We’re now three weeks into the real craziness of the coronavirus.  I have collected hundreds of data points from people like you, giving me an insight into what you are facing now, and the opportunities adversity brings.  Two things are emerging, which are the focus of today’s conversation with Dr. David Provan.  The tension between feeling safe and being safe, and the need for us to intentionally build resilience into the way we work, and our organizations.  Which, it turns out, seem not to be new challenges, they’re just made more apparent in tough times. 

Since you’re listening in, you must be a leader wanting to grow yourself and drastically improve health and safety along the way.  Welcome to you, you’re in the right place.  If this is your first time listening in, thanks for joining us and well done for trying something different to improve! And of course, welcome back to all of you wonderful regular listeners.

You’ve heard Dave Provan on the podcast before in episodes 41, 42 and 69.  He is back for a reason.  One of our most popular guests, he is also arguably the world’s leading expert on the role of the health and safety professional.  He and I have been riffing lately on the kinds of challenges that come into focus during challenges like coronavirus, and it seemed selfish of us not to bring that conversation to you.

Here’s Dave:

You may have heard about the Office Hours Together virtual collaboration sessions we are running weekly in the wake of coronavirus mayhem.  This is some of the feedback we’re getting:

“Great initiative guys! Very keen to see how this goes.. especially timely right now”(David)

“Awesome community! Cheers everybody”(Dov)

“THANKS, GUYS!!!”(Melissa)

“Great place to share experiences -thanks for putting this together”(Leanne)

These are called Office Hours Together, because, at a time when physical distancing is important, it highlights how important and valuable it is to be together, to collaborate and learn together.  Register for these sessions at safetyontap.com/together

But that’s not enough, we’ve taken collaboration to a new level, launching the Together Platform, which is open, global, and 24/7.  It enables you to connect with colleagues from anywhere in the world and to learn and share the kinds of things you cannot Google.  How are you managing to sanitise hundreds of hand tools on construction sites? What can the events industry do in this downtime to collaborate? How are you tackling the mental health challenges of large numbers of workers who aren’t used to working from home? You cannot google this stuff, but you can learn so much from others having similar challenges.  That’s the purpose of the Together Platform.  I hope you’ll join the rest of us in conversation over at together.safetyontap.com

Thanks so much for listening.  Until next time, what’s the one thing you’ll do to take positive, effective or rewarding action, to grow yourself, and drastically improve health and safety along the way? Seeya!