Time to be Frank: Leaving Limiting Beliefs Behind

Those of you who attended Day Two of the IOSH Conference 2019, had the privilege to hear from BBC Correspondent, Frank Gardener, OBE. For those who couldn’t attend, there is a cracking little recap video from IOSH, which I’d recommend viewing. For anyone who couldn’t attend for financial reasons. I urge you to investigate IOSH’s Benevolent Fund, which may provide a mechanism to enable you to attend future events.

Frank’s keynote speech made a real impact. He spoke eloquently and authentically, with humour and conviction, as he recounted the events of 2004. If you are not familiar with his story, on 6 June 2004, while reporting from Al-Suwaidi, a district of Riyadh, in Saudi Arabia, Frank was shot six times and seriously injured. Tragically, Simon Cumbers, his cameraman and close friend was shot dead.

As a result of the shooting, Frank was left partially paralysed in the legs and since then has used a wheelchair. After 14 surgical operations, seven months in hospital and months of rehabilitation, he returned to reporting for the BBC.

Rather than recount the story here, as I wouldn’t do it justice and given that Frank has expertly penned his story, in his memoir: Blood & Sand, I want to focus on two points of reflection I’ve had since his presentation.

The first being, limiting beliefs. Frank spoke with candour about the psychological impact of the shooting and his rehabilitation. He recounted how he was struck with a list of things he’d never be able to do again and the impact of the following statement his psychologist delivered. He said “Forget about what you won’t be able to do again Frank. You have done all of those things and they cannot be taken away from you. You have to focus now, on those things you can still do.” This has led to Frank continuing to ski and scuba dive, with some modifications.

This resonated with me on a personal level. Having been diagnosed with Dyslexia at the end of my first year at University and discovering my reading age was some four years junior to my actual age. I now realise that for several years, probably more like a decade, I held the limiting belief that I wasn’t a strong reader and therefore avoided self-development through reading. Thankfully, I have thrown off these shackles and now commit to reading daily as part of my morning routine. Whilst far less dramatic and scarcely comparable, the detriment of holding on to limiting beliefs, is one I strongly believe we must all reflect on, if we want to become the best OSH practitioners we can be.

The second reflection point is Frank’s intolerance of the word ‘Policy’. Frank gave several examples where he had suffered discrimination, that hid behind policy. Travel was a leading culprit of his irk, in particular airports and travel operators. Frank referenced incidents at Heathrow, Gatwick, and with Air Kenya. There were numerous mutterings of acknowledgement in the crowd at this point, as many of the OSH professionals gathered, related to the frustration of policy being used as an excuse for poor operations.

These reflections lead me to pose two questions for the profession:

1: What are our limiting beliefs in OSH, that we need to leave behind to enhance the profession?

2: What policies within our own organisations should we challenge or remove to ensure we are enhancing inclusivity and avoiding discrimination?

As always, I’m keen to hear from you in the comments, to share our stories and learn from each other.