The Interesting Health & Safety Podcast

Colin is joined by Crystal Danbury to discuss the pervasive issue of loneliness and social isolation and its deep impact on mental and physical health.  Crystal shares the personal and professional inspiration behind developing her app, "Friendzone," which aims to facilitate genuine human connections based on shared interests and hobbies KEY TAKEAWAYS Loneliness is the difference between the level of socialisation you have versus the level you desire, and it can be a significant issue even for people who appear outgoing or have successful careers. Long-term happiness is strongly linked to the health and maturity of friendship connections outside of immediate family, according to studies like one from the Harvard Business School. Loneliness has physical health manifestations, with studies showing that people who are lonely are more likely to experience disease and die earlier. Effective leadership involves genuinely caring for people and fostering an environment where employees feel safe and comfortable enough to share their struggles and daily obstacles, which provides invaluable data for operational improvement.  BEST MOMENTS "It's always under the surface and many of the people that I've helped over my years... you look at somebody and you think you're not okay. You're saying you are, but I know you're not." "Loneliness is the difference between the level of friendship and socialisation you have versus the level of friendship and socialisation you want." "You are more important than that... You have to think about your life, not the role." "When someone says, 'Hallelujah!'... Thank you for having the confidence to even say this." VALUABLE RESOURCES The Interesting Health & Safety Podcast - ⁠https://podcasts.apple.com/vn/podcast/the-interesting-health-safety-podcast/id1467771449⁠         Project Mollitiam - ⁠https://www.projectmollitiam.com⁠       ABOUT THE HOST Colin Nottage ‘Making health and safety as important as everything else we do.’ This is the belief that Colin is passionate about and through his consultancy Influential Management Group (IMG) is able to spread into industry. Colin works at a strategic level with company owners and board members. He helps business leaders establish and achieve their health and safety ambitions. He has developed a number of leading competency improvement programmes that are delivered across industry and his strengths are his ability to take a practical approach to problem-solving and being able to liaise at all levels within an organisation. Colin also runs a company that vets contractors online and a network that develops and support H&S consultancies to become better businesses. Colin chairs the Construction Dust Partnership, an industry collaboration directly involving many organisations, including the Health and Safety Executive. He is a Post Graduate Tutor at Strathclyde University and a highly sought-after health and safety speaker and trainer. He has a Post Graduate Certificate in Safety and Risk management, an engineering degree and is a Chartered Member of the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH).

Colin meets Becky Ray, the owner of Culture Kick Limited, who’s here to talk about the importance of workplace culture, leadership, and the need for reflection in business practices.  Becky shares her journey from traditional health and safety roles to focusing on the human aspects of organisational culture, emphasising the significance of empathy and curiosity in leadership KEY TAKEAWAYS Taking time to pause and reflect on frustrations and challenges in the workplace is crucial. Leaders should encourage their teams to identify what is getting in their way and to consider how they can remove, reduce, or reframe these obstacles. Failure should be viewed as an opportunity for growth and learning rather than something to be feared. Organisations can benefit from analysing failures to uncover insights that can prevent future incidents and improve overall performance. Safety culture should not be siloed to specific teams or departments. A holistic approach to organisational culture is necessary, as everyone in the company contributes to safety and operational success. Beyond physical safety, organisations should focus on the mental and emotional well-being of their employees.  BEST MOMENTS "I think when you're frustrated at work, regardless of what you're doing, you cannot and will not do your best work."  "We can just step off for a tiny bit and just pause and reflect, and then jump back on with a new kind of mindset or approach." "It's about finding a way that works for the businesses that you work with."  "Frustration is a contagious emotion and we can't keep it in." VALUABLE RESOURCES The Interesting Health & Safety Podcast - ⁠https://podcasts.apple.com/vn/podcast/the-interesting-health-safety-podcast/id1467771449⁠         Project Mollitiam - ⁠https://www.projectmollitiam.com⁠       ABOUT THE HOST Colin Nottage ‘Making health and safety as important as everything else we do.’ This is the belief that Colin is passionate about and through his consultancy Influential Management Group (IMG) is able to spread into industry. Colin works at a strategic level with company owners and board members. He helps business leaders establish and achieve their health and safety ambitions. He has developed a number of leading competency improvement programmes that are delivered across industry and his strengths are his ability to take a practical approach to problem-solving and being able to liaise at all levels within an organisation. Colin also runs a company that vets contractors online and a network that develops and support H&S consultancies to become better businesses. Colin chairs the Construction Dust Partnership, an industry collaboration directly involving many organisations, including the Health and Safety Executive. He is a Post Graduate Tutor at Strathclyde University and a highly sought-after health and safety speaker and trainer. He has a Post Graduate Certificate in Safety and Risk management, an engineering degree and is a Chartered Member of the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH).

