Skip to main content
IOSH Magazine: Safety, Health and Wellbeing in the world of work - return to the homepage IOSH Magaazine logo
  • Visit IOSH Magazine on Facebook
  • Visit @ioshmagazine on Twitter
  • Visit IOSH Magazine on LinkedIn
10 health and safety policy mistakes to avoid
The dangers of forestry
May/June edition of IOSH magazine

Main navigation

  • Home
    • Browse previous issues
  • Health
    • Mental health and wellbeing
      • Bullying
      • Drugs and alcohol
      • Mental health
      • Stress
      • Wellbeing
    • Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs)
      • Ergonomics
      • Manual handling
      • Vibration
    • Occupational cancer
      • Asbestos
      • Hazardous substances
      • Radiation
  • Safety
    • Incident management
      • Chemicals
      • Electricity
      • Fire
      • First aid
      • Slips and trips
    • Non-health related fatalities
      • Road safety
      • Work at height
    • Risk management
      • Confined spaces
      • Disability
      • Legionella
      • Lifting operations
      • Lone workers
      • Noise
      • Personal protective equipment
      • Violence at work
      • Work equipment
      • Workplace transport
  • Management
    • Human factors
      • Accident reduction
      • Control of contractors
      • Migrant workers
      • Older workers
      • Reporting
      • Safe systems of work
      • Sickness absence
      • Young workers
    • Leadership and management
      • Employee involvement
      • Management systems
    • Management standards
      • ISO 45001
      • ISO 45003
    • Planning
      • Assurance
      • Compliance
      • Emergency planning
      • Insurance
    • Rehabilitation
      • Personal injury
      • Return to work
    • Strategy
      • Corporate governance
      • Performance/results
      • Regulation/enforcement
      • Reputation
    • Sustainability
      • Human capital and Vision Zero
  • Skills
    • Communication
    • Personal performance
      • Achieving Fellowship
      • Career development
      • Competencies
      • Personal development
      • Professional skills
      • Qualifications
    • Stakeholder management
    • Working with others
      • Leadership
      • Future Leaders
  • Jobs
  • Covid-19
  • Knowledge Bank
    • Back to basics
    • Book club
    • Infographics
    • Podcast
    • Reports
    • Webinars
    • Videos
  • Products & Services
  • Management
    • Human factors
      • Sickness absence
      • Accident reduction
      • Control of contractors
      • Migrant workers
      • Older workers
      • Reporting
      • Safe systems of work
      • Young workers
    • Leadership and management
      • Employee involvement
      • Leadership
      • Management systems
    • Management standards
      • ISO 45001
      • ISO 45003
    • Planning
      • Assurance
      • Compliance
      • Emergency planning
      • Insurance
    • Strategy
      • Corporate governance
      • Performance/results
      • Regulation/enforcement
      • Reputation
    • Sustainability
      • Human capital and Vision Zero
  • Health
    • COVID-19
    • Mental health and wellbeing
      • Bullying
      • Drugs and alcohol
      • Mental health
      • Stress
      • Wellbeing
    • Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs)
      • Ergonomics
      • Manual handling
      • Vibration
    • Occupational cancer
      • Asbestos
      • Hazardous substances
      • Radiation
  • Safety
    • Incident management
      • Chemicals
      • Electricity
      • Fire
      • First aid
      • Slips and trips
    • Non-health related fatalities
      • Road safety
      • Work at height
    • Risk management
      • Confined spaces
      • Disability
      • Legionella
      • Lifting operations
      • Lone workers
      • Noise
      • Personal protective equipment
      • Violence at work
      • Work equipment
      • Workplace transport
  • Skills
    • Communication
    • Personal performance
      • Career development
      • Competencies
      • Personal development
      • Qualifications
      • Professional skills
      • Achieving Fellowship
    • Stakeholder management
    • Working with others
      • Leadership
      • Future Leaders
  • Transport and logistics
  • Third sector
  • Retail
  • Mining and quarrying
  • Rail
  • Rehabilitation
    • Personal injury
    • Return to work
  • Utilities
  • Manufacturing and engineering
  • Construction
  • Sector: IOSH Branch
    • Sector: Northern Ireland
    • Sector: Midland
    • Sector: Merseyside
    • Sector: Manchester and North West Districts
    • Sector: Ireland East
    • Sector: Ireland
    • Sector: Edinburgh
    • Sector: Desmond-South Munster
    • Sector: Qatar
    • Sector: Oman
    • Singapore
    • Sector: South Coast
    • Sector: South Wales
    • Sector: Thames Valley
    • Sector: Tyne and Wear
    • Sector: UAE
    • Sector: West of Scotland
    • Sector: Yorkshire
  • Healthcare
  • Sector: Fire
  • Sector: Financial/general services
  • Sector: Energy
  • Education
  • Sector: Communications and media
  • Chemicals
  • Sector: Central government
  • Catering and leisure
  • Agriculture and forestry
  • Sector: Local government
  • Sector: IOSH Group
    • Sector: Financial Services
    • Sector: Sports Grounds and Events
    • Rural industries
    • Sector: railway
    • Public Services
    • Sector: Offshore
    • Sector: Hazardous Industries
    • Sector: Food and Drink
    • Sector: Fire Risk Management
    • Education
    • Construction
    • Sector: Aviation and Aerospace
Quick links:
  • Home
  • Categories
  • Opinion

