Mikel Bowman, a consultant with extensive experience in the mining industry, emphasizes leading from the middle to enhance workplace safety. He discusses the importance of balancing data and relationships, advocating for a shift away from perfectionism. Bowman believes safety practitioners have the power to revolutionize workplace safety through integrity and compassion.

In this episode, Mary Conquest speaks with Angelina Badri, the founder of the Universal Safety Wellness consultancy. Her holistic approach and genuine care for people empower leaders and frontline workers to reduce incidents and achieve workplace safety excellence collaboratively.In this compassionate interview, Angelina describes how working with individuals can solve systemic safety issues, with connected conversations being the key to success.Unusually for a safety consultant, she focuses on frontline workers, and Angelina explains to safety professionals how they can improve workplace safety through meaningful, honest and respectful conversations.Using many real-life examples from her 15 years in safety, Angelina explores the importance of individual habits and motivation, communicating priorities and information, and celebrating the process as well as the outcome.She demonstrates the power of connected conversations and gives practical guidance on building these into your daily work lives. Angelina helps turn uncomfortable conversations into good conversations and reveals the best time to make these interventions.Her passion and care shine throughout this empowering episode as she urges safety professionals to maximize the power of storytelling. Angelina connects effortlessly with her audience and tells powerful stories throughout.Find out more about Angelina’s work:https://universalsafetywellness.com/The book recommended by Angelina:https://www.amazon.com/Good-Great-Some-Companies-Others/dp/0066620996Angelina Badri on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/angelina-badri-782a9520Safety Labs is created by Slice, the only safety knife on the market with a finger-friendly® blade. Find us at https://sliceinc.myshopify.com/If you have any questions, please email us at safetylabs@sliceproducts.com

In this episode, Mary Conquest speaks with coach, speaker and podcast host Andrew Barrett, the founder of Safety On Tap, a consultancy specializing in the development and growth of Health and Safety leaders.Andrew has created an evolving model of marketing for Health and Safety, and in this fascinating interview, he explains how this model works and what EHS professionals can learn from marketing to improve their effectiveness.He takes key marketing concepts - such as customers, products, services, matching needs, ensuring appropriate fit, transactions, feedback, consultation and engagement - and applies them to workplace safety.Andrew explores who safety professionals’ customers are and highlights the potential conflict between the needs of frontline workers and leadership. Regardless of everything that HSE practitioners are doing, a great starting point to develop a marketing approach to safety is asking: who are you trying to help, and what problems do they have?Getting feedback and consulting with internal customers is a great way to co-create safety initiatives that end-users will want to adopt - rather than have to adopt. Andrew shares great practical advice on the best ways of achieving these goals and ensuring that safety management products and services are a good fit.Andrew highlights the importance of validating the adoption and effectiveness of safety programs and gives top tips on how to do this efficiently. He also challenges HSE professionals to give more consideration to ongoing service and support post-implementation.A deeper understanding and engagement with humans and relationships underpin the entire model. This is a highly engaging discussion, and Andrew makes a great case to understand how marketing can help Health and Safety.Find out more about Andrew’s work by visiting:Professional development for health and safety leaders (safetyontap.com)Andrew’s Podcast, Safety on Tap:Episodes - Safety on TapMarketing experts recommended by Andrew:Dan Pink - https://www.danpink.com/Seth Godin - Seth's Site (sethgodin.com)Andrew Barrett on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-barrett-learning-coachSafety Labs is created by Slice, the only safety knife on the market with a finger-friendly® blade. Find us at www.sliceproducts.comIf you have any questions, please email us at safetylabs@sliceproducts.com

In this episode, Mary Conquest speaks with Amy Roosa, a senior risk control specialist at Gallagher. She has 18 years of safety experience and has founded the Iowa Women in Safety conference and The Safety Rack, an organization that advocates for proper PPE and workwear for women in trades.Amy is passionate about securing appropriate PPE for women in the workplace and begins by uncovering the underlying reasons behind this issue. She gives some all-to-common real-life examples of ill-fitting equipment and workwear for women and highlights how this impacts individuals, safety managers and entire organizations.Unfortunately, women may be less likely to highlight these issues, and Amy explores why this is the case and what safety managers can do to ensure women have access to what they need on-site.Amy demonstrates how inappropriate PPE can damage women’s psychological safety at work and impact organizations’ retention of female talent.However, she is pleased with the progress being made and shares encouraging stories of women starting their own PPE manufacturing companies and explains what male co-workers can do to help.…And don’t miss the colorful discussion about pink PPE!Find out more about The Safety Rack on YouTube:The Safety Rack - YouTubeAnd Instagram:The Safety Rack (@thesafetyrack) • Instagram photos and videosWhere Amy tests and reviews women's PPE clothing.Amy Roosa on LinkedIn:Amy Roosa | LinkedInSafety Labs is created by Slice, the only safety knife on the market with a finger-friendly® blade. Find us at www.sliceproducts.comIf you have any questions, please email us at safetylabs@sliceproducts.com

