Good HSE is about the negative; great HSE is about the positive.

In a world filled with new and exciting prospects and processes; I still believe that the best lessons that we can use to keep us safe can be found in past events. The question I have is not if they should be used, but how we can communicate them.

I was lucky enough to spend a portion of my career in the oil & gas industry on various drilling rigs throughout the world from the freezing North Sea to the sweltering heat of Africa. Wherever he or she is based, an oil & gas worker gets used to regional differences; but we all drill wells to very similar operating norms.

All of those operating norms were set within the context of what was referred to as 'safety'. What that safety looked like was a constant stream of flashes, alerts and notices of unplanned events that had resulted in loss on other drilling sites.

Each morning at a pre-tour meeting these safety soundbites would be read out by the safety advisor, and then posted on a noticeboard somewhere close to the boot room or galley (both locations promise high footfall). Once confirmation had been sent onshore that the relevant alert had been read out and posted, they would invariably be lost to time and never seen or talked about again.

Coming from a high performance background in the security and sports arena (neither of which had the money of the oil & gas industry), this approach never failed to confused me. The leaders, managers and coaches I had worked with in the past were undeniably successful (far more than some of the teams I worked with in oil & gas) but they would never use failures in order to inspire success.

What would happen in the security and sports world was that failures would be processed into a playbook that would also contain all of the lessons that were derived from when things went right. This balanced approach created positive development that was willingly adopted and practised by choice, not by order.

What was more refreshing was, because we didn't just concentrate on loss and failure, the process of learning and improving was an enjoyable experience. This meant we were eager to go to weekly team meetings because we were uplifted.

With that in mind, if you are someone who believes the best way to keep your workforce safe is by reminding them of how easily things can go wrong, then why not consider a different approach? You may get better results by reminding your workforce of how easy it is for things to go right. Let's inspire perfect play...