October 06, 2025

Is Safety Really A Verb?

20 minutes

Colin challenges the perception of health and safety as a passive noun or mere set of documents, reframing it as an active "verb"—something you must consistently do in your business. He introduces a comprehensive set of "doing" activities for health and safety specialists and business leaders, focusing on learning from near-misses, improving competency, integrated planning, and direct engagement with the workforce

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Health and safety should be viewed as an active verb—something consistently done in the business—rather than just a passive noun, with the health aspect often being overlooked in favour of safety.

Competency must be assessed beyond training certificates and experience, focusing on whether an individual's personal attributes and make-up are supportive of and suitable for the role they are performing.

The planning process (the thought process and discussion) is more valuable than the final plan document, and should be an inclusive activity involving the people who do the work to drive better health and safety outcomes.

Low-quality documentation (like risk assessments) should be avoided by spending more time talking to the workforce and getting a real understanding of their challenges, rather than using shortcuts like AI to produce documents faster.

BEST MOMENTS

"Safety is a verb and an actual fact it's a verb and, you know, it's do, it's something you do."

"What better thing to do than to go out and sit with the people that are working in your workplace and actually talk about the successes that went on yesterday, the day before, the week before, the month before... it instills a much, much more positive approach."

VALUABLE RESOURCES

The Interesting Health & Safety Podcast - ⁠https://podcasts.apple.com/vn/podcast/the-interesting-health-safety-podcast/id1467771449⁠

Project Mollitiam - ⁠https://www.projectmollitiam.com⁠

ABOUT THE HOST

Colin Nottage

‘Making health and safety as important as everything else we do.’

This is the belief that Colin is passionate about and through his consultancy Influential Management Group (IMG) is able to spread into industry. Colin works at a strategic level with company owners and board members. He helps business leaders establish and achieve their health and safety ambitions.

He has developed a number of leading competency improvement programmes that are delivered across industry and his strengths are his ability to take a practical approach to problem-solving and being able to liaise at all levels within an organisation.

Colin also runs a company that vets contractors online and a network that develops and support H&S consultancies to become better businesses.

Colin chairs the Construction Dust Partnership, an industry collaboration directly involving many organisations, including the Health and Safety Executive.

He is a Post Graduate Tutor at Strathclyde University and a highly sought-after health and safety speaker and trainer. He has a Post Graduate Certificate in Safety and Risk management, an engineering degree and is a Chartered Member of the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH).

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By Colin Nottage

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