In this episode, Mary Conquest speaks with Amanda Clements, Group HSE manager for strategy and wellbeing at Marowak. She’s also the founder and CEO of The Collective Lab, a digital community focused on creating the future of workplace safety. Amanda has 18 years experience in Health and Safety roles for high-risk industries and holds a Master’s in Safety Leadership.Amanda explains that workplace safety is relatively “immature” when compared to other professions, such as accountancy. She immediately identifies a greater focus on qualifications and non-technical skills as opportunities to develop the industry.She also highlights gaps, such as a lack of holistic learning and connectivity between safety professionals. Her research uncovered that HSE practitioners feel isolated and undervalued, and Amanda provides evidence-based solutions to these global issues.Collaboration is key, and Amanda explains how connecting HSE with ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance opportunities and risks) can advance organizational performance and employee wellbeing.Amanda is adamant that safety professionals should offer much more value than just minimizing harm, and she advocates listening and inquiry as essential skills, enabling HSE practitioners to advance the profession.Find out more about Amanda’s work by visiting:Amanda Clements – Helping great teams do extraordinary thingsAmanda highlighted - Range: How Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World by David Epsteinhttps://www.amazon.com/Range-Generalists-Triumph-Specialized-World/dp/0735214506She also recommended the Organizational Psychologist and bestselling author Adam Grant:Adam Grant – Books, Podcast, TED Talks, Newsletter, ArticlesAmanda Clements on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/creating-thriving-workplacesSafety Labs is created by Slice, the only safety knife on the market with a finger-friendly® blade. Find us at www.sliceproducts.comIf you have any questions, please email us at safetylabs@sliceproducts.com

Clifford Morgan, an organizational psychologist and leadership expert, discusses the power of coaching in safety leadership. He explains the difference between directing, coaching, and mentoring and highlights the two primary leadership responsibilities. Clifford shares multiple ways EHS professionals can use coaching to influence others in the workplace and emphasizes the challenges facing safety leaders. He also explores the importance of setting clear goals and the value of effective communication for safety professionals.

Mary Ann Baynton, the 'godmother of psychological health and safety', shares practical strategies for safety professionals to manage psychosocial risks in the workplace. She discusses the National Standard for Psychological Health and Safety, organizational culture, work-life balance, workplace civility, and building trust among other key factors. Mary emphasizes the importance of leadership support in implementing these strategies for a mentally healthy work environment.

In this episode, Mary Conquest speaks with Clive Lloyd, a psychologist specialising in safety leadership and culture development and founder of GYST Consulting. He was recently named among the top five global thought leaders and influencers on health and safety and is the author of Next Generation Safety Leadership: from compliance to care.Clive believes that trust is the most important factor in workplace safety and explains the three core skills HSE professionals must demonstrate to create trust and sustain trust.Should trust and similar relationship-building attributes be described as “soft skills”? Clive argues they are essential leadership qualities and actually rather hard to master.Clive shares his revised model of safety culture maturity. EHS professionals will learn the 5 different levels and how organizations can move from compliance to care by increasing trust, psychological safety and the flow of authentic information.He explains how safety is shifting away from traditional command and control approaches and demonstrates how Behavioral Based Safety and goals such as Zero harm have damaging unintended consequences.The central problem with these strategies is they lack trust. Clive shares practical guidance on building this quality, highlighting the power of asking questions and actively listening. This interview is well worth a listen!Clive’s consultancy that's dedicated to creating trust and psychological safety:Welcome to GYST ConsultingClive’s best-selling book:Next Generation Safety Leadership: From Compliance to Care: Lloyd, Clive: 9780367509538: Amazon.com: BooksOther books recommended by Clive:Sam Goodman’s 10 Ideas to Make Safety Suck Lesshttps://www.amazon.com/Ideas-Make-Safety-Suck-Less/dp/B0BM55LMSFTodd Conklin’s The 5 Principles of Human Performance https://www.amazon.com/Principles-Human-Performance-contemporary-updateof/dp/1794639144And Pre-Accident Investigationshttps://www.amazon.com/Pre-Accident-Investigations-Todd-Conklin/dp/1409447820Paper Safe by Greg Smithhttps://www.amazon.com/Paper-Safe-triumph-bureaucracy-management-ebook/dp/B07HVRZY8CThe Fearless Organization by Amy Edmondson:https://www.amazon.com/Fearless-Organization-Psychological-Workplace-Innovation/dp/1119477247Clive Lloyd on LinkedIn:Clive Lloyd | LinkedInSafety Labs is created by Slice, the only safety knife on the market with a finger-friendly® blade. Find us at www.sliceproducts.comIf you have any questions, please email us at safetylabs@sliceproducts.com

