Beyond Compliance: Heather MacDougall’s Blueprint for Safer Workplaces

Episode notes

Treating safety as just a compliance box to check is a mistake, especially at scale. In this episode of The Canary Report: Safety & Risk Management , host Michael Zalle sits down with Heather MacDougall , former Vice President, Worldwide Workplace Health & Safety at Amazon, to talk about leading 9,000+ safety pros across 1,000+ sites, navigating the chaos of COVID, and reshaping how we think about risk. From "two-way door" decisions to building real partnerships, it’s a candid look at safety leadership in complex and high-stakes environments. Topics that we discuss: Structuring safety teams with the “four-legged stool” model that actually works Balancing compliance with operational needs and getting things done Why OSHA needs an upgrade, and how public-private partnerships help Using “two-way” vs “one-way” doors to make smart safety calls Shifting from checkbox safety to performance that sticks Letting data and tech drive risk decisions before things go wrong Moving past TRIR and bringing more voices to the table Knowing when to build safety expertise, and when to bring it in Heather MacDougall, Esq.