Hey, it’s Andrew, and this is Safety on Tap episode 100.

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.

So what’s in a number? What’s in a lost-time statistic, or the number of leadership walks done, or the average time to return an injured worker to work? Or the time-weighted average exposure to an airborne hazard, or the number of times a repetitive manual task is done?

And, what’s episode 100 of a podcast all about?

In health and safety we work with lots and lots of numbers.  Well, business in general works with numbers.  And yet the numbers themselves don’t mean anything, unless we give them some meaning.  We have to tell a story about what they mean and why.

Episode 100 of the podcast means something special to me, and to so many of you who have sent messages of encouragement, of thanks, and the listeners whose voices you will hear in this episode.  Episode 100 symbolises a milestone in this learning journey we’ve been taking together, you and I, for quite some time.  Episode 100 is a sort of marker of persistence and relevance – Safety on Tap was a new and somewhat risky thing at the beginning – for me as the creator, and for you as the listener.   Why should you listen to me and my interviews and reflections? Why should you spend your precious time filling your brain and heart with ideas and stories and perspectives like this? Episode 100, and our continually growing audience and community of passionate listeners, is a symbol that people like us, do things like this, because we are leaders, and we do want to drastically improve health and safety by improving our personal and professional effectiveness.

The story of episode 100 for me is Safety on Tap which started as an idea that has turned into a movement.  An innovation that has not only proven to be useful, but genuinely improving the professional effectiveness of people like you all around the globe.  And at it’s heart, episode 100 is a collection of real life, unscripted, reflections from listeners.  People like you, reflecting like champions, learning upon learning for the benefit of everyone.  A beautiful combination of informational, social, and experiential learning.  That’s what episode 100 is about.

Thank you so much to Cheryl, John, Kym, Steve, Matt, Maria, and Russel for sharing your reflections to help celebrate episode 100 of the Safety on Tap Podcast.

So what do we have in store for 2019?

First, the Safety on Tap team will be taking a break over the holidays, returning in early 2019.  The best thing is that for most of you who haven’t listened to every episode, we have 99 other episodes to keep you growth-fuelled if you are looking for something to listen to over that period.  For those of you who have listened to every episode, and I know there are many of you out there, I suggest it’s a great time to reflect on your year, and in particular your learning journey.  What have you gotten from listening? Are you like John, who appreciates new and challenging ideas, which contribute to building your capability over time? Are you like Kym, who has a specific, actionable takeaway or two? If you want to do some reflection,  grab a copy of the Safety on Tap Connected reflection framework to jot down your reflections.

My word for of the year will also be back.  My 2018 word was ‘abundance’.  You can hear more about where and why that came from in episode 73.  I must say that I have been overwhelmed by the power of my own giving, of time and ideas and energy and support.  And I have received an abundance of help, of growth, of relationships and value to sustain me professionally and personally.
I’m still reflecting on my end of year and my word for 2019, which I will share with you when we return in 2019.

2019 will also see me and the Safety on Tap team spreading growth fuelling ideas and inspiration even further.  Since we are building a global community of listeners and learners, we will be expanding the usual podcast format, interviews and my solo reflections, to include follow-up conversations with previous guests, focussed on what progress they’ve made, and what might have changed for them in the time since their first interview.  I’m also really excited to invite case study style contributions from you, the listeners! And given the power of coaching and coaching conversations to help people like you grow, I’m also planning to sprinkle into the podcast schedule some real, live coaching conversations – people like you, talking with me, and together us working through a specific goal or challenge you face, so you can get clear on the actions you can take to improve.  You get to listen in on those conversations, to also get the benefit of the insights we surface during the coaching.  So, follow-up interviews, case studies, and live coaching.  It’s going to be epic! But I need your input to make it work – if you have a specific, real life experience or story you think others would benefit from, or would like to get some coaching from me for free on the podcast, hop over to safetyontap.com and click on the ‘Be a guest’ link and we can get together.

Like always I am listening to your challenges and ideas, and 2019 will see a new initiative launched for one of your greatest needs.  Dave Provan and I spent a lot of time and thinking in 2018 testing the ideas and approaches centred on what improved professional practice means for health and safety professionals.  We tried a few things to help educate and empower people to take action, which were probably too broad and maybe then too hard to take action on.  The laser-focussed problem we are helping you solve in 2019 centres around improving our impact on the safety of work, versus all the other safety work we do, and part of this is how to reduce the health and safety clutter that exists for us as individuals, as health and safety teams and the things that organisations do which has become disconnected from health and safety.  We’ve recognised a significant barrier to change is that we easily add stuff to health and safety, but don’t, or can’t, confidently take stuff away to ensure only the important bits are left.  Stay tuned in 2019 for how Dave and I will be helping you reduce useless health and safety clutter, to be more efficient, to be more effective, to free up more time and money for important things, and maybe even save your company money.  Best of all, we will be helping you start to solve that problem for free with a validated, evidence based clutter scorecard.  For those of you who want to find out first when you can take advantage of that free scorecard, let me know over at safetyontap.com/clutter

If you would like to accelerate your growth in 2019, joining Safety on Tap Connected might be just the thing for you.  This is professional development like you’ve never seen before.  You get professional coaching from me, focussed educational content, and a community of likeminded but diverse peers cheering you on.  You can find out more at safetyontap.com/connected

I hope you are the important people in your life spend some time together which is filled with love, with gratitude, and giving.

Thanks so much for listening.

I can’t wait to see you in 2019, ready to take even more positive, effective or rewarding action, to grow yourself, and drastically improve health and safety along the way! Seeya