E079_2025 Preview: Better Safety Conversations, Understand your Personality, and More

In our final episode of 2024, we (Karin and Nuala) reflect on a transformative year of meaningful conversations, exciting tools, and bold progress.

This episode introduces new offerings for 2025, including the Safety Culture Scorecard and Personality Diversity Reports, designed to enhance safety, collaboration, and leadership.

We also discuss the shift to video podcasts on YouTube, the importance of consistent small changes, and how better conversations can lead to lasting organisational success.

Join us as we celebrate 2024 and gear up for a safer, more collaborative 2025.

Thanks for listening!

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This episode was produced under Safety Collaborations Limited and now continues as part of Karin Ovari Limited. While we are not currently releasing new episodes, the entire library remains active, and the topics covered are just as relevant today as when they were first recorded.

To learn more about my current work in leadership and communication, visit karinovari.com and the leadership community, The Supervisors Hub.

Connect with us on LinkedIn:  Karin Ovari, Nuala Gage,

If you enjoyed this episode, please help us spread the word and leave a review on your preferred podcast player. 
 
 Stay Safe, Stay Well
The Safety Collaborators

Transcript

Karin 0:10

Welcome to. In Conversation with the Safety Collaborators, I am Karen and I am Nuala. Whether you're a safety professional, a leader or an individual committed to making a difference we invite you to join the discussion on creating a culture of safety and care, enabling your team and leaders to design a safer and more productive and collaborative world.

Nuala 0:39

Welcome to the final episode of In Conversations with the Safety Collaborators for 2024. And what a year. It has been filled with incredible guests, thought-provoking discussions and bold steps forward.

Karin 0:55

Indeed. So, as we reflect on the past year, we are thrilled to share some of the exciting updates for 2025. We have a fresh new look for safety collaborations, our website and actionable tools to strengthen your leadership and safety culture. So we've got some quizzes and some scorecards and a few other bits and pieces that hopefully add a little bit of fun into this, and we've actually got a bit of a game-changing shift or at least for us for this very podcast. Starting from this particular episode, we are going visual, so now you can join us in person over on YouTube as well, here on YouTube actually to watch and listen, and we'll dive into all of this and more. So join us as we celebrate 2024 and gear up for an even more impactful 2025.

Nuala 1:49

And get used to being on video. It's like a whole new game it is.

Karin 1:54

I even have to put lipstick on. I probably don't have to, but you know why not. So it is fun, and it'll be fun to see how this evolves over the coming year, how we produce and put forward our conversations in a more visual way, not just an audio. Yeah, so shall we go back and have a little talk about our website? Or, more importantly, not a rebrand, but our recoloring, which is impacting the way we look and feel a little bit? I think. What do you?

Nuala 2:35

think and it's amazing how, when you look at things through a different perspective and I think that's what we do with our clients is help people look at their culture, their way of being, their way of doing through a different perspective and when you do it yourself, you also go like, okay, wow, it's a different iteration, a different way of being and showing up, and I loved our bold colors. They were bold and they were out there and they were bright but at the same time, they could come across as almost a bit brash and in your face and as we're growing as a business and as we're growing as ourselves, it's around. Well, what do we do and how do we really get to? That succinct point of this is how we help people. This is our look and feel. We think that the changes we've made are a different reflection of what it is that we do and how we help you as safety collaborations. What are your thoughts, kate?

Karin 3:53

I agree, and I think every business goes through iterations of how they look, how they feel, how they sound, and we've now been in business for four years. Our experience is many times that, but as the safety collaborators, it's four years and we enjoy that process and that name. Collaboration is really important, and so I think the changes that we hope that you would agree you out there agree reflects more what safety collaborations is all about, and part of that is how do we make everyday leadership, everyday safety conversations, just that little bit easier? So even our website you now, if you go there, there's a couple of things that as soon as you hit it, you can actually do something, take some action from the beginning. You don't have to scroll all the way around the place to actually do something.

