"Critical risk" usually brings up images of high-hazard, industrial sites. But what about the risks that don't come with a hard hat? 

In this episode of The Safety Cast, host Craig Bleakley sits down with Nada Wentzel, CEO of The Jonah Group, to explore exactly what critical risk means when we move beyond physical hazards. Drawing on more than 30 years of experience in high-consequence industries like aviation, mining, and oil, Nada breaks down the science behind human decision-making under pressure.

We're diving deep into the fascinating concept of "limbic risk", exploring why our brains default to autopilot when stress takes over and the limbic system acts like a boom gate to our logical prefrontal cortex.

Here's what we're unpacking in this episode:

The 5 Danger States: How pressure, irritation, distraction, fatigue, and complacency hijack our logic and lead to risk blindness, "tick and flick" behaviour, and procedural creep.

Frequency isn't Severity: Why tracking high-frequency, low-consequence incidents won't prevent fatalities, and why critical risks demand their own distinct strategy.

The Triangle of Defense: Why over-relying on a single element, systems, physical assets, or people, sets organisations up for failure.

The Verification Gap: Why a risk register isn't enough, and why field-verifying your controls is the critical missing piece between the frontline and the boardroom.

"Every industry has critical risks, and we really need to start looking at critical risk with different strategies because there are different root causes associated with it." – Nada Wentzel

If you're relying on people as your last line of defense, you don't want to miss this one!

Listen to the full episode in all major platforms. 

Storytelling in H&S: The “Why” Behind Getting Home Safe

In the world of health and safety, the traditional toolkit relies heavily on facts, figures, checklists, and compliance forms. But if you’ve ever watched a team’s eyes glaze over during a typical safety induction, you already know the hard truth: data alone doesn’t change behavior.

In this episode of SafetyCast, Craig Bleakley sits down with Heidi Lance, Director of Real Learning New Zealand, to explore how safety leaders can move away from passive box-ticking and build genuine cultural connection. Drawing from her extensive experience transforming large-scale workforces, Heidi unpacks why storytelling isn’t "fluff"—it’s a critical, science-backed safety strategy that drives real frontline engagement and reporting.

"When storytelling starts, reporting goes up. That can be a real challenge, but at the end of the day, that's what we want. That's when we know we're doing the right thing." — Heidi Lance

The Paper-Safe vs. People-Safe Gap: Why checklists and compliance forms fail to win hearts and minds on the frontline—and how narrative bridges the gap.

The Pure Science of Storytelling: For skeptical, data-driven leaders, Heidi breaks down the cognitive neuroscience behind why stories work:

Neural Coupling: How a well-told story causes the listener’s brain waves to mirror the speaker’s, creating a shared neurological experience.

Whole-Brain Activation: While statistics only trigger language-processing centers (Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas), stories light up the motor, sensory, and frontal cortex—making the lesson feel like a lived experience.

Emotional Memory Anchors: How emotional triggers release brain chemicals that prioritize information, locking safety lessons into long-term memory far deeper than any chart or graph.

A Practical Framework for Leaders: Step-by-step guidance on how anyone can craft and share safety stories that actually stick—without feeling forced or inauthentic.

Why More Reporting is a Win: How to handle the initial spike in incident and near-miss reporting when your team finally feels psychologically safe enough to speak up.

Guest: Heidi Lance | Director, Real Learning New Zealand

Host: Craig Bleakley

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From Public Health Concern to Workplace Risk: Tackling Loneliness

Did you know the World Health Organisation considers loneliness to have a health impact comparable to smoking 15 cigarettes a day?

Disconnection from colleagues, limited visibility of your impact, feeling underappreciated, and a reluctance to ask for help are all symptoms of a major emerging risk in modern work environments. While technology keeps us constantly online, it is often reducing the meaningful human interaction we actually need. It has become such a global crisis that countries like Japan and the UK have even appointed dedicated Ministers of Loneliness.

In this episode, ecoPortal’s Craig Bleakley sits down with Michele Grow, CEO of Mental Health & Wellness at APM. With over 30 years of experience shaping workplace culture and organisational effectiveness, Michele unpacks why loneliness is no longer just a personal struggle; it is a critical workplace hazard that needs to be proactively managed.

In this episode, we discuss:

The Hidden Epidemic: What loneliness actually is and why it’s becoming a critical risk factor for modern workplaces.

The Nuances of Isolation: The different types of loneliness and why they deserve serious, targeted attention.

