The Perch
Field notes and strategic insight from Black Banner Safety.
What Aircraft Maintenance Taught Me About Workplace Safety
From battery-shop safeguards to a missing screwdriver tip that brought maintenance to a halt, Navy aviation taught me that effective safety systems rely on more than written procedures. Accountability, consistent practices, and stop-work authority must become everyday habits, even under operational pressure. Read more about how those lessons continue to shape my approach to workplace safety today.
Key Insight: Safety culture is revealed by what happens when following the procedure becomes inconvenient.
The Business Case for Better Safety Systems
Buying safety software does not automatically create a good safety system. Flexible software gives organizations the ability to build workflows around the way they actually operate, connect information across programs, and reduce the paperwork and manual follow-up that eats up staff time.
Key Insights: The software is the tool. The system is what you build inside it. Good implementation turns technology into something that actually supports the work.
SIF Isn’t Just Another Safety Acronym
Serious injury and fatality prevention should not become another administrative headache. A practical SIF process helps organizations identify high-potential events, verify critical controls, and keep serious-risk learning connected to the systems already managing incidents, inspections, corrective actions, and leadership review.
Key Insight: Serious-risk signals need to be visible enough to act on before luck runs out.