The 0300 Podcast

Join Chris as he welcomes his first guest, Ben Pronk DSC. Ben is a former commander of the Special Air Service Regiment and spent 24 years in the Australian Army. 

Since leaving the ADF, Ben has formed Mettle Global, a strategic and leadership consultancy. 

Alongside this, he has found time to be a co-host of the Unforgiving 60 podcast, co-author ‘The Resilience Shield’ and author ‘We’re all Going to Die’, as well as being an artist! Some people!!!

We talk about competence, resilience and throw a few quotes from ancient Greek philosophers, Prussian Generals and erm, Mike Tyson into the mix. 

Mettle Global — Improving Organisational Resilience

Master your mindset and overcome adversity | The Resilience Shield

 https://www.unforgiving60.com/

In this episode, we discuss whether organisations have blind spots when it comes to confidence, often mistaking it for competence, when they are actually very different things.

Frederick Winslow Taylor and W. Edwards Deming are often presented as opposing philosophies.

Taylor gave us standardisation, procedures, efficiency and control.

Deming gave us systems thinking, learning and continuous improvement.

But what if the debate isn't about choosing one or the other?

In this episode of The 0300 Podcast, Chris Price explores whether Taylorism still has a place in modern organisations and why many people who criticise Taylor's ideas unknowingly rely on them every day.

From aviation and medicine to industry and emergency response, some tasks demand consistency, discipline and repeatability. But what happens when reality doesn't follow the script?

At 0300, when the alarms sound, information is incomplete and the procedure doesn't quite fit the situation, compliance alone is no longer enough.

That's when judgement, adaptation and competence matter.

This episode explores:

• Taylor vs Deming: efficiency or systems thinking?• Why standardisation still matters in high-risk industries• The limits of procedures and checklists• Human Performance and the gap between work as imagined and work as done• Why competence can't be written into a procedure• What really carries the workload when things go wrong at 0300

Taylorism manages tasks.Deming manages systems.Human Performance manages surprises

In this episode, Chris discusses whether we use competence as a method of learning, or as a form of compliance.

Episode 1: The Difference Between Being Signed Off and Being Competent

What does it really mean to be competent?

In this first episode of the 0300 Podcast, Chris Price explores the often-overlooked gap between being signed off as competent and actually being competent in the real world. Using relatable examples, human performance concepts, and lessons from high-risk industries, Chris challenges the idea that competence is something that can simply be achieved, ticked off, and declared complete.

If someone passes their driving test today, are they ready to handle a storm at 0300 on a dark unfamiliar road? If a worker completes their assessment, are they prepared for the unexpected?

Join us as we unpack competence as a continuum, examine the difference between qualification and capability, and explore why true competence is revealed not when everything goes to plan, but when it doesn't.

Because at 0300, the certificate isn't doing the job. The person is.