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Words by Linda Barrett

January 31, 2021

Graduates of the Month - January 2021

Hear the stories taken from the Reflective Journals of our two delegates of the month for January 2021 - Mark Fisher & Dawn Maclean!

Mark Fisher

Regional Health & Safety Manager - GFSL

Initially GFSL were looking for a training course for our Safety Champions to complete which would enable them to improve the Safety culture within their workplace. 

I suppose myself and the other Safety professionals within the company initially completed the course just to see what training they were getting. 

At first I thought that the training was not right as it seemed to be aimed at middle to higher management, not at the level we were looking for.

I persevered with the training and then watched the David Marquet video; this was the turning point for me and changed my whole perspective. 

Going on to complete the course I realised that the Behavioural safety training I had received previously in my career was flawed as it tended to fixate on why people acted as they did and ‘pigeon holed them’ and the subsequent resultant safety culture. It did not help to provide the information needed to break that mindset or provide any tools to improve it.

Some of the specific elements of this course, I saw the benefit of straight away, such as the KISS principle, and the powerful words of ‘But’ and ‘Imagine’.

On completion of the course I realised that it didn’t matter what level you worked at within the company, there were some real gems and nuggets of learning that you could apply. Whether you are a senior manager to make sweeping changes within your organisation or whether you are a team leader that changes the way you talk or feedback to your staff and colleagues, this course has something you can use.

I use the KISS principle everytime I feedback or talk safety with my work teams now. I think before I use the word ‘But’, and often have to rephrase what I am saying; it is very powerful.


Dawn Maclean - FIIRSM Grad IOSH

Health and Safety Lead Officer at Abertay University

I really enjoyed looking at H&S in a whole new perspective and I cannot wait to put some of my learning into practice when training my colleagues.

The recent pandemic put an inordinate amount of pressure on me as an OSH practitioner in my organisation.  It did however challenge me in a positive way and I think that this has had a knock-on effect to the positive attitude towards health and safety now within my organisation.

I have been lucky in the past to work for some incredible leaders – they have displayed all 5 of the characteristics of Emotional Intelligence highlighted within the course to the point that they have supported me when I have moved on and I am still in touch with most of them to this day.

We especially liked some of Dawn’s KISS statements throughout the program….

KEEP – Continue to learn as much as I can on performance psychology to help to sustain safety excellence.

IMPROVE – What I report on as an OSH advisor as well as or instead of lagging indicators and define the leading indicators that are important to our organisation.

STOP – The Bog standard health and safety style tool box talks and encourage others to be more imaginative to get people more engaged.

START – Making staff and students see health and safety in a new light by thinking about the psychology and behaviour of people.

START – Using this great training as a tool to bring health and safety to life in the classroom – get staff to immerse themselves in the environment before doing a new task to see how they can get the best most positive outcome

START – Listening to my self talk when it is telling me I can do something – give things a go and if they are not as successful use any feedback to make it better rather than see it as a failure.


Linda Barrett BSc (Hons)

Partner Development Director, BSST

Linda selects our graduates of the month by analysing the results of each delegate’s tests as they progress through the course. The winners are selected based on their final test result and their personal KISS Statements contained within their Reflective Journals.

What’s the prize?

Well, in the spirit of SDT and the power of autonomy, we give the winner a choice of either a FREE online course for themselves (worth £325), nominating a friend or colleague for a FREE online course with us or FREE access to one of our future online courses that are currently in development.