(112c) My Lessons for Process Safety Leadership

Leadership is a vital component in achieving a good safety outcome, whether it be personal or process safety related. But what does leadership mean with respect to process safety? Showing the vision and taking people on the journey is key to leadership but taking people on the journey requires effective communication. An effective way of communicating lessons is via the art of storytelling, after all, this is how we teach children life lessons. In process safety it also requires a consistent and deliberate focus on the functional aspects of process safety, being; knowledge and competence, engineering and design, systems and procedures, assurance, human factors and culture. Demonstration of positive leadership in these areas provides people in an organisation with an established path to follow, resulting in their own performance reflecting that of the leader.

In this paper I will share my lessons for process safety leadership by using the art of storytelling, in the words of Dr Seuss.