The Ripple Effect: The severe health impacts of loneliness on both individuals and the broader organisation.

By the Numbers: What current data reveals about the true state of loneliness in our workplaces today.

Taking Action: Practical, effective strategies organisations can implement right now and the approaches you should definitely avoid.

Tune in to discover how to build stronger, more connected, and truly supportive teams.

About the Guest: Michele Grow is the CEO of Mental Health & Wellness at APM. A recognised leader in workplace health, safety, and wellbeing, she has spent more than three decades helping organisations across various sectors address complex risks and build highly resilient, effective workplace cultures.

Wellbeing as a Driver of Safety and Organisational Resilience

In today’s modern workplace, wellbeing is no longer a "nice to have" or a standalone initiative, it is a critical driver of safety, performance, and true organisational resilience. But as we move further away from the peak of the pandemic, how do health and safety leaders ensure these crucial efforts evolve rather than fade away?

In this episode, ecoPortal’s Craig Bleakley sits down with Dr. Natalie Flatt, psychologist and co-founder of Connect Psych Services. Together, they unpack the clear link between mental health, human performance, and safer decision-making, particularly in complex and high-risk environments.

What You Will Learn in This Episode:

The Post-Pandemic Reality: How hybrid work, increased tech reliance, and shifting expectations have fundamentally changed mental health risks and leadership responsibilities.

From Programmes to Systems: Why isolated wellbeing initiatives often lose momentum, and how to embed mental health directly into everyday health and safety processes for lasting impact.

Driving Sustainable Resilience: The core psychosocial factors that support team resilience, and the common areas where organisations get it wrong.

Evidence-Based Approaches: Practical, psychology-backed insights on what genuinely delivers measurable outcomes for employee wellbeing—and what simply doesn't work.

About the Guest:

Dr. Natalie Flatt is a Ph.D. qualified psychologist and the Co-Founder of Connect Psych Services, bringing extensive clinical and real-world expertise to the intersection of workplace mental health and safety.

From Compliance to Connection: The Psychology of a High-Trust Safety Culture

Trust is the foundation of culture in every workplace. When it’s strong, people speak up, collaborate, and manage risks together. When it’s low, silence and disengagement take hold, quietly eroding both safety and wellbeing.

In this insightful session, Clive Lloyd — Psychologist, Principal Consultant at GYST, and author of the best-selling book Next Generation Safety Leadership — joins Craig Bleakley, ecoPortal’s Safety and Risk Consultant, to explore how leaders can intentionally build the foundation of trust. We explore why trust is not just a soft skill, but the absolute cornerstone for establishing true psychological safety, managing risks effectively, and shifting organisational culture from mere compliance to genuine care and accountability.

Key themes:

The Three Drivers of Trust: Unpack how Care, Character, and Competence work together to shape a high-performing safety culture.

Trust, Psychological Safety, and Risk Management: Understand the direct, measurable link between trust levels and an organisation’s ability to build a psychologically safe workplace to effectively manage risks and support psychosocial wellbeing.

Leadership Trust Builders: Identify the specific, everyday leadership behaviours that either strengthen or actively erode trust in daily interactions.

Strengthening Trust in Day-to-Day Interactions: Learn practical tools rooted in psychology to foster more open, honest, and accountable conversations about risk management within your team.

This episode is essential listening for EHS and Risk Professionals, HR and People Leaders, C-level Executives, and Frontline Supervisors who are responsible for driving cultural change and want to build high-trust, productive, and accountable teams.

Featuring:

Clive Lloyd, Psychologist, Principal Consultant at GYST, and Author

With extensive experience in psychological safety and safety leadership, Clive provides a deep dive into the psychology of trust. His practical, evidence-based tools will help you and your leadership team intentionally cultivate a culture where team members feel safe to speak up, report risks, and look out for one another.

Available now on all major podcast platforms.

Rethinking Risk: A Dynamic Framework for Health and Safety Leaders

Frameworks are essential tools for health and safety leaders, providing a clear structure for decision-making, aligning teams on priorities, and ensuring risks are managed consistently across an organisation. But what happens when traditional models like the Hierarchy of Controls (HOC) reach their limitations?

In this insightful session, Crystal Danbury, Director of Group Safety, Insurance & Occupational Wellbeing at Sainsbury's (UK), joins Peter Jenkins, ecoPortal’s UK Country Manager, to introduce a more dynamic framework centred on Identification, Understanding, and then Accepting, Mitigating, or Removing risk. We explore why frameworks are essential for driving clarity and accountability, and how the right approach can shift organisations from a culture of blame to one focused on causation.

