Talking Safety: A User's Guide to World Class Safety Conversation

by Tim Marsh

Talking Safety summarises, in a short user-friendly read, the key element of safety leadership - the management and supervisor 'walk and talk'. Safety standards are set by a combination of three things: first, the basic systems: risk assessments, procedures, training, inductions and maintenance; second, the amount of objective learning about the inevitable weaknesses in these systems achieved from a ‘Just Culture’ perspective; and third, the quality of ‘transformational’ safety leadership which means coaching not telling, praising not criticising, leading by example and maximising front-line ownership and involvement.

A good ‘walk and talk’ is the only methodology that covers all of these issues and really should be embedded as ‘part of the way we do things around here’. It is the centrepiece of any world class safety culture.

154 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 1, 2011