In March this year a new Institute was launched to drive progress in safety leadership, and next month it will hold its first event in London.
Owned and operated by the France-based executive club CEDEP, the International Institute of Leadership & Safety Culture (IILSC) was created for those with a leading role to play in keeping people safe and healthy at work. The Institute wants to draw together safety professionals, senior executives, managers and academics to drive progress in global safety. On 3-4 December, IILSC will hold its inaugural EHS Congress London at the capital’s ExCel London.
IILSC Chief Executive Officer and EHS Congress Chair, Andrew Sharman, overseeing a panel debate at in Berlin
Co-located with Anticipate, the two-day event will be a blend of keynote speeches and panel discussions. Among the sectors represented will be energy, manufacturing, construction, aviation, agriculture and universities.
The EHS Congress London programme is designed, says the Institute, to deliver high quality, relevant safety advice and information on a range of topics across the field of safety and health at work. Leadership and culture are strong themes throughout.
Visible, felt safety leadership
On Day 1, Dee Arp, Chief Quality Officer at NEBOSH, will address the question of visible, felt safety leadership. Attendees will learn about why it matters now, more than ever before.
With 70% of culture change programmes failing, we must explore how an organisational culture changes, says Gill Kernick, author of Catastrophe and Systemic Change, and James Pomeroy, Global Health and Safety Leader at Arup. Kernick and Pomeroy will challenge the existing approach to culture change. They will suggest a different approach, prompting enquiring, reflection and debate.
A panel discussion will build on the sessions on the morning of Day 1 to explore the crucial intersection of safety leadership and culture.
Paul Davison, CEO and Founder of PPWD, will provide the stepping stones to link the boardroom to the frontline, to link ‘work-as-imagined’ to ‘work-as-done’.
‘Leaders often find themselves navigating a labyrinth of bureaucratic systems and rigid metrics,’ says David Bryson, former COO at Uniper. ‘Yet, a transformative potential emerges when leaders pivot, setting the stage for a culture deeply rooted in learning.’ Bryson will look at leadership beyond bureaucracy at the event.
Transforming health and safety culture through curiosity is the theme of a session by Richard Holland, Chief Risk and Assurance Officer, Northern Europe, Veolia. Dr Leandro Herrero, Chief Organisational Architect, The Chalfont Project, will give insights into a groundbreaking methodology for a peer-to-peer culture of safety.
NEBOSH’s Dee Arp
Getting to the heart of your workplace culture starts with understanding the small things, says Hugo Metcalfe, Co-Founder and Chief Psychologist, The Happy Mind Tribe. Metcalfe will focus on how to develop a systemic wellbeing approach.
Richard Brookes, Group Head of Health and Safety, South Staffordshire Plc, will explore the nuances of integrating human and organisational performance (HOP) and new view principles into a business. An exploration of how large, global corporations can drive substantial change in safety and health practices will be led by NBC Universal’s Global EHS Director, Sophia Kallianiotis.
AI to wellbeing
The EHS Congress London programme combines these insights on leadership and culture topics with other key aspects of safety and health in modern workplaces. Other sessions will cover the use of artificial intelligence and data, mental health initiatives with employees, mental resilience, balancing operational safety and environmental sustainability, psychological safety, key trends in global health and safety, the business of wellbeing and what measurements can be used for wellbeing strategies.
IILSC Chief Executive Officer and EHS Congress London Chair Dr Andrew Sharman said: “Now is the time for the safety profession to make its mark at the highest levels of organisations. Our focus at the Institute is on developing high impact leadership in safety because we understand its central importance to how organisations embrace change and thrive. EHS Congress London will be an excellent platform for high level debate on the pressing issues in safety, and it’s a platform we are determined to build on in 2025.”
To register for EHS Congress London, https://iilsc.com/ehs-congress/london-2024/
Approaches to managing the risks associated Musculoskeletal disorders
In this episode of the Safety & Health Podcast, we hear from Matt Birtles, Principal Ergonomics Consultant at HSE’s Science and Research Centre, about the different approaches to managing the risks associated with Musculoskeletal disorders.
Matt, an ergonomics and human factors expert, shares his thoughts on why MSDs are important, the various prevalent rates across the UK, what you can do within your own organisation and the Risk Management process surrounding MSD’s.
