Closing the Loop on 2025 Hazards

Welcome back, let's Build Smart & Build Safe! We’ve spent the week analyzing our logs and auditing near misses. Today, we focus on the most common point of failure in any safety program: Closing the Loop.

Identifying a hazard is only 10% of the job. The other 90% is ensuring that the hazard was actually eliminated—and that the fix didn't create a brand-new problem. If your 2025 safety "to-do list" still has items from March, your loop is open, and your site is at risk.

The "Paper Safety" Trap

Be skeptical of any digital dashboard or paper checklist that says "Resolved" without a verification step. In many cases, "Resolved" simply means someone moved the hazard out of sight or applied a temporary band-aid.

• Temporary vs. Permanent: Did we fix the broken guardrail by clamping pieces together (temporary), or did we weld it back into place (permanent)?

• The Verification Walk: Never "close" a hazard in your system until you or a supervisor have laid eyes on the fix. If you aren't verifying, you aren't managing safety—you’re managing paperwork.

Why "Closing the Loop" Builds Culture

Nothing destroys a safety culture faster than a worker reporting a hazard and seeing nothing happen. When you close the loop and communicate the fix back to the person who reported it, you are proving that their voice matters.

1. Review your 2025 Inspection Reports: Look for "open" items.

2. Verify the Fixes: Pick three random "closed" hazards from the last six months and go to the field to see if the solution held up.

3. Audit the "Band-Aids": Look for temporary fixes that became permanent by accident. Is that extension cord still taped to the floor six months later?

Preparing the 2026 "Zero-Open" Goal

As we head into the new year, your goal should be to enter January with a Zero-Open Hazard status. This means every ladder tagged out in 2025 is either repaired or destroyed. Every trenching concern has been addressed. Every missing SDS sheet has been found.

Closing the loop is about intellectual honesty. It’s admitting that finding a problem is useless unless we have the discipline to follow through until it’s gone.

Tomorrow, for our final Fall Protection Friday of the year, we’ll do a 2025 retrospective and set our "Zero-Fall" target for 2026.

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-The Safety Man