A prominent trend in occupational safety and health programmes is to emphasize good practices as workable goals. Thisemphasis reflects the need for advancing risk management systems in increasingly diversifyring working situations in globalization. Theroles of good practices in effectively managing health and safety risks at work are discussed based on recent experiences. They are promoted in many countries as a means of providing direct support for reorienting risk reduction procedures. Two typical types of guides presented by good practices are for (a) promoting proactive and comprehensive risk management procedures and (b) securing active participation of employers and workers in improving the workplace. These two aspects are mutually interactive and may be called “twowheels of one cart" in effective risk management. Thisis particularly true for small enterprises and informal sectors. To overcome the constraints in diverse work situations， proactive programmes building on good practices commonly emphasize the use of action-oriented tools for planning， implementing and reviewing risk identification and reduction. Thelocally adjusted design and use of proactive tools， such as action checklists and how-to guides， have proven useful for facilitating consensus building leading to immediate improvement actions. Training toolkits relying on effective ergonomics and occupational hygiene principles are widely used in work improvement programmes and in basic occupational heath services in a manner adjusted to small-scale workplaces. These recent experiences suggest that it is vital to link the promotion of good practices with the use of locally adjusted risk management toolkits through participatory steps adjusted to diverse workplace conditions.