A wake-up call

Open-access content Tuesday 19th May 2020
Authors
Muriel Barnier
Muriel Barnier
Muriel Barnier, founder of Lime Core and programme director, SPE CEDEP Safety Leadership Academy

 

How the COVID-19 pandemic can help force systemic change in HSE.

When my husband and I lost almost everything in one night during Hurricane Harvey in the US, we took a hard look at our life and made a conscious decision to learn from it. One thing is for sure – that horrible event turned out to be a much needed wake-up call for us.

What the world is experiencing with the COVID-19 pandemic is also a time where big decisions could change things forever.

Turning points

As we now understand, we have no choice but to embrace uncertainty for the future. Everywhere I am sensing the same feeling I had after the hurricane: people hoping that this disaster will help us learn and change for the best. It is up to each of us to decide if we want to truly learn from it.

I hope this pandemic will help organisations move away from a blame culture, where failure is unforgivable, to a culture of psychological safety that is so desperately needed to shift the paradigm in health, safety and environment (HSE).

To learn and change for the best, leaders from national and international companies need a safe space to get together and define the future of safety culture by having non-hierarchical cutting-edge conversations.

'Leaders need a safe space to get together and define the future of safety culture with non-hierarchical conversations'

It was this open-mindedness, this willingness to meet managers and use their reality as a departure point for transformational learning that first brought CEDEP to the attention of the Society of Petroleum Engineers’ (SPE) HSE discipline. It was looking for an executive learning partner to build a programme with, a programme that would bring the seven recommendations of its ‘Getting to Zero’ technical report to life. The fit was almost too good to be true and the journey began.

Today, CEDEP offers two programmes in HSE leadership and culture:     

  • A programme designed specifically for the oil and gas industry: the SPE, in partnership with CEDEP, has been working for 18 months, involving many experts and leaders along the way, to develop a Safety Leadership Academy that offers its first course at the end of September 2020.     
  • The well-established and well-recognised CEDEP Leadership & Safety Culture programme serving other industries.

There is no sugarcoating in these programmes. It’s not a place where they teach or train managers to be good safety leaders, because this is nonsense in itself. Rather, it’s an in-depth experience where the learners do the learning, with the support of outstanding coaches and world-class experts, from a variety of fields such as human factors and Safety II, leadership in a VUCA world, sociology of organisations or HSE performance transformation.

A key part of these programmes is the learning community that is sustained following the residential programme. Both CEDEP and the SPE are organisations that foster community and a belief that this strength will help ensure learning is continuous and feeds back directly into the collective experience that establishes culture.

In such a disruptive time, we have more learning opportunities every day, but we will miss most of them if we do not truly listen, not just to what validates our assumptions.

Even if we don’t see what we can learn from this now, when the time comes to gather and reflect together, there may be pieces of a puzzle that will help us define a common vision and use this challenging time to change the way we manage HSE forever.

ABOUT SPE

The Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) is a global not-for-profit association which provides a professional home for 154,000 members of seven technical disciplines, including HSE and sustainability. spe.org

Safety Leadership Academy: [email protected]

ABOUT CEDEP

CEDEP is an exclusive, executive education club, created and co-run by its member organisations, where minds meet, grow and succeed together. Find out more at cedep.fr or contact [email protected]

Topics:
Opinion

You might also like...

Share
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Linked in
  • Mail
  • Print

Latest Jobs

DSE Assessor

Coventry
£36000.00 - £40000.00 per annum
Reference
5449758

HSEQ Manager - Relocation Package Available

Fort William
Competitive Salary + Package
Reference
5449757

Health & Safety Officer

England, London
£35000.00 - £45000.00 per annum
Reference
5449756
See all jobs »

Today's top reads

Sign up for regular e-alerts

Receive the latest news and features, free to your inbox

Sign up

Subscribe to IOSH magazine

Receive the print edition straight to your door

Subscribe
IOSH Covers
​
FOLLOW US
Twitter
LinkedIn
YouTube
CONTACT US
Contact us
Tel +44 (0)20 7880 6200
​

IOSH

About IOSH
Become a member
IOSH Events
MyIOSH

Information

Privacy Policy
Terms & Conditions
Cookie Policy

Get in touch

Contact us
Advertise with us
Subscribe to IOSH magazine
Write for IOSH magazine

IOSH Magazine

Health
Safety
Management
Skills
IOSH Jobs

Copyright © 2021 IOSH. IOSH is not responsible for the content of external sites.