General Sessions
Beyond Hard Hats: How Psychological Safety Protects Minds, Bodies, and Bottom Lines
In today’s complex work environments, one of the greatest unseen risks is a culture where employees don’t feel safe to speak up. In this keynote, Dr. John Austin, a global expert in human performance and organizational behavior, shares compelling stories and evidence showing how psychological safety directly impacts physical safety on the job. Drawing lessons from major disasters and successful turnarounds, this session offers leaders a science-based approach to building a culture where people voice concerns early, take ownership of safety, and drive continuous improvement. Attendees will leave with practical tools to foster trust, increase engagement, and prevent small issues from escalating into serious incidents—transforming psychological safety from a "nice to have" into a core safety strategy.
John Austin, PhD
Reaching Results
Dr. John Austin is an internationally recognized expert in human performance and author of #1 Amazon bestselling book, Results: The science approach to better productivity, profitability, and safety.
He is CEO of Reaching Results, where he teaches leaders to create more effective work environments. Dr. Austin was also a professor of psychology at Western Michigan University. He has consulted with organizations for thirty years to improve productivity and safety.
John and his teams have been instrumental in delivering over 10,000 work improvement, quality, and safety projects that have generated millions of dollars in improvements to businesses. They have coached over 350 senior leaders from many companies and nineteen countries to help them improve business performance.
In the area of improving work performance John is the most published author between 1977-2019 in the Journal of Organizational Behavior Management. Overall, he has published nearly 100 articles and chapters, delivered hundreds of presentations at regional, national, and international conferences and business meetings.
John coaches leaders, teaches courses on behavioral leadership, difficult conversations, and safety leadership, and is an event speaker on these topics.