CALIFORNIA CONSTRUCTOR: Any- thing else you’d like to share?


workers across the industry from a “whole person health” perspective. They led the way – and as a result, we’re seeing improvements.


And let me also make sure to give


credit where credit is due, in terms of the association work that is happening here. AGC of America, AGC of California, CPWR, the National Safety Council, ASSP, Construction Safety Research Alliance (CSRA), and MANY others – these as- sociations drew a line in the sand, made bold commitments, and let their actions follow. I believe their support has really started to move the needle. Ten to 15 years ago, those associations started doubling down on the right things when it comes to safety. Tis really helped companies move in the right direction on health and safety in the industry.


CALIFORNIA CONSTRUCTOR: What do you want to be the biggest takeaway from your CSEA keynote?


JASON KUNZ:Every great keynote does three things: it engages the audience, educates the attendees, and empowers people to take action. Engagement in construction only


happens when more than one person learns. And if we truly are going to send people home better, we need to make sure that more of our observations lead to better conversations, which lead to


8 CALIF CALIFORN A CO RNIIA CONSTRUCTOR OR NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2026 2026


engagement where both people walk away with an insight or idea, and where the leaders get smarter. Because when leaders get smarter, organizations move forward. And when workers get sharper, they can make better decisions in the field and go home at the end of the day feeling even better about the work they did that day.


CALIFORNIA CONSTRUCTOR:Are you bringing some specific tips/marching orders/how to’s that you want people to absorb?


JASON KUNZ: Betty Flowers said this originally: “If you’re not getting the an- swers you want from your workers, it’s not a problem with your workers; it’s a problem with your questions.” And so, if when we ask questions, we get “yeses and no’s” or “maybes” or “kind-of’s, fine or good or not sure,” that’s ok. But the quality of those responses is in direct proportion to the questions that we ask. So we’re going to give this group a


handful of questions to ask. We might do a live AI demo, or maybe a demo before the address. We will show them the power of using AI to create better questions during pre-task planning, JHAs and JS’s, post-event investigations, and debriefs. We want to give people actionable, tan- gible ways to improve the quality of their engagements!


JASON KUNZ: YES – a “thank you!” Tank you to the men and women in the state of California and beyond who work diligently every day to send every con- struction professional home a little better than they came, who work intentionally to keep critical infrastructure scaling up, who work thoughtfully to ensure we’re caring for the whole person. Most of this room will have heard of energy-based safety. But for the most part, they won’t have heard of energy-based leadership. And we’ll talk about that and include an engaging, fun exercise. Energy-based leadership is straight-


forward; it says that influence is binary. We either add to our influence or subtract from it based on what we say and don’t say, and what we do and don’t do. Ener- gy-based leadership also means that in every interaction, we either leave people lifted or we leave people with less. So we’ll talk about that, what it looks like, and how we truly can leave people lifted. The last thing I want to make sure


this audience really understands is this idea: if we are truly going to send people home better – it’s like, no one is coming to save them. And at same time, nobody is coming to stop them. Teir agency and autonomy to do that are greater than ever. I want to make sure they understand


my and others’ strong appreciation for the work they’ve done during the past several years to ask the hard questions and have the difficult conversations. And for many of them to lean in and step into areas that they really haven’t had to before. I want them to feel a deep level of appreciation for how many people they have impacted and will continue to impact moving forward, based on them humbly being willing to evolve their personal leadership abilities and philosophies.


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