About
Michael Kleinpeter, Safety Professional
Helping organizations move beyond compliance by building leadership, accountability, and culture
It Didn't Start with a Book
The Right Way didn't begin with the goal of writing a book. It began as a search for a better way to lead safety.
Years ago, I found myself in a safety leadership role that left me frustrated. Too much of my time was spent responding to incidents, investigating failures, and cleaning up problems after they occurred. I wanted to spend my energy preventing those incidents instead of reacting to them.
As I began writing down ideas, one question kept returning: Why are so many capable leaders expected to lead safety when no one has ever taught them how? Executives, operations managers, and project leaders were responsible for safety, yet few had ever been shown what their role truly looked like.
Those notes gradually became a framework built around leadership, accountability, culture, and clearly defined responsibilities. After sharing those ideas with university students and industry audiences—and seeing how strongly they resonated—I realized this wasn't simply a collection of notes. It was the beginning of The Right Way.
From Frustration to Philosophy
I spent more time cleaning up after safety incidents than helping organizations prevent them
Safety
Professional Background
Over 26 years
Safety Management
Director of Safety Services
Linbeck Group
Master of Engineering
Advanced Safety Engineering and Management
AGC Grand Award
Safety Excellence
Speaker
Industry Conferences and Universities
Author
The Right Way: A Safety Philosophy
Every role I've held - as a safety professional, educator, speaker, and author - has reinforced one conviction: organizations achieve their best safety performance when leadership, accountability, and culture work together
Looking Ahead
The Right Way isn't the finish line - it's the beginning of a broader conversation about how organizations build leadership, accountability, and culture into everyday work.