Embracing Differences

Enclosed space risks have been haunting many high-risk industries for decades. The maritime industry has not seen much change with deaths and injuries in enclosed spaces despite our best efforts to control the risks. What are we focusing on and what are we missing?An open conversation with two persons - both ex-seafarers and now working as insurers for a reputable insurance company. We get personal and so you can hear their stories and relate with them. 

One of the least understood responses in an investigation is when we hear someone say ‘I don’t know’. It is considered a sign of incompetence and ignorance. It is a source of shame and stigma for those being investigated.  Online session:https://novellus.solutions/mec-events/sporonline2026/Accident Investigation workshop https://novellus.solutions/mec-events/accident-investigation-program/Read my book:https://nippinanand.com/learning-from-accidents/It is the biproduct of living in a rational society. Years of research and practice has helped me realise that ‘I don’t know’ has little to do with competence or ignorance. If at all, it reflects our own ignorance and not the one being investigated. 

After an accident, we create a narrative to give meaning to misfortune. these narratives are packed in the discourse of science and they claim to prevent future recurrences (formal investigation reports) and learn from accidents?But to what extent are these narratives true? can they really prevent anything? do they help us to learn from accidents? here's my talk at the Library of Accidents in Edinburgh drawing upon examples from the Costa Concordia and the US Airways 1549. both the narratives are underpinned in myth although they are presented as 'scientific and objective' truths.

This podcast is an open-ended conversation with Dr (Captain) Bikram S. Bhatia about how he became interested in researching seafarers hours of rest and work. From family expectations to workplace realities, it is Bikram's search for meaning and purpose. It is a lesson in understanding that our questions and our curiosity cannot be separated from our research. The formal and the informal; the subjective and the objective; the researcher and the research are always in a dance. I always imagined this conversation to be a cafe chat between two ex-mariners - informal and replete with stories of past ships. I could have titled this podcast many things:👉 A personal conversation with a social scientist 👉 The inside story of ‘objective research’👉 The myth of the scientific method (a great reading)👉 Stop saying I'm unbiased👉 The power of storytelling But I chose to call it ‘The Confessions of a Researcher’. From enclosed space fatalities to seafarers fatigue and mental health, the maritime industry tries to hard to claim authority and win trust through evidence-based research. And yet, it is often in our vulnerabilities and our stories that we bring people together and create opportunities for unlearning, learning and change. I found this conversation with Bikram deeply personal and relatable to my own life stories. I hope someone standing their midnight watch in the middle of the ocean will listen to this podcast and find meaning and hope in this story. Visit our website for more info: www.novellus.solutions

This podcast is about understanding the central role of language in understanding and influencing culture change. Both Dr Nippin Anand and James Pomeroy are uniquely positioned in this space and they offer some practical insights rooted in practice through their background, experiences, and research.

For a great part of my working life, I have been experiencing and researching enclosed space deaths and injuries. Here’s a humble attempt to bring some of these risks together in the most concise and accessible manner. This podcast is about framing the problem with our current approaches and offering some questions to think about how to address the enclosed space risks. 

Bureaucracy generated by excessive audits and inspections has reached a stage that it leads to high-consequence accidents at sea. Ships go aground and collide at sea not despite but BECAUSE of audits. Professor Michael Power at the London School of Economics calls it ‘Audit Explosion’ - the rising trend towards audits In this podcast, Kristine Storkensen and Nippin Anand discuss the 'Audit Explosion'. Together they explore:What makes the maritime industry susceptible to audit explosion?What is the (hidden) agenda behind audit explosion?How audit explosion undermines its own purpose (ie risk and safety at sea)?What can we learn from other industries and work sectors to address these issues?See a short video from Kristine Storkensen that beautifully captures the message.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4-MXnA_oQoListen to a previous podcast on this topic:https://open.spotify.com/episode/2owjmNqXmCbiw0UtUqhskl?si=WBZxl6uWTNqsXK6AajJvTw

In this podcast, Nippin tells the story of a seafarer who doesn’t want to go home after being on the ship for 6 months. Nippin asks him why? It’s such an exciting time for a seafarer to go home. Listen what this seafarer has to say. It is a beautiful example of why we should learn to shut up and listen. 

