S15Ep10: Consultant Spotlight Lauren Lamontagne

Danny sits down with one of our newest consultants, Lauren, to explore how a human factors approach—brought to life through SafeStart—has become a valuable addition to her toolkit, helping her better manage her complicated relationship with focusing and staying on track in the face of everyday challenges like "adulting". Tune in for this light-hearted chat and come away with a candid look at SafeStart.

Host: Danny Smith

Guest: Lauren Lamontagne

Transcript

Welcome And Consultant Introduction

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome back to Safe Talk with Safe Start. I'm your host, Danny Smith. And today we go back to our consultant spotlight once again. And today is one of our newer consultants, as it usually is, and that is Lauren Lamontane. Lauren is a transformational leader in regulatory compliance with proven success working with various levels of organizations to bring innovative, effective, and dynamic solutions to EHS challenges within industrial environments. She is a certified safety professional and holds an associate's degree in occupational safety and health from Columbia Southern University, a jurisdoctorate from Northeastern University School of Law, and BAs in Political Science and Spanish from the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth. She is also an authorized OSHA outreach trainer for general industry, and she was the winner of the 2025 Safety Sentinel Award given by the Greater Boston chapter of the ASSP, as well as the 2025 New England Woman in Safety. So welcome this morning, Lauren. Great to have you with us.

SPEAKER_01 1:03

Thank you. You make me sound so serious. I should let you know most of my students eventually end up calling me Little Safety Mama once they hear my hip hop safety uh raps and specials. So I'll let you do that at any point if you'd like.

Lauren’s Career Path Into EHS

SPEAKER_00 1:17

I love it. Love it. So tell us a bit more about yourself. I kind of gave the the professional Lauren, if you will, but tell us a bit about you personally, but also a bit more about your background and uh how you came to Safe Start and uh really what brought you to the process itself.

SPEAKER_01 1:34

Sure. So I've been practicing in the EHS profession for about 15 years now, uh, primarily in general industry and transportation. I started out in private industry, and then about seven years or so ago, I moved into the uh the consulting world. Uh prior to that, uh I had a couple different careers. You alluded to um my adventures in law school. So I was a practicing trial attorney um for almost a decade and then moved into doing some policy work, which started with some tort reform and it sort of naturally led itself on to exploring this crazy industrial safety world of ours and uh got headhunted to move into that space, and here I am today. Um, so this is a third career for me, essentially, but uh I'm here. I'm a I'm a permanent fixture. I'm loving this.

SPEAKER_00 2:40

So, what kind of got you involved with the human factor side of things? I know that you've looked at the technical side of things, but how'd you transition over into the human factors and your journey kind of with SafeStart and with human factors in general?

SPEAKER_01 2:51

Yeah, so I was lucky. The very first company that I worked for in private industry as a safety professional within, I want to say three months of me being hired, um, they introduced Safe Start. It was a program they had used in some of their other facilities. And I took to it like a fish to water. Um, had the opportunity to go meet some uh Safe Start trainers down at one of the certification workshops in Atlanta, and I became obsessed. It was one of the few avenues I'd encountered in this industry where you can actually have a bit of fun with safety. And I that really resonates with me. I think that's more of my default personality, less the the doom and gloom, you know, person standing on the hill preaching down to everybody else. Uh it was an opportunity to almost level the playing field in a lot of these classes that we're teaching in, you know, be one amongst the group, be be humble, um accept that these human factors affect me just as much as they do the students in the class. And just the dynamic shift that you see from that, um, the bonding you see from that. It's it it's it's transformational. It's it's paradigm shifting, culture creating, all of that that jazz that you know is the really hard work um at facilities. You know, SafeStart was a one-stop shop for for all of that magic to happen. And it didn't feel like a drag. It actually felt like, huh, people enjoy coming here. They're asking me when their next class is gonna be. Um, you know, there you hear them going around in the hallways talking these crazy states and errors language. Like you just hadn't seen that. I hadn't seen that before in in traditional safety. So I guess just the the the fun, the the group thinking, um, and the bonding is really what stood out to me most uh being introduced to SafeStar and made me want to, you know, chase the opportunity to be involved more. And here we are today.

