COMET has launched The Risk Factor, a podcast series bringing open conversations about safety, risk and innovation to professionals working in high-risk industries.
The series was created in response to a gap COMET sees across the sectors it works in. Conferences and webinars often reward polished delivery, but the conversations that create change and spark innovation often happen informally, between people willing to be honest about the challenges they face and open about how they are trying to solve them.
Each episode starts with a single question or challenge, and pairs it with guests who can speak from direct experience rather than from a framework.
Steve Holmes, COO at COMET, commented, “We invested in this because the people doing this work deserve somewhere to be candid about it. There is no shortage of published guidance in our sectors. There is very little honest discussion of what happens when that guidance meets a live operation, a stretched team and a decision that has to be made now."
Over the past few months, The Risk Factor has recorded three conversations with people who've spent their careers close to risk, investigation, mental health and technology.
Episodes available now
Episode one follows the career of Alan Smith, COMET's head of investigations, who spent thirty years as a detective before moving into industrial investigation. He talks about what changed when he stopped looking for who to blame and started looking for why something happened, and why a clean incident record isn't the same thing as being safe.
Listen to episode one
Episode two asks whether workplace mental health support helps people or protects the organisation's reputation. Jim Grimmer spent twenty years in the police and twenty years in oil and gas before founding P3 Business Care, and he talks with Craig Smith about the gap between the policy an organisation puts on paper and what proactive support looks like day to day.
Listen to episode two
Episode three looks at how fast organisations are adopting AI, and whether leadership understands what it's deploying or trusts that it works. Arrash Nekonam is joined by Jaye Deighton, Global Head of ICT and Innovation at Peterson Control Union, and Steve Shearman, COMET's own CTO, for a conversation about the pace of change and who's accountable for it.
Listen to episode 3
Make sure you catch up on all three before the next episode lands.
The Risk Factor is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube.