Larry Wilson Live: Conversations with Real Safety Experts

It’s been said that Corporate America has the attention span of a squirrel. And it’s also been said that the concept of a “Learning Organization” is 20 years old. 

But learning and continuous improvement go hand in hand. And it’s doubtful that continuous improvement will ever go out of style.

However, the challenges of creating a learning organization when it comes to health and safety, and trying new things, when you have to merge different cultures from different regions are significant - to say the least. 

Thomas is in the midst doing just that: going from 11,000 to 20,000 employees and merging cultures from Russia and Europe, North America, South America and Asia.

Which ideas and processes work best? 

Which ones should be global standards and which ones should remain in the local domain? 

How do you share the learnings and successes?

How do you get them to try new ideas from other regions? 

And how do you do all of this and keep moving forward - with injuries on a downward trend?

“Not easy”, says Thomas, “one step at a time…”


About Thomas:

Thomas Burgdorff, PhD, is a communications expert with an extensive history working in politics and the private sector. His proficiency as a master of connection has made him invaluable at Uniper for 5 years as the Learning Manager Health, Safety, and Environment.

In his role, Thomas encounters questions like this all the time: Why do the same incidents keep happening again and again? How can we stop it or at least reduce the likelihood of reoccurring? As Uniper's HSE Learning Manager he deals with these questions on a daily basis. Developing his company into a real learning organization, capable of learning from incidents, preventing them from happening but also learning from good practice, is what he's striving for with passion and dedication. Thomas is on the show because he’s interested in sharing experiences on how to communicate lessons learned in the most effective way.

From Error Reduction to Performance Enhancement
The story behind getting the critical error reduction techniques to high-performance athletes.

Whether at work or at the highest level of competitive sport, an error can have devastating consequences. Nobody knows this better than Mike Shaw. His rise, fall and return is truly inspiring from a human resilience perspective. But so is the story of safety that emerged.

In terms of workplace safety, we can learn a lot about human performance from world-class athletes like getting into flow state doing work at the highest level of competence. But in terms of preventing injury-causing errors, even the world’s best athletes can learn a thing or two from safety.

Mike and Larry have been collaborating during this long journey of reducing errors and enhancing performance, so you won’t want to miss this incredible conversation on Larry Wilson Live.

Mike Shaw’s interest in safety peaked after recovering from a traumatic skiing accident in 2013 in which he became paralyzed from the neck down. His unbelievable recovery provides him with a unique perspective on human performance and led him to co-founding HeadStartPro.

Mike is the author of Never Part of the Plan: A story of Courage Resilience Gratitude. His experience includes coaching, human factors training and injury prevention.

Mike is an invigorating speaker, whether he’s at a workshop, in the classroom, or delivering a talk. He has also shared his story in a TEDx Talk called Grief Happens.

The Importance of Emotional Intelligence for Health, Safety, and Environment with Dr. Britt Andreatta

Almost all EHS professionals have “heard” about Emotional Intelligence or EI. But not nearly as many are aware of the benefits, in some cases tremendously significant benefits that training on EI can provide.

Dr. Britt Andreatta is an expert in EI and conducts workshops and training sessions for managers and leaders in Emotional Intelligence, and how to bring it in to the workplace.

She will also the explain the connection between mental health and Emotional Intelligence, as well as the potential synergy that exists between the two.

And finally, as you can probably guess, there are many aspects of emotional Intelligence that can affect behaviour, and as a result health and safety performance.

This is a very interesting, educational, and (what I found) “illuminating“ conversation with one of the world’s leading experts in this field.

About Dr. Andreatta:

Dr. Britt Andreatta is an internationally recognized thought leader who uses her unique background in leadership, neuroscience, psychology, and education, to create brain-science based solutions for today’s workplace challenges. Britt is the former CLO for Lynda.com (now LinkedIn Learning) and she has over 10 million views worldwide of her online courses. She regularly consults with corporations, universities, and nonprofit organizations on leadership development and learning strategy.

Britt is the author of several brain science-based books and trademarked models including Wired to Grow, Wired to Resist, and Wired to Connect. She was named one of the “Top 20 L&D Influencers” for 2020 and 2021 and a Top 100 HR Influencers in 2021.

Safety management systems (SMS) like ISO 45001 and ANSI Z10 have been incorporated into organizations around the globe. 

There are certain aspects of the SMS’s that incorporate facets of engineering, design, hazard observations, management leadership, employee involvement and employee training. 

Where does Human Factors Management fit in? 

