Mickey Hannum has been in the business of keeping people safe at work for 25 years. Once it was a job, until one day it became a calling. A phone call relayed the numbing news that a workplace accident had claimed the life of close friend. Shockingly, tragedy struck again a short time later—a beloved family member died in a workplace incident. 

“It forever changed my perspective on safety and responsibility,” Hannum writes in his new book, “People First. Safety Always: Rebuilding Culture from the Inside Out,” which was published this summer. “This mission runs deeper than duty for me—it’s personal. It’s the fire that drives me to make a difference … I wake up every day committed to this cause, driven by the unwavering belief that everyone deserves to return home to their loves ones.”

Hannum, who is Chair of the AFS Safety & Health Committee, began compiling over two decades of notes from books and conversations back in February this year while developing an article for Modern Casting. Ultimately, he arranged them into a thoughtful and highly-practical narrative that’s now available on Amazon. Written in a conversational tone with numerous true stories of industrial transformations, as well as actionable steps and advice, the book illuminates a path for foundry frontline managers, as well as safety, HR, and executive leaders—inspiring them to create a culture where engaged workers embrace safety as a daily mindset.

While Hannum augments the critical importance of safety rules and procedures, the whole intent of his book is to underscore the fallibility of over-reliance upon compliance. 

He writes, “Compliance alone is insufficient. It can foster a false sense of security, allowing preventable failures to slip through the cracks … [rules] often mask the core issues that become heartbreakingly apparent only when tragedy strikes.” 

The book addresses a common misconception: the belief that 100% compliance equals 100% safety. Hannum writes: “In reality, you could be sitting in an office, confidently asserting that every system aligns perfectly with current regulations while still facing severe workplace injuries … For genuine safety excellence, organizations must scrutinize how injuries can occur in their environment.”

In a phone interview, Hannum elaborated: “Rules are essential—they provide a foundation for any organization. But you know, rules can’t think. They can’t adapt or respond to the unexpected things that are going to happen. That’s what people have to do. Your rules and procedures might not cover every single aspect or challenge they deal with day in and day out. 

“You can meet all the rules listed by OSHA and still have a really bad accident that can lead to a severe, life-altering injury or even a fatality. The only way you can learn what the real risks are that people are up against each day is going out and talking to them.”

The First Step Is Easy

Transforming a work culture may sound daunting, but Hannum says small change can have immediate effect on your reportable incident rate, your costs associated with injuries, and, importantly, the morale of your team. In a top-down, rules-are-king atmosphere, blame, shame, and punishment are used to control people—as a result, they tend to keep their mouths shut when they see a safety hazard or when they’ve made a mistake. Conversely, in a trust-based environment where people are encouraged to share their opinions and observations, they feel psychologically safe, hold themselves accountable, and expend what Hannum calls “discretionary energy,” going beyond their job description to protect themselves and others.

Reversing managerial habits that contribute to a poor safety track record is going to be more of an evolution than a revolution, says Hannum, but the first step is not only simple, it requires no preparation, no meetings, no tools or manuals—it can begin right now … today. 

“It’s built through consistent, authentic actions,” he said. “For a supervisor or any frontline leader, the first step could be just having a daily conversation. Set a goal to go out every day and have a real, authentic conversation, even with just one team member, about what’s working well but also what their challenges are. What’s getting in the way of them doing the job safely or efficiently?
“The same thing might apply for a manager of production, safety, quality—whoever it is—just taking the time to walk on the floor and listen to people without judgment,” Hannum continued. “A lot of times, instead of asking questions, managers will say, ‘Hey, I noticed that you’re not following the procedure.’ But it goes much further with your culture if you ask questions and you don’t judge—you find out why someone’s not actually going step by step in the procedure. It may be that they have a better answer. 

“Those small acts with conversations really signal to the team that their voice matters. And that’s the first step in turning the wheel, because it gains trust. You’re letting them know that you value their opinion and they have skin in the game. This is the biggest part of the work I do: coaching managers about those conversations. There’s even a whole chapter dedicated to it in the book. That’s probably the most meaningful thing that any supervisor could do.”

Hello Safety, Good-bye Productivity?

Hannum’s book is not a cumbersome read—Modern Casting consumed it on a Kindle and used highlighting and bookmark tools to digitally dog-ear important points. For foundry managers, the book could be best utilized as a ready reference guide on a desk. The content is honest and doesn’t skirt around objections from industrial management. 

One concern he’s heard more than a few times is that productivity is bound to suffer when excessive attention is devoted to safety culture. After all, if workers are empowered to stop production if they see something unsafe, for example, won’t that be abused? And won’t these relentless conversations put a drain on production schedules and cause customer deadlines to be compromised?
Far from it, Hannum replies. 

“In my experience, if you do it right, safety and productivity are not competing priorities at all,” he told Modern Casting. “They actually reinforce each other. If you do safety well, you’re going to do other things better, too. When employees feel trusted and engaged, they don’t just work safer; they actually start working smarter. They contribute additional information about how to be efficient.

“For the most part, people want to come to work and do a good job—they want to have pride in what they do,” he continued. “That engagement reduces rework, scrap,  downtime, and hidden costs. I’ve seen a lot of organizations that were afraid of losing time by focusing on people—but they actually gained time because their teams are more invested. They’re more creative and innovative, and they just take more ownership when management values their input. When safety and productivity are done right, they move in the same direction.”

Remember This

Why should foundry leaders brake, reverse, and turn course on their company culture as a safety strategy? Bottom line, says Hannum, culture defines the legacy of a leader.

“Nobody’s going to remember how well you did an audit or how many procedures you updated. Leaders are going to be remembered for how they cared for people and looked out for their best interests.  If people would stop and think about what kind of legacy they want to leave, I think they might change how they lead.