From a Small Midwestern Town, to the CEO of a Safety Software Company

By: Stacey Godbold

From a Small Midwestern Town, to the CEO of a Safety Software Company

Tom Carson, Founder and CEO of Sospes, LLC

My boss, Tom Carson, grew up in a small town in the Midwest. In a recent episode of our new podcast, I recently talked with Tom about how childhood shaped him as the future CEO of a safety software company.

While talking with Tom, two powerful ideas struck me. These ideas are no-brainers. Problematically though, they’re too often ignored in our industry.

(1) Safety is Everyone’s Responsibility

In the beginning of our episode, Tom shared that he grew up in a culture where “everybody was in it together.” He then said something quite profound, something that some people in business—especially those who want to be successful at any cost—lose sight of. Tom said the following about his childhood town: “When somebody prospered, everybody prospered. When somebody suffered, everybody suffered.”

That idea carries over 100% into the safety profession.

We really are in this together. That is, what we each do as individuals can impact—either positively or negatively—all those we work with.

The way I look at it is, if I’m being safe, and my coworkers are being safe, then we’re all safe.

Unfortunately though, if one solitary person is unsafe, then every single one of us is at risk. That’s scary to think about, but it’s true. If just one of us is unsafe, then we’re all unsafe.

(2) Safety Works When It’s Simple

Let me explain that.

In our episode, Tom talked about previously working for a software company that created electronic medical records. The problem was, nobody at the hospital would use his company’s software. See, the technology guys had asked the doctors to change how they worked so that they could enter in patient info, use the software, etc. Nope. The doctors weren’t having any of that.

In Tom’s words, “If you really want people to adopt technology, you have to make it as simple as possible.”

Tom and his team had to go back to square one. They revamped the software so that it was much easier to use, plus so that it integrated along with (rather than disrupted) the natural workflow of hospital staff.

Over the years, Tom has taken what he learned from implementing software at hospitals to implementing safety software in various industries. In short, the simpler you make it, the greater chance that your employees and workers will use it.

Check out my chat with Tom and let us know what you think!