A short story about why the notion of just culture is deeply problematic, flawed and without a basis for either culture or justice. 

Less than a month ago, the long-awaited 𝗪𝗮𝗸𝗮𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗼 𝗮𝗰𝗰𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁 was released by the Court of Investigation, Mauritius. The report cites the following as the primary causes of the accident:1) crew negligence to sail close to the island to obtain the phone signal, 2) consumption of alcohol by the captain before groundingand,3) the chief officer not using the appropriate large scale chart when navigating close to the coast.Both the captain and the chief officer have been charged with gross negligence and culpability. The investigation authorities have formally requested the administration to withdraw captain's certificate of competence.It is rather unfortunate that a 223-page comes to this convenient conclusion. In this podcast, I present an alternative view of the accident. Instead of a simplified narrative that is directed at blaming the crew members, I have made an attempt to question the methodology (and the language) used in the accident report and illustrated the biases and assumptions of the investigation team in analysing the accident and compiling the report. In my view, all the three contributing factors that led to the accident presented by the investigation agency are highly questionable, and when we dig deeper, we come to a very different conclusion of this accident.About me:Dr. Nippin Anand is the Founder and CEO of Novellus Solutions, a consultancy specializing in human-centred approaches to learning, risk and social decision making. He is a former master mariner with an MSc in Economics and a Ph.D. in Social Sciences and Anthropology. Nippin brings a Transdisciplinary lens to the challenges of work and organising spanning: the humanities, social psychology, mythology, semiotics, anthropology and philosophy.

In this conversation, Nippin and Frank delve into the significance of safety culture within organizations, emphasizing the need for a holistic approach to risk management. They discuss the importance of communication, listening, and understanding language in fostering a positive culture. The conversation highlights the impact of miscommunication and the necessity of reflection in improving organizational dynamics. Through experiential learning and practical exercises, they aim to enhance cultural intelligence and promote better relationships in high-risk environments.The podcast was produced to promote a workshop on Safety Culture in Calgary from 20-21st October. the details about the workshop can be found here. https://novellus.solutions/mec-events/culture-and-risk-intelligence/

Where do you look for the meaning of words? Dictionaries, I guess? Word meanings are not to be found in dictionaries; words meanings are found in metaphors. All language is metaphorical, and we don’t just speak metaphorically, we live by our metaphors.  In this podcast, David and Nippin compare a handful of metaphors in Banking and Maritime. Through this comparison they realise that words don’t just create worlds, but they also create divides between worldviews. Too often, we miss a crucial point in organising - you cannot organise me and I will never become part of your organisation if we don’t share the same worldview. Such is the power of metaphors. 

In this podcast, I discuss the impact of binary and absolute slogans on perception and behaviour, by drawing upon "Context is everything" as an example. These slogans undermine critical thinking and promote an absolute view where individuals are rendered powerless. I share a case where a workshop participant criticised my methods for not addressing structural issues, highlighting the industry's focus on efficiency over empathy. I emphasise the importance of critical thinking, challenging assumptions, and recognising the dialectical relationship between context and behaviour. I encourage listeners to be mindful of slogans and to embrace change and learning.

In this podcast, I share some thoughts about the limitations of root cause analysis as a method (or a tool) for investigations and audits based on a social experiment. Linear, deductive reasoning has many limitations because it seeks simplistic answers to ethical and political problems that are inherently messy, non-linear and largely operate in the unconscious space. You can read my blogs and books if you wish to go deeper into this topic.

a conversation with Bryce Boehmer where we discuss how to understand culture. We are setting up a workshop in Calgary on 20-21st October and this podcast provides an outline for the workshop program.Culture cannot be understood through definitions and propositions; culture is lived and experienced through observations and conversations.In this podcast, Nippin explains to Bryce how to make the familiar strange and the strange familiar through immersive, experiential learning that is termed as Semiotic Walks. As part of this workshop, we will visit a church, a Buddhist monastery and the Ikea Store in Calgary to feel and experience culture. Through these two days of experiential learning we will gain the wisdom and insights to become strategic and deliberate about organisational culture and culture change.

