The most dangerous moment on an elevator or escalator site can be the moment everyone feels the work is routine.
My career in vertical transportation has taken me through field operations, maintenance, inspections, quality, safety, compliance, and leadership. I have worked across OEM and non-OEM environments, including rail infrastructure, airports, mines, power plants, commercial buildings, hospitality, and other critical public assets.
Across the places where I have worked, one lesson has stayed with me: familiarity can quietly weaken our awareness of risk.
A capable technician can still miss a warning when a task has been done hundreds of times. A team can have a permit, a risk assessment, and a method statement, yet fail to pause when conditions on site change. That is why I believe safety leadership must go beyond checking whether a process was followed. We must help people understand why each control exists and give them the confidence to speak up when something does not look right.
This matters especially in multi-brand maintenance. Our teams encounter different manufacturers, equipment generations, control systems, and site conditions. We cannot assume that yesterday’s experience fully prepares us for today’s job. We have to build situational awareness into toolbox talks, inspections, training, supervision, and the conversations we have on site.
For me, safety is a leadership responsibility. It is reflected in the questions we ask, the concerns we listen to, and the decisions we make when work needs to stop and be reassessed.
The measure that matters most is whether every person returns home safely to their family.
What have you found most effective in building a safety culture where people speak up and act before an incident occurs?
#SafetyLeadership #VerticalTransportation #Elevators #Escalators #FieldOperations #RiskManagement #OperationalExcellence #EngineeringLeadership #Infrastructure