For those of you who work in the safety sector in New Zealand, my guest today needs no introduction, many of us will have learnt from him in a university setting or on a webinar or through something insightful he has posted on social media. Chris Peace is a risk management expert, OSH Lecturer at Te Herenga Waka, Victoria University of Wellington, and recipient of the 2023 Safeguard Lifetime Achievement Award.
In this week’s episode Chris Peace explores uncertainty, although maybe not in the same context as he normally uses this word in respect of his definition around risk, or maybe it is. If your objective is to successfully engage with another person and this person is from a different culture you can be thrown into a situation of uncertainty, which could cause you to not achieve that objective.
We discuss treating people in a way that meets their cultural needs, sometimes we all make mistakes and for the culturally intelligent leader the last thing we want to do is cause offence. Chris opens up about some of his faux pas and equally discusses situations where he has recognised the need to change the way he interacts with the audience because he has identified, through visual cues, some aspect of difference.
We cover off on planning how to best engage with international students to join his cohort, how he communicates and mentors’ students through the Masters programme and discusses some success stories along the way.
For the health and safety professional there are lessons in this chat, you might not be teaching in a University, but you could be leading a toolbox meeting, committee meeting or even having a one-on-one discussion with someone who is different from you. Consider what you need to do to eliminate uncertainty from this type of scenario.
