meet the Tactise team
Yury Tsiku – 'Even a 1% improvement is meaningful'
Yury Tsiku, Project Director at Tactise, shares insights from a large-scale transformation program aimed at building a “Culture Without Danger” at a major steelmaking company, the creation of a Safety Culture Transformation Center, and the first measurable results in reducing risks and shaping a new mindset among employees and leaders.
Yury Tsiku, Project Director at Tactise Group
From Oil & Gas to Safety Transformation
— Yury, how did your journey into safety begin?
— I come from the oil and gas industry. For the first 15 years, I worked my way up from a junior engineer to leadership roles. Over the last decade, my focus shifted to the digitalization of well operations — analyzing performance metrics like electrical load, production rates, and water cut to diagnose issues and support frontline teams in making informed decisions.
I had two professional dreams: to work offshore and to experience modern Western management culture firsthand. Both came true. I worked on the Caspian offshore operations and later joined a European industrial equipment manufacturer with nearly a century of history.
What struck me in international companies is how quickly people adapt to well-designed systems. There’s no “maybe it will work somehow” mindset — when processes are clear, people follow them. I also appreciated the “open-door” approach: leadership remains accessible, and employees feel comfortable raising concerns.
I had two professional dreams: to work offshore and to experience modern Western management culture firsthand. Both came true. I worked on the Caspian offshore operations and later joined a European industrial equipment manufacturer with nearly a century of history.
What struck me in international companies is how quickly people adapt to well-designed systems. There’s no “maybe it will work somehow” mindset — when processes are clear, people follow them. I also appreciated the “open-door” approach: leadership remains accessible, and employees feel comfortable raising concerns.
Yury Tsiku at the MMC site
Creating a Safety Culture Transformation Center
— What is the Transformation Center, and why does a company need it?
— Driving change in a large industrial organization requires a dedicated team that leads the shift and embeds new behavioral norms. The Transformation Center is exactly that — a team consisting of a project lead, risk managers, and risk trainers. We invested heavily in selecting the right people.
Risk managers spend most of their time on the shop floor. In our pilot facilities, each one has a team of four risk managers who lead practices like “risk hunting” — forming working groups to systematically identify and assess risks sector by sector. Once the risks are mapped, they help teams prioritize them and design actions to eliminate or mitigate the underlying causes.
Risk trainers are freshly certified specialists. For the first six months, they focus on training frontline workers. Starting in late 2025, they will expand their training to engineering and technical staff. Ultimately, every trainer should be capable of teaching any module to any employee, translating core principles into practical, relatable examples tailored to the company’s reality.
Over time, risk trainers become carriers of the methodology — responsible not only for training but also for sustaining the culture: reinforcing key principles, revisiting critical knowledge, and ensuring that new habits don’t fade. This is especially important given workforce turnover, a challenge shared by industrial companies worldwide.
Risk managers spend most of their time on the shop floor. In our pilot facilities, each one has a team of four risk managers who lead practices like “risk hunting” — forming working groups to systematically identify and assess risks sector by sector. Once the risks are mapped, they help teams prioritize them and design actions to eliminate or mitigate the underlying causes.
Risk trainers are freshly certified specialists. For the first six months, they focus on training frontline workers. Starting in late 2025, they will expand their training to engineering and technical staff. Ultimately, every trainer should be capable of teaching any module to any employee, translating core principles into practical, relatable examples tailored to the company’s reality.
Over time, risk trainers become carriers of the methodology — responsible not only for training but also for sustaining the culture: reinforcing key principles, revisiting critical knowledge, and ensuring that new habits don’t fade. This is especially important given workforce turnover, a challenge shared by industrial companies worldwide.
A Personal Approach to Safety
— Does Tactise’s methodology influence your life outside work?
— Absolutely. It has become part of how I think and act. I’m more attentive to my own behavior, especially with my children — applying what we call the “teacher’s norm.” I realized that even a 1% improvement is meaningful. Instead of focusing on what didn’t work, you look for the value in small steps. This mindset creates balance not only at work but also at home.
Yury Tsiku with his family
— What does safety mean to you personally?
— Safety is a conscious state of mind — being aware of your environment, noticing details, analyzing situations, and making thoughtful decisions. It’s not an abstract concept; it’s a natural part of life built on habits that help prevent incidents.