About

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

The authors all have a long-time dedication to safety, but each approach the subject from a different direction and with different experiences, perspectives and knowledge.

Scott Burr has worked in high-reliability industries and has relentlessly promoted a no-compromise standard in problem-solving. His interest in safety and risk comes from years of hands-on shop floor experience. He is a Six Sigma and Lean Master and early in his career adopted the principle of prevention. He is also a TRIZ[1] practitioner since 1998 so his involvement in quality, reliability, and process improvement has offered him the opportunity to witness and to solve complicated and entrenched problems including safety issues. Many of these problems were considered to be “impossible to solve” by his peers – until he solved them. Scott is a co-founder and professional innovator for Innovation Scientific, LLC[2] and is evolving the art of innovation into a science. Scott’s special interest is the visionary application of TRIZ and Structured Innovation to industry scale challenges and disciplines to resolve “impossible to solve” problems. Scott is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and recipient of ASME’s Distinguished Service Award.

Brion K. Hanks has a passionate dedication to safety. He has over 40 years of experience promoting safety within the construction industry and is very hands-on when it comes to safety every day. His resolute commitment is inspirational to the people that have worked with him. His actions fully embody his teachings. Brion seeks to find new ways to express, teach and improve safety. He is a safety expert and understands the best practices in his field. He has helped to implement many innovations in safety throughout the years. Brion understands that his work enhances the lives of many people. When fathers and mothers safely return home to children and spouses and that seems ordinary, he realizes the profound nature of his work. To say “Brion cares” is a complete underestimate of who he is and what he is about.

Part of Brion’s reward for his safety efforts has been the gratitude expressed by hundreds of people who have personally sought Brion out to thank him for helping to keep them safe; for getting to know them on a personal level; for teaching them ways to work safer and for truly caring about their welfare.

Dayna Hubenthal’s approach to safety is innovation-based, people-oriented and augmented by her research prowess. She has an extended liberal arts higher education (fifteen years of university level exploration in a wide variety of subjects) and continues to take classes. Dayna has a unique and naturally flexible mind which is able to see the world in fresh new ways. She can change paradigms and viewpoints with great ease and, therefore, can quickly see possibilities that others cannot. Dayna has a strong understanding of group dynamics, people, and cultures and has used her understanding in Silicon Valley start-ups and high performance teams to foster mutual trust, to create diverse unity, and to expose hidden social and psychological drivers, even when she was not the acknowledged leader. Her gifts and understanding of human behavior are extraordinary. Dayna is a co-founder and professional innovator for Innovation Scientific, LLC and is evolving the art of innovation into a science. Dayna’s special interest involves understanding the intersection of social dynamics, innovation and technology.

WHEN WE MET
When Dayna and Scott met Brion, he was already a premiere safety expert working for one of the world giants in the construction industry. It quickly became apparent that Brion is driven to eliminate the last five percent of “accidents” that other people within the industry find acceptable, or at least unavoidable. Throughout their first conversations, Scott, Brion and Dayna realized that together they could perform a paradigm shift within the safety community and raise the bar regarding risk prevention standards by incorporating cutting-edge principles of inventive thinking with world-class safety knowledge. Our book, Safety Under Construction, is the start of that paradigm shift.

OUR HOPE
It is our hope that you will engage and participate in building upon this paradigm shift for the sake of the people within your organization. We hope you affect wherever your sphere of influence reaches. Responsibility coupled with your passionate will and inventive competency can create safety buy-in and can become a powerful dynamic rewarded with safety success. Safety is always under construction on your path toward Safety Perfection.



[1] TRIZ is a Russian acronym for Teoriya Resheniya Izobretatelskikh Zadatch or теория решения изобретательских задач, and roughly translates into English as the “Theory of Inventive Problem-Solving”.

[2] Innovation Scientific, LLC is a thought leadership and consulting firm, using TRIZ/Structured Innovation and Lean Six Sigma that works with leading professionals to transform industries.

1 thought on “About

  1. Pingback: Why Safety Professionals need to go beyond being the Squeaky Wheel | Innovation Scientific

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