Most organisations talk about being 'risk averse' without ever defining what that actually means. This post unpacks risk tolerance versus risk appetite, where to document it, and how to write clear tolerance statements by category.

Identifying a critical control is only half the job - a performance standard defines what 'good' actually looks like, how the control can fail, and how it's verified. This post walks through a worked example for working near overhead powerlines.

Take 5s and SLAMs have barely changed since the early 2000s, and in many workplaces they've become a tick-the-box exercise rather than genuine risk thinking. This post looks at why these personal risk assessment tools are falling short.

The NSW Government has expanded its mental health strategy for first responders beyond emergency services to include Forestry Corporation, National Parks and Wildlife, and Transport for NSW workers, with 15 priority actions including psychological first aid training and peer support.

A practical, step-by-step guide to building a risk management framework that is consistent, well-consulted, and genuinely used across your business, from risk matrices and templates to training and continuous review.

Real risk management demands uncomfortable conversations, from challenging budgets to inviting external scrutiny. This post walks through how avoidance at each stage of the risk cycle lets latent risks grow unchecked.

Control verification usually checks whether a control exists, not whether the worker applying it actually understands it. This post argues for Worker-Centric Control Verification, assessing control complexity against worker capability.

Risk matrices routinely rate catastrophic, low-likelihood events as low or medium risk, letting them fall off the register unchallenged. This post explains why that happens and how to fix it by tying likelihood ratings to real control effectiveness.

Administrative controls and PPE are often written off as the weakest links in the hierarchy of control. This post shows how engineering solutions, from smart PPE to automated competency tracking, can make them genuinely reliable.

Beyond likelihood and consequence, risk velocity measures how fast an event escalates once controls fail. This post explains why speed of escalation should shape how you design and test controls for high-consequence work.

Not all controls fail the same way. This post introduces Control Failure Analysis, the questions to ask about fail-safes and detection, and why the speed of a control's failure determines how critical it really is.

A foundational guide to risk management covering ISO 31000, the hierarchy of control, SFAIRP, risk appetite, and the difference between basic and complex risk assessment methods like bowtie analysis and HAZOP.

Organisations often dismiss risks simply because they haven't happened before. This post examines how culture, ego-driven leadership, and thin consultation create blind spots, drawing on the Quebec Bridge collapse and Pike River Mine disaster.

Risk registers go stale without regular review. This post makes the case for broadbrush risk workshops that validate existing risks, surface emerging ones, and align senior leaders across safety, financial, and psychosocial risk domains.

Psychosocial risk frameworks often overlook the first responders, investigators, and safety professionals who deal with the aftermath of serious incidents. This post argues for higher-order controls beyond EAPs to protect them too.

Psychosocial hazards now carry the same legal duty of care as physical hazards. This post covers WHS obligations, the cost of psychological injury claims, ISO 45003, and what a compliant psychosocial risk register should contain.

Bowtie diagrams give a clear, visual picture of how a hazard escalates into an incident and which preventive and mitigating controls sit either side of it. This post introduces the method and its role in meeting WHS compliance requirements.

Many Safe Work Method Statements are generic, unreviewed, and never genuinely read by the workers who sign them. This post sets out the hard questions to ask to tell whether your SWMS are real risk management tools or just compliance paperwork.

Most dropped-object strategies stop at tools and equipment, missing stored materials, hung-up loads, structural failures, and environmental triggers. This post broadens the framework and sets out practical engineering and administrative controls.