Newsletter 2011 - December

Welcome to the December 2011 issue of the OTM Newsletter.

What's in this issue?

1. A Safety Moment for the Holiday Season

2. Conversation Starter Series - OHS&E, Privacy and Risk are all about Service Excellence

3. What Really Matters For Young Professionals! Now available through Amazon Kindle

4. Join the OTM Academy

A Safety Moment for the Holiday Season

Recently when facilitating an OTM Strategic Conversation® for the Programmed Group, Group CEO Chris Sutherland spoke about the importance of behaving safely at home. To emphasise his point he spoke about a friend of his who drove a BMW 7 series car. As you can imagine the BMW possessed every safety feature known to mankind. His 18 year old son was instead driving around in a twenty plus year old car that had minimal safety features.

Unfortunately the son was involved in a car accident that took his life. Chris shared that his friend had spoken with him about the fact that between he and his son, it was his son that should have been driving around in a car with the safety features of the BMW, not himself. Statistically his son was far more likely to be involved in a serious car accident because of his lack of driving experience. Such a thought had never entered their minds.

Chris' story highlights the importance of having a look around your home and having a 'Safety Moment' for and with your family and friends. For those of you in Australia you will be aware of the recent accident suffered by 65 year old celebrity Molly Meldrum. When putting up some decorations for an upcoming Xmas party he fell off the top of a ladder and then fell down a flight of stairs seriously injuring his head. Our thoughts are with him as he fights to recover in hospital.

'Safety Moments' are conversations that are conducted in organisations that take safety seriously. Australian government reports indicate that the majority of injuries occur at home or during leisure activities. Even my own father in law lost an eye as a result of a fall at home caused by tripping over the cord from his vacuum.

In preparation for this holiday season I encourage you to have a 'Safety Moment' at home and to have a look around for opportunities to improve safety - you never know you just might save someone you love from a serious injury or even death.

In that context please have a safe and happy holiday season and I wish you every success for 2012!

Conversation Starter Series

For many years Organisations That Matter has been advocating the power of using documents, illustrations and short videos to create Conversations That Matter®.

Conversations That Matter® enable people to talk about the issues that are important to them. Shared understanding, even if it means that there is a realisation that we have different views on a topic is the outcome of Conversations That Matter®.

Below is a short article that includes some text, an illustration and a quote. Feel free to use one, two or all three of these to catalyse a conversation with your team members.

OHS&E, Privacy and Risk are all about Service Excellence

A service approach to occupational, health, safety, environmental, privacy and risk management issues means that your underlying approach is not one of compliance, but one of creating an environment that is safe and productive for your staff, and one that is safe and respectful for your customers.

A service approach means that you proactively schedule reviews of these aspects of your work so that you are never out-of-date.

This means that you may go over and above standards set out by the law. Sometimes they just aren't what the standard should be.

What is your organisation's approach to these aspects of service excellence?

Research Participant

I used to get quite stressed about safety compliance issues. Once I shifted my thinking and recognised that safety isn’t about compliance but about being able to deliver great service, it somehow made it easier.

Why not use this Conversation Starter to catalyse Conversations That Matter® within your organisation.

Download a copy of your complimentary Conversation Starter here.

What Really Matters For Young Professionals! Now available through Amazon Kindle

An updated edition for 2011 of my first book What Really Matters For Young Professionals! How to master 15 practices to accelerate your career is now available through Amazon Kindle for just US$4.97.

If you don't have a Kindle most tablets have Kindle apps that will allow you to purchase and download books from the Kindle store.

You can access the book through Amazon Kindle here.

Join The OTM Academy

The OTM Academy is an online community that is a resource for senior and developing leaders who believe that enabling people to perform to their potential lies at the core of organisational performance and success. The OTM Academy is free to join.

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