‘I’m human – I make mistakes. What I learn from my mistakes is my true achievement.’

Some may call this a bold statement to make on social media, but I feel it’s true and should be said proudly. 

At Shell, health and safety is a topic of the upmost importance at all levels of the organisation—not just operational health and safety, but personal health and safety as well. Once a year we hold a safety day—a day which offers everyone across Shell an opportunity to reflect, to listen, to discuss and to continue learning from one another about how we can do more to keep ourselves and those around us safe. Given the current external environment, this will no doubt resonate with all of us even more, both personally and professionally.

The themes of this year’s safety day are Human Performance and a Learner Mindset. The past few months have shown the value of both of these—things that I absolutely believe in and have been reflecting on over the last few weeks.

My family, friends and colleagues – past and present - have probably heard me say many times that I encourage each and every person to be bold, to be creative in their ideas and to try to do things differently but safely. In some cases, things may not go to plan or they simply don’t work. That is okay. How we react—our Learner Mindset—is just as, if not more important. In these cases, learning from our failures and turning them into something positive is the real goal. This is something that I live by and that I hope to have instilled in my children as well.

Every year, I actively encourage all Shell office-based colleagues to spend safety day visiting our stations to hear directly from our Service Champions what works well and what needs to be changed. This year, many of the conversations took place virtually, but I am fortunate in that the current lockdown rules in Hungary allowed me the opportunity to visit my local service station yesterday to speak with the team and to thank them for their dedication and service. I then spent the following day doing the same in virtual sessions with teams from China, Pakistan, South Africa and America. It was truly heartening to hear everyone’s personal stories about dealing with the challenges that Covid-19 has brought, both personally and professionally.

Keep learning and stay safe. Thanks for reading.

István