This year I Unsubscribed to dozens of safety newsletters (See Isn’t Safety Supposed to be a Positive Thing). Every time I opened these newsletters I was confronted by fines & punishments, legislative updates, death & injury, PPE and the latest snake oil – I was learning absolutely nothing from this and it just made me start the day with the thought: “What the hell am I doing in this industry?”. Anyway, there are some Safety and Risk People out there making a positive difference and after you enjoy this newsletter you will see why it is a definite keeper for me .
Dolphyn Newsletter
Welcome
Welcome to Dolphyn’s latest E-Newsletter.
In this edition we reflect on 2014 by sharing stories of what we’ve been up to, outline some of our programs, launch our first competition and celebrate some of the fun times and learning we have had this year.
We hope you enjoy the read, and as usual, we look forward to your feedback.
What have we been up to?
The last quarter of 2014 has been a busy time at Dolphyn. We have been excited to work with great organisations on some wonderful projects.
Here are a few of the highlights:
- Conversation Corner – we supported the team at Harris Farm Markets during their Employee Conference. We were asked to think of a way to promote safety to their team and came up with the idea of a Conversation Corner. Rob Sams and James Ellis attended the conference on all four days making coffee for the team and engaging in some great conversations. You can read more about it here. If you think this idea could work in your organisation, contact the team at Dolphyn to talk about how we could make this work for you
- Culture Reviews – we were engaged by a large industrial manufacturer with sites across Australia and NZ to work them during their Risk Resilience Reviews and provide a report and commentary on culture. You can learn more about Dolphyn’s work around culture at Dolphyn Communication Programs
- Culture Survey – while on the theme of culture, we were approached by a large tertiary education provider to conduct a culture survey in their organisation. Not content with the basic tools to measure culture that are provided by the Regulator, nor an ‘off-the-shelf’ product, the organisation asked Dolphyn to custom design a survey to suit their organisation. The participation rate was over 80% and the results were well received.
Inaugural Psychology of Risk Conference
Sydney March 2014
Set this one in your diary!
There has been nothing like this conference before. ACU, Human Dymensions and the Centre for Leadership and Learning in Risk are sponsoring the first Psychology of Risk Conference in Australia. The conference will be held at The Australian Catholic University in North Sydney on 25, 26 March 2015.
This conference has no regulators, no lawyers, no bureaucrats, and none of the fear centred stuff floating about. Just practitioners presenting on the application of psychology of risk to their workplace.
Keynote presenters include: David Fitzgerald – Telstra; Graham Long – The Wayside Chapel; Matthew Gill – Former General Manager Beaconsfield and Rob Long – ACU.
In addition, more than 20 practitioners from the field will be presenting workshops (in concurrent format) on the application of psychology of risk principles to the workplace.
Rob Sams will be presenting at the Conference talking on the topic ‘What is excessive regulation doing to us all?
For more information download a copy of the Conference Flyer
Our First Competition
Would you like a chance to win a ticket to the Conference?
All you need to do is write a short 300-500 page article on the topic that Rob will be talking on at the Conference (‘What is excessive regulation doing to us all?).
Send your entry into contact@dolphyn.com.au by Friday 16 January and you will be in the draw to win. Rob will read all of the entries and choose a winner that will be published on the Safetyrisk.net Blog.
This is a great way to get your thinking juices going on a topic that is bound to challenge traditional thinking in risk and safety. Rob will use information from the entries submitted during his presentation at the Conference. Of course, all ideas and thoughts will be appropriately referenced.
Writing is a great way to collate your thinking, and publishing your article on Safetyrisk.net Blog means that you will join a band of great thinkers in risk and safety.
Upcoming Speaking Engagements
Rob Sams has spoken at a number of key conferences and seminars throughout 2014 and will continue this in 2015. Here are some dates and details for where Rob is speaking next year:
- National Workers Compensation Conference – Melbourne in February 2015
- Inaugural Psychology of Risk Conference – Sydney in March 2015
If you’d like to hear more about our Keynote presentations, by looking through our website, or dropping us a line at contact@dolphyn.com.au
Dolphyn’s Risk Leadership Programs
Do you know that Dolphyn offers a wide range of services that can support your organisation to better deal with risk and become more resilient?