Karin 5:00

So that's kind of where I think it's heading, and, as a result, we've changed some of the wording as well. So I think we really are about we've had to reflect a lot on what is it that we do? We help people, we change minds. I mean, we can't as you say often, Nils, we can't actually change minds. That's a person's choice. However, that is our intention is to help changing minds towards changing the conversations that they have, so that we can change the outcomes that people get. I guess organizations get.

Nuala 5:36

Exactly around. How well that we have looked at this year is how do we link the return on developing your people to increasing your bottom line? So reducing conversational waste, reducing incidents and increasing the bottom line, reducing mental health issues? Because you're focusing on mental fitness and conversations. No matter what we do or what organization we go into, it all comes down to the quality of your conversations and if we can just work on that, it's creating the environment. So, no, we're not going to come in and we're going to force you to change your mind, but we're going to help you create an environment where you're having better conversations that allow people to go. Oh, you know what, if we do things this way or we tweak that, we will have those better outcomes for ourselves as well as for the organization, because, let's not kid ourselves, if we can go to work and enjoy it and have a little bit of fun makes life a whole lot easier that's for sure.

Karin 6:49

so I think something you said there is important and it's tweaking it a little bit not everything has to be a major event, just by improving areas, one small piece at a time, collectively. I think it comes back to that word consistency, doesn't it? The more consistent we are with the change that we're looking for, the better chance of changing that outcome. I still have that conversation with myself regularly for a few things, but yeah, but that's just part of life, yeah. We're human.

Nuala 7:28

Did I want to get up and go for a walk? No Press snooze, guess what? Yeah, hopefully I'll get to it later or tomorrow morning.

Karin 7:38

It's a bit funny. I was thinking about, actually, the change I've made in my office here over the weekend. It's like a breath of fresh air and I was actually excited to come up the stairs, and I think if we can help impart that sort of enthusiasm when we're on the job with our clients, then that makes an enormous difference for everybody. So what are the two things that we can do? Continue you, continue, nils. Sorry, forgive us, we're learning our new system here and so, uh, work with it.

Nuala 8:10

Yeah yeah, there's delays. Um, in places we never had delays. No, yeah, and and that I think that's the joy of embracing change is that we need to as I drop my earpiece we need to embrace the fact that you know, change doesn't come without a little bit of discomfort along the way Hopefully not distress, but just a little bit of discomfort. We'll let you know, as you were going to say, what are some of the things, that of where you go. Well, maybe you've got an idea that something needs to change, but you're not sure where do you even start. And guess what? There's a quick way to go and have a look at 21 questions that will help you see what is your safety culture scorecard at the moment. So this is very high level and it will just give you a where are you at on the scale and work towards possibly going okay.

Nuala 9:20

Well, if I understand that this is my perspective and my viewpoint, maybe it's a good idea to then go and have a look at. Well, if I understand that this is my perspective and my viewpoint, maybe it's a good idea to then go and have a look at well, how do other people in the organization think we're at and what does that look like. And then how do we have those important conversations. That don't have to be difficult. They can be important conversations around what needs to look different in 2025. So the discovering your safety culture score, I think, is probably one of the quickest, easiest ways of going. This is where I'm at now and it can help you start in your planning of what do you maybe want to look a little bit different in the upcoming year.

Karin 10:06

And talking about that, it's really important to understand that that score is one person's perceptions. You can have more than one person in your organization. Do that score for free, it's not a problem. By all means, the more the merrier. But it's important to understand that that is not a full safety culture assessment, if you like, or overview of an organisation. That takes a bit more work, but it's certainly quick, it's fun, it doesn't take long to do and you get instant results. So you will get instant information, feedback on the outcomes of those 21 questions and literally it takes about five minutes to do. It doesn't take long. So it's on the homepage, on the new and updated homepage. So the other quick tool is I'm going to hand it back because that's your favourite tool E-colours.