The Role of Effective Frameworks: Understand how structured frameworks provide clarity, consistency, and accountability, helping organisations make better decisions, align teams, and manage risks effectively across all levels.

Challenging Traditional Approaches: Examine the limitations of the traditional Hierarchy of Controls (HOC) and explore how more dynamic frameworks can guide better decision-making and more effective risk management.

Identifying and Understanding Risk: Explore how to systematically recognise hazards—from operational processes to human factors—and learn methods to analyse and interpret their true impact on organisational vulnerabilities.

Mitigating, Accepting, or Removing Risk: Practical approaches to managing risks, including mitigation strategies, informed risk acceptance, and the elimination of hazards, with real-world examples.

This episode is essential listening for HR and People Leaders, EHS and Risk Professionals, Facilities and Operations Managers, Frontline Supervisors, and C-level Executives seeking to integrate proactive safety and wellbeing into organisational strategy and risk management.

Featuring:

Crystal Danbury, Director of Group Safety, Insurance & Occupational Wellbeing at Sainsbury's (UK) Grounded in a people-first and risk-acceptance approach, Crystal’s framework and extensive experience can help you and your organisation move from reactive to proactive safety management, gain deeper insights, and ultimately build safer, more resilient workplaces.

Available now on all major podcast platforms.

Psychological Safety: The First Line of Defense Against Psychosocial Risk

Psychosocial risks are now front and centre in workplace safety conversations. But what can psychology teach us about preventing issues like stress, burnout, and fatigue, which are often rooted in poor work design, unhealthy environments, or harmful behaviours?

In this insightful session, Dr. Natalie Flatt, psychologist and co-founder of Connect Psych Services, joins ecoPortal’s Craig Bleakley to demonstrate how psychological safety can act as both a protective factor and a control mechanism. We unpack evidence-based approaches to embed psychological safety within health and safety practices, creating environments where employees feel secure to speak up, share concerns, and seek support without fear of negative consequences.

Key themes:

Psychological Safety as a Protective Factor: How building an environment of trust and openness actively prevents the escalation of psychosocial risks.

Embedding Safety in H&S Practices: Learning to integrate psychological safety into your health and safety management system to better identify and control psychosocial hazards.

Integrating Safety into Organisational Culture: Understanding how a psychologically safe culture relies on secure reporting environments, ensuring sensitive employee and incident data is protected so workers feel safe speaking up.

Tools for Leaders and Teams: Practical strategies to improve communication, enhance collaborative decision-making, and implement early intervention practices before issues escalate.

This episode is essential listening for HR and People Leaders, EHS professionals tasked with psychosocial compliance, Operations Managers, and C-level Executives seeking to embed wellbeing into their risk management strategy.

Featuring:

Dr. Natalie Flatt, PhD, Psychologist and Co-Founder of Connect Psych Services With over 20 years of experience, Dr. Flatt helps organisations build mentally healthy workplaces by translating psychological research into practical strategies. She specialises in partnering with leaders to develop emotionally intelligent, psychologically safe teams.

Available now on all major podcast platforms.

Designing for Wellbeing: Mastering Psychosocial Risk

Workplaces today are grappling with a rising tide of stress, burnout, and harassment. As regulators set new expectations for managing mental health, psychosocial risks have shifted from a “personnel issue” to a critical safety challenge. How do organisations move beyond reactive measures to design work that actually prevents harm?

In this insightful and practical episode, Vanessa Cooper, Principal Advisor at WorkSafe New Zealand, and Terry Buckingham, Wellbeing Lead at ASB Bank, join ecoPortal’s Craig Bleakley to explore how to identify and manage psychosocial issues before they escalate. We unpack real-world strategies for designing safer systems, from role clarity to physical environments, and how to foster a culture where wellbeing is built into the way work is done.

Key themes:

Psychosocial Risks are Safety Risks: Why psychosocial hazards must be managed with the same rigour as physical risks, and the guidelines influencing safety beyond traditional hazards.

Managing Risk on the Frontline: Practical insights on how to identify early warning signs, assess risks, and know exactly when, and how, to intervene effectively.

Designing for Wellbeing: How thoughtful design reduces friction and improves focus—covering everything from physical workspace layout to organisational structures and role clarity.

