Who influenced me to become a Risk and Safety Manager?

Who influenced me to become a Risk and Safety Manager?

Children have curious minds; accordingly, my young mind was no different at picking things up, learning about Forest Safety from the cartoon character Smokey Bear on TV. Developed in America during the 1940s to assist in park management for the US Forest Services with his catch cry "Only You Can Prevent Forest Fires." As that child back then, I probably thought one day I'm going to grow up to be just like Smokey Bear. It got my attention and was not all I had learnt as a young person on risk and safety management. Learning as if through a process of osmoses, our community's admiration for Paul "Red" Adair the American Oil Rig fire expert, who is attributed to the containing of a disastrous gas leak in the Bass Straight oil field in 1968 and was celebrated for many years by Australians after that. The avenue of risk and safety learnings continued for me with the school excursion as a 6-year-old to the Police Road Safety Training Centre. There was also cubs and scouts learning about bush safety from Arkela, gaining a Bronze Medallion as a Surf Life Saver, only made possible by dedicated subject matter experts or the trainers of an assessable competency.

There are so many influences in the lead up to my entry into a career in risk management. That it is worth pointing out a few of them before looking at the professional influences, when I was at high school and believing a military career could be appropriate, I registered with the Australian Defence Force Cadets. Once a year we would go on an annual camp to the ADF base found at Singleton NSW. There was a lot of risk and safety lessons received when we were on bivouac, and there were many safety rules relating to all areas of our operation and the Regular army's activity on the base. There was gun safety on the range, bushcraft safety in the field, vehicle transportation safety for manoeuvres, etc. The safety rules from the induction Sergeant, on our base access induction, are still in my head today. One of those always fondly remembered is on personal knives and given we were heading into the bush for a weeklong exercise in military field competencies, it is a reasonable expectation, that we teenagers were all carrying knives. In previous years each cadet was issued with an Enfield 303 rifle and blank rounds, not in my year. The lesson or rule was this, "Knives are only to appear when used for a job. Once they have finished the job, they are put away, immediately! Do you understand?" The directness of his language to the group was compelling. Given the timidness in our early teenage response, and our Sergeant of the Regular Army not satisfied or accepting of our juvenile insecurities, repeated in an even louder and more powerful voice that shook us to the core, "DO YOU UNDERSTAND?" On this occasion, we all responded with greater enthusiasm to his satisfaction.

"Yes, Sergeant!"

There is no doubt in my mind that the most significant influence on my career has come through the Roben's Committee, the United Kingdom in 1972. It was their recommendations that led to the replacement of prescriptive legislation with a performance-based tripartite system, reliant on self-regulation, which is what we have today with the WHS Act, WHS Regulations, and Codes of Practice.

A second significant influence on my professional life has come from being trained and given an understanding of what is described for us as risk management, through ISO 31000 Risk Management with its' 5 elements framework of 1. Policy and Governance, 2. Program Design, 3. Implementation, 4. Monitoring and Review, and 5. Continual Improvement. Enabling or mirroring of the plan do check act management cycle typical to all management systems today.

The other significant influences in my life are the Australian and State Governments and their many dedicated employees. We have in my belief the most outstanding Regulatory Bodies in Safe Work Australia and all the other associated inter-jurisdictional authorities and executors empowered with authority held within their association to Part 8 of the WHS Acts, The Regulator.

During the time that I have worked as a risk and Safety Professional over the past several decades, I have made many friends and been part of a dedicated, tireless, group of working professionals. Many of those individuals have had profound effects on me, as role models, coaches and mentors or friends. As demonstrated through their ethical behaviours and leadership capabilities, much like the Safety Sergeant on cadet camp, my colleagues have left me with relevant and vital messages of wisdom that I have gladly received. It is my understanding that I have learnt well, and I am considered one with them. It is also my belief that I am a better risk and Safety Professional today for the several influences mentioned. Simply an older generation did care, and legislators were able to write legislation for a future, a Government has been in place that is prepared to make a massive investment in Risk and Workplace Safety and provide access to affordable education of the highest standards. There have been many brilliant teachers, trainers, educators, facilitators and colleagues assisting me in the direction of being an absolute risk and Safety Professional.

All of which has influenced the successful development of my career over a lifetime of persistence.

I am now able to offer you a solution to your risk exposures with our superior professional services, contracted resources, training and business discipline development.