Today we understand that moderate walking lowers cholesterol and blood pressure whilst reducing the risk of obesity, stress, diabetes, vascular stiffness, inflammation, colon cancer, dementia, depression and even erectile dysfunction.

One of the areas of ongoing self-development and challenge for any profession, especially the health and safety profession, is communication. Whenever I ask a group what they believe are the essential skills of an effective leader, communication is generally on the top of the list.

Have you put some time aside to reflect on 2017 and make some plans for 2018? How are you going to develop yourself this year? In what area? How are you going to challenge yourself? You may be asking “What’s the point of self-challenging, why do this?”

Article by L.Michael Hall, Ph.D. Neuro-Semantics Executive Director Neuro-Semantics International
I have studied with L. Michael Hall and found this article on persuasion gave real insight into a large part of our role in WHS, that of persuasion.

As WHS practitioners we are leaders. We lead individuals toward a personal understanding of WHS, organisations towards WHS best practice, industries to embrace WHS and finally whole countries toward no injury. Each time someone will listen we lead them to understanding.

In May, the SIA are hosting a one day workshop on communication excellence which I will be facilitating. The day will be highly interactive and allow those who come along to create strategies to minimise conflict and maximise their capacity to influence. Jump on the SIA website or contact them to obtain the details.

As a leader of safety sensory acuity is essential for training our ability to see and listen more effectively and consciously in reading non-verbal communications. Sensory acuity refers to the ability to notice, monitor, and make sense of the external cues we receive from the people we are interacting with.

Continuing on the communication theme here is a framework for the levels of listening we can employ when engaging with people in our daily lives. As you read through these it might be helpful to think about the interactions you have had over the past few days and recognise which level you tend to utilise the most.

When we are in the process of inviting people to get involved in safety sometimes it seems like we are speaking a completely different language – and the truth is……we are!

In communicating our ideas, thoughts and preferences to another and receiving theirs, the messages are always filtered and contaminated by our models of the world, the way we play our movies in our head

As a leader, how do you keep inspired? Here is a collection of famous quotes. We hope these inspire you too ……

This is a timely reminder that the professional world is just as small. As the Buddha said ‘You never who your mother was in a past life’. Over the course of our professional life you will never know when you might meet someone again and in what circumstance.

As we all rush around in life, we can experience more and more requests or even demands to do things and get stuff done. This is as true in our personal space as much as it is in our professional lives. Often we want or need the agreement or co-operation from those around us, be it our life partner, children or work colleagues to get these things done.

A safe and healthy workplace is good for your business. “The costs of health and safety failure, in the vast majority of cases, will far outweigh those of prevention.” Management need to observe safety as a value in the workplace as opposed to simply a compliance requirement.

Psychological injury is rapidly becoming an injury category of increasing presence and relevance in Australia as our awareness and the norms of acceptance, change. The impact of psychological injury is significant because there is typically delayed recovery with a slow return to work thereby increasing claim liabilities and the resulting premium pressures.

One of the biggest challenges in the workplace can be change. Change is inevitable given the impact of political and economic conditions combined with fluctuations in consumer demand. Therefore it is imperative that managers understand how to engage their team in the process of change.

Those who know us well know that we often talk about the 5C journey as a method of describing the pathway toward a culture of risk or safety maturity.

The recent heatwave experienced during the first week of the Australian Tennis Open tournament has provided a window of reflection into leadership, cultural memes and of course, risk management. It has been interesting, watching from afar, how the leadership dealt with the unprecedented heatwave conditions, how they were driven by their own cultural memes and how ultimately, they made a series of risk denial decisions and only corrected their actions very late, after player and public outcry.

Strive to focus on the present
When you drove to work today, did you take the same route and park in the same spot even though there were lots of other spaces available? Is it the feeling of certainty or familiarity, does it give you comfort to know you are in control of your actions?

Tips to help you create a strong risk and safety culture. Everybody wants a strong culture in their organisation when it comes to risk and safety management. There are seven main tips all organisations should consider when addressing culture change.

Hippocrates wrote, walking is man’s best medicine more than two and a half millennia ago yet we are still coming to terms with the practicalities of its meaning in the 21st century. Today we understand that moderate walking lowers cholesterol and blood pressure whilst reducing the risk of obesity, stress, diabetes, vascular stiffness, inflammation, colon cancer, dementia, depression and even erectile dysfunction.