Shawn M. Galloway
- President of ProAct Safety
- Top 50 People Who Most Influence EHS
- Created the first-ever safety podcast, Safety Culture Excellence
Shawn M. Galloway is the President and Chief Operating Officer of ProAct Safety®. As a professional keynote speaker and internationally recognized safety excellence expert, he has helped hundreds of organizations within every major industry, achieve and sustain excellence in performance and culture. Shawn is also the host of the highly acclaimed weekly podcast series, Safety
read the restShawn M. Galloway advises many of the world’s most respected organizations on how to build safety excellence that lasts. Widely recognized as a leading authority in his field, he has published more than 500 articles, authored several bestselling books, and created the first-ever safety podcast, Safety Culture Excellence. His honors include being named to the Top 50 People Who Most Influence EHS and to the Top 10 Speakers. Shawn’s expertise is regularly featured by major media outlets, including Bloomberg, Fox News, The Daily Mail, Dubai One, U.S. News & World Report, Sirius Business Radio, and Wharton Business Daily, as well as top safety magazines and podcasts. Through his roles on the Harvard Business Review Advisory Council, the Forbes Business Council, and the Fast Company Executive Board, he continues to influence how executives think about safety performance and culture.
read lessShawn M. Galloway in Media
Speaker Programs
Most organizations invest heavily in safety programs, messaging, and training, yet still see uneven adoption, inconsistent behaviors, and “pockets” of excellence that don’t spread. Why? Because the culture that shapes performance is built and protected ...more
Most organizations invest heavily in safety programs, messaging, and training, yet still see
uneven adoption, inconsistent behaviors, and “pockets” of excellence that don’t spread. Why?
Because the culture that shapes performance is built and protected inside frontline team
subcultures: the unwritten rules of “how we do things here,” the behaviors peers reinforce, and
what leaders consistently reward, or silently tolerate.
In this keynote, Shawn M. Galloway introduces a practical, frontline-ready approach to
strengthening safety culture by working where culture truly lives: at the crew and supervisor
level. You’ll learn how to spot and map subcultures quickly using four diagnostic questions
that reveal what’s rewarded, what’s tolerated, what people fear, and what they feel proud of:
insights that explain why people make the choices they do when no one is watching.
The session applies a powerful “fear and concern” lens to show how day-to-day leadership
habits strengthen or erode trust, psychological safety, and engagement. You’ll leave with five
proven leadership plays you can implement immediately to make ownership the norm, not
the exception. This keynote is designed for leaders who want action, not theory. You’ll walk
away with a clear, practical 30/60/90-day path to build shared ownership across teams by
changing the routines and reinforcements that drive daily behavior. ...less
Most safety culture work stalls because organizations pursue activities before choosing a strategy. In this keynote, based on STEPS to Safety Culture Excellence, you will learn a repeatable, internally led process to move from compliance ...more
Most safety culture work stalls because organizations pursue activities before
choosing a strategy.
In this keynote, based on STEPS to Safety Culture Excellence, you will learn a
repeatable, internally led process to move from compliance to a culture that
sustains results after the campaign ends. STEPS, Strategic Targets for Excellent
Performance in Safety, breaks culture change into small, logical tasks that build
capability at every level.
We start where most programs skip: set the strategy first, then assess the current
culture to find the best path to execute it. You will see how the journey moves
through seven milestones, from building capability and credibility to creating
passion, focus, proactive accountability, measurement, and trust.
You will leave with a clear roadmap, practical diagnostics, and a shared language
leaders and frontline teams can use to prioritize, solve, and sustain the work and
new culture you’ll intentionally create. ...less
Most safety leadership training teaches what to enforce. This keynote teaches what to coach to improve performance when you are not in the room. Based on COACH: A Safety Leadership Fable, you will follow a ...more
Most safety leadership training teaches what to enforce. This keynote teaches
what to coach to improve performance when you are not in the room.
Based on COACH: A Safety Leadership Fable, you will follow a story in which a
high-performing troop is consolidated, cultures clash, and well-intentioned
safety efforts create distraction, disruption, disengagement, and demotivation.
A newly promoted supervisor, Lucy, seeks a mentor and learns a simple,
repeatable framework from “Solophant” the elephant.
