From The Bottom Up

Why do some organizations improve while others repeat the same problems year after year?

After more than four decades in utility operations, construction, LNG facilities, safety, and quality management, Brian McMorrow came to a simple conclusion: the field sees reality first. Long before a report reaches management, before an audit identifies a gap, and before a metric appears on a dashboard, the people doing the work already know what the organization needs to hear. The real question is whether the organization is built to listen.

From the Bottom Up is a field-tested guide to Safety Management Systems, contractor integration, and the culture that makes them work. Built on the principles of API RP 1173 and W. Edwards Deming, it shows how knowledge can move from the point of work into the management system and return as better decisions, stronger controls, and safer operations.

Inside, you will learn:

- Why safety culture is infrastructure, not a slogan
- The ten elements of API RP 1173 in plain language, with utility and contractor examples and what failure looks like
- Three real PDCA case studies, including a leak-repair improvement that cut costs by more than a million dollars a year without compromising safety
- Why contractors are not outsiders, and a tiered framework for recognizing contractor safety management maturity
- What the proposed second edition of RP 1173 signals, with a self-assessment to see where your organization stands
- The Pride in Workmanship Operating Model: Personal Commitment, Site Leadership, and Work Support
- "Time out. Let's reset." How to bring Management of Change to the point of work
- How artificial intelligence can become a digital field partner that challenges assumptions without replacing human judgment
- Systems thinking, process behavior charts, and a practical ninety-day PDCA starting cycle

These lessons come from the street, not the conference room: a gas main that blew open outside a Brooklyn nursing home, a supervisor development program that turned the union into an advocate for promotion, and command-center decisions during Superstorm Sandy. Along the way, the book draws on the thinking of Deming, Juran, Crosby, Ishikawa, and Senge and puts it to work in real utility and contractor operations.

Brian McMorrow began his career as a Distribution Helper in Brooklyn and rose to senior leadership over some of the most complex utility and LNG operations in the Northeast. He later helped a utility contractor build a Safety Management System recognized by the Northeast Gas Association, and today he is the Founder and President of BMC Management Consulting LLC.

Written for utility and pipeline executives, contractor leaders, supervisors, foremen, and safety and quality professionals, From the Bottom Up is for anyone who wants their management system to reach the work.

Because culture is not a slogan. Culture is structure.