“Get the organisation structure right, fill it with the right people, look after, support and develop your people, provide the right leadership, tools & equipment then the right culture will evolve and you will effectively and safely deliver what you need to”.  So getting the organisation right: recent experience of increasing an organisation by 30% over 3 years, all done through positive business cases and the resultant output (safety, unit delivery, improved performance, organisation stability, reduced incident response & employee engagement) was clear.

We have recognised, and there are many ways to do this, there are huge benefits from team development, engagement & for people to understand what is expected of them, at all levels.  And some leaders are great at this, others often need some help.  This supports some fundamental building blocks that contributes to a culture where people ‘deliver well against their targets’, ‘go over and above’ and ‘make things work’.  This contributes to safe, effective and high performing teams that contribute to making a great organisation.

And how a tragic loss of life impacts the organisation, how leaders, local managers and colleagues cope, the aftermath with the immediate and longer term impact, the sadness, the anger, blame and disbelief.  Some people never being the same again, there is no standard or guide for coping in this situation.  And, from experience, coming back from this and helping the organisation never forget and become stronger as a result. It is something that we all hope never ever happens and it is natural to think, it won’t happen here.

And the stuff you can do to lead an organisation to reduce the safety risk: notwithstanding having the right, dynamic and strong safety leaders working at pace, with a culture where everyone recognises that safety is the most important element, safety reps being part of the solution, and senior leaders fully engaged with, and being seen, to be very serious about making the environment a safer place.  Zero tolerance and consequence effectively used with company policy’s and process to supports this.  And of course; collecting the right granular data, turning it into quality information that enables drill down to focus in the right areas;  this can move a reactive, poorly performing organisation into an evolving safer organisation that contributes to that refined holistic culture.

A wealth of experience to draw upon, from small dynamic teams in military operational environments, day to day senior operational leadership of teams undertaking routine maintenance and incident response in a safety critical environment to senior leadership of large and complex safety critical organisations.  All needing strong leadership, effective communication, business and organisation development, proactive business planning, decisive and strong decision making.