Safety on Tap

Does philosophy really have a place in work health and safety? Here's what I discovered.

My earlier rejection of philosophy taught me how important philosophy actually is a conscious way of living and a competent approach to professional practice.

I might be wrong, but one thing philosophy does teach us, is that it's worth getting curious about. I certainly have become a better professional because of it.

My guest today is the ever-humble Jo Doyle.

Jo comes highly recommended to me, she has been on my potential guest list for years now. With many years experience in strategic organisational change and executive coaching, Covid created the impetus for Jo to gravitate back to her sweet spot and passion of being in Service of Well-being. She creates space for others to self-reflect, grow in awareness, and tap into their innate capability for healing towards freedom.

Am I a cook or a chef? It turns out that has nothing to do with what I wear, or whether I have a certificate, it comes down to one simple thing. And no, it's not a bad temper.

Human performance is not just focussed on humans. It is about how we try to improve ourselves at work. It's not just about health and safety.

My guest today Diane Chadwick-Jones is the former Director, Human Performance for BP. She had an extensive career in BP, working in Belgium, Brazil and Egypt in operations and safety roles. She was instrumental in the refresh of the BP Values.

Three times this week, I have come across this challenge in health and safety leaders.

Competent, intelligent, motivated health and safety leaders who want to make change.

Who hold back, are held back, from taking the next step, making the next intention a reality, for the same reason.

The words are different, but the cause is the same.

Listen in to hear how one of the thickest Scottish accents you'll ever hear is also one of the most effective communicators.

Steve Harvey is a an operations-focused Health & Safety professional who is a proud pragmatist. He is a master of work insights and operational learning, obsessed about understanding the gap between work as imagined and work as done, and he has even featured in a documentary called 'Doing Safety Differently'. And he loves having a laugh!

Here's Steve:

What does a iPad, a 2B pencil, WISYWIG, and a microphone have in common? And how is that helpful for you as a leader?

This episode is made possible by our mission of enabling better learning that improves performance in your organisation.

Today I'm chatting with Jason van Schie, organisation psychologist, founder of FlourishDX and co-host of the Psych Health and Safety podcast.

I'm not pretending that there are any reins to hand over so to speak, but the reason why you've heard so many guests on my podcast speak to this broad topic is simple. This podcast is for leaders who want to grow themselves, like you, in order to drastically improve health and safety along the way.

Psych health and safety is a professional domain most of us need to develop, obviously recognising that we aren't pretending to be psychologists. So it ticks the 'need for growth' box we have in our mission. And, as for drastic improvements in health and safety, is there any doubt in your mind that psych health and safety needs drastic improvement?

I'm glad Jason and the team are here with their podcast. Here's Jason:

This is an awesome conversation. Real stories and experiences from a frontline HSE professional who is still learning with more than a decade's worth of it under his belt. We covered a lot, I learned a lot! None of this was planned, all Tim and I talked about before recording was just to share his story. Stick around for the takeaways at the end because this minimally planned and wide ranging conversation percolated some amazingly clear insights for us all.

Grenade throwers.

You know them.

(Real people, with metaphorical grenades)

The people in your organisation who have a tendency, even a reputation to disrupt.

They throw grenades because they object, challenge or undermine things publicly, in groups.

And they throw grenades at a distance from the real issues, often under-informed, not engaged in any meaningful dialogue or constructive improvement.