Presentations & Conversations
Bringing ideas into conversation.
Presentations are another way I explore ideas with others.
Over the years I’ve contributed to academic conferences, industry forums, professional events, webinars and podcasts, exploring questions around safety leadership, reflective practice, professional learning and the development of safety professionals.
Some presentations have grown from research. Others from professional practice, collaboration or questions that seemed worth exploring together.
This is a selection of those conversations.
Leadership & learning from practice
Leading with Care for our People to Thrive
I presented this in my professional capacity with Downer, sharing ideas with our client Urban Utilities and peer delivery partners at the One Team Safety Forum.
Using a gardener metaphor, I explored leading with care and the conditions leaders help create for people to thrive. The presentation drew on themes from my doctoral research into authentic leadership and brought those ideas into conversation with leadership and safety practice.
Connection to my inquiry: This became an interesting point of intersection between research and professional practice, and an early opportunity to explore what leading with care might mean in practice.
Effective Frontline Leader Onboarding
Presented with my Downer colleague Liam D'Arcy at QWater'24, this case study shared the Supervisor Onboarding program piloted within Downer's ANZ Water business and subsequently contextualised for Energy & Utilities.
We explored an approach to supporting frontline leaders through a structured onboarding experience grounded in their operational context.
Provenance: This work was developed and presented through my professional role with Downer, in collaboration with organisational colleagues.
Reflective Practice & professional learning
SIA Webinar Series - Reflective Practice
I hosted this webinar for the Safety Institute of Australia to explore reflective practice as a practical approach to professional learning. Drawing partly on my experience in the University of Southern Queensland Professional Studies program, I introduced several reflective models and practical ways participants could begin examining their own experiences, assumptions and practice.
Connection to my inquiry: Reflective practice has become an enduring thread through my work: not simply learning from experience, but deliberately examining what experience might be telling us and what we might do differently.
Workplace learning and research for mid-career professionals: two Australian case studies
At the 2017 Re-imagining Education for Democracy Summit, I presented work developed with Dr Lee Fergusson and Troy Dux exploring two examples of work-based research within the University of Southern Queensland Professional Studies program. Explore the research here.
The presentation explored how research grounded in real workplace questions can contribute to the development of the practitioner, the workplace and the wider field of professional practice.
Connection to my inquiry: This was part of my early doctoral journey and helped shape my thinking about the relationship between research, professional experience and inquiry grounded in practice.
Professional communities & connection
Sliding Doors - The paths of a Young Safety Professional
At the Safety Institute of Australia's National Health & Safety Conference in 2018, I joined other National YSP Network leaders to explore the different paths that had brought us into the profession.
Using parallel timelines, we shared experiences, challenges and aspirations and invited participants to reflect on their own professional journeys, including the part established practitioners can play in supporting those who follow.
Connecting the Dots - The Power of Networks
At the inaugural Health and Safety Professionals NZ Conference in Christchurch in 2018, I shared some of what I had learned through helping build the Young Safety Professionals Network.
The presentation explored why professional relationships matter, the value of sharing knowledge generously, and why sometimes the most useful thing we can do is reach out and ask for help.
There were also stories involving Kevin Bacon and doughnuts.
Young Safety Leaders Forum
After establishing the Young Safety Professionals Network, I hosted a Young Safety Leaders Forum at the Safety Institute of Australia's National Safety Convention in Sydney.
The forum brought Loren Murray, Gordon Bedford and Andrew Barrett together to share their experiences and perspectives with emerging health and safety professionals.
Connection to my inquiry: Looking back, these early professional-community activities reinforced something that continues to influence my thinking: professional capability develops through relationships and shared experience, not simply through formal education.
Conversations & podcasts
Safety on Tap Podcast
I've had two conversations with Andrew Barrett on the Safety on Tap podcast.
In Episode 003, we explored reflective practice and its value in professional development. I returned in Episode 023 for a broader conversation about breaking out of professional “Groundhog Day”, continuing to learn, and finding different ways of approaching our practice.
These conversations capture some of my earlier thinking about themes that continue to appear throughout timall.red: reflection, learning and professional development.
Discover more of Baz’s interviews at www.safetyontap.com