Colin discusses the concept of bottlenecks in a business context, inspired by a LinkedIn post. He relates the common belief that the bottleneck is at the top of a bottle to the idea that senior management is always the issue. He counters this by pointing out that when pouring, the bottleneck is at the bottom, using the simple phrase "not when pouring”. As Colin explains, this requires a shift in the way we think about things… KEY TAKEAWAYS A common analogy in business and safety suggests that the bottleneck is always at the top, implying that senior leadership is the primary obstacle, but the host suggests the physical reality of a bottle being poured shows the bottleneck is actually at the bottom. The core aim for any health and safety professional should be to stop people suffering ill health or injury, and if this is not the main focus, then they have "lost the plot." The saying that safety is not the absence of events but the presence of defences, a concept often attributed to Todd Conklin, should be interpreted carefully and is not a complete idea on its own. While the majority of people are a valuable source of solutions in the workplace, professionals should be nuanced and not assume that people are never the problem, as occasionally individuals can indeed be the source of an issue. BEST MOMENTS "And so in business, if you're looking for where the bottlenecks are, then you've got to look at the top, you've got to look at the senior management team and the directors, the leaders and all that... And then I think Carsten just summed it up perfectly because he just wrote the words, not when pouring." "Because fundamentally, I think as we as health and safety professionals, if our aim is not to stop people getting injured or getting killed or getting hurt or getting maimed or suffering ill health, then then we have really lost the plot." "And and we may well look to the people that are working in the workplace, or probably most of the time, for the solutions in how to get things better, but it might not always be the right place to look, so just be just be wary." VALUABLE RESOURCES The Interesting Health & Safety Podcast - ⁠https://podcasts.apple.com/vn/podcast/the-interesting-health-safety-podcast/id1467771449⁠         Project Mollitiam - ⁠https://www.projectmollitiam.com⁠       ABOUT THE HOST Colin Nottage ‘Making health and safety as important as everything else we do.’ This is the belief that Colin is passionate about and through his consultancy Influential Management Group (IMG) is able to spread into industry. Colin works at a strategic level with company owners and board members. He helps business leaders establish and achieve their health and safety ambitions. He has developed a number of leading competency improvement programmes that are delivered across industry and his strengths are his ability to take a practical approach to problem-solving and being able to liaise at all levels within an organisation. Colin also runs a company that vets contractors online and a network that develops and support H&S consultancies to become better businesses. Colin chairs the Construction Dust Partnership, an industry collaboration directly involving many organisations, including the Health and Safety Executive. He is a Post Graduate Tutor at Strathclyde University and a highly sought-after health and safety speaker and trainer. He has a Post Graduate Certificate in Safety and Risk management, an engineering degree and is a Chartered Member of the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH).

