Entrevistamos a Lawrence Waterman, Head of Health and Safety durante los Juegos Olímpicos de Londres 2012. Conoce a Nuestros Ponentes

Perfil Linkedin

· 

Tenemos la suerte de poder contar con un caso excepcional en nuestro II Congreso PRLInnovación, la experiencia de Lawrence Waterman, Head of Health and Safety durante los Juegos Olímpicos de Londres 2012. Un proyecto complejo que se compone de 3 fases: construcción de toda una nueva infraestructura, villa olímpica, estadios, comunicaciones; seguridad y salud durante los Juegos Olímpicos y finalmente la fase de convertir todo el proyecto en un legado para la ciudad que además de ser utilizado se convierta en un nuevo motor económico para la ciudad.

Durante su ponencia el próximo 7 de Marzo de 2014 tratará temas como la complejidad de los trabajos, la concurrencia de multitud de empresas y empleados, presupuestos, inversiones, liderazgo pero sobre todo como en un proyecto de esta magnitud se ha conseguido que no haya accidentes graves ni mortales.

A continuación una pequeña entrevista que nos ha concedido Mr. Waterman sobre la presentación que va a realizar en nuestro evento.

Could you explain to us about the Olympic Delivery Authority and in particular your role before, during and after the Olympics Games?

The London bid team was declared successful in Singapore on 6^th July 2005 (a date London remembers as the day before the train and bus bombs that killed 52 civilians and also the suicide bombers), and I was one of the early members of the Olympic Delivery Authority joining in November 2005.  From then through to the Games I was Head of Health & Safety for the organisation which invested over €10bn in infrastructure and venues, focused on the Olympic Park in east London but including other venues shooting facilities at Woolwich, the white water canoe centre north of the Park, the National Sailing Academy on the south coast and the Athletes’ Village adjacent to the Park.  So we were a design and construction client on a large scale.

At Games-time the ODA was responsible for facilities management, and I was seconded to the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games to address visitor/spectator safety.  After the Games I stayed working for the ODA as it continued to work on the Park and especially complete the Village for public housing, but I also took on the role of Head of Health and Safety for the London Legacy Development Corporation that is still engaged bin converting the Park into its legacy form.  The Park is now partly open, and will fully open to the public in Spring 2014.

We are aware of the complexities in a project with fixed deadlines, multiple companies working simultaneously and more than 46000 workers involved. What were the initials goals in terms of health, safety and well-being? Have your goals been achieved?

We set a high challenge to ourselves – no fatalities (the first major public construction project in the UK to be explicit in this, now it is the norm for large works), a lower than previously achieved reportable accident rate (we set a target of being below 0.1 or one such accident for every million hours worked – but we only managed this sporadically and our overall rate was 0.15) and an excellent occupational health service with no occupational disease (we had one reportable case of dermatitis).

Compared to past or recent similar projects, it’s well known that statistically there were fewer accidents on site compared to other large scale operations, making your health and safety record a huge success. Could you share with us the key to this success?

This is the key question, and whilst there isn’t a simple “silver bullet” answer, there is a series of answers which my paper will explore.  The key themes were leadership – visible, impactful, practical – and worker engagement, coupled with an excellent ill-health prevention focused occupational health service, and underpinned with an emphasis on reward and recognition.

This level of excellence could not have been achieved without strong leadership and an engaging strategy. How do you make the entire organization compromise and align with the Health, Safety and Well-being program?

The way in which leadership was established, encouraging and subsequently insisting upon participation by every major contractor working on the programme.  This was formalised in Project Leadership Teams on each individual project from the Stadium to landscaping, and an overarching Safety, Health and Environment Leadership Team attended by each project Director (contractors) and the senior staff from the ODA and our Delivery Partner.  Alignment is part of the story of leadership and worker engagement that I wish to share with your conference attendees.

Lawrence Waterman was Head of Health and Safety for the Olympic Delivery Authority for London 2012 from the autumn of 2005, leading on the construction of the venues and infrastructure.  He is unusual in the field, as a qualified occupational hygienist (a Masters from London University) and also a chartered safety practitioner.  During his career of over 35 years he has been President of the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health and worked on many major projects from the Channel Tunnel to his current work on Battersea Power Station, creating a vibrant new area in London of residential, commercial, retail and leisure.  He is also, currently, Head of Health and Safety for the London Legacy Development Corporation, converting the Olympic Park into its long-term position as a major London attraction that will host many national and global events including the Rugby World Cup in 2015 and the World Athletics Championships in 2017.  He is Visiting Professor at Loughborough University, School of Civil and Building Engineering.  In 2012 he was appointed OBE in the Queen’s Jubilee Honours for services to health and safety.