Lifetime Achievement Awards 2026

PROFESSOR AMY EDMONDSON

It is with profound respect and admiration that we present the Lifetime Achievement Award to Professor Amy C. Edmondson, in recognition of her groundbreaking and enduring contributions to the field of organizational safety, leadership, and human performance.

For over three decades, Professor Edmondson has been at the forefront of research into the dynamics of effective teams and the conditions that enable learning, innovation, and resilience in complex systems. As the Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at Harvard Business School, she has illuminated the often-overlooked human dimension of risk – demonstrating that the ability of people to speak up, ask questions, report concerns, and admit errors without fear is a critical foundation for safety.

Her concept of psychological safety – now a globally recognized pillar of high-performing and high-reliability organizations – has transformed how leaders across industries think about workplace culture. In sectors ranging from aviation and healthcare to energy and manufacturing, her insights have shaped safety practices, team dynamics, and leadership development programs. Her research has inspired policy change, influenced regulators, and informed the design of learning systems aimed at preventing serious accidents and enhancing employee wellbeing.

Through her influential publications – including Teaming, The Fearless Organization, and most recently Right Kind of Wrong – Professor Edmondson has offered compelling evidence that learning from failure is not only necessary but vital for organizational progress. She has taught us that failure, when approached with curiosity and accountability, can be a teacher, not a threat – and that safety is not merely a system of controls, but a culture of trust, inclusion, and continuous dialogue.

Amy Edmondson’s legacy is not confined to academia. She has personally mentored thousands of students, coached executives, and collaborated with frontline workers and CEOs alike. Her voice has been a clarion call for humane leadership and for building organizations that are not only safe but adaptive, transparent, and courageous.

This Lifetime Achievement Award honors not only a remarkable scholar, but also a deeply principled thought leader who has forever changed the landscape of organizational safety. Her contributions resonate deeply with the mission of Safety On The Edge – to push the boundaries of what is possible in the pursuit of zero harm and psychological integrity in the workplace.

We celebrate Professor Amy C. Edmondson’s extraordinary impact – and express our deepest gratitude for a lifetime dedicated to making organizations safer, smarter, and more human.

PROFESSOR KARL E. WEICK

It is with deep admiration and immense respect that the Safety On The Edge Global Forum presents the Lifetime Achievement Award to Professor Karl E. Weick, a scholar whose groundbreaking contributions have fundamentally shaped how we understand safety, sensemaking, and resilience in complex, high-risk environments.

For over five decades, Professor Weick’s work has challenged conventional thinking, ignited intellectual revolutions across disciplines, and elevated the global conversation around organizational behavior and safety. His seminal concept of “sensemaking” has transformed how we view human cognition under uncertainty, giving us a powerful lens through which to interpret decision-making, coordination, and failure in high-hazard systems.

From the ashes of tragedy – as his analysis of the Mann Gulch disaster – to the inner workings of aircraft carriers and emergency rooms, Karl Weick has persistently asked the hardest questions: How do people organize the unexpected? How do they stay mindful in chaos? And how do we build systems that can learn, adapt, and survive under pressure? His answers, always provocative, have inspired generations of safety leaders, scholars, and practitioners to reimagine safety not as control, but as a dynamic, fragile, human accomplishment.

Professor Weick’s influence extends far beyond academia. His ideas underpin how leading organizations across the world now train for critical events, respond to failure, and foster cultures of collective mindfulness. Through works such as “Managing the Unexpected”, co-authored with Kathleen Sutcliffe, and his thought-provoking essays on enactment, retrospective sensemaking, and loosely coupled systems, Weick has gifted us not just frameworks, but entirely new ways of seeing.

This award recognizes not only his scholarly brilliance but his enduring impact on safety practice. His thinking has permeated boardrooms, emergency response protocols, leadership development, and safety culture strategies. Where others sought systems, Weick reminded us of people, their ambiguity, improvisation, fallibility, and resilience.