Colin challenges the perception of health and safety as a passive noun or mere set of documents, reframing it as an active "verb"—something you must consistently do in your business. He introduces a comprehensive set of "doing" activities for health and safety specialists and business leaders, focusing on learning from near-misses, improving competency, integrated planning, and direct engagement with the workforce KEY TAKEAWAYS Health and safety should be viewed as an active verb—something consistently done in the business—rather than just a passive noun, with the health aspect often being overlooked in favour of safety. Competency must be assessed beyond training certificates and experience, focusing on whether an individual's personal attributes and make-up are supportive of and suitable for the role they are performing. The planning process (the thought process and discussion) is more valuable than the final plan document, and should be an inclusive activity involving the people who do the work to drive better health and safety outcomes. Low-quality documentation (like risk assessments) should be avoided by spending more time talking to the workforce and getting a real understanding of their challenges, rather than using shortcuts like AI to produce documents faster. BEST MOMENTS "Safety is a verb and an actual fact it's a verb and, you know, it's do, it's something you do." "What better thing to do than to go out and sit with the people that are working in your workplace and actually talk about the successes that went on yesterday, the day before, the week before, the month before... it instills a much, much more positive approach." VALUABLE RESOURCES The Interesting Health & Safety Podcast - ⁠https://podcasts.apple.com/vn/podcast/the-interesting-health-safety-podcast/id1467771449⁠         Project Mollitiam - ⁠https://www.projectmollitiam.com⁠       ABOUT THE HOST Colin Nottage ‘Making health and safety as important as everything else we do.’ This is the belief that Colin is passionate about and through his consultancy Influential Management Group (IMG) is able to spread into industry. Colin works at a strategic level with company owners and board members. He helps business leaders establish and achieve their health and safety ambitions. He has developed a number of leading competency improvement programmes that are delivered across industry and his strengths are his ability to take a practical approach to problem-solving and being able to liaise at all levels within an organisation. Colin also runs a company that vets contractors online and a network that develops and support H&S consultancies to become better businesses. Colin chairs the Construction Dust Partnership, an industry collaboration directly involving many organisations, including the Health and Safety Executive. He is a Post Graduate Tutor at Strathclyde University and a highly sought-after health and safety speaker and trainer. He has a Post Graduate Certificate in Safety and Risk management, an engineering degree and is a Chartered Member of the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH).

Colin discusses the critical role of health and safety professionals in the workplace, emphasising the importance of influence over implementation. He highlights the challenges faced by these professionals, particularly when they lack a seat at the decision-making table, and stresses the need to build strong relationships with operational teams to effectively manage risks KEY TAKEAWAYS Health and safety professionals should prioritise influencing decision-makers rather than trying to manage health and safety directly. This involves building relationships and providing support to those who are responsible for managing risks. It's crucial for health and safety professionals to be involved at the senior management level to effectively influence decisions. They should present financial implications and risk mitigation costs to highlight the importance of health and safety measures. Rather than doing tasks for management, health and safety professionals should equip them with the tools and skills needed to make informed decisions. This includes facilitating discussions and providing guidance. BEST MOMENTS "If we as a health and safety professional try to take on the responsibility of managing health and safety in a workplace, then we're going to fail." "You should be working towards building the relationship... so that you have got an opportunity to influence their thinking." "Don't try to be the person that sorts and solves every problem. Try to be somebody that facilitates other people making better decisions." VALUABLE RESOURCES The Interesting Health & Safety Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/vn/podcast/the-interesting-health-safety-podcast/id1467771449         Project Mollitiam - https://www.projectmollitiam.com       ABOUT THE HOST Colin Nottage ‘Making health and safety as important as everything else we do.’ This is the belief that Colin is passionate about and through his consultancy Influential Management Group (IMG) is able to spread into industry. Colin works at a strategic level with company owners and board members. He helps business leaders establish and achieve their health and safety ambitions. He has developed a number of leading competency improvement programmes that are delivered across industry and his strengths are his ability to take a practical approach to problem-solving and being able to liaise at all levels within an organisation. Colin also runs a company that vets contractors online and a network that develops and support H&S consultancies to become better businesses. Colin chairs the Construction Dust Partnership, an industry collaboration directly involving many organisations, including the Health and Safety Executive. He is a Post Graduate Tutor at Strathclyde University and a highly sought-after health and safety speaker and trainer. He has a Post Graduate Certificate in Safety and Risk management, an engineering degree and is a Chartered Member of the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH).