Spotting Dangers Before They Happen
- Michael Matthew
- 1 day ago
- 2 min read
If safety only shows up after someone gets hurt, you’re already behind.
Most workplaces don’t lack rules.They lack early awareness.
The real work of safety isn’t reacting to failure.It’s noticing when the system starts to drift—before it breaks.
Risk doesn’t appear suddenly. It builds.
Think about a job site where a piece of equipment “acts up” once or twice a shift.
It still works.Production keeps moving.No one wants to be the person who shuts it down.
So the issue gets worked around.
A week later, that workaround becomes normal.Two weeks later, someone relies on it.Then one day, conditions line up—and the incident looks “unexpected.”
It wasn’t.
It was ignored in small pieces.
Stop inspecting. Start noticing.
Traditional inspections often confirm one thing:“Yes, the rule exists.”
But danger lives in the gaps between the rule and the work.
On the shop floor, those gaps sound like:
“We don’t really use it that way anymore”
“That step slows us down when we’re busy”
“It works fine… most of the time”
Those aren’t complaints.They’re signals.
Precursors are whispers, not alarms
Real risk rarely announces itself with flashing lights.
It shows up as:
A minor jam operators clear without reporting
A permit that’s always rushed near shift change
A procedure everyone follows—except on night shift
These are precursors.
Small deviations that tell you the system is under strain.
Miss them, and you’re waiting for luck.Catch them, and you’re managing risk.
Watch the work, not the paperwork
If you want to see danger early, go where the work happens.
Stand back and observe:
Where people improvise
Where frustration shows up
Where the job only works because someone is compensating
Those compensations are invisible in reports.But they’re obvious in real time.
When people have to “make it work,” the system is already compromised.
Near misses aren’t good news
A close call isn’t proof the system worked.It’s proof it almost didn’t.
Picture a forklift near miss during peak operations.
No damage. No injury. Everyone exhales and moves on.
But the controls failed.Timing saved you.
Treating near misses as “no harm, no foul” is how risk gets recycled.
Each one is a free lesson—if you’re willing to look.
Think in systems, not snapshots
Most dangers aren’t caused by one bad decision.
They emerge when:
Equipment design meets time pressure
Staffing levels meet overtime
Procedures meet reality
It’s the interaction that matters.
When you look for patterns instead of culprits, you stop patching symptoms and start strengthening the whole operation.
So ask yourself this: What small signals are showing up in your workplace right now—and are you treating them as noise… or as early warnings?
Because the safest workplaces don’t predict the future.They pay attention to the present.
Michael Matthew Mike@SAFETY.INC Dec 2025