Burns & McDonnell: Transforming a ‘Live Safer’ culture at an enterprise level
An Incident and Injury-Free™ (IIF™) approach to elevating safety culture
Safety
Culture Transformation
Challenge
Burns & McDonnell is a leading engineering, construction, and architecture firm. Based in Kansas City, Missouri, the global firm is 100 percent employee-owned. Burns & McDonnell designs and builds critical infrastructure, from water, power, and gas to transportation, aviation, and manufacturing. With over 12,000 employee-owners, Burns & McDonnell leadership wanted to redefine and elevate their safety culture.
Burns & McDonnell reached out to JMJ for initial engagement on a project that required trusted relationships to be built at all levels, a focus on mindsets around the safe execution of work, and belief in – and action on – no one getting hurt. The intervention delivered transformative results, helping the project shift to an engaging field culture with management, superintendents, craft workers, and supervisors. This caught the attention of Burns & McDonnell senior management, leading to a broader conversation with executives, including the incoming CEO, about implementing JMJ’s IIF approach at an enterprise level.
The goal was to create a consistent safety culture across both office-based staff and on-site workers. This meant aligning all employees under a unified safety commitment, integrating site-specific exposure with an overarching enterprise culture known across Burns & McDonnell as Live Safer.
Solution
To address these challenges, JMJ, in partnership with the chief safety officer, took a multifaceted approach, including:
Building Skills in Burns & McDonnell:
Over 325 senior leaders participated in JMJ-facilitated Commitment Workshops™, while 274 safety professionals and EPC project managers completed Engagement Workshops™. These helped ignite a deeper connection between leadership and safety culture, encouraging vulnerability, critical thinking, and open dialogue, resulting in a declaration for safety that is a personal commitment to ‘Live Safer.’
Leadership development:
Twenty-four senior leaders attended an IIF™ Orientation/Train the Trainer™ to deliver a several-hour workshop to engage new hires and existing employees across the organization to make safety personal, relevant, and important to the choices one makes for safety on a day-to-day basis at work and at home. This helped Burns & McDonnell develop internal experience to implement and sustain the desired safety culture within the organization.
Safety councils:
JMJ helped Burns & McDonnell establish 25 safety councils globally, each dealing with unique challenges while maintaining a consistent organizational commitment to safety. These councils have been critical in elevating the safety culture at all levels of the organization.
Custom diagnostic tools:
JMJ introduced its DEV:Q™ mindset diagnostic tool, which has been applied both to individuals and groups. DEV:Q provided deep insight into how safety was perceived and implemented across different segments of the workforce, exposing the cultural gaps and enablers that impacted culture.
The ‘Live Safer’ commitment:
JMJ collaborated with Burns & McDonnell to help create the ‘Live Safer’ commitment statement. This initiative represents the organization’s commitment to integrating safety into its DNA, encouraging every employee to actively participate in their safety and that of others both in the workplace and outside.
Results
Although the project is ongoing, early results have been positive. Feedback from both the Commitment and Engagement Workshops points to noticeable shifts in leadership mindset and workplace culture. Participants appreciated the opportunity to engage in open, sometimes difficult, conversations about safety and to view their roles from a fresh perspective. Key outcomes include:
Commitment Workshop feedback:
- “Management demonstrated vulnerability, creating an encouraging and motivating environment.”
- “The workshops helped participants think critically. We were able to build a bridge between the personal and the emotional tie to safety that resonates with my team, colleagues, and our trade partners.”
- “The models and examples provided in the workshop offered practical tools for applying safety concepts in the office and on our projects.”
- “Facilitating an environment where ideas and feedback about the condition of safety could be openly shared without fear of judgment in front of my peers and the executive team.”
Engagement Workshop feedback:
The interactive nature of the workshops allowed for in-depth discussions, addressing root causes of safety concerns. Participants were challenged to step outside their comfort zones, fostering personal and professional growth. Attendees gained a clearer understanding of their strengths and areas for improvement in promoting safety.
Next Steps
JMJ’s ongoing focus is on executing the work plan while adapting to evolving commitments such as supervisory leadership development and having a clear roadmap for sustaining the ‘Live Safer’ culture. The safety council plays a vital role in driving corporate initiatives and fulfilling objectives and key results (OKRs), acting as champions of the ‘Live Safer’ program and embedding its principles into the organization’s culture.
JMJ’s partnership goes beyond workshops. We’re committed to integrating ‘Live Safer’ into every aspect of the business. This includes regular engagement reviews, strategic leadership involvement across regions and business lines, and structured support through ongoing collaboration between senior management and the councils. By sustaining this momentum and providing continued monitoring and field support, we will help ensure cultural transformation is embedded for long-term success.
Incident Reduction
Decrease in both frequency and severity
Increased Engagement
Leaders inspired teams to prioritise safety
Improved Collaboration
Regular check-ins and open communication built trust