Sam Olliges

Sam Olliges, MS, CSP, is an environmental, health, and safety professional, published author, and keynote speaker with nearly 15 years of experience across construction, manufacturing, aviation, waste management, critical infrastructure, and heavy industry. In his EHS leadership role with Landmark Structures, he supports elevated water storage manufacturing and construction operations in complex, high-risk, and variable environments. His technical experience includes leadership engagement, fall protection, confined space operations, crane safety, high-angle rescue, and operational risk management.

Throughout his career, Sam has focused on a central question: How can leaders create systems that help people succeed in real-world conditions? His work helps operational and safety leaders move beyond blame as an explanation and examine the organizational conditions, competing priorities, and system weaknesses that influence decisions and outcomes. Rather than asking who made a mistake, he encourages leaders to approach everyday work, near misses, and adverse events with curiosity and use what they learn to improve the system.

Psychological safety is central to Sam’s approach. He believes organizations learn more effectively when employees can raise concerns, report mistakes, question assumptions, and describe work as actually performed without fear of embarrassment, retaliation, or a focus on blame. By creating learning-focused conversations rather than interrogations, leaders can preserve accountability while gaining the honest information needed to make better decisions. His work emphasizes that curiosity can strengthen trust, reporting, operational learning, and performance without lowering standards.

Sam is the author of “From Blaming Workers to Engaging Leaders,” a practical guide for frontline supervisors, managers, executives, and safety professionals who are frustrated with check-the-box safety and investigations that end with “failure to follow procedure.” Written in a plain, conversational style, the book translates complex safety and human factors concepts into practical, everyday leadership habits. Through real-life stories and relatable comparisons, it explores how blame can quietly undermine trust and reporting, how leadership responses shape what an organization learns next, and how events and everyday workarounds can lead to better systems and decisions.

Sams book also provides practical guidance for escaping the blame trap while maintaining high standards, conducting learning-focused investigations, developing transformational leadership practices, and strengthening psychological safety in high-risk work. It concludes with a 30-60-90-day leadership playbook designed to help leaders start small, experiment, learn, and standardize improvements without launching another slogan, program, or initiative.

Sam has appeared on Dr. Todd Conklin’s Pre-Accident Investigation Podcast, where he discussed workforce challenges and practical approaches to learning and improvement. He speaks to safety professionals, organizational leaders, and frontline teams about psychological safety, leadership, operational learning, and building more resilient systems.

Sam has a Bachelor of Science in Occupational Safety and a Master of Science in Safety, Security, and Emergency Management from Eastern Kentucky University. Through his writing, speaking, and professional practice, he helps organizations move from blaming workers to engaging leaders while creating workplaces that are more honest, resilient, adaptive, and humane.