Common Language And A Fun Culture

SPEAKER_00 5:18

Great. I I love that. Uh I love the idea of just you know, it gives you an opportunity, number one, to have that common language, but also just to have have a bit of fun with things. Um it reminds me of a a call I had, oh gosh, this has been five or six years ago from a safety director from a company I had done some work with was Safe Start. And he called me one day, uh, and some some of our listeners may have heard me share this story before, but he calls one day and he's just in an absolute panic. And he's like, I went down to the shop floor and I heard the guys down there, and they're they're talking about mind on task and just cutting up and making a big joke of this, eyes on task, mind on task. They're picking, you know, they're just they've turned this into a joke. I'm really concerned about what's going on down here. And I said, Oh man, that's great. And I think he nearly passed out when I said it was great. But then my my next question was, well, tell me this. When was the last time you went down on the shop floor and you heard a really, really great Hascom joke? He says, What do you mean? I said, Do you are that they're talking about it, you know, celebrate the win, you know. They're talking about it. Yes, they're joking about it, but they're learning as they're joking, and that's the thing. And I love how it does make it so fun, right? And that's one of the things, gives us that common language too. One thing you mentioned there as well, I I love, is how it kind of levels the playing field. And as you said, it's not us as as trainers or as consultants, you know, do this, do that, don't do that, don't do this. It's all about, hey, we're all human and we all can learn and we can learn from each other, which I find to be one of the unique things about Safe Start. So, what what else do you find about the process that's unique? What do you just really love about the Safe Start process?

No Blame As The Core Principle

SPEAKER_01 6:58

I love that one, they they lead in, right? Very first class, every single leadership class, sustainability, steering committee, they talk about this no-blame mentality that really is is the lifeblood of the program. We can't have honest dialogues about human factors and um share our experiences and and where we're learning if that's going to be used as a weapon. Um, and the way that Safe Start rolls that out right at the very start, I think is unique because it dispels the notion, right, of the safety manager as the dictator out there trying to catch people doing things wrong and call them out on it. And I think the students start to feel that, um, especially in between units, right? It's not just the the safety professional or the trainer now telling them um, you know, don't worry as you're writing down what you're seeing and admitting where you have work to do, it's not going to be used against you. It's not just us saying it. Um, the activities and the curriculums designed so that they feel that, right? There's credibility behind that statement. I think that's that's very unique. Um previously I'd say that's a that's a conversation and dialogue. It's probably uh held a lot amongst safety professionals, you know, trying to self-monitor it. Now you've got a whole safety army out there on the floor, including frontline supervisors saying we're not going to use safety observations um as a weapon to blame people. So I think that messaging's crucial. Um I also going back to being on the same playing field as everyone else, um, some of the best trainers in-house have come from um spaces where or situations where you might not originally have recognized somebody as having that that training bone or that talent and the confidence that SafeStar creates in its audience through storytelling and sharing and and having that that safe space to practice, you know, unit after unit, I think really does equip people with some pretty serious life skills and and worthy life skills that then make them eligible to be some of the most effective safe start trainers that are that are out there because they know the work. And there's already this this you know bond with with their line or their colleagues. So I like the the sort of equality of safe start and that everybody's stories have have value. Everybody's voice has value. Um, and it's teaching people to not be afraid to have that voice. So I think that's definitely unique to SafeStart, where most of the traditional safety training you're used to hearing, a facilitator at the front of the class who's the the subject matter expert telling you what we're gonna do today and then driving the process as opposed to the encouraging the group dynamic and and learning from the people who really do have the most amount of experience, the ones out there on the floor. So a couple things I absolutely love about SafeStart that make it unique.

SPEAKER_00 10:39

You know, tell me a bit about um how this has impacted you personally. I know uh just in spending some time with you uh back at our office back a few months back, uh I heard you talk a lot about uh how you're using the skills that you've learned in Safe Start personally, but uh tell the folks a bit about that and just other ways that you've applied the concepts already.

SPEAKER_01 11:02

Absolutely. So if I had to pick one sort of realm in which I I feel um the effects of SafeStar and feel myself getting stronger, sort of, you know, working, working that muscle is on the road. So anybody that knows me knows I am not ashamed to to toss out that I am a severe ADD or focus is constantly a challenge, right? And and now that I'm adulting, I hope I'm adulting well. I've I've got my arsenal of tools to to sort of deal with that, right? Um, lists and making sure time management is is on point. And Safe Start definitely aligns with those other tools and gives me a more pointed um sort of tool and frame of of thinking. So for example, uh during during the core units, we talk a lot about self, right? What are the main sources of injuries? Is it actually other people or malfunctioning equipment or is it us? And there's something empowering about knowing, okay, they've already figured out where the majority of accidents come from and and they're spot on. Um and that means I can absolutely crush it as far as eliminating the majority of the risk personally, if if I focus on my techniques. So knowing that on the road is is probably the riskiest activity that I I engage in, certainly regularly. Um, and knowing I already have this, you know, proclivity to to rush or perhaps not have my mind or my eyes on task all the time.

unknown 12:57

Right.

