Marieke Bleyenbergh
Founder
Be Human Be Safe
Break the Pattern: A High-Energy, Immersive Wake-Up Call That Redefines Safety Leadership and Learning
Many safety environments make people hesitant to admit mistakes — yet mistakes hold the richest opportunities for learning and improvement. This immersive session uses instrumental music, atmosphere and storytelling to shift the emotional tone in the room and help participants experience the difference between fear-driven reactions and a more human, open approach to safety.
Live contrast exercises allow participants to feel how traditional “command and control” shuts conversations down, while a more human approach opens space for honesty, learning and shared responsibility. This emotional shift becomes the foundation for understanding the leadership behaviours that build trust and respectful dialogue: presence, listening, empathy and clarity.
Participants leave with:
• A visceral sense of how emotions influence safety behaviour
• Practical leadership actions that turn mistakes into momentum
• Insight into how their presence shapes openness and trust
• A renewed understanding of how music and storytelling can unlock meaningful learning
This is a guided, high-impact experience designed to change how leaders respond in the moments that matter most.
Marieke Bleyenbergh knows what it feels like when safety looks solid on paper, yet something still does not sit right on the shop floor.
Before stepping into global EHS leadership, she spent more than 15 years in operations as a chemical engineer and operations leader in high-hazard environments. At Shell and AkzoNobel, she has worked where decisions are made under real pressure, where production targets, downtime, and risk are not theoretical trade-offs, but daily realities.
She has been the one expected to deliver results, while also being held accountable for safety. And later, the one expected to “hold the line” on EHS, knowing that in the moment, people make choices based on what the situation demands, not what the procedure says.
Today, through Be Human Be Safe, she works with EHS and operational leaders who recognize that tension. Leaders who are tired of adding more systems, while the real challenge lies in how decisions are made when it matters most.
Her message is simple and confronting: safety does not fail because people do not care. It fails in the moments where everything else feels just as important.