Building Safety Culture Through Ownership: Meet the Aegis Battalion

Originally written on October 18, 2018. Sharing now as a tribute to grassroots safety leadership and the power of building a safety culture and team identity.

“It is impossible for one person to carry the weight of ‘positive safety culture’ on their shoulders.”

I find myself so proud of how engaged and invested my Safety Team is in protecting our coworkers. We’ve named ourselves the Aegis Battalion — taken from the Greek word “Aegis,” meaning shield or protection. The idea came from one of our team members, and it’s a powerful symbol of what we do and who we are.

🧠 Why the Safety Team Matters

As a typical “EHS Lone Wolf,” it’s crucial that I can entrust responsibilities to a team that takes ownership seriously. Our safety culture is not about me — it’s the product of our Leadership Team, our Safety Reps, Incident Management Team, and every single coworker.

Each rep was nominated from different sub-areas of our facility. From dry-side packaging to Wet Side Category B, everyone is represented. I make sure everyone knows who their rep is — through all-site emails, funny team photos, and constant visibility.

📝 Our Meeting Cadence & Culture

Weekly Agenda

Team Member Check-In
Learning & Discussion
Review of Incidents & Near Misses
Project Updates & Assigned Actions
Safety Wins & Kudos

💬 Social-Emotional Check-In: “What Color Are You?”

Before every meeting, we ask: “Are you green, yellow, or red?”

It’s a moment to honor our humanity. We’ve had a few yellows, but no reds — and it sets the tone for trust.

🎓 Learning Culture

“Learn something new every day, have as much fun as you possibly can, and for goodness’ sake, be safe.” – Dr. Todd Conklin

Every meeting includes 3–5 minutes of learning. We’ve been using Todd Conklin’s Pre-Accident Investigations podcast and tying lessons back to our own work. (Highly recommend.)

🥾 On-the-Floor Inspections

Once per quarter, we ditch the agenda and get on the floor.

Reps are paired with someone from a different department and complete a real-time inspection. The first time they assessed unfamiliar areas. Later, they inspected their own zones — and came back on fire with ideas, concerns, and passion. It was electric.

We’ll continue alternating between familiar and unfamiliar areas. It keeps things dynamic.

📊 Quarterly EHS Metrics

Each quarter, I share site-level leading and lagging indicators — the same report I give to Ops Managers and our Leadership Team. It’s important our Safety Reps understand:

Where we stand
Where we’re headed
And the impact they’re making

It’s also a reminder: They’re owners. Literally. We were an employee-owned company.

🏆 Safety Wins

Every meeting ends with Safety Wins.

Small or big — a win is a win. We shout out teammates, celebrate behavior change, and recognize effort. I encourage reps to follow up with written kudos in our LMS for performance reviews. It matters more than people realize.

💙 Gratitude & Safety Culture Built

This team — this Aegis Battalion — makes my job, my day, and my life better.

The depth of experience, willingness to teach, and sheer drive they bring is endlessly inspiring.

I’m thankful. And I’m proud.

Aegis Battalion, arise.

2025 Reflection:

Looking back, this post still fills me with pride. The Aegis Battalion was one of the first teams where I saw what happens when safety becomes shared—not delegated. Long before I led large-scale enterprise strategy, this was the proving ground where I learned how culture, ownership, and community make safety real. These lessons continue to shape how I lead today.

Want to read more?

If you enjoyed this story about grassroots safety leadership, you might also like:

• [Leadership Reflections: Best & Worst Managers in Safety]

• [If Safety Is “Owned” by One Team, Your Business Is at Risk]

(These will be live soon—stay tuned!)

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