SPEAKER_01 12:57

What am I gonna do about it? Right. Right. Like that is that is the question is you're watching the needle um on on or the speed gauge go up to to 75. That's a choice. Sure. Right. And it's really hard when asking yourself, knowing what this state to error risk pattern is eventually going to cause, am I still okay making that choice? And and it it that self-trigger technique is such a game changer because you're essentially rationalizing with yourself, aren't you? You're saying, I know that the risk is that much higher because I'm I'm not just rushing. I have a tendency to go on autopilot, right? That complacency. And I can choose to do something about it right now, or I can choose to ignore it. And it's just a really hard, it's a really hard question to ask yourself, especially as a safety professional, and then say, ah, I'm just gonna disregard it. Right. Um, so it forces you to sort of face your demons when it comes to what are the activities that I engage in where I know I can be better and want to be better. And I think for me, having, you know, my kids, my kids are are grown. I like to say, I just got my freedom. Um, they're all in their 20s, right? Uh they're starting to adult, they're starting to feel the pressures of, you know, needing to make that meeting because there's consequences to it now. Sure. Um, you know, needing to to be better with their time management. And if they see me jumping in my car and speeding out of the driveway and and totally disregarding all of those mantras that I've been trying to drill into them, it's gonna, it's gonna give permission for for them to do the same. Um so I think it's helped me model better behavior for those around me and and walk the walk.

SPEAKER_00 14:57

I love that. So I love that. Big stuff. Yeah, it is. It reminds me of uh, you know, the comment that uh it's actually in in our Safe Start Core training, I think it's in Unit Three, where we talk about how uh, and it actually comes from Don Wilson, our chief client officer, who who said uh, you know, self-triggering makes that safety decision possible. It gives you that opportunity to decide what are you gonna do. You know, you can you can take a couple of things, you can reduce the the risk itself, you can reduce the state, you can increase your awareness. Or the third option, and we didn't put this one in the workbook, is you can just kind of roll the dice and hope for the best. But that's really not a proper, not the best of of options, right? So we we you know kind of tell everybody, hey, do one of those other two, right? So it's interesting to me. You you mentioned how that um that one exercise, you know, looking at self others in the equipment uh is something that really resonated with you. I find that to be true with a lot of our folks when we're going through Unit One uh for the first time. Uh to me, it's one of those, I call it those light bulb moments where you know the angels sing and the light bulb goes over your head goes off over your head. Oh kind of thing. Sorry, my angel singing is not good this morning. Uh but um you know it's one of those where it um that's one of those things that has an impact with people. Uh and I I love that. Uh what's some of the other things that you've seen while you've been out uh teaching Safe Start as a consultant or in in the previous lives just as a trainer uh with your previous company? What's one of the most exciting things that you've seen happen uh with the classes and with the people that are going through the process?

Language Access And Inclusive Training

SPEAKER_01 16:38

I love seeing the creativity with which you know the steering committee management, the in-house trainers roll out some of the uh sustainability activities, the way that they add their own little spins to to maybe something that they picked up at the um, you know, the certification workshops. I like to see how their their management rolls out messaging. So whether it's you know a rolling video playing in the cafeteria or um another trainer actually, you know, put on display one of his his proud moments of uh a uh, let's just call it uh an in-house EHS person that might have leaned more towards the stodgy side, um, watching them come to life uh doing all of these, you know, music videos with safe start themes and and really just letting their guard down and the impact that has on people when they're not expecting it. Um so breaking down some of the barriers. I also, you know, from a personal perspective as somebody that that teaches this material in another language, I have to give credit where credit's due to both the developers at SafeStart and also the on the facility side to those management teams who recognize they might have language challenges and do something to prepare for it. That is huge. Um walking into a class and seeing just the relief on students' faces when they receive a workbook in in a language that they that they speak or that they're most comfortable with, and and hearing videos that are in a language that they're most comfortable with, and just knowing that their management took the time and found it equally valuable that their community understands and grasps this and has the tools to leverage it, like that's huge. And you and I both know that that's not a that's not a sort of universal offering out there in the in the safety world, right? You're kind of stuck with what you get.

SPEAKER_00 18:54

Um, and I think it's the basic translations that don't don't even translate properly, right? And that's with with so many things, and that's that's the danger, right? Uh you get someone who like me who is monolingual and you you try to translate something, you go out to the internet and try to get it to help you, and you don't know if it's right or not, you know, or you you do your best. And and I think folks appreciate just that effort in and of itself. But like you said, when it's right and it's picking up the nuances of that, and it really is something that you know it they appreciate that. And and I think that's the thing, you know, that's as much as we can do things like that, and having folks on staff like you who are bilingual and can can talk, you know, and and speak to them in their language and share experiences in their language. It's not just about delivering the the material in their language, but deliver your stories that way. I think that really resonates, particularly with with some cultures, right?