As the world grapples with increasingly complex risks – technological, environmental, and organizational – Weick’s legacy stands as a beacon: a call to think more deeply, observe more closely, and never underestimate the power of human meaning-making in the face of uncertainty.

With profound gratitude, we honor Professor Karl Weick for a lifetime of intellectual courage, insight, and inspiration. His work will continue to shape the edge of safety for decades to come.

DR TODD CONKLIN

On behalf of the Safety On The Edge Organizing Committee, we are honored to present the Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of Dr Todd Conklin’s extraordinary and enduring contributions to the advancement of psychological safety, Human and Organizational Performance (HOP), and the global transformation of safety leadership.

This award is a central part of our mission to honor those whose ideas have profoundly shaped the way we understand and pursue safety – not as the mere absence of harm, but as the active presence of trust, learning, and accountability. His work exemplifies this vision.

As a scholar, teacher, and thought leader, his groundbreaking contributions have redefined how organizations respond to risk, understand failure, and build resilience. He has given us a new language to talk about safety – one rooted in human behavior, systems thinking, and the courage to challenge outdated norms. Through Todd’s books, speaking, and influence on leaders at all levels, he has moved the safety conversation far beyond compliance, toward cultures that value psychological safety, transparency, and continuous improvement.

Conklin’s impact can be seen not only in transformed boardrooms and frontline practices, but in the deep personal shifts experienced by the thousands of professionals he has inspired. He has helped leaders see safety not as a constraint, but as an enabler of operational excellence and human dignity.

This award is not just a recognition of what he has done – it is a celebration of a world where people can speak up without fear, where leaders learn from failure with humility, and where safety is a shared, living responsibility across every level of the organization.

We are proud to honor Todd Conklin with the Safety On The Edge Lifetime Achievement Award, and we look forward to celebrating his legacy publicly on 5 May 2026 – among peers, colleagues, and future leaders who stand on the shoulders of his insight and dedication.

DR TOM KRAUSE

In recognition of a lifetime dedicated to advancing the science, leadership, and practice of safety, the Safety On The Edge Global Forum is proud to honor Dr. Tom Krause with the Lifetime Achievement Award.

Dr. Krause’s pioneering work has reshaped the landscape of organizational safety, challenging traditional compliance-driven paradigms and introducing a more human-centric, psychologically informed approach. As co-founder of BST (Behavioral Science Technology), his leadership brought behavioral safety and leadership engagement to the forefront of global safety strategy. His influence can be seen across decades of industry transformation, where his work with thousands of organizations has helped reduce serious injuries and fatalities and build cultures of learning, trust, and accountability.

In more recent years, Dr. Krause has continued to shape the field through leading-edge study groups that tackled persistent challenges in safety. One such initiative clarified the understanding of Serious Injuries and Fatalities (SIFs), which reignited the focus in SIF prevention and helped reframe how organizations assess and address high-consequence events. Another significant contribution emerged from a study group focused on the role of decision-making in the causation of SIFs and the impact of leader-level biases and blind spots. This insight reoriented the lens of accountability and implications for how safety is led and managed.

With a rare ability to translate complex behavioral science into practical tools for leaders, Dr. Krause has empowered executives and frontline teams alike to see safety not just as a metric, but as a moral imperative and a shared responsibility. His writings – insightful, provocative, and deeply principled – have become foundational texts for generations of safety professionals.

But more than his accomplishments, it is his unwavering commitment to the dignity of workers and the potential of leaders to create meaningful change that defines Dr. Krause’s legacy. His voice has consistently called for courage, integrity, and humility in the face of organizational risk.

In celebrating Dr. Krause’s achievements, we also celebrate the values he has championed: that safety is not the absence of incidents, but the presence of mindful leadership, deep respect for people, and the courage to challenge the status quo.

We honor Dr. Tom Krause not only for what he has done, but for the world of safety he has inspired us to imagine – and to build.