Often people involved in accidents will tell us that the process of accident investigation was far more stressful and even traumatic than the experience of the accident. Our models and methods of investigation end up causing more harm than good to people.In this video, we will learn how to reconcile trauma, healing and learning in an accident investigation not only from the point of view of those involved but also for those responsible for investigating the accidents. How do we reconcile learning and healing? Give this podcast a listen. This video follows from my years of research and practice and a book that I have recently published titled, Are We Learning from Accidents? The book is based on the true story of the passenger ship Costa Concordia that went aground and resulted in the death of 32 people off the coast of Italy in 2012. You can find out more about the book by visiting my website:https://nippinanand.com/You can find out more about our future events by visiting:https://novellus.solutions/events/

Do you believe in Zero Harm? Is that your goal for avoiding injuries and ensuring safety of your people? Is that an expectation imposed upon your organisation?Here is a true story and an attempt to challenge the Zero Harm ideology prevalent in almost all safety critical industries. Earlier this year, I interviewed a seafarer whose brother went missing at sea. We don’t know under what circumstances Captain Mathew (name anonymised) went missing or, if you like, what was the cause of this accident. Unfortunately, the sea does not provide many answers but this painful story, told from his brother’s perspective who also happens to be a seafarer, reveals the dark side of the Zero Harm ideology. There’s a lot of debates and discussions in the risk and safety industry whether Zero should be a goal or not. There are practitioners, academics and researchers who believe that there is nothing wrong with having Zero as an aspiration. I hope that this story will serve to slow people down and think about how a seemingly aspiring goal translates into practice in global shipping. I call it a true story but it is shaped by my biased and subjective views. True only to the extent that some may find resonance with this story while others find it deeply uncomfortable.This story touches upon several themes:The unintended effects of absolute and binary goalsWhy perfection (Zero) cannot be a goal to motivate fallible humans.Why compassion, empathy, listening and understanding cannot coexist with absolute and binary goals?Why safety inspections, audits and investigations are so far from an objective exercise?And finally, the entire culture of the risk and safety industry is based on the idea of harm aversion. The power of this story lies in understanding how the ideology of harm aversion translate into practice. More specifically, absolute goals such as Zero Harm lead to more harm in a risk-averse society.  This story was first published in the book, 51 stories in Culture, co-authored by Dr Nippin Anand and Dr Robert Long. Link to the book: https://novellus.solutions/product/51-stories-in-culture-to-live-and-to-be/

Many organisations declare safety as one of the values in the vision and mission statements. Can safety be a value?When fallible humans conduct high risk operations, there is no certainty that people will not get injured. When people do get injured we have failed to live by our values.In this video, instead of making an argument, we will use a personal story to illustrate why safety cannot be a value.This is Embracing Differences and I am Nippin Anand (PhD), a former ship captain and an anthropologist.

This podcast is based on the work of the American Anthropologist Ernest Becker's perennial thesis - 'the denial of death'. In this podcast, Professor Sheldon Solomon explains how death anxiety, which is unique to the human species, leads to a quest for meaning, self-esteem and cultural worldviews. Solomon explains why it is so important for us take an interdisciplinary approach to understanding culture and why we must synthesise the wisdom of ages and sages and combine it with science if we truly want to make sense of human behaviour. YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecYC_Y1UnE8

In less than 12 hours, President Trump blamed that DEI was behind the Washington mid-air collision. How did Trump connect so many dots at the speed of light and establish what went wrong with such conviction? And why do so many buy into this DEI ideology as the cause of the accident? In this podcast, I suggest that the president is using fear of death to heighten public anxiety, create a divide and spread hatred in the society.  We will discuss: Why do humans fear death? How do we react and how do we relate with others when we are confronted with death? How does this explain President Trump’s reaction to Washington midair collision?