Nuala 11:05

Yes, and that is around really. How do we understand self and others and understand that we're not difficult as people, we're just different, and that's helping understand your personality and understanding. How does our personality impact and unlock better safety, collaboration, how does it unlock better leadership, better team engagement, psychological safety in the work environment and in high hazard industries? That important one of understanding how can I, by just being me, get, because the way that I respond or react will have a very large impact in how I show up and what I do. And this weekend, actually, I was working through my personality profile and somebody else's and having a look at what are the commonalities and what are the differences and how does that show up in work relationships, in friendships, in intimate relationships, and when we start to understand that.

Nuala 12:14

And, karen, I mean you and I are really, really lucky in the sense that we've been working with this tool and with others for years and with others for years, and one of the things I really love about our jobs is that it's a constant challenge, it's a constant growth opportunity, it's you're never standing in the same spot twice because you're always being pushed and go. Do I press play? Do I press pause? What am I doing? But for someone to see this through somebody's eyes for the first time, it's brand new, something they've never done before and these little pops of light bulb moments going and oh wow.

Nuala 12:58

So that explains why I had conflict in this sense. That's why it explains why it was easier over here. Or I could never understand why I was labeled with this label. But now that I'm having a look at this conversation, I mean it was delightful and you can have the opportunity of having this kind of delightful conversation, of getting to know yourself as well, and again on the Upgraded homepage but wait, there's more. You can click on the link to get a 20% discount on your personality diversity premium report and that gives such depth of knowledge and then book a coaching session with us and then we can do that debrief and let you have experience those wonderful light bulbs around you and others.

Karin 13:57

So these tools that we're talking about are catalyst for conversation, for a deeper understanding about where we are as individuals at any given time. It impacts our leadership, our communication. As Norse said, whereas you said, it's really weird because I know that we're going to be looking at each other on the screen. It's no longer audio. I don't have to say, as Nuala said, you can just say well, as you said, so there's going to be a bit of an adjustment going on here after two years of audio. So, yeah, some fun.

Karin 14:39

You know these tools they give us, they are joy actually to implement for all the reasons you just said, those lovely aha moments of oh my God. That's why you know, and I think it's really important there is no right or wrong. There's no definitive this way or that way. It's about understanding our strengths whether it's the safety culture scorecard, where, or, and our limitations, and I think that's true in both tools actually. So, on our person, on the e-colors tool, it's understanding well, what are my limitations, how do I need to build on that, what are my strengths? And you've got to be really careful with our strengths that we don't overuse them, because then they can become a limitation. So there's things like these elements that we can explore, and even when we have a bit of a feedback session on the scorecard, it's the same conversation, really, you know.

Karin 15:44

So here are the strengths as you perceive them within your safety culture or in the way that people work to stay safe, and here are some of the limitations. So so how do we work with both? And it's not about all of a sudden changing everything, because that's not what is required. It's finding out okay, good place to start with some low-hanging fruit, usually, whatever that means for anybody. What's the quick win? And then build up from there. Um, and that's where our consulting services help, our training programs can help. Uh, depending on where you are on your needs.

Nuala 16:30

Well, the client's needs exactly, not yours, you know that's the whole thing of, especially on the, especially when I was going back to that personality diversity. I mentioned that word and the person I was doing this with this weekend said oh, that's why I was judged like that. And part of both the safety culture scorecard as well as the e-colors personality diversity is taking away those boxes and labels and judgments and really going. How do we respond rather than react and how do we live with intention and how do we understand others. And coaching is such an essential part of that. To really get into the depth of it and I'm going to blow our own horns here Good, I'm not really good at this I'm going to give it a try If you really want that deep dive.

Reflecting on Safety Conversations and Progress

Nuala 17:28

Karen and I are exceptional coaches in giving you the space and opportunity to get to know yourself and to get to know yourself exceptionally well and to move forward to that picture of who you want to become. So book a call with us, go and have a look at that. It's a really. It's such a fabulous start to the new year. It's that so often it's. It's a new year, we're going to set goals, we're going to do this, we're going to do that. How about you just embrace who you are. You know 2025, new year same me, but maybe with a better understanding of me. I love that and I would love to invite you to do that.

Karin 18:15

Yes, book it now. We'll leave all of these links in the show notes and in the show notes on YouTube as well. It's a loony experience, totally. So what else can we share? This year, we have had some amazing guests on our podcast, so we really do encourage you to go and listen to them if you haven't already. We've had quite a list and I'm going to look at the website because that's the best place to check it out. If you go to the Knowledge Hub on our website and then go to the podcast page, you will see there's a section, a whole section, there on guest episodes, starting with Joe Manon, who was a survivor, who is a survivor of the Piper Alpha incident, and so you'll get some insights from him. What's another?

Nuala 19:12

We had a fabulous conversation with Laura Barlow from the Impact Group about why engagement matters more than ever, and it was such a refreshing conversation, and especially with someone who considered herself a podcast virgin and is now officially dived into her first podcast, which was fab, and she was great, simplifying the business of safety.

Karin 19:40

We had the joy of having Gavin Coyle, who is known as the Gaffer. He has his own podcast and we were on his podcast as well, which you can watch on YouTube, which was great. So just talking about how to build better safety culture, and it was about the business of safety. We often say it isn't just about keeping people safe, but it's about the business of safety as well and return on investment and how do we make it part of? Well, we all strongly believe that it should be a key part of the organisation's business focus on business. That didn't sound all that great, but feel free to add to that Next.

Nuala 20:27

Right. Then we had a brilliant conversation with S Guild and that was all around care and the role of culture and risk evaluation and safety, and I think it's something that we do stress quite often is understanding where you're at is a great step in knowing where you want to get to and how you're going to get there, and I would highly recommend diving into that conversation and learning a little bit more about the care model and how that can impact your organization. And then, of course, one of our regular conversational friends, because we thoroughly enjoy the regular conversations that we have with Lewis Sr from the Equilibria team and it just links so well and he gives such a great bridge into the conversation, karen, that you and I were talking about, with that fabulous tool that you can find on our homepage on eColors and really living with intention.

Karin 21:33

So understand why personality matters and how do you build intentional leadership to create safer teams we then had another really, I can remember feeling quite tearful through this one actually so with stephen kirby, who survived an incident and has become an absolute advocate for well-being and safety in high-risk industry and and it was such a heartfelt story and it wasn't that he was quite fortunate, I mean literally. I think it was one of those moments where you either survived or died in the same breath. He was lucky, he survived. He had some injury, but that was more about the after effect and I don't. Sometimes not enough is spoken about that. You know the post-traumatic stress of an incident and how that impacts people's lives your own personal life, but also the lives of everyone around you when you're not functioning at your best. And as a result of his story he has, because he's a, he's a speaker, he does keynotes and um and is a huge advocate for mental well-being in the workplace. And then we'll go for one more nils well, gosh, that's a hard one, really.

Nuala 22:53

One more so there were there were two that were just fabulous and exciting and inspiring. So I'm finding it very hard.

Nuala 23:02

But, one of the things that we are focusing on is around having a look at safety stories from the field, and we will be inviting more people who live and breathe safety culture and safety as a way of being and understanding self and others. Safety culture and safety is a way of being and understanding self and others. So, for a very inspiring story around safety from the field and what that looks like, I'm going to highly recommend the conversation with Callum Kerr Absolutely and to hear how he moved from being in the policing services and then moving into safety and how really learning about himself just escalated his career and the way that he works with people and inspires safety. So there are more and we loved every single conversation. Um, you know, it's like I don't want anyone to feel left out the yellow in me is coming out and going.

Karin 24:01

I'm going to leave anyone behind and I'm going to be the red now and say we need to move on. But yeah, no, okay, but we do. There's Alex, there's, you know, there's some great conversations. There was more than those. There was at least double that. So yeah, they're fantastic. Um, dan newby comes to mind, uh, from emotional literacy, so yeah, um.

