Safety on Tap

My guest today is Antony Malmo.    Antony is a self described Wellbeing Smuggler, Jargon Cutter, Systems Wrangler, and C-suite Whisperer. He's a director at Allos Australia, an organisation that approaches workplace mental health systemically; from EAP support and Psych Health and Safety, to Leadership & Strategy. He studied ecosystem science and psychology at University, and then abandoned both t...

So what's the beliefs, assumptions, and images we have that make sense of our thoughts and behaviour here? Is it that war is bad? That military aggression is unacceptable? Maybe, but it doesn't explain our blindness to so many other things equally as objectionable and far more prolonged.  No, we have different kinds of assumptions and beliefs and images about how the world works, and when those ge...

What if you could better guide your organisation on what's most important, and be more confident about the results you can deliver? That's what today's guest is asking of all of us, assuming that's the kind of professional we want to be.  My guest today is Professor Rob Briner, and he has had a bee in his bonnet about what people like us do, in part because of what people like Rob do.  He'll expla...

What words do you know people use to describe you, or your team? Not words you'd like them to say, but words they have actually said and you've heard directly or second hand?

Gandhi did it with walking and without food.  Michael Pollan did it with food and a book.  Al Gore did it with a film.  Dave Grohl did it with Youtube in 2020, and Dave Provan did it with words in 2018.  Each of them, in defence of something important.  And so must you.    The word defence usually conjures up three different things for people.  Either, synonyms to do with the armed forces, war, an...

There is an enormous amount of talk about new safety approaches, in theory, compared to implementation in practice.  But implementation does exist, it does show promise, and it can be done at scale.  My guests today are First Officer Bogomir Glavan and First Officer Nicholas Peterson from American Airlines Learning and Improvement Team.  This team is hyper-generous, part of their DNA is to write p...

All forward-thinking leaders are interested in strategy.  But what, exactly, is the purpose of strategy? This is the first podcast out for 2022 so for new-release listeners, happy new year! This year I'm getting far more focussed and intentional to bring you insights from the coaching work I do with health and safety professionals, and I'll tell you why that's like gold: it's bloody lonely doing o...

Let's talk about Linkedin, humanity, and being salesy.  I am connected with tens of thousands of people, in some direct way.  Whether that's someone who was seen me speak, been in a workshop, listened to my podcast, or connected on social media.    All of those are one-degree of separation, there is a direct link between me and them, between me and you. 

Jerry Muller wrote a phenomenal book called the Tyranny of Metrics, which he opens by saying "the title is not meant to convey the message that metrics are intrinsically tyrannical, but rather that they are frequently used in ways that are dysfunctional and oppressive".  And that, by friends, is a fitting way to begin this awesome dialogue about safety indicators and metrics.  Let's begin.

"Help me get people engaged".  "No one is engaged with health and safety".  "Engagement around here is pretty low".  Requests like this and their variations are some of the most common things people come to me for help with.  Health and safety have an engagement problem, but it's not limited to that. Gallup says only 36% of workers in the US are engaged at work.  And no one agrees on how we define...

Kym Bancroft is an organisational psychologist turned health and safety executive, who was the head of Health and Safety at Urban Utilities.  Urban Utilities is a water and sewage utility supplying 1.4 million people with clean water and flushing toilets in South-East Queensland in Australia.  With thousands of employees and contractors, a high risk work environment and network to build, operate a...

This is my live keynote speech delivered at the Safeguard 2019 Conference.  The theme of the conference was Dare to Disrupt.  That was an idea which I respectfully disagreed with and explained why in the opening keynote when I encouraged the audience, and you, to go disrupt yourself. 

I don't think this interview needs much introduction, except to say one thing: if you are inclined to turn off because the words innovation or entrepreneurialism seem too fluffy or not relevant to you, stick with this: you'll be surprised like I was.  Here's today's guest, Liz Jackson:  

I, like you, have been spending a lot of time in the same workplace for a while now, my home office.  And yet despite the amount of time I spend here, it was only recently that something struck me when I saw things that had been there the whole time but hadn't recognised for what they are.  My space, and probably yours, are filled with theatre props - the things which bring our professional perfor...

Rory Gallagher is the Asia Pacific Director of the Behavioural Insights Team, and a founding member of it's parent organisation within the British Government.  This work as always fascinated me, ever since I read the book Nudge, based on Nobel Prize winning work by Cass Sunstein and Richard Thaler.  Have you ever thought, 'well that person's response or behaviour or inion surprised me, because it...

It's hard to focus on things that we can't see, that aren't visible to us.  It doesn't mean they aren't there, it's just that they aren't visible to us.  Having empathy for others, and appreciating that they have a perspective and experience which is 100% valid for them, can be a difficult thing to comprehend, let alone practice. 

What's the risk when we use an ISO standard approach to health and safety? That we miss the point entirely.  Decades of experience have revealed what happens when standards compliance and its activities become the goal, instead of the goals of actual health and actual safety the ISO standard was meant to enable.  Oh, and by the way, we're going to blow the idea of new views of safety out of the wa...

"Tried it before, and it didn't work" These are the words that we have all said to dismiss something out of hand, to reject a very broad or general idea or approach or suggestion . We can choose our words better, which means everyone learns more and is more informed about our experience.

Brenton Harrison shared some thoughts publicly about the extremes of new views and traditional views of safety. Here's Brenton sharing his thoughts with you.

Does philosophy really have a place in work health and safety? Here's what I discovered.   My earlier rejection of philosophy taught me how important philosophy actually is a conscious way of living and a competent approach to professional practice.   I might be wrong, but one thing philosophy does teach us, is that it's worth getting curious about.  I certainly have become a better professional b...

My guest today is the ever-humble Jo Doyle.  Jo comes highly recommended to me, she has been on my potential guest list for years now.  With many years experience in strategic organisational change and executive coaching, Covid created the impetus for Jo to gravitate back to her sweet spot and passion of being in Service of Well-being. She creates space for others to self-reflect, grow in awarenes...

Am I a cook or a chef? It turns out that has nothing to do with what I wear, or whether I have a certificate, it comes down to one simple thing.  And no, it's not a bad temper. 

Human performance is not just focussed on humans. It is about how we try to improve ourselves at work. It's not just about health and safety. My guest today Diane Chadwick-Jones is the former Director, Human Performance for BP. She had an extensive career in BP, working in Belgium, Brazil and Egypt in operations and safety roles. She was instrumental in the refresh of the BP Values.

Three times this week, I have come across this challenge in health and safety leaders.    Competent, intelligent, motivated health and safety leaders who want to make change.    Who hold back, are held back, from taking the next step, making the next intention a reality, for the same reason.    The words are different, but the cause is the same. 

Listen in to hear how one of the thickest Scottish accents you'll ever hear is also one of the most effective communicators.   Steve Harvey is a an operations-focused Health & Safety professional who is a proud pragmatist.  He is a master of work insights and operational learning, obsessed about understanding the gap between work as imagined and work as done, and he has even featured in a document...