Last month I told you about the problems I had because the beautiful people interviewing for Qatar Airways were distracting my training. What I did not tell you last month was … the venue had a safety hazard. The hazard was temporary, and easily fixed, but that does not change the fact that it existed…. Read more »
Posts By: John
The Need for Contingency Plans
When I talk with people about process safety, one of my favourite examples is here (http://sache.org/beacon/files/2007/04/en/read/2007-04-Beacon-s.pdf). The very idea of a Mr PotatoHead hot air balloon coming down inside a factory is just … well … it is just silly enough to be ridiculous, but ridiculous enough to be credible. The article shows how the… Read more »
Please allow me to indulge in some self promotion
John has just been awarded the title of “Fellow” from the Institution of Chemical Engineers.
Cavitation
With the slowing of the economy, I am finding myself with a little free time. One way I fill it is by looking at technical discussion boards and (occasionally) participating. One caught my eye recently. A person was having problems with pump cavitation, and using an online discussion board was asking for solutions. It should… Read more »
The Value of Professional Associations
I recently received a bill for annual membership in a professional association. I am a member of four, and looking at the bill, I had to wonder … was I really getting value for money? In my previous life as an employee of a large company, my employer paid these fees, and I took them… Read more »
The Difficulty of Management of Change
If one does indeed “learn from our mistakes” then we recently have learned something. I would like to share it with you. Many of you are familiar with the concept of “management of change”, possibly from the US legal system for process safety. I have recently learned that it is extremely hard to manage change…. Read more »
Turning a Small Problem into a Big Problem
We hope the coming year is profitable and rewarding for you. This is the story of my last flight of 2012. It shows how one airline (who shall remain nameless) managed to turn a small, manageable problem into a very large problem. Small problems cost a little bit of money to solve, big problems cost… Read more »
Two Things
Two things recently happened to me. First, I just recently completed delivering a training course in the Middle East. It turned out to be a very very difficult assignment for me, simply because no one was truly thinking about the course. Now I am not saying my training is the most important thing in the… Read more »
I Found Another Paradigm Shift
When I first saw this, I thought – WHY? Then I started thinking … Why NOT? And then I tried it. I tried for novelty value, and was pleasantly surprised that it was not horrible. While not my first choice, I am sure there are people in the world that would make this their first… Read more »
What Should We Expect People to Know ie What is Normal
In my last newsletter I stated I had taken a new part time role at one of the local universities here in Melbourne. Most of my dealings have been with 3rd year engineering students, but occasionally I get to deal final year and postgraduate students. Remember, when dealing with students, they have been conditioned by… Read more »