique, and teacher. Who can blame a student for failing to learn when the materiel seems irrelevant, the method of teaching ineffective, and the teaching, well, boring.

While that description certainly fits many training classes in business and industry, most often what gets the attention of the researchers, writers, and educators is academic education – or the lack thereof. A recent example: Turning Learning Right Side Up: Putting Education Back on Track. The co-author, Russell Ackoff, knows something about teaching: a faculty member at the Wharton School of Business with a teaching career dating back to 1941.
 
A student once asked Ackoff the last time he taught something he had actually learned in a classroom. Ackoff’s answer: fifty years ago, meaning that his knowledge came largely from his own independent learning.
 
The student was impressed, noting that the Professor he must be really good at learning. His next observation stopped Ackoff in his tracks: “What a shame you’re not that good at teaching.”
 
Most of what people learn comes from figuring things out for themselves. He who teaches really does learn the most. Ackoff put it this way:  “Teaching enables the teacher to discover what one thinks about the subject being taught. Schools are upside down: Students should be teaching and faculty learning.”
 
There’s a great clue in that last sentence. Knowing the subject matter may be necessary to good teaching, but it is hardly sufficient. If it were, our experience on the receiving end of education would be far different – and better.
 
But enough about the training problem, we’ve discussed that in detail in part one and two of this series: the more important question is this: What can you do to fix the problem?
 
Here’s some good news for a change: the answer is more than you think.

Solving a Complex Problem

The causes of poor training are myriad, and solving the training problem on a grand scale is far beyond the sphere of influence of middle managers and front line supervisors. The de-coupling of those who see the problem firsthand – students in the classroom and their supervisors – from those who seemingly have some power over the solution – senior line leaders in line and staff role only serve to make a big problem worse. When the Vice President of Information Technology convinces the CEO to invest in computer based training for his new enterprise system, hardly a thought is given to the poor souls who actually take the training. I remember when I was one of them – and I don’t remember seeing any senior leaders in class with me.

It’s easy to throw in the towel and just suffer through bad training but it doesn’t have to be that way. If you either do training yourself – or have some direct influence over those who do because they work for you – an important piece of the solution is right in front of you, ready for the taking. That’s because a major part of what goes on in the classroom is strictly between teacher and student. So, anyone who teaches anything can decide to teach better and use methods that are better suited to motivate and help students to learn.

Continues...

To continue reading this month's Managing Safety Performance News or to see it on a single page or to read previous editions in the newsletter archives
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