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In this episode of Risk! Engineers Talk Governance, due diligence engineers Richard Robinson and Gaye Francis discuss Culture, Criticality and Controls in terms of Ethics and Quality Assurance.

Starting from Thomas Kuhn’s idea of paradigm shifts, they look at why Australia’s defence exports are largely defensive and how that protective instinct is reflected in WHS legislation.

They also cover how splitting the world into narrow domains weakens decision-making, why the order of project success criteria changes stakeholder thinking, and why quality assurance is needed to confirm the controls actually work.

If you’d like us to cover a specific topic or have any feedback we’d love to hear from you. Email admin@r2a.com.au. For further information on Richard and Gaye’s consulting work with R2A, head to https://www.r2a.com.au, where you’ll also find their booklets (store) and a sign-up for their quarterly newsletter to keep informed of their latest news and events.

Summary notes

• 00:41 – The three Cs: culture, criticality, controls
• 00:56 – Paradigms and Kuhn’s generational change
• 02:33 – Australia’s defensive defence exports
• 05:15 – WHS intent and the protective culture
• 06:19 – Siloed domains and due diligence
• 09:15 – Budget as the last success criterion
• 09:59 – Quality assurance: did controls work?
• 11:16 – Compulsory voting and embracing culture

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In this episode of Risk! Engineers Talk Governance, due diligence engineers Richard Robinson and Gaye Francis discuss co-operation versus competition policy in project due diligence.

Drawing on the postgraduate course they teach at Swinburne University, they explain why projects so often go wrong; that being the objective was never clearly articulated, or foreseeable problems were never built into it. They look at how trust, transparency and having the right people in the room let clients and contractors share risk instead of fighting over it, and what is lost when corporate memory walks out the door.

If you’d like us to cover a specific topic or have any feedback we’d love to hear from you. Email admin@r2a.com.au.

For further information on R2A, head to https://www.r2a.com.au, where you’ll also find booklets (store) and a sign-up for their quarterly newsletter to keep informed of our latest news and events.

Timestamps

• 00:35 – Co-operation versus competition in projects
• 00:53 – Swinburne project due diligence course
• 01:16 – Why projects go wrong
• 03:58 – Trust as the basis of co-operation
• 05:07 – Right people in the room
• 06:00 – Trust-based builder example
• 09:45 – Corporate memory loss
• 11:30 – Transparency and shared protection
• 12:51 – Criticality and control: designing out risk

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In this episode of Risk! Engineers Talk Governance, due diligence engineers Richard Robinson and Gaye Francis discuss where AI can be used in Work Health and Safety (WHS/OHS).

They look at where it is likely to go rather than where it is now, including AI as a watchdog for control rooms and marine pilotage, and why small, locally run models may suit confidential client data better than cloud tools. They also cover AI in safe systems of work, who is accountable when AI informs board decisions, and why a convincing answer is not necessarily a correct one.

If you’d like us to cover a specific topic or have any feedback we’d love to hear from you. Email admin@r2a.com.au. For further information on Richard and Gaye’s consulting work with R2A, head to https://www.r2a.com.au, where you’ll also find their booklets (store) and a sign-up for their quarterly newsletter to keep informed of their latest news and events.

Show notes:

• 00:33 – Where AI is used in work health and safety
• 01:04 – AI as a watchdog: alarms, rail and ports
• 02:36 – Local small language models and data confidentiality
• 03:21 – Marine pilotage: a second set of eyes
• 07:42 – AI in SOPs and safe systems of work
• 09:26 – Accountability for AI-informed board decisions
• 10:28 – Why convincing answers aren’t always correct
• 12:00 – Why engineers need to keep up with AI