%402x%20(1).svg)
.svg)
.webp)
.svg)
Brandon Williams is a highly sought-after speaker, airline pilot, and human factors professor with over two decades of experience leading teams in some of the world’s most dynamic, complex, and high-risk environments. A former U.S. Air Force Fighter Pilot, Lieutenant Colonel, and Safety Officer, Brandon brings a unique blend of military precision, safety expertise, and real-world leadership to organizations striving for excellence in high-reliability industries.
As a recognized expert in Human Factors and organizational safety, Brandon equips leaders with the strategies and tools to build High-Reliability Organizations (HROs) and High-Performance Teams across sectors including transportation, healthcare, energy, construction, and manufacturing. His powerful keynotes and training sessions are grounded in military aviation principles and safety science, offering actionable insights into system-level thinking, human error mitigation, and decision-making under pressure.
Brandon’s approach is both practical and transformative—he helps organizations understand the critical role of safety culture, Just Culture, and situational awareness in preventing incidents and enhancing team performance. Through compelling storytelling and proven methodologies, he empowers leaders to navigate uncertainty, manage complexity, and create resilient teams that thrive in high-stakes environments.
With his deep expertise and engaging presentation style, Brandon Williams is the go-to expert for organizations looking to elevate their safety leadership and operational excellence.
KEYNOTES
Human Factors Leadership: Advancing Human
Performance in High-Stakes Environments
Drawing from over 20 years of experience in aviation safety, human factors instruction, and his experience as a fighter pilot and airline Captain, Brandon unpacks how safety and human performance principles from aviation can transform your organization’s culture.
Learning Takeaways:
- The Human Factors driving error, miscommunication, and breakdowns
- How Situational Awareness is created, maintained, and lost
- Why Clear Intent enables safe, empowered execution
- Building trust through Mutual Support and Peer Accountability
- A simple Debrief process that builds learning without blame
Just Culture, Human Factors, and the Future of Safety Leadership
This keynote explores Brandon’s experience leading safety efforts in military aviation, airline operations, and organizational human factors — showing how Human Factors science combined with Just Culture principles can radically improve safety outcomes. Brandon reveals how the world’s most complex and high-risk teams lead with Just Culture principles to reduce risk, learn from error, and drive operational excellence.
Learning Takeaways:
- Understand common Human Factors and how to mitigate them
- Reframe accountability through a Just Culture lens
- Move from “Blame & Train” to “Learn & Grow”
- Improve outcomes using Checklists, Mutual Support, and Clear Intent
- Create a psychologically safe reporting environment
WORKSHOPS
Flight Plan for Safety: Strategic Planning with Human Factors Leadership
This interactive workshop helps teams develop plans that actually work in execution — not just look good on paper. Using Brandon’s “Flight Plan” framework, participants will learn how to align teams, identify vulnerabilities early, and execute with greater clarity and coordination.
Outcomes:
- Develop better and focused strategic and tactical plans.
- Ensure Clear Intent and alignment across stakeholders.
- Embed Mutual Support throughout the plan BEFORE execution.
- Identify "Areas of Vulnerability" before execution.
- Walk away with a real, actionable plan
Debrief to Improve: Embedding a Culture of Accountability & Learning
This workshop teaches teams how to leverage a structured debrief process to uncover lessons, improve performance, and build a culture of continuous improvement.
Participants will practice analyzing real projects, tasks, or initiatives using Brandon’s Debrief Model to uncover Human Factors at play and identify concrete improvement actions.
Outcomes:
-Establish a psychologically safe environment for feedback.
-Practice “Respectful Truth” with a Tone of Accountability.
-Learn and practice a debriefing model applicable to any environment.
-Uncover human performance challenges before they create risk.
-Leave with actionable lessons learned for future execution.
The Human Factors Team Challenge: Experiential Learning for Safety & Performance
This highly engaging, team-based workshop puts Human Factors Leadership into practice through an experiential learning challenge. Participants will be forced to operate in dynamic, uncertain environments — practicing clear communication, planning, mutual support, and rapid decision-making.
Then, using Brandon’s Debrief Model, teams will extract lessons applicable to their real-world environment.
Outcomes:
- Improve team dynamics in high-pressure situations: communication and decision-making
- Practice skills like Clear Intent, Mutual Support, and Situational Awareness.
- Experience firsthand how Human Factors impact team performance.
- Walk away with practical tools for improving safety, communication, and execution
KEYNOTES
Human Factors Leadership: Advancing Human
Performance in High-Stakes Environments
Drawing from over 20 years of experience in aviation safety, human factors instruction, and his experience as a fighter pilot and airline Captain, Brandon unpacks how safety and human performance principles from aviation can transform your organization’s culture.
Learning Takeaways:
- The Human Factors driving error, miscommunication, and breakdowns
- How Situational Awareness is created, maintained, and lost
- Why Clear Intent enables safe, empowered execution
- Building trust through Mutual Support and Peer Accountability
- A simple Debrief process that builds learning without blame
Just Culture, Human Factors, and the Future of Safety Leadership
This keynote explores Brandon’s experience leading safety efforts in military aviation, airline operations, and organizational human factors — showing how Human Factors science combined with Just Culture principles can radically improve safety outcomes. Brandon reveals how the world’s most complex and high-risk teams lead with Just Culture principles to reduce risk, learn from error, and drive operational excellence.
Learning Takeaways:
- Understand common Human Factors and how to mitigate them
- Reframe accountability through a Just Culture lens
- Move from “Blame & Train” to “Learn & Grow”
- Improve outcomes using Checklists, Mutual Support, and Clear Intent
- Create a psychologically safe reporting environment
WORKSHOPS
Flight Plan for Safety: Strategic Planning with Human Factors Leadership
This interactive workshop helps teams develop plans that actually work in execution — not just look good on paper. Using Brandon’s “Flight Plan” framework, participants will learn how to align teams, identify vulnerabilities early, and execute with greater clarity and coordination.
Outcomes:
- Develop better and focused strategic and tactical plans.
- Ensure Clear Intent and alignment across stakeholders.
- Embed Mutual Support throughout the plan BEFORE execution.
- Identify "Areas of Vulnerability" before execution.
- Walk away with a real, actionable plan
Debrief to Improve: Embedding a Culture of Accountability & Learning
This workshop teaches teams how to leverage a structured debrief process to uncover lessons, improve performance, and build a culture of continuous improvement.
Participants will practice analyzing real projects, tasks, or initiatives using Brandon’s Debrief Model to uncover Human Factors at play and identify concrete improvement actions.
Outcomes:
-Establish a psychologically safe environment for feedback.
-Practice “Respectful Truth” with a Tone of Accountability.
-Learn and practice a debriefing model applicable to any environment.
-Uncover human performance challenges before they create risk.
-Leave with actionable lessons learned for future execution.
The Human Factors Team Challenge: Experiential Learning for Safety & Performance
This highly engaging, team-based workshop puts Human Factors Leadership into practice through an experiential learning challenge. Participants will be forced to operate in dynamic, uncertain environments — practicing clear communication, planning, mutual support, and rapid decision-making.
Then, using Brandon’s Debrief Model, teams will extract lessons applicable to their real-world environment.
Outcomes:
- Improve team dynamics in high-pressure situations: communication and decision-making
- Practice skills like Clear Intent, Mutual Support, and Situational Awareness.
- Experience firsthand how Human Factors impact team performance.
- Walk away with practical tools for improving safety, communication, and execution
