In Conversation with The Safety Collaborators

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In this week’s episode, we introduce you to the Safety W.A.L.K. tool, a valuable resource for leaders to improve safety in their workplace.

The acronym stands for Watch, Ask, Listen and Keep Improving.

By observing, asking questions, listening without judgment, and taking action, leaders can be proactive and make the environment safer for everyone.

The episode also provides tips for introducing the Safety W.A.L.K. tool to teams and making it a foundation for boosting the value of safety walks. 

The Safety W.A.L.K. infographic is available for download to help you implement the tool in your workplace - see the full show notes.

Have fun with the Safety W.A.L.K., and feel free to let us know if you would like us to run a little workshop on this one.

Thanks for listening!

____________________________________
This episode was produced under Safety Collaborations Limited and now continues as part of Karin Ovari Limited. While we are not currently releasing new episodes, the entire library remains active, and the topics covered are just as relevant today as when they were first recorded.

To learn more about my current work in leadership and communication, visit karinovari.com and the leadership community, The Supervisors Hub.

Connect with us on LinkedIn:  Karin Ovari, Nuala Gage,

If you enjoyed this episode, please help us spread the word and leave a review on your preferred podcast player. 
 
 Stay Safe, Stay Well
The Safety Collaborators

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Welcome to our latest podcast episode, where we delve into principles 4 and 5 of the Five Principles of Human Performance.

In principle 4, we explore how context influences behaviour and how systems drive outcomes. We provide examples of how systems can be designed to drive behaviour, such as in supermarkets or workplaces. We also emphasise the importance of continuous improvement and feedback mechanisms to ensure that systems remain effective.

Here are some key points to keep in mind:

• Systems drive behaviour and outcomes.
• Feedback mechanisms are crucial for continuous improvement.
• Just because something worked in the past does not mean it will work in the future.
• Design systems for manoeuvrability, not perfection.
• Continuously ask for feedback on how to improve systems.

In principle 5, we discuss how leaders' responses to failure matter and how their actions and reactions impact the culture of their team or organisation. We highlight the importance of creating a safe and supportive environment where people feel comfortable speaking up and asking for help.

Here are some key points to keep in mind:

• How leaders respond to failure impacts employee morale and trust.
• Leaders who take responsibility model accountability.
• A transparent response builds trust.
• Failure provides opportunities for growth and improvement.
• Create a culture of learning by fostering a growth mindset.

These principles are all linked, and you can't have one without the other. We emphasise the importance of recognising errors, avoiding blame, deliberate learning, understanding context, and effective leadership.

That wraps up this three-part series on The 5 Principles of Human Performance.

1. Error is normal - even the best make mistakes
2. Blame fixes nothing
3. Learning and improving are vital. Learning is deliberate
4. Context influences behaviour. Systems drive outcomes
5. How you respond matters. How leaders act and respond counts.

So, which principle did you find most impactful? 

Thanks for listening!

____________________________________
This episode was produced under Safety Collaborations Limited and now continues as part of Karin Ovari Limited. While we are not currently releasing new episodes, the entire library remains active, and the topics covered are just as relevant today as when they were first recorded.

To learn more about my current work in leadership and communication, visit karinovari.com and the leadership community, The Supervisors Hub.

Connect with us on LinkedIn:  Karin Ovari, Nuala Gage,

If you enjoyed this episode, please help us spread the word and leave a review on your preferred podcast player. 
 
 Stay Safe, Stay Well
The Safety Collaborators

Send us Fan Mail

In today’s episode, we start with two questions:

• Did he climb over the fence to drink, smoke, eat or have sex?
• Have you ever felt named, blamed or shamed and then retrained?

To understand them, we take a look at the second and third principles of the 5 Principles of Human Performance by Todd Conklin:

Blame fixes Nothing

When something goes wrong, you climb over the fence to try fixing the problem (because that seemed like the best idea at the time), making things worse. But you were trying to do your job. You didn't go over the fence to drink, smoke, eat or have sex, so there's no point blaming you for what went wrong.

Learning and Improving is Vital, Learning is Deliberate

Often, when something goes wrong, you will feel that the spotlight is on you and feel blamed and publicly shamed. You find yourself sitting in training (after HR was told you messed up and need retraining), wondering why, because there's nothing new to learn. It is often just a box-ticking exercise so the company can say you were trained, so you don't have permission to make another error.

So where are you focused? 
And where are you learning?

You will often hear others talking about failing, learning, and improving from failure. 

During the conversation, we challenge the concept of failing as a way of learning, which seems a very negative way to learn. 

Children don’t fail when they don’t walk straight away; they fall, and what do we do when they fall? 

Do we blame them for falling over? Or do we give them a hand up, reassure them and let them try again? 

It is a different perspective - we fall every day, and it doesn't mean the world is ending; it just means we need to get back up and look at it again.

Thanks for listening!

____________________________________
This episode was produced under Safety Collaborations Limited and now continues as part of Karin Ovari Limited. While we are not currently releasing new episodes, the entire library remains active, and the topics covered are just as relevant today as when they were first recorded.