Many of our programs are based on methodology informed by social psychology and focus on leadership capability, culture, risk discernment, communication and engagement.
We are a small and nimble organisation, and we focus on developing and delivering programs that suit your organisation. We offer flexibility and customisation because we know that all organisations and people are different.
While we have listed some of our programshere. If you would like to learn more about what we do and how we go about it, drop us a line or call.
We’d be happy to talk through an approach that would suit your needs.
Conversations on the Couch
Have you caught up with the great series of videos published by great mates Gab Carlton and Rob Sams?
Gab and Rob met through their studies of Social Psychology and Risk in 2013 and are enjoying a fabulous learning journey together. They love sharing their ideas, thoughts and experiences.
After feedback from their popular written blogs which are published on Safetyrisk.net, the guys decided to start their popular Conversations on the Couch video series. The short videos aim to share the guys learning by focusing on one key topic at a time. If you haven’t seen the video’s yet, why not jump on and let the guys know what you think.
Year 1 of Masters Program in Social Psychology and Risk – Done!
Dolphyn associates and good friends, Gab Carlton, James Ellis, Max Geyer and Rob Sams have all finished their first year of the Masters Program in Social Psychology and Risk. The first year has been an exciting adventure where we covered four units including:
- Unit 1 – The Social Psychology of Risk, Introduction
- Unit 2 – Leadership and the Social Psychology of Risk
- Unit 3 – Communicating and Consulting About RIsk
- Unit 4 – The Social Psychology of High Reliability Organisations
This program, designed and facilitated by Dr Robert Long from Human Dymensions, is the first of its kind in Australia and those who complete the program are well equipped to support people and organisation to understand and deal with risk, change, leadership and culture.
If you’d like to hear more about the program and how it has helped our thinking and learning, drop us a line at contact@dolphyn.com.au
Sharing our Learning
Rob, Gab, James and Max, along with Dr Robert Long write regularly on theSafetyrisk.net Blog. We find this a great way to share our ideas, our thinking and learning. We love to hear your feedback so feel free to share your thoughts and enjoy the site.
Included below are links to some of our most popular blogs in 2014:
I’m Not That Into Safety Anymore
I have spoken with a number of Managers over the past few months who have argued with me that ‘safety’ in our workplaces means that we must do everything we can to control people so that they do not hurt themselves at work. If this is what ‘safety’ is all about, I’m just not that into it anymore.
Did you know you are biased?
Understanding biases is the key to discerning risk, learn more about some of our biaseshere
The Effects that Measure Can Have in Risk And Safety
In risk and safety, in fact in life in general, there seems a fascination to measure so much of what we do. In this Blog we explore how and what measuring does to people
It’s Knowing ‘Y’ That Matters
At Dolphyn, we believe that knowing ‘Y’ is important. Learn more about this, and how Dolphyn can support your organisation by reading through this Blog
Book Review – Helping by Edgar H. Shein
In risk and safety, we hear people regularly say that they are "hear to help" or "my role is to help you". But do we ever stop to reflect and think about what ‘help’ really means.
Edgar Shein has written a great book that may assist in your reflection on this topic. On page 2 he writes:
"Friends, editors, consultants, teachers, and coaches have often made suggestions and proposals that were quite irrelevant to my problem at the time. Even when I ignored them as gently as I could, my sometimes self-appointed helpers reminded me in an irritate tone that they were only trying to be helpful, implying that I was wrong in some way not to have been able to accept the help"
What does ‘help’ mean to you, and how to you go about it?
Christmas Break & Thinking Ahead to 2015
Rob and the team at Dolphyn would like to thank everyone who has supported us during a fantastic 2014. We have been fortunate enough to work with some wonderful people and we have learnt a lot along the way.
We wish you, your family and friends a Merry Christmas and break. We will be taking a few days R&R during the break, but look forward to connecting with you all again in 2015.
Dolphyn is committed to creating tools and solutions that improve the way you do business. We want to hear from our loyal friends like you. We’d love to hear your thoughts and feedback.
Thanks,
Rob Sams
Director
Dolphyn Pty Ltd
robert@dolphyn.com.au
Copyright © 2014 Dolphyn Pty Ltd All rights reserved.
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