In this episode, Mary Conquest speaks with Gareth Lock, the owner of The Human Diver, an organization that improves the safety and performance of divers through an understanding of human error. Gareth’s safety career spans over 20 years, and he uses his experience in managing high-risk operations to help HSE professionals improve workplace safety.After sharing his fascinating journey from flying in the sky to diving underwater, Gareth explains why attributing accidents to human error actually hinders learning. He also recommends managing uncertainty rather than risk (numerical probabilities that can’t account for human reliability) and gives practical guidance on how to make this shift.A key focus of this fascinating interview is the importance of safety pre-briefs, debriefs and validating plans through training: “It’s much better to sort problems on the surface before you go into water”.Gareth introduces the concept of inclusive ‘learning reviews’ that uncover a safety event’s rich context and ‘second stories’. They help EHS professionals move past the immediate cause and blame to understand and address the complex combination of converging factors.An underlying theme to Gareth’s interview is the need for organizations to shift from a blame culture to a ‘just culture’ - where the workforce feels psychologically safe to speak out, and leadership recognizes that human error is inevitable.Gareth is as passionate about safety as he is about diving, and his insight applies to any environment where people are involved. Find out more about Gareth’s company, The Human Diver:https://www.thehumandiver.com/The Human Diver’s YouTube channel with over 30 video resources:The Human Diver - YouTubeWatch “If Only”, Gareth’s documentary about a tragic and avoidable diving accident:If Only... (thehumandiver.com)Gareth Lock on LinkedIn:Gareth Lock | LinkedInSafety Labs is created by Slice, the only safety knife on the market with a finger-friendly® blade. Find us at www.sliceproducts.comIf you have any questions, please email us at safetylabs@sliceproducts.com

In this episode, Mary Conquest speaks with experienced Safety Director Stephanie Benay, one of Canada’s foremost HSE experts and current Governor of the Board of Canadian Registered Safety Professionals.Stephanie reflects on her 25-year journey as a female safety professional. She describes what the safety world was like for women a quarter of a century ago and explores how the workplace safety environment has changed over the last few decades.Despite improvements over time, gender inequality persists within the safety industry, and Stephanie reveals where, how and why these barriers for women are still prevalent.In this raw interview, Stephanie doesn’t shy away from discussing uncomfortable truths such as female harassment in the workplace. However, her rise to senior leadership is an uplifting story that will inspire safety professionals across all demographics.Stepanie also shares fantastic safety leadership tips and stresses the importance of change management skills and developing financial acumen. She urges HSE professionals to believe in yourself, have courageous conversations and, most importantly: be curious.The American Society Of Safety Professionals 2019 report entitled Women and Safety in the modern workplace:Assp_women_and_safety_report_0419.pdfThe 3 books recommended by Stepanie:An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth by Chris Hadfield:An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth: Amazon.com: Chris Hadfield: 9781447257103: BooksHow Women Rise by Sally Helgesen and Marshall Goldsmith:https://www.amazon.com/How-Women-Rise-Habits-Holding/dp/1847942253Bent Out of Shape by Karen Messing:https://www.amazon.com/Bent-Out-Shape-Solidarity-Womens/dp/1771135417Women in Occupational Health and Safety Society’s website:WOHSS – Women in Occupational Health & Safety SocietyStephanie Benay on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephbenaySafety Labs is created by Slice, the only safety knife on the market with a finger-friendly® blade. Find us at www.sliceproducts.comIf you have any questions, please email us at safetylabs@sliceproducts.com