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A snippet – Will We Ever Learn As some of you already know, I am working on a new idea. Will it be a book? Maybe. We will see. It is still very much work in progress but I want to share what I have got so far. It has a working title of Will …

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Essentials of Safety Blog 1/14 – Exploring what the underlying ‘essentials’ of safety that tie together the ‘Individual’, ‘Leaders and leadership’, the ‘Systems’ that we are a part of, and the ‘Cultures’ of the workplace.

Essentials of Safety Blog 2/14 – Knowing your ‘Why’ changes what you do and how you do it. When you truly know why you do what you do and it aligns with your values and your authentic you, you become unstoppable in your drive, destination, and delivery.

Essentials of Safety Blog 3/14 – You don’t always get to choose what you do at work. But you always get to choose how you react and what attitude you take to the work you do.

Essentials of Safety Blog 4/14 – Having a growth mindset expands. Having a fixed mindset limits. We can change a fixed mindset to a growth mindset – if we want to.

Essentials of Safety Blog 5/14 – To get better at ‘safety’ you need to deeply understand how real work is undertaken, rather than just how you think it is being undertaken.

Essentials of Safety Blog 6/14 – When you understand your own expectations along with others’ expectations, you have some access to their ‘Why’, to the context within which they operate and think. This will make life so much easier for everyone concerned than if you are not aware of those expectations.

Essentials of Safety Blog 7/14 – We cannot see everything. It is not one of the skills a human can have, so do not expect it from yourself or your team. Instead, teach them how to see, how to think about what could go right and what could go wrong and to have the right level of chronic unease.

Essentials of Safety Blog 8/14 – Thinking about our listening improves our ability to listen.

Essentials of Safety Blog 9/14 – We, our systems, our people, our procedures, our plant and equipment, our culture, and the way we all work are not perfect. Keep a weather eye out for trouble and steer away from it before it hits you, especially as you do any planning activities. It is always about getting the balance right: efficiency versus thoroughness; chronic unease versus lackadaisical carelessness; absolute confidence versus wariness of the effectiveness of controls. Getting the balance right requires leadership, conversation, and having time to think (blue work).

Essentials of Safety Blog 10/14 – Controlling risk is all about maintaining a balance. You need to consider: why people are doing what they’re doing; what their level of situational awareness is; what the level of risk awareness is; what their mental models are; what they put into their planning activities; the risk control measures they choose (hierarchy of control for example); their expectations regarding failures; preserving options; being mindful; and, of course, what tools and equipment, procedures, and systems they need to use. And this is, of course, all led through authentic leadership.

Essentials of Safety Blog 11/14 – You coach and adopt a coaching style in your leadership and management toolkit to help your people be the best they can be. It entails asking questions in a way that promotes thinking and learning. It is easy to learn, amazingly effective, and fun.