G’day Everyone
I received an interesting note today from a building and construction person who stated: ‘I would like to be part of this community, although I feel completely inadequate given I don’t have qualifications’. And this prompted this blog.
So, let me start a reply to everyone who would like to join the SPoR Community Network.
I am a High School drop-out and have learned much through the school of ‘hard knocks’. I have learned through SPoR how important it is to read but I am certainly no academic. I have held several careers throughout my life and now find myself consulting in risk and safety in Adelaide, South Australia.
I discovered SPoR like many of you through this blog and through attending a free workshop. I have never looked back and have benefitted greatly from the support and sharing of many people who I have met through SPoR.
I discovered early that SPoR is NOT about academic things but rather about what works in tackling risk as if persons matter. One important attribute is a willingness to learn. SPoR is not the place to come and tell all you know about engineering or safety.
So, whilst there will be some sharing of what some highly credentialed people may be doing it is also a Community Network where you will learn what High School drop-outs like me are doing to humanise risk in the workplace. You will get to hear what people are doing in Brazil, New Zealand, Austria, South Africa, Canada and many other places and across many industries in SPoR and sharing ideas and practical methods that you can use.
So, to help further understand the purpose and meaning of this group I have prepared the following table:
| What the SPoR Community Network Is | What the SPoR Community Network Isn’t |
| An open learning space | A doctoral thesis |
| A place where practical and doable SPoR learnings can be shared | A Dr Rob Long & Dr Craig Ashhurst extension club |
| Learner led | Academia/University |
| Collaborative | An argument platform for validity |
| A place to support any learner in SPoR | A business model |
| Cross cultural | A selling marketing warehouse |
| Transparent | A club or cult |
| A place for humble enquiry | Publishing house |
| A place for open questions seeking learning | A place for dogma |
It says a great deal that a school drop-out like me is the one coordinating such a network and says much about the nature of SPoR.
Cheers Matt.
Matt Thorne
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Brian says
Looking forward to this network group
Narelle Stoll says
Great Blog Mathew Thorne and many thanks for stepping up and taking on the leadership oin this space. Unlike other safety forums and spaces this is a safe space for the sharing and cultivation of ideas particularly around how to have meaningful and productive conversations with other people around risk. Rather than blamming and finger pointing. As well as gaining an broader undertanding of the complexities of risk itself.