SPEAKER_01 19:51

Absolutely. Absolutely. So kudos to to everyone that makes that happen. I've seen nothing but positive effects um from going the extra mile in that.

SPEAKER_00 20:03

Excellent. Anything else you can think of there that you've seen that you just really, you know, that's that's really caught your eye with things. You mentioned this, you know, the creativity folks use, uh the languages and being able to deliver in multiple languages and being intentional about that on the front end. Uh anything else you've noticed there?

Travel And Culture Across Worksites

SPEAKER_01 20:21

Well, if I could give a plug for anyone that might be interested in joining our our wonderful SafeSart team, the amount of different cultures within this country that I've gotten to experience personally is one of the most exciting things for me. As somebody that gravitates um to different travel experiences, it's easy to overlook, you know, the little road trips that might not be that far away, right in our own backyard. And SafeStarts giving me some pretty cool experiences, not to make anyone jealous, but I get to hike the Appalachian Trail right after class a couple of weeks back. You know, I say that as though, you know, I did it for three months. It was probably like a 45-minute hike, but shh, um but just getting to meet new people and and experience these little cool neighborhoods and cultures. That's been really, really fun and neat. And and I just feel like kind of makes you more universal. Um that you can sort of reach in your back pocket and say, yeah, I was on the AT because that's what they call it. If you're one of the cool kids and you've been on the Appalachian, you get to call it the AT, baby. So just meeting people and and you know, being able to broaden my own experiences to find commonalities everywhere I go. Um always excites me.

Contact Info And Closing Message

SPEAKER_00 21:50

So absolutely. Yeah, it's one of the things I always tell folks folks is uh, you know, it doesn't matter where you're located geographically, it doesn't matter what industry you're In it doesn't matter what your background is, the culture, um all of that does matter, don't get me wrong, but SafeStart works in those environments, in all of those environments, regardless of where what your background or location is, because Safe Start just works well with people, and that's the great part about it for me. So uh and I like you, I love just being able to experience so many different things. Uh and I always say that our our job as consultants with Safe Start, we get uh a little bit, some people some of you may be familiar with the job, uh the um the uh TV shows like uh you know how it's made and things like that. And I always say that our job is kind of a part of that because we get to literally see how they make the aircraft wings, we get to see how they make the medical devices, how they make the cans that our food go in. We get to see everything in between. You know, isn't it neat? It's just amazing. It really, really is amazing. So well, Lauren, thank you for your time this morning. Uh I really appreciate it. Uh, if you would give the folks kind of your uh your contact information, your email address in case they want to follow up with you and talk with you a bit more, uh, and also just any kind of closing thoughts here that you might have.

SPEAKER_01 23:12

Sure. So anyone that wants to reach out, I am all ears. Lauren.l at safestart.com is my email. And yeah, if there's if there's anyone looking that that is debating if this program's right for for their facilities, right for their um their culture, all I can say is take the chance. I have never spoken to an organization that went down this path um and regretted it. There are so many benefits that go beyond just traditional safety in in KPIs, right? Like I hate when we always boil this down to the metrics of success. I'm telling you folks, there are some things from a culture perspective that we can't quantify, but you know it when you know it, right? You know it when you see yes, a team that is gelled and working together and looks like they enjoy going to training, right? Like, what? When does that happen? I'm telling you, it happens with SafeStar. So I hope people feel the sort of infectious energy that I have for this program um as somebody that practices in this space because it doesn't come along often where we just get this gem of a tool that is universal and and works across multiple industries um and is as effective as this. So I can't I can't inject any more enthusiasm into this. I I love this stuff. I think it comes across when when I teach. And yeah, let's just the the more the more enterprises and organizations that latch on, the the closer we are to to our mission, right? Of of keeping workers safe.

SPEAKER_00 25:09

So I love it. So again, uh Lauren's contact information, Lauren, it's l-a-u-r-en dot l at safestart.com. If you want to get more information from her, talk to her a bit more. Uh, she'd love to chat with you about things uh is if you have any questions. And uh again, I think you you have that great experience, as several of our consultants do, of having been in industry, but also having used SafeStart in industry and now transitioning to consulting. So uh just great to have you with us now. So, for everyone who's joined us today, thank you so much for your time. Uh, looking forward to talking with Lauren more in the future on the podcast. So look forward to that as we'll bring some other subjects with her. Uh, but thanks for your joining us again. Please share this with some others around you. And uh we'll see you next time. Safe talk with safe start. I'm Danny Smith. Have a great day.