Larry will interview Tim Page-Bottorff Senior Consultant with SafeStart to dive in on how this can be done.

Tim answers questions like, “Can systems thinking involve employee participation?” 

And, 

"How should a safety professional integrate a human factors framework into their already existing SMS?” 

This show is sure to provide some insight not just for systems and resilience engineering, but to also help better cope with potential human factors like distraction, mental well being, and different states of mind.

Governance and Leadership in Health and Safety with Dr. Waddah Ghanem and Bob Arnold

Workplace health and safety matters have become of significant importance. With changing regulations and standards being introduced globally, the effects on companies and negative impact on share values and reputation cannot be ignored.

Many of the human, asset and economic incidents are caused by systemic issues emanating from a culture set at the top. H&S is now more than an operational or technical issue. Thus, we have seen the liabilities of directors increase to provide a stimulus for rectifying this situation. 

Executive teams want to ensure that the required range of values, behaviours, competences and management systems are defined and applied rigorously.

The ISO 45001:2018 standard can bring about a step-change in the management of H&S to meet this higher expectation—especially with guidance and insights from the new book, Governance and Leadership in Health & Safety, authored by Dr. Waddah Ghanem and Bob Arnold.

Learn from their extensive experience and the research they did for the book on Larry Wilson Live, an online talk show where the world’s top leaders expand their mindset through “out of the box” discussion on pressing health and safety topics.


You can contact Dr. Waddah Ghanem Al Hashmi at:
[email protected]

Contact Bob Arnold at:
[email protected] 

Find there book here:
https://www.routledge.com/Governance-and-Leadership-in-Health-and-Safety-A-Guide-for-Board-Members/Hashmi-Arnold/p/book/9781032023915

- AND - 

Sign up for an in-depth 90-minute webinar on September 8th:
https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/4397541152568127504

The Power of Napping and why if you snooze... you WIN!

Of course, the expression is, “If you snooze—you lose.”

But that is more aligned with, “He who hesitates—is lost.” We all know that fatigue causes many unintentional incidents and injuries. It also impacts creativity and can greatly interfere with customer relations, whether they be inside or outside customers. 

So the negative aspects of fatigue are relatively well-known and well-documented. There are lots of very alarming statistics, especially with fatal motor vehicle collisions. And yet, there’s resistance and skepticism about such a simple solution.

Cara Moore, CEO of ProNappers, is a Nap Ninja and highly regarded executive and life coach. She unashamedly naps every day, in private or equally happily in plain sight! 

It is her superpower that makes her a positive powerhouse in business, for her family and in life.

When Cara talks about the power of napping, she begins with the people who “need” to nap. They don’t function well without one. So they need to be accommodated in order to be productive. 

I thought this was a brilliant way to start as it makes perfect sense. But from there she talks about the rest (of us). 

Even if we don’t need to nap, the benefits are still very significant (huge in some cases). 

And finally, she talks candidly about the stigmas and stereotypes, and how many CEOs have to nap in secret to maintain their superhero image...she’s got some pretty funny stories.

Contact Cara at ProNappers Ltd. to learn about Nap School at your company:
[email protected]

When it comes to summer safety the numbers are staggering. Why are there so many unintentional fatalities? 

Do people lose their “common sense” or is there a problem with their common sense? 

And what if you had the wrong information in the first place? 

It’s hard to imagine how anyone’s common sense could help them then. 

But perhaps the biggest problem is that people rely too much on fear of the hazard instead of the risk of the hazard. 

Fear tends to fade over time whereas the risk of going 60 mph or with water over your head remains constant.

The secret to summer safety is not to tell people what they already know, or “don’t do this” and “don’t do that”. 

That part is common sense. It’s the complacency part that most people don’t know about. 

And then, once they realize the problem, they also need to know what they can do about it…which is also not common sense.

"What's NOT New."
Larry Wilson Live with Gary Higbee, EMBA CSP
Gary is the CEO of Higbee & Associates, Executive Advisor SafeStart, and Principal Researcher & Forensic Investigator at North American Management Institute.

“Everybody wants something new” he just shook his head, “I was doing that 40 years ago. I can’t believe they’re saying this is a new approach”. He was talking about a session he’d just attended on preventing serious injuries.

“So what else isn’t new?” I asked, and he started to list them off.

“Pushing decision-making down to the shop floor - the Japanese have been doing that for decades”. That was the first one. But then there was another and another until finally I said, “Gary, we need to have you on the show. Because I can’t imagine that any young safety professionals know any of this. And I wouldn’t be surprised if the same thing was also true for a lot of seasoned safety professionals.”

