What is trickle-down safety? On this episode, I’m finding out with two safety specialists who help me to explroe what it means and why it’s relevant to other fields. By safety, I mean the kind that saves people’s lives on building sites,not the cyber kind.

My guests are James MacPherson and Elisa Lynch.

James is a safety professional who works across multiple industries, including manufacturing and construction. He operates his own consultancy called Risk Fluent and also runs an app called Risk Assessor. Additionally, he manages a community for safety people and hosts a podcast named Rebranding Safety His work revolves around safety and risk management, and he is passionate about discussing and challenging the current safety standards and practices in businesses.

Find James on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jmacpherson1/

Elisa is also a safety professional with about a decade's experience, predominantly in construction safety. She is based in West Cork, Ireland. She co-hosts a podcast called Speak! , where she and her co-host Crystal Danbury discuss various safety-related topics. As you'll hear on the show, Elisa is credited with coining the term 'trickle down safety', a concept that compares how safety standards and regulations from larger companies can impose burdensome requirements on small businesses. She is an advocate for creating safety standards that are more fitting and less stressful for small businesses.

Find Elisa on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elisalynch/

The podcast on which I first heard James talk about 'Trickle Down Safety' was the Slice podcast which you'll find here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRwjFV3YhCw

Show contents

On the show, we explore topics that include:

• 'Trickle down safety' concept and its impact on small businesses
  
  
• The pressure and stress imposed by larger companies on smaller businesses through burdensome safety standards and regulations
  
  
• The disproportionate effects of health and safety regulations on different businesses
  
  
• The ineffectiveness of one-size-fits-all approaches in safety regulations
  
  
• The concept of 'productive procrastination' and its impact on problem-solving in small businesses
  
  
• Barriers in academic research accessibility due to paywalls nad how social media can help break these down
  
  
• Risk and safety challenges faced by businesses due to bureaucratic issues
  
  
• Risk management and societal acceptance of risk levels in various industries
  
  
• Challenges and frustrations encountered in safety training within businesses.