Karl Simons of Thames Water has a whopping team 65 health & safety professionals accompanying him to Safety & Health Expo this year. Karl, who is Head of Health, Safety, Security and Wellbeing at the organisation, spoke to SHP ahead of the event, taking place 20th – 22nd June, to tell us what innovations his team will be looking out for.
SHP: Embracing technology is something you’ve become known for, having introduced drones into your health & safety operations (which SHP wrote about here). Is there any specific technology or products that you’ll be looking out for at Safety & Health Expo?
KS (Karl Simons): With the exciting evolution in the tech world any organisation that is not taking advantage of utilising the latest cutting edge hard and software is missing out and will not adapt quickly enough to the changing climate of H&S. At Thames I am blessed to have a first class team of H&S professionals who are superb at identifying new technology and transforming it into tangible initiatives that demonstrate value that then become a transactional part of our business.
I must stress that not every idea works, but I say that’s fine and in doing this I am aware of creating a culture where taking a risk on piloting something new is not feared but embraced. This goes for the tabling of ideas also by my team as they shouldn’t feel something they may raise will be frowned upon.
At the Expo I will prompting all my team to walk the floor for a few hours and identifying the latest innovation we can use, they will then table this before leaving at the end of the day and we will then follow up on the top spots which we will then invite to present to us at our HQ.
SHP: When you ask your team to look for innovations, what are they looking for? How do you define innovation in health & safety?
KS: Innovation comes in many forms. This could be an idea, a product, a system, an initiative or even a speech given by someone during the conference. The important part is that everyone knows nothing is off the table and I want their own personal views as everyone in my team is equal when it comes to what they believe should be taken and implemented at Thames.
SHP: A huge team is coming with you to Safety & Health Expo – 65 health & safety professionals from Thames Water – how will they spend their time?
KS: We have the whole day and in the morning I will be presenting the ‘Business Performance Update’ to all, followed by a ‘Walk The Floor’ session seeing everyone go round the Expo, finishing with ‘Innovation Next Steps’ feedback exercise where each group will present their top three spots from what they have seen during the walk the floor exercise.
SHP: How will you spend your time at the event?
KS: With my sleeves rolled up joining my team getting stuck into the day’s activities and learning – I cant wait!
SHP: You’ve said that attending Safety & Health Expo will be an effective team-building away day. What else do you do throughout the year to encourage team building and engagement?
Karl Simons and the Thames Water health & safety team sporting Heads Together headbands before the London Marathon 2017. Note the tower in the background which also has the headband on!
KS: As much as I can! I see my team as my extended family given the amount of time we spend together at work and as such I know that inspirational leadership comes from regular engagement that builds trust and mutual dependency. Every quarter I like to set the scene by challenging the thinking of us all e.g. this past year we tackled Catastrophic Risk Management by all going to the national space centre and had a NASA Mission Controller come across from Houston to talk to us, benchmarking ourselves against NASA’s approach to managing significant risk. We ‘tackled’ Dynamic Risk Management involving us all getting our sports kit on and playing rugby with Rory Underwood and Katherine Marchant (yes excuse the pun there). We also reviewed Personal Risk Management where we brought in Sir Ranulph Fiennes to speak to us all on the challenges he faced and overcame, this was followed by a series of recreation exercises challenging the team but with a fun twist!
SHP: How would you describe your style of leadership?
KS: You’re better asking those who work for me on this one I think, but what I can tell you is that great leaders listen to the silent voice of the majority as well as the vocal voice of the minority…and to create a world class high performing team takes an environment that is fun to work in where people get up every morning and enjoy coming to work
SHP: Finally, what are Thames’ Waters main priorities in health & safety over the next year?
KS: Same as every year…to be the world’s leading Health & Safety organisation…
Hear more from Karl Simons in the Keynote Theatre on Tuesday 20th June
Karl Simons is also joining Safety & Health Expo‘s expert speaker line-up. He will moderate the panel discusison on ‘current trends, headlines and different approaches to safety culture’ on Tuesday 20th June at 10.30am. On the panel Karl will be joined by: John Green, HSE Director at Laing O’Rourke; Nick Bell, MD at Nick Bell Risk Consultancy; Ruth Gallagher, Safety Improvement Director at Heathrow; Paul Bizzell, Operations Director at RM OCAID; and Steve Hails, Director of Health, Safety and Wellbeing at Tideway. Register here.
The panel will discuss the present topical issues facing society and industry today. Including:
Register for the event and get free access to Karl Simon’s panel discussion here.