Gary was kind enough to say yes.

Gary is a Certified Safety Professional with an MBA from the University of Iowa. He worked 32 years for John Deere in safety, environmental, production and engineering. Gary has earned numerous awards, like the 2010 Distinguished Service to Safety Award by the National Safety Council. With over 45 years of experience, Gary has become an internationally recognized speaker on safety, health, environmental and business issues. 

Gary also co-authored the book, Inside Out, with me and was instrumental in the development of SafeStart, so you won’t want to miss this episode of Larry Wilson Live. 

“The Difficulties of Getting Modern Safety Into Old-School Education”
with Michael Cooke, Vice-President, Social & Environmental Responsibility at Jabil Group

“Why aren’t these concepts being taught in high-schools and trade schools?” he asked defiantly. “Well”, I said, “its not for lack of trying. But it's not as easy as you’d think.”

“Why” he demanded, obviously not impressed. “Well, one thing is money. Even though it's significantly less expensive (80% discount) the schools want the school boards to pay for it out of their budget, and the school board wants the schools to pay for it out of theirs. They both want the students to get the training. They just want the other party to pay for it."

“Oh”, he said, and walked away…

However, not everyone did “walk away” figuratively speaking. A few other “brave souls” have also ventured into the arena. They have made some significant efforts to bring modern day safety technology and methodology to education. 

Michael Cooke is one of those people. 

His efforts started with a previous employer, but he has carried on with the Jabil Group. Both Michael and I understand the importance of getting safety into education. 

We also understand some of the difficulties and that the financial aspect mentioned before is just one challenge. Trying to train teachers is another (they don’t make the best students). 

Despite these difficulties, there have also been some tremendous successes in places like Brazil, Colombia, Scotland, Switzerland, The Philippines, Suriname and of course Canada and the USA.


To access the resources mentioned in the show, go to:

www.booboobandits.com

or 

www.larrywilsonlive.com/wilson

“It sounds like a food additive, or at least thats the look I get when I ask some people about it” he said. I was talking with Dr. Ghanem about governance - at the board level and the conversation naturally turned towards ESG. “Some parts of it don’t really concern the safety professional, like whether the company engages in bribery practices, but other parts do. The environment part is obvious, if you have HSE or EHS in your title, but some of the social is more than just traditional health and safety.”

The net result of the conversation was that we both decided that there were probably a lot of questions that HSE professionals would like to ask about ESG, so we decided to do the show. 

About our guest:
Dr. Waddah S. Ghanem Al Hashmi
BEng (Hons), MBA, MSc, DipSM, DipEM, AFIChemE, FEI, FIEMA, MIoD, F.GCCBDI
Global Health and Safety Governance and Leadership Expert
Chairman, Federal Occupational Health & Safety Committee, ESMA, United Arab Emirates
Hon. Chairman, Energy Institute - Middle East
Chairman, Professional Engineering Chapter – UAE Society of Engineers

"Towards Understanding better; Environment, Social and Governance Factors..."

The HSE practitioner is expected more and more to multi-task and understand so many more and new things as the developments in the corporate world change rapidly. 

In this episode Dr Waddah Ghanem Al Hashmi will give a brief overview of ESG to introduce this subject of fast-growing importance in the industry. From large corporates to start-ups and small companies, ESG indicators, voluntary and integrated reporting has become an important thing to understand. Many of the indicators that should be reported in live integrated and sustainability reports come from various integrated EHS key performance indicators.

Waddah is considered one of the global authorities on governance and leadership in EHS. Waddah holds several academic and vocational qualifications including a Degree in Engineering, two Post Graduate Diplomas from the UK an MSc in Environmental Sciences from UAE University, an Executive MBA and a Doctorate from the University of Bradford in the UK and specialises in Corporate Governance and Leadership. He has received several awards in his career, most notably, the Rashid Prize for Scholarship Excellence in 2007 (Dubai), and the IEMA Sustainability Leader of the Year (UK) in 2019.

Waddah has worked for the ENOC Group as EHSQ Director, Executive Director EHSSQ & Corporate Affairs and then Senior Director – Sustainability, Operational & Business Excellence. He had spent the last 24 years from being a consultant to an EHS Supervisor at the refinery to assistant EHS Advisor in the Group, later to grow the EHS Compliance function until he become Director, EHSQ Compliance. He now works in Marine Assurance and Logistics.