Ever since strategy gained currency as an organizational concept in the 1960s, there's been confusion about how to define it. Strategy isn't a detailed plan of action. Nor is it a corporate vision or an objective or a mission statement. Strategy is not what to think. It's how to think. Most books on strategy focus on external strategy: competition with rivals in business or overcoming the enemy on the battlefield. This book is different.

Regardless of country, industry, or type of business, the most critical person to shape performance and culture is the first-line supervisor. Yet, these individuals are often the most undertrained, under-resourced and underutilized leaders in the organization. Far too many super employees become supervisors (and some eventually senior executives) without being developed into the type of leaders the organization requires to succeed.

While several version of behavior-based safety (BBS) have been around since the 1980s, few of them have truly adapted to the changing environment in which they must operate. The Lean BBS process has not only evolved, but continues to do so with each customized implementation. Making BBS fit your culture, operations, and logistical realities, rather than trying to make your company fit some idealistic model, is a key to success in today's realities.

The Bridge to Excellence is not just a means of getting your organization from the beginning to the end of a particular journey. It is the organization and every organization has a Bridge, whether utilized or not. Does your Bridge take your organization across the roiling rivers of competition, technological change, evolving customer preferences, workforce changes, supply chain disruptions, pandemics, regulation, and more? Does it carry you over all of this to the goal of Sustainable Excellence, or does it take you somewhere else?

STEPS to Safety Culture Excellence is based on the authors' firsthand experience working with international organizations in every major industry that have successfully developed and implemented ongoing cultures of safety excellence. Whether your organization is a small regional firm or a large multinational corporation, you'll find that the STEPS process enables you to instill Safety Culture Excellence within your organization.