To learn more about my current work in leadership and communication, visit karinovari.com and the leadership community, The Supervisors Hub.

Connect with us on LinkedIn:  Karin Ovari, Nuala Gage,

If you enjoyed this episode, please help us spread the word and leave a review on your preferred podcast player. 
 
 Stay Safe, Stay Well
The Safety Collaborators

Send us Fan Mail

This is the first episode of a 3-part series where we explore The 5 Principles of Human Performance by Todd Conklin, which are:

1. Error is normal - even the best people make mistakes
2. Blame fixes nothing - it only creates shame and guilt
3. Learning and improving are vital - learning is deliberate
4. Context influences behaviour - systems drive outcomes
5. How you respond to failure matters - how leaders act and respond counts

Today, we explore the first principle of The 5 Principles of Human Performance, which is the key to unlocking unstoppable human potential and igniting transformation for your people, teams, and organisation. 

The principle is that error is normal, and even the best people make mistakes. 

This is especially true in repetitive work, where errors can happen at various points along the journey if the system isn't supporting us, if the capacity isn't right, or if we don't trust the system. 

As humans, we make mistakes all the time, and accepting this fact is crucial for improving performance.

Tune in to learn more about this important principle and how it can benefit your organisation.

Thanks for listening!

____________________________________
This episode was produced under Safety Collaborations Limited and now continues as part of Karin Ovari Limited. While we are not currently releasing new episodes, the entire library remains active, and the topics covered are just as relevant today as when they were first recorded.

To learn more about my current work in leadership and communication, visit karinovari.com and the leadership community, The Supervisors Hub.

Connect with us on LinkedIn:  Karin Ovari, Nuala Gage,

If you enjoyed this episode, please help us spread the word and leave a review on your preferred podcast player. 
 
 Stay Safe, Stay Well
The Safety Collaborators

Send us Fan Mail

In this podcast episode, Karin and Nuala discuss their plans for 2023, including their focus on promoting a more humanistic and caring approach to safety culture, introducing guest speakers to share their thoughts, and launching a public safety leadership program. 

They also explain their on-site safety coaching and training services, which involve observing and having conversations with team members to improve safety practices. Karin and Nuala encourage listeners to take action within their circle of influence to make their world and the world around them safer and more enjoyable. 

We hope you enjoyed the episode and invite you to share the podcast with others.

Thanks for listening!

____________________________________
This episode was produced under Safety Collaborations Limited and now continues as part of Karin Ovari Limited. While we are not currently releasing new episodes, the entire library remains active, and the topics covered are just as relevant today as when they were first recorded.

To learn more about my current work in leadership and communication, visit karinovari.com and the leadership community, The Supervisors Hub.

Connect with us on LinkedIn:  Karin Ovari, Nuala Gage,

If you enjoyed this episode, please help us spread the word and leave a review on your preferred podcast player. 
 
 Stay Safe, Stay Well
The Safety Collaborators

Send us Fan Mail

Have you ever helped someone or made a situation safe for the future of others?

For example, you might see trip hazards while on holiday and remove them, or pick up glass from the pavement to prevent the next person from getting hurt.

No one asked you to do this, you just felt compelled to do so.

These are Random Acts of Safety, which bear a resemblance to Random Acts of Kindness, the movement that inspired our vision for the Random Acts of Safety mission.

Our mission has us asking - What did I do to keep someone safe today?

During this episode, we share some ideas on how you can contribute and how these Random Acts of Safety impact our bodies and moods.

Are you up for the challenge?

Our Random Acts of Safety mission #randomactsofsafety is to keep someone safe today. Small daily encouragements can help make it the norm to keep each other safe, becoming part of your DNA.

Thanks for listening!

____________________________________
This episode was produced under Safety Collaborations Limited and now continues as part of Karin Ovari Limited. While we are not currently releasing new episodes, the entire library remains active, and the topics covered are just as relevant today as when they were first recorded.

To learn more about my current work in leadership and communication, visit karinovari.com and the leadership community, The Supervisors Hub.

Connect with us on LinkedIn:  Karin Ovari, Nuala Gage,

If you enjoyed this episode, please help us spread the word and leave a review on your preferred podcast player. 
 
 Stay Safe, Stay Well
The Safety Collaborators

Send us Fan Mail

Unwritten Rules! 

Have you ever wondered why things are done a certain way or how everyone else seems to know what is expected, even when there is no written rule or procedure? 

They all seem to be doing the right thing, and you keep being looked at as if you are doing something wrong. However, you are not quite sure what that is. 

Are you curious about why that is?

These are the things that happen, and we almost don’t know about them - Unwritten Rules.

• What does this mean for us in high-hazard industries? 
• How do unwritten rules influence how we behave? 
• What do we say is problem-solving? 
• And how do we react? 
• How do we change the unwritten rules that are not healthy or helpful? 

Today, we will explore some of these and more about unwritten rules.

Thanks for listening!

