Embracing Differences

In this podcast, John Allspaw, the Founder of Adaptive Safety Labs and I talk about the world of software engineering and operations and its connections to safety science and human factors. Together we explore what opportunities — and challenges — exist in the domain, what incident analysis and genuine learning from incidents looks like, and what makes this an exciting time for exploring this doma...

With Pam Walaski. Despite a decades-long increase in the participation of women in the general workforce, women in the occupational safety and health (OSH) field lags behind. In addition, women in overall leadership roles and in the OSH profession remain stagnant. Further, this lack of diversity extends to other under-represented groups. Many organizations profess to want to change, but barriers r...

Mahatma Gandhi once said, “be the change you want to see in the world”. In this podcast, Nektarios Karanikas, an Adjunct Professor of Health and Safety at the Queensland University of Technology helps us understand the importance of introspection if we genuinely want to promote learning and change.

As safety management evolves, we have discovered that the language of safety can at times be perceived as something reserved for specialists. Concerningly, the use of language [and associated tools] without a clear overarching objective can legitimize the very issues that threaten safety. There can even be a rejection from having open, honest yet tough debates that managing safety requires. Such ‘...

As humans, we tend to examine reality through the lenses of black and white, right and wrong, and in the world of safety, commonly through compliance and non-compliance. In this podcast, the world-class anthropologist Ed Schein along with Peter Schein urges us to practice the anthropology of here and now. The world we have created is far too uncertain and it is only by embracing the uniqueness of...

We are living in interesting and unusual times. People across industries and work sectors are experiencing high degree of uncertainty and stress in their work and personal lives. In this podcast, Chris Turner, an emergency consultant in medicine and a TEDx speaker, raises the importance of civility and respect amongst team members to achieve a culture of high performance in these uncertain times.

I am a brown-skinned man and I have spent most of my working life in the ‘civilized world’ world as an ethnic minority . Listening to other people’s perspectives, paying attention to their words and gestures, acknowledging their presence and needs, and being curious about what others have to say was not my usual reaction perhaps because of my childhood experiences. In fact, for the most part of my...

In this podcast, systems thinker, and renowned business and safety specialist, Rakesh Maharaj speaks with Nippin to explore how social anthropology, systems thinking and systemic leadership applies to safety within and across organizations. The conversation is a collection of personal experiences about diversity and inclusion and how it informs their thinking and practice. To find out more listen...

In this podcast, a world-renowned safety scientist and expert in human factors shares his research and experience about the role of psychological confidence in organizational learning. Psychological confidence, unlike psychological safety, is an emerging concept in safety sciences. What makes this concept unique, and more importantly, how does it improve the quality of learning from accidents. Lis...

There are 3 basic systems in the real world: complex, chaotic, and order. The first two are natural. As humans, we prefer stability,  certainty, predictability and thus have created an order system by imposing policies, standards, structures, rules, best practices, etc. In this podcast, Gary Wong helps us understand the power of embracing differences when working in complex and ordered system...

Watching how a co-worker is treated in the aftermath of a mishappening goes a long way in winning an employee’s trust in their leaders. In this podcast, Clive F. Lloyd, author of the influential book, ‘Next Generation Safety Leadership: From compliance to care’ helps us understand why business leaders and safety professionals should make care and empathy their highest priority in responding to cri...

This podcast is a discussion about social anthropology with maritime anthropologist Dr. Adrienne Mannov. When confronted with the unfamiliar, how do we react and what do we do? In most instances, we discard the unfamiliar and label it as strange, even uncivilized, or primitive when it does not match with our own experiences, norms, values, and beliefs. In so doing we create divisive societies and...

Container ships have become the hallmark of globalization and free trade. In the last two decades, there has been an exponential increase in both the size and cargo-carrying capacity of container ships. The economists argue that the increase in size is justified because of the efficiency gains and scale economies that these giant ships now offer. But at the same time, a series of accidents at sea...

In this episode, Dr Kristine Storkensen from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology and I discuss our concerns about the increased level of audits that run counter to the intention of managing safety. Kristine suggests that we as a society may gain by reconsidering our approach to audits i.e., through decreased auditability and increased value of un-auditable activities. To unlock the...

What do you do when someone gets injured at work? Do you think about the paperwork that should follow or do you genuinely care about attending to the needs of the person who is hurt? In this episode, Dr Robert Long, an internationally renowned social psychologist takes us on an intellectual journey to understand the importance of Care ethics in safety and risk. At the core of Care Ethics is the mo...

Over the years, I have become concerned with how the concept of psychological safety is used and abused across work sectors. In my view, the dominant narrative that ‘a submissive employee felt terrified to speak up because of an abusive boss’ is sometimes over-stretched. It masks us from understanding the deeper and systemic problems within the society. In this podcast, I have the honour to speak...

In this podcast, I am joined by Nick Little, Head of School from the International School of Aberdeen. Together we explore what it means to create a learning organisation by drawing upon the example of schools. On the face of it, it should be obvious that schools are a learning organisation but as we delve deep into the topic, we will find out that this is not always the case. Part of the problem,...

What does it take for a mega-size container ship to pass through the Suez Canal? This podcast draws upon the story of a ship captain to understand the everyday challenges of navigating a ship and negotiating one of the busiest waterways in the world. And it is in the banality of these everyday experiences that we may find some meaningful answers and perhaps better questions that could draw us clos...

Listeners may recall a recent podcast with Professor Andrew Hopkins where we discussed the role of organisational structure in creating a culture. In this week’s podcast, we take this concept one step further with Gilsa Monteiro, a process safety specialist in one of the leading Oil and Energy companies in the world and a PhD student who understudied Professor Andrew Hopkins.

In this podcast, I speak with Cindi Nandlal, a close friend who serves as an HSE manager in a reputed organization in Trinidad and Tobago. Cindi shares her unique position as a senior HSE manager who is also appointed as a board member on three different boards. As I listened to her, I realized how much she has transformed from being who she was at the start of her career (a very 'black and white'...

This is the second in a series of two podcasts with Rosa Carrillo. In this podcast, Rosa and I discuss the importance of psychological safety for leaders. Once again, we reflect upon our personal experiences and discuss the importance of having open conversations to create psychological safety in the workplace. 

This is the first in a two-part series of conversations between Rosa Carrillo and Nippin Anand. During their interaction, Nippin and Rosa experience the power of deep listening - an important but often neglected aspect of psychological safety.

In this podcast, Johan Bergström, Head of Department at the School of Aviation at Lund University, raises and addresses some fundamental questions about accident investigations: 1) What is the purpose of an accident investigation?  2) Why do we really do an accident investigation? What are the needs and who are the audiences?  3) How well do investigations fulfil the needs of those audie...

In this podcast, Gitte Damm (an aviation pilot and a CRM instructor) and I discuss the role of soft skills in safety-critical jobs. Based on years of research and experience in the maritime and aviation sector, we argue that soft skills are being designed and marketed as a replacement for experiential knowledge and skills which makes it problematic to achieve the intended purpose of CRM.

Welcome to another episode of Embracing Differences with me Nippin Anand where I am joined by the world-leading safety scientist, Professor Andrew Hopkins, who takes the bull by the horns and helps us understand why we should be spending more time and effort to understand the structure of an organisation, in an intelligent but very accessible manner.