Leadership & Engagement: The critical role leaders play in promoting psychosocial safety through clear policies and trusted reporting mechanisms.

Technology & Data Ethics: Balancing the use of AI and monitoring tools to identify risk patterns while respecting employee privacy.

This episode is essential listening for HR and People Leaders, EHS professionals navigating new regulations, and Executives seeking to embed wellbeing into their risk management strategy.

Featuring:

Vanessa Cooper, Principal Advisor at WorkSafe NZ As the Principal Advisor for Mentally Healthy Work at New Zealand’s primary regulator, Vanessa is focused on making psychosocial risks better understood and incorporated into standard risk management processes.

Terry Buckingham, Wellbeing Lead at ASB Bank Terry designs and leads the wellbeing strategy for over 6,000 employees at ASB Bank. He has enhanced the bank’s commitment to duty of care, engaging teams with practical tools to manage psychosocial risk in a large-scale corporate environment.

Available now on all major podcast platforms.

Behind the Counter: Rethinking Safety Amid Retail Violence

As public-facing workplaces feel the pressure of rising aggression, the threat of customer violence and retail crime has evolved beyond isolated incidents. From organised attacks to growing instances of staff-targeted abuse, the safety landscape is shifting rapidly. How do employers protect their frontline teams without compromising the customer experience?

In this urgent and insight-led episode, Michael Plunkett, Head of Safety at Kmart & Target, joins ecoPortal’s Craig Bleakley to unpack the growing challenge of protecting both staff and customers. We explore real-world obstacles, from location-specific risk assessments to the psychosocial impact of aggression, and how risk management must evolve to keep up with a shifting threat landscape.

Key themes:

The New Retail Risk Map: How global crime trends, urban tensions, and organised retail crime are reshaping safety strategies in retail and customer-facing sectors.

Lessons from Recent Incidents: A review of what worked and what didn’t in recent major incidents, drawing on lessons from events like the Bondi Junction and Westfield attacks.

Psychosocial Risks in Retail: Understanding the invisible injuries—the long-term mental health effects of customer aggression on staff and what regulators are saying about psychosocial hazards.

Safety by Design: From store layout to AI surveillance, how physical environments and smart technology can influence violence and de-escalate aggression.

This episode is essential listening for Retail and Hospitality executives, EHS professionals managing public-facing risks, and HR leaders addressing psychosocial safety and incident response.

Featuring:

Michael Plunkett, Head of Safety at Kmart & Target

With over 16 years of experience in risk management across retail, logistics, and construction, Michael brings a strong track record of strategic planning and mental health initiatives. He is a people-first leader with deep expertise in engaging stakeholders from the frontline to the executive board to deliver safer work environments.

Available now on all major podcast platforms.

Cybersecurity and Safety in the Age of AI

As AI adoption accelerates across safety-critical sectors, the line between digital security and physical safety is blurring. While AI offers immense potential as an ally for safety, it also introduces sophisticated risks that can compromise data, people, and operations. How do organisations secure their digital perimeter without hindering operational performance?

In this forward-focused episode, we explore the intersection of cybersecurity, AI, and workplace safety. Host Sam Williams sits down with investigator Brian McKay (ICAM AU) to unpack the real-world risks emerging from the exponential growth of AI. We dive into how organisations can anticipate AI-related hazards, protect sensitive data, and respond effectively to incidents where digital failure leads to physical risk.

Key themes:

Securing the Digital Perimeter: What WHS leaders need to know to protect digital safety systems and sensitive data to ensure operations remain resilient and compliant.

AI as a Hazard and Control: Unpacking how to identify, assess, and manage AI-related safety risks in your operations before regulators step in.

Data Security as Safety: Understanding why data security is now a frontline safety issue, particularly regarding sensitive employee and incident information.

Cyber Safety Culture: Strategies for building a cyber-aware workforce and strengthening investigations without creating panic or overwhelming teams.

This episode is essential listening for WHS and Risk professionals, Executives managing digital transformation, and Safety Managers bridging the gap between tech and operations.

Featuring:

Brian McKay, Senior Investigator/Trainer at ICAM Australia With 30 years of experience spanning critical infrastructure, the U.S. Navy, and agencies like USINDOPACOM, Brian is a seasoned expert in cybersecurity and engineering. He brings deep expertise in developing cyber frameworks and AI-driven defence initiatives to the conversation on protecting critical systems.

Available now on all major podcast platforms.