____________________________________
This episode was produced under Safety Collaborations Limited and now continues as part of Karin Ovari Limited. While we are not currently releasing new episodes, the entire library remains active, and the topics covered are just as relevant today as when they were first recorded.

To learn more about my current work in leadership and communication, visit karinovari.com and the leadership community, The Supervisors Hub.

Connect with us on LinkedIn:  Karin Ovari, Nuala Gage,

If you enjoyed this episode, please help us spread the word and leave a review on your preferred podcast player. 
 
 Stay Safe, Stay Well
The Safety Collaborators

Send us Fan Mail

What is the first impression someone is going to have when walking into your environment, wherever that is?  

• What are they seeing? 
• What are they feeling? 
• What are they smelling?

When you arrive somewhere, can you discern the intrinsic culture through people’s actions or lack thereof? Which things are going to stand out that will make us ask:

• Do I trust this organisation and its people to provide me with good service?
• And will they deliver on the promise of what they say they will do?
• Are they professional? 
• Are they prepared to take shortcuts?
• Do they care about the overall team, culture or outcome

In this episode, we chat about how we relate it to the world of behavioural safety and discuss how potentially small (seen as insignificant) things are having an impact on the bigger things when experiencing an increase in incidents.

How do we encourage the culture we want? 

How do we lead by example without removing personal accountability? 

And what does leading by example look like?

Thanks for listening!

____________________________________
This episode was produced under Safety Collaborations Limited and now continues as part of Karin Ovari Limited. While we are not currently releasing new episodes, the entire library remains active, and the topics covered are just as relevant today as when they were first recorded.

To learn more about my current work in leadership and communication, visit karinovari.com and the leadership community, The Supervisors Hub.

Connect with us on LinkedIn:  Karin Ovari, Nuala Gage,

If you enjoyed this episode, please help us spread the word and leave a review on your preferred podcast player. 
 
 Stay Safe, Stay Well
The Safety Collaborators

Send us Fan Mail

Today, we chat about the busyness that has taken over the world of work and just life in general, and ask the question:

How do people get anything done?

Meetings are being booked back-to-back without any breaks, leaving no time for basic human needs like going to the bathroom, getting some refreshment, or doing whatever you need to do.

We are not blocking out time for deep work, thinking and effectiveness, and nobody is stopping to think about what justice or injustice is being done to their current moment or to the moment they are going into.

Because we are just not present.

Listen in as we talk about the Hamster Wheel and refer to a section of Seth’s Blog titled:  But first, we need to talk about it.

We also discuss Team Agreements in relation to meetings
and ask the following questions:

• Do we really need this?
• What is the purpose?
• Is it a formal or informal meeting?
• Is it for data sharing or status updates versus relational?
• Is having a meeting the best use of our time?
• Can it be done in a different way?

We jump into a conversation about: The Power of ‘NO’ 
and impart a few nuggets of wisdom before heading into our Emotional Gem for the day.

Thanks for listening!

____________________________________
This episode was produced under Safety Collaborations Limited and now continues as part of Karin Ovari Limited. While we are not currently releasing new episodes, the entire library remains active, and the topics covered are just as relevant today as when they were first recorded.

To learn more about my current work in leadership and communication, visit karinovari.com and the leadership community, The Supervisors Hub.

Connect with us on LinkedIn:  Karin Ovari, Nuala Gage,

If you enjoyed this episode, please help us spread the word and leave a review on your preferred podcast player. 
 
 Stay Safe, Stay Well
The Safety Collaborators

Send us Fan Mail

In today's episode, we chat about what makes healthy safety conversations. We share 10 tips to help you think about conversations as healthy or unhealthy (rather than positive or negative) and their impact on your desired outcome.

The title may be slightly misleading, as these are tips for any conversation. 

We all have conversations daily and often with ourselves. Sometimes those conversations are terrific, and others may not be quite as we anticipated.

So, what is a healthy conversation?

We often think about conversations as being either positive or negative; however, we like to say that it is not so much about positive or negative conversations but actually about their impact. We prefer to think of conversations as either healthy or unhealthy.

A friend of mine [Nuala] once said that emotions are your stop signs; they don't have to rule you, but they are your stop signs to say, Oh, hang on a sec; what are we doing here? And how do we respond to it?

So, it is the interpretation and emotions that the conversations trigger in us, how we choose to let that impact us and how we respond. Do we appreciate the power of conversations, or is it something we take for granted?

We've grown up with a narrow view of conversations, thinking they are about talking, sharing information, telling people what to do, or telling others what's on our minds.

However, that is only part of the story…

Thanks for listening!

____________________________________
This episode was produced under Safety Collaborations Limited and now continues as part of Karin Ovari Limited. While we are not currently releasing new episodes, the entire library remains active, and the topics covered are just as relevant today as when they were first recorded.

To learn more about my current work in leadership and communication, visit karinovari.com and the leadership community, The Supervisors Hub.

Connect with us on LinkedIn:  Karin Ovari, Nuala Gage,

If you enjoyed this episode, please help us spread the word and leave a review on your preferred podcast player. 
 
 Stay Safe, Stay Well
The Safety Collaborators