Why Practitioners, Not Policies, Drive Safety Success with Matt Barnes

The Canary Report: Safety & Risk Management

"The first thing that I wanted to do, I aligned our leadership and our organization to create a framework of trust where every year we build upon people telling us more and more near misses." Matt Barnes, Director of Environmental, Health, and Safety at MD&A

OK, everyone, this one’s for the safety pros who know that real leadership doesn’t come from policies, it’s forged from building trust in the field. In this episode of The Canary Report: Safety & Risk Management, I sit down with Matt Barnes, Director of Environmental, Health, and Safety at MD&A, who’s built safety programs everywhere from North American manufacturing plants to the power stations of Antarctica.

We unpack why trust beats bureaucracy, how near misses can become your biggest competitive advantage, and why hiring practitioners over paper credentials changes everything. Matt’s got the scars and the stories to prove that culture, not compliance, drives real results. If you’ve ever wondered what “doing safety right” really looks like, this conversation will show you.

Here are some of the topics that we explore:

• How to shift from "find the box" to "here's the box"
• Why one near miss reported in an entire organization is a red flag, not a success
• The Antarctica Principle: How to make risk real for people
• The difference between hiring a safety person and hiring a practitioner
• How to build organizational capacity through "cost" interactions
• The incremental change framework that actually works

Matt Barnes is the Director of Environmental, Health, and Safety at Mechanical Dynamics and Analysis (MD&A) and a results-driven EHS leader with decades of experience across high-hazard industries. From managing safety for over 1,100 personnel in Antarctica’s harshest environments to improving systems in heavy manufacturing, Matt has built his career solving real problems for real workers. A skilled Human and Organizational Performance practitioner, he’s known for turning complex risk into practical, people-first solutions that build trust and prevent serious injuries.

Episode Resources:

• Matt Barnes on LinkedIn
• MD&A Turbines Website
• Michael Zalle on LinkedIn
• Yellow Bird Website
• The Canary Report: Safety & Risk Management on Apple Podcasts
• The Canary Report: Safety & Risk Management on Spotify