SÄKU Conference 2023, 10-11/5

During May 10-11 2023 over 60 people made history by being part of the first ever SÄKU Conference! The weather and beauty of the venue were almost as beautiful as the curious, communicative and social SÄKU attendees.

Under the helpful and thought provoking hand of Dr Andrew Sharman - that facilitated the conference - the attendees got the chance to both work in group sessions and listen to special guest of honor Erik Hollnagel (the guru, the legend). Andrew's sessions were based around his book "From Accidents to Zero: A Practical Guide to Improving Your Workplace Safety Culture" with a focus on safety leadership, that the participants also recieved a copy of.

The last part was a panel discussion moderated by Andrew, consisting of Erik Hollnagel, Maria Björk (Lantmännen), Anna Gruffman (Vattenfall), Johan Lindvall (Swedavia), Bas Vennix (Stora Enso), and Per Renman (Boliden).

Thanks to everyone that joined and a special thanks to Andrew and Erik for being there for us, giving us tools and food for thoughts to be more human and to realize and inviting us to be part of the change of safety and safety thinking – the future of safety starts now!

In conclusion: the first SÄKU Conference, but definitely not the last!

Further down you can find material, photos and a video collage from the conference.

See you at the next SÄKU Conference!

About Andrew Sharman

Andrew Sharman is a Professor of Leadership and Safety Culture at the European Centre for Executive Development (CEDEP) at Fontainebleau in France, and also teaches at CalTech, the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California, USA, at executive education school IMD in Lausanne, Switzerland, and at the University of Zurich, Switzerland.

He has a reputation as a thoughtful, innovative, engaging orator and speaks extensively on the subjects of risk management, safety culture, leadership, and organizational behavior with corporations and NGOs. He has chaired or given keynote papers at more than five hundred professional development events around the world including the prestigious TED conferences.

About Erik Hollnagel

Erik Hollnagel has been challenging old and developing new views on safety for more than 30 years, which has put him at the forefront of international safety research and thinking.

Some of the areas and concepts that Erik has been developing are Safety-I and Safety-II, resilience engineering, and functional resonance analysis, to name but a few.

He has held several positions as a professor at several institutions all over the world and has written more than 500 publications, including twenty-eight books and numerous published articles, papers, and reports.

Material

Presentation

Erik Hollnagel's full presentation can be downloaded HERE.

Photos of the group work - Wednesday May 10

In the left picture you can see the three books by Edgar H. Schein that Andrew recommended - "Helping", "Humble leadership" and "Humble Inquiry". The book by Charles Duhigg that Andrew mentioned is called "The Power of Habit".

In the right picture is the result from the workshop sessions during day 1.

Photos of the group work - Thursday May 11

In the picture gallery below you can see the result from the five parallel group sessions that took place inbetween Erik Hollnagel's presentation. Above is the question each group got, and below the corresponding answer that each group produced.

The book that Erik Hollnagel mentioned during the panel discussion is called "About behaviorism" by Burrhus (B.F) Skinner.

Photo gallery

Video collage