The way to improve safety is to eliminate the Safety Director:
More years ago than I care to admit I became a plant manager at the ripe age of 29 with a mandate to fix a serious safety problem. I worked at it night and day in every way I could and after a few months, had absolutely no improvement to show for my efforts. After an epiphany moment, I decided to eliminate the Safety Director’s position — not fire him — just eliminate the position. He was a great guy — very hard working and knowledgeable. I just came to the conclusion that the problem was the position. As long as there was a Safety Director, safety was his responsibility. Once the job was gone, safety clearly became the responsibility of everyone else.