Embracing Differences

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 full potential for safety management with practical procedures, thus, may require an audit implosion. Regulators, companies, and operational personnel may benefit by safety measures that are less concerned with auditability and more focused on the safety itself.

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 morality of personhood, community, care and helping. Dr Long warns us that the safety industry is known for its ideology of zero which locks it into counting, mechanics, regulation and policing, all common to a Masculinist Ethic. As such, it loses out on attending to the most basic human need for care and compassion.

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 with Amy Edmondson, Novartis Professor of Leadership at Harvard Business School. Together we explore what makes it difficult for people in lower positions to speak up to their boss.

Based on a review of accidents, I have come to realize that when people don’t speak up, it could be that there is a problem of competence that undermines trust amongst team members. In such instances, lack of trust should not be mistaken with the absence of psychological safety.

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, as we discuss in this podcast, is the way in which staff performance is understood and measured in the schools which in turn undermines the ethos of learning and learning organisations. How do we change that? Find out more in this podcast.

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 closer to making any meaningful sense of accidents at sea.  

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' person in her own words) to becoming an influential and successful leader. In every experience she narrates in this podcast, I observed an immense sense of self-reflection, empathy and humility – the traits of leadership.

What struck me most was her sensitivity to the business context (including the use of language) and the need for business leaders to understand how the organization operates at different levels before attempting to influence change. It reminds me of a beautiful quote from Stephen Covey – 'seek first to understand, then to be understood'.

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 audiences? 

4) What novel strategies can we think of in order to renew our approach to accident investigations? Who could we be inspired by?