Nuala 24:31

So if you want to know what we're talking about with red and yellow book, that um e-colors Exactly, you'll know all about it.

Karin 24:42

I know I'm very impressed. Mine's somewhere, I'm not sure where, mine's red yellow. So these are little bands that we have and they press play and they remind us. They're like little anchor points to remind us of when to press pause or when to press play. Yeah, which is something you'll need to learn about change your life all right.

Nuala 25:08

The other thing that is quite exciting is uh, before we disappear is our open workshops. Yes, there is so much that we offer and there's so many tools that are engaging and insightful, whether we're running those virtually or in person, and that really help you and your teams get to know each other, get to see safety from a different perspective and really create that environment where you can change minds, you can change the conversation and you can change your outcomes.

Karin 25:39

So don't miss out on all of those open workshops that are available to you in your organization, bespoke to that or in the open open workshops, public workshops yeah so we have three short ones yeah, that's public workshops, which means they're open to all, because not everybody can afford to have, you know, 20 people come to a program within an organization. So the idea of behind the open workshops there are some dates there already. That part of our website is a little bit of a in motion, so go back and check it out and see what there is. So we we have Understanding how I Can Get Hurt Visible Leadership, our own little frameworks of walk and talk and also the Five Principles of Human Performance. So there's three that are already available, with dates for the beginning of the new year and we'd love to see you on them. They are virtual so they will work well within the timescales and they're less than half a day, so they're good mini workshops to get started with. Okay, wow, that did feel. Yeah, it's going to be fun, oh dear.

Nuala 26:57

Oh dear. So I think what's Well. Now it's up to you and Katrina to, because you know I'm the lucky one. I get to have the conversations and then all of a sudden it's up because Karen and Katrina do like this huge amount of work in the background to get things out there. So a big thank you to both of you for making that happen, because I know that this is going to be a whole new learning experience of what happens in the background. It certainly is.

Karin 27:27

It certainly is, and we will look forward to bringing a new team member on to help us as time goes by. So do watch out for us, Do join us, either on YouTube or, of course, your favourite podcast platforms, whether it's Apple or Spotify or whatever. And you know, today's episode was a little different to our normal one. A we feel a little bit, you know, in a new space, but I think it's going to be fun. I'm going to really enjoy and as I hope you do watching us evolve in this space and how it turns out. I always like thinking about what's this going to look like in six months' time. It's going to be awesome.

Nuala 28:11

Exactly yeah. So here's to a new year and being the same awesomest and the same awesome you, oh, we should have put a Christmas hat on. Exploring and changing the outcomes to be fabulous and positive in 2025.

Karin 28:35

All right, thank you. Awesome, our first video podcast. Whatever this, this is, thingamajigger is done, we're doing well. Give us a thumbs up. I think they say at the end of one of these things so yay, all right, have a happy, happy end of year and we'll see you in the new year. This will be our last episode for this year our first youtube, but our last podcast episode and we'll see you in the new year. This will be our last episode for this year, our first YouTube, but our last podcast episode, and we look forward to engaging next year. Stay well.

Nuala 29:10

Stay safe 2025. Woohoo, thank you for joining us today. It is always lovely to have conversations that matter To learn more about creating a culture of safety and care. Please visit our website, safetycollaborationscom to access our show notes, resources and guides. Leave us a message via the message us section on the show notes page and we'll get back to you.

Karin 29:39

You can also join our community on social media by following us on our LinkedIn pages Safety Collaborations Karen Avari and Noola Gage and on our new Safety Collaborations social channels YouTube, facebook and Instagram. Our handle Safety Collaborations is much the same. Sharing is caring. Follow us on your favourite podcast platform. Leave us a five-star review. It would be awesome. Doing these things helps us to grow and share our collective conversations. Till next time stay safe and stay well.

Nuala 30:15

Thank you you.