On workplace culture and safety
AS ALWAYS, THE FICA AND SAFETREE conferences did not disappoint with the combination of motivation, industry developments, skills and regulatory overviews (plus good-old fashioned humour). Despite being postponed twice, the Queenstown-based event was as professional and efficient as ever for the audience of forest owners, managers, contractors, policy makers, government representatives and workers.
Starting with Safetree, the ethos of the conference was that good leadership and good workplace culture are prerequisites for good health and safety outcomes, and that all workers have a right to come home to their whãnau and feel engaged with and fulfilled in their work – the idea that the way we think drives our actions and behaviours. While Fiona Ewing was missed, moving on after close to a decade with the Forest Industry Safety Council (FISC), John Lowe replaces her as National (Acting) Safety Director for FISC.
The first speaker, Callum McKirdy spoke on leading culture by stepping into the leadership role. He emphasised the importance of tapping into difference rather than similarity. While a values fit is good when choosing employees, he said divergence as well as convergence help figure out risk, planning and strategy.
He explained the need to design, harness and tweak cultures within organisations for people to thrive. Rather than catering to the bell curve, ask the question: “Am I as a leader making the best use of the uniqueness/difference/diversity that is in my team?”
The gold lies in the valleys not the hills, he said, and where difference lies, lies the ability to make a difference.
Forever evolving and changing, culture is about caring, kindness, nurturing and trust, he added.
Callum said neurodiverse people with ADHD and other dysfunctions are often drawn to practical industries like ours and leaders should tap into that innovation. Who are your outliers and fringe dwellers? Are you harnessing their uniqueness?
The takeaway of the presentation was three key leadership questions:
• What are you working on?
• How’s it going?
• How can I help?
“Leadership is about creating an environment where everybody thrives. Every conversation you have with your staff is an opportunity to build or erode trust. Leadership is about stepping into a void. It should be uncomfortable. You need to give more. Get comfortable with being uncomfortable,” he said.
“Nurture culture to make it safe for people to be themselves. How safe is it for your people to be themselves?
Next came some perspectives directly from industry players. Allan Laurie gave an overview of Forest Manager Certification looking at what’s good, what we can improve, how we’re tracking and key recommendations. Alan Paulson then took delegates through the process of tree jacking. This alternative to machine-assist has a lot to offer. Watch this space for a detailed look at the process.
Next came Wayne Dempster with an overview of the Plant & Structures Regulations as well as Safetree’s new Winch-Assisted Harvesting Best Practice Guide (pictured opposite, below).
On the lighter side, Keynote Speaker, Nigel Latta spoke about the psychology around health and safety. His colourful talk highlighted some important home truths. Training, experience and time add up to complacency, he said. Complacency combined with overconfidence, fatigue, stress, not saying sh*t, summit fever, panic and bullsh*t “will F you up” said Nigel. The antidote to all of those? Pause, Breathe and Think.
“We are social creatures and leaders should think about how they make people feel, ‘he said.’ “Building culture is a vital aspect of health and safety. Making people feel safe and included is really important. Expressing vulnerability is really important. People must be comfortable to make a mistake or to say Stop the bus. Make it okay.
“This all takes intention, focus and effort. Model and encourage other people to pause, breathe and think. Do everything you can to make it easy for people to feel active and involved in health and safety without making it feel onerous. There is no place for ego in a team. Work on it. Every day make people feel safe, part of the team and that they can talk about it and keep them focused on the mission, to go home safe every day,” said Nigel.
Next came two enlightening workshops by Lance Burdett and Shelly Davies. Lance spoke about adapting to our busy world. The brain looks for negative things, for differences, not similarities, he said – because that’s where the risk is. When holding things inside and not getting them out your head, you start catastrophising. This spirals and the thoughts become overwhelming. 80% of our memory is of bad things because that’s where the risk is, he explained.
What can you do about it? Three things – read, write and talk. Plus there’s sleep, being grateful and focusing on the spiritual.
“Debrief your day by talking about it. Get the emotion out. Review it. Dig deeper. Go over what you did well and what you would do differently. That’s when you learn from your past,” he said.
Lastly, Lance suggested, “Slow your
breathing, your heart, your thoughts. We are more similar than dissimilar. Go with your heart, not your head because your heart knows best.”
Shelly got right to the point with her talk on Lessons in Badassery. “It starts with saying thank you to compliments, reframing our weaknesses as strengths, having boundaries and setting expectations,” she said.
“You don’t have to be everyone’s cup of tea – don’t give your power away by making choices based on what other people will think… be someone’s margherita.”
Reiterating the theme of the previous speakers, she emphasised, “Show up as me. To become a rockstar, be a rockstar – If you want to be something, show up as that thing. The world only knows what you show them! Life is not what’s going on around us. It’s how we respond to it. We are in control of our feelings. You are inside your head, not them. Pause, question and reframe what you tell yourself.”
Focus on FICA
Day 2 began with the FICA end of the conference. FICA Chair, Ross Davis and CEO, Prue Younger spoke first. Ross highlighted the importance of promotion, education and getting the word out there, helping the public to understand what the forestry industry does and how we operate.
Prue highlighted what many of the previous days speakers had said about creating psychological safety in the industry and “starting the conversation”. She took a look at the organisation’s new Strategic Plan incorporating partnerships, vocational education and strengthening contractor certification. Now refining the view of two years ago, the plan lays out the best of who we are, how we work and what we are working towards, she said.
She pointed out that there are two primary pillars:
• Promotion – strengthening social licence, encouraging people into the workforce and growing the voice of contractors, along with support.
• Education – upskilling contractors, prioritising safety in the workspace and increasing safety.
“COVID has been a bit of a b*tch. The last few years have been challenging but forestry has navigated pretty well through the restrictions and traffic lights. Providing information and keeping the industry well-informed was good. We can’t stop China shutting down to isolate or the Ukraine war but there will be sunshine. There will be travel again. It’s a changing world and we must move on with it,” said Prue. Mental Health, bringing in new workers, a micro innovation challenge and a new website are all on the cards.
Simon O’Grady then gave an overview of the Safetree Certification revamp. Last year a tactical group engaged with the industry and seven recommendations came out of that, namely:
• A new Industry Charter
• A new Governance Model
• A new software platform
• A new Certification Model
• More resources for certification
• Improved audit resource and framework • Clearer, more regular communication
“We will never stop this,” he said. “Participating in the process framework”, performing and the need to partnership are constantly developing.
No stranger to NZ Logger, Rien Visser then offered an interesting input with his look at 12 years of tracking logging costs and productivity in New Zealand. This overview of changes in mechanisation, costs and crews over the years held delegates’ attention.
Finally, Julian Kohn focused on the National Contract Template Update. One of the key drivers of the project is to address the imbalance between contractors and forest owners/managers, he said.
At the project stage an industry advisory group spoke to stakeholders regarding issues with contracts, gathered in contracts and reviewed them in terms of format and usefulness/practicality. They also reviewed the standard NEC contract with a view to adapting it to forestry standards and developing a set of standard clauses that are easier to read and understand.
Now at the pilot stage, Julian said it’s time to test, iron out wrinkles and present an option to the industry to use when developing and negotiating contracts with clients
Next came a day of fun and a night under the stars of the Skyline Gondola in the snowy mountaintops.