The keynote translates the fable into a leadership operating system built around
four disciplines every people-leader can apply immediately: Familiarize, Focus,
Feedback, and Facilitate. You will learn how to create ownership, strengthen
trust, and build the relationships that make honest conversations and sustained
improvement possible.
Participants leave with a practical coaching cadence they can use in the field, in
meetings, and in everyday decisions to improve safety, quality, and reliability
without burning out the organization with the next program-of-the-month. ...less
Most strategy work is aimed outward. Inside Strategy flips the lens inward and shows leaders how to create new value through aligned, continuous performance improvement within their own organizations. Strategy is not what to think. ...more
Most strategy work is aimed outward. Inside Strategy flips the lens inward and shows
leaders how to create new value through aligned, continuous performance
improvement within their own organizations. Strategy is not what to think. It is how
to think, especially when the future is unknown.
Based on Inside Strategy: Value Creation from Within Your Organization, this
keynote offers leaders a practical way to move beyond annual plans, slogans, and
metric-chasing. You will learn why many safety and operational efforts are “plans to
fail less,” and why failing less is not a strategy.
Participants will walk away with a shared definition of strategy, a simple decision
filter to prioritize work, and a repeatable method to create value for internal
customers and the people you ultimately serve. ...less
For excellence to become a reality in any important area of operations, especially safety, there are five vital capacities organizations must develop, monitor, and synergize to adapt and thrive in a fast-paced and ever-changing world: ...more
For excellence to become a reality in any important area of
operations, especially safety, there are five vital capacities
organizations must develop, monitor, and synergize to adapt
and thrive in a fast-paced and ever-changing world: System,
Leadership, Engagement, Cultural, and Strategic.
Based on extensive cross-industry research and decades of
experience leading change in all major industries, this keynote
leads the audience on a thought-provoking journey balancing
case studies with practical execution guidance and matures the
thinking necessary for driving change at all levels of the
organization. ...less
Workplace injuries and incidents can have far- reaching consequences beyond an employee's immediate physical harm. The collateral damage resulting from such incidents can significantly impact various aspects of an organization and the lives of those ...more
Workplace injuries and incidents can have far-
reaching consequences beyond an employee's
immediate physical harm.
The collateral damage resulting from such incidents can
significantly impact various aspects of an organization
and the lives of those connected to injured individuals.
Leveraging the lessons learned from Deepwater Horizon,
Rana Plaza, Boeing, Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant,
Takata Corporation, Peanut Corporation of America, and
more, this keynote emotionally and unforgettably
explores how organizations can prevent and mitigate
the consequences of safety incidents. ...less
Traditional safety programs still behave like the Tin Man—rigid, mechanical, and slow to adapt—while work has become faster, more complex, and less predictable. In this keynote, Galloway explores why the next era of safety excellence ...more
Traditional safety programs still behave like the Tin Man—rigid,
mechanical, and slow to adapt—while work has become faster, more
complex, and less predictable. In this keynote, Galloway explores why
the next era of safety excellence demands that leaders think more like
an octopus: sensing weak signals, adapting in real time, and
empowering decisions at the edge of operations.
Drawing on global client experience, Shawn shows how to evolve
safety from a compliance-driven function into a living, learning
capability woven into everyday work. ...less
Since 2008, the Bridge to Safety Excellence model has been a proven model hundreds of organizations have leveraged to convey the precise elements to be addressed to close the gap between compliance and culture, determine ...more
Since 2008, the Bridge to Safety Excellence model has been a proven model
hundreds of organizations have leveraged to convey the precise elements to be
addressed to close the gap between compliance and culture, determine where they
are on the path to sustainable excellence, and develop a strategy to achieve it.
Based on the 2023 best-selling book Bridge to Excellence: Building Capacity for
Sustainable Performance, this keynote reframes safety as a business excellence
strategy, not a seperate initiative.
Using the Bridge as a simple visual, you will diagnose where you are today, clarify
what is truly creating your current results, and build a focused plan to strengthen
capacity. Participants learn the five capacities that must work together to produce
sustainable results: system, leadership, culture, engagement, and strategic.
Expect real-world examples, plain-language takeaways, and a shared vocabulary your
team can use to align priorities, reduce “only-when-watched” performance, and build
confidence in your ability to prevent, respond to, and recover from undesirable
outcomes. ...less
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