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Fatality Free Future® Podcast
The program and podcast for safety
We want to see a world where people go to work and come home safely every day.
Over the past decade, more than 1,880 people have lost their lives to traumatic injuries in Australian workplaces. More than 1.16 million workers have made serious compensation claims involving extended time off work (Safe Work Australia, 2024).
We believe these incidents are not inevitable. With the right focus, strategies, and support, they are preventable.
Our mission is simple. To help individuals and organisations focus on what really matters, building safer routines, stronger strategies, and ultimately, saving lives.
The Fatality Free Future® podcast is hosted by Safety Leadership Coach John Barclay and Content Developer Holly Ferguson. We discuss with experts SIF history, ideas and research while providing practical examples, hearing real-world examples and imparting tangible take-aways for listeners to implement in their workplace.
Bookmark the Fatality Free Future® page for quick access to episodes and all the tools and materials we talk about in each episode. barclayss.com/fatality-free-future/
Episodes
30 episodes
How RiskTalk’s Voice Technology Is Transforming Safety Culture
In this episode of the Fatality Free Future podcast, John Barclay and Holly Ferguson speak with RiskTalk founders Stuart Farquharson and David Press about how their voice-led app is transforming risk assessments and safety conversations. They u...
Beyond Compliance: Rethinking Critical Control Verification
In this episode of Fatality Free Future, John Barclay and Holly Ferguson talk with Alan Stevenson about why workers are still dying at work despite “high compliance” numbers. Using data from Safe Work Australia, they unpack the most common fata...
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Seeing Only 45%: The Hidden Gap in Hazard Recognition
In this episode of the Fatality Free Future podcast, John Barclay and Holly Ferguson talk with Alan Stevenson about why even experienced supervisors only identify around 45% of workplace hazards. They explore a practical hazard typology (obviou...
Rethinking Pre‑Employment Medicals: Mark Armstrong on Fit4Work
In this episode of the Fatality Free Future podcast, John Barclay and Holly Ferguson speak with Mark Armstrong, founder of the Fit4Work screening tool and a specialist in physical performance and ergonomics. Mark shares how a client’s frustrati...
Five Brave Seconds: Theo Venter on Safety, Survival and Purpose
Survivor and safety speaker Theo Venter joins John Barclay and Holly Ferguson to share how a routine job and a split-second decision led to a 22,000-volt electrocution that should have killed him. Theo talks through the moment he ignored his gu...
The Incident That Changed Everything: John Barclay’s Story
In this Season 3 opener of the Fatality Free Future podcast, Holly Ferguson speaks with John Barclay as he revisits the workplace fatality that reshaped his life and career. John shares his experience as a young emergency responder, the impact ...
Safety 1, Safety 2, HOP & More: Is there a right choice? | Fatality Free Future S2 #12
In the Season 2 finale, we explore the growing noise in the safety space as different principles such as HOP, New View, Safety Differently, and many others continue to emerge. This conversation unpacks the confusion that can arise when multiple...
Monitoring Safety beyond TRIFR | Fatality Free Future S2 #11
In this episode of the Fatality Free Future® podcast, we unpack how TRIFR is calculated, why decades of research show it has little relationship to fatalities, and how bonus structures and reporting rules can unintentionally drive under‑reporti...
Applying the Integral Model to Serious Injury and Fatality Risk | Fatality Free Future S2 #10
Ken Wilber’s Integral Model is used to describe “the theory of everything.” In this episode of The Fatality Free Future® podcast we unpack how this model can be used as a practical safety tool. John Barclay uses his real field examp...
Bridging the Gap Between HR and Safety | Fatality Free Future S2 #9
The Human Resources and safety worlds have a tendency to steer well clear of each other. Renowned HR professional James Cooper is working to change that. He believes strongly in the importance of HR and Safety departments collaborating toward a...
What are the key capabilities leaders need? | Fatality Free Future S2 #8
When we look at performance in safety, leadership consistently emerges as a key element for success — relying on systems alone is not enough. This success comes from a set of core leadership capabilities, which we explore in this week’s episode...
A Learning-Led Approach to Incident Investigations | Fatality Free Future S2 #7
Incident investigations are often conducted under time pressure, removed from the people involved, and influenced by the unconscious biases of the investigator. James Sullivan is a facilitator and coach who delivers HSE investigation training t...
Holding Powerful Prestarts | Fatality Free Future S2 #6
Prestarts, they’re an essential meeting held daily before shifts in high risk work but how often are these meeting engaging and actually achieving what they set out to achieve? Alan Stevenson has been in plenty of prestarts over the years, he n...
The Hierarchy of Controls | Fatality Free Future S2 #5
It’s a model that anyone in the safety space would know, the Hierarchy of Controls. In this episode we look at how the HoC model helps us understand critical controls and how they’re working within the critical risk management framework. How ca...
Behind the scenes of SIF research with Ellen Downs Part 2 | Fatality Free Future S2 #4
We’re back with Ellen Downs to discuss her involvement in a research study that looked at the causes and correlations of serious injury and fatality events and how these differ from events resulting in lesser injuries. In this episode she discu...
Behind the scenes of SIF research with Ellen Downs Part 1 | Fatality Free Future S2 #3
On this podcast you often hear us discussing research in the space of serious injuries and fatalities. We go through what the research found and how the outcomes reflect our workplaces. But we were curious about what it would be like to conduct...
What’s difference between complexity and complicated? | Fatality Free Future S2 #2
Complex and complicated, they’re words that are used interchangeably but it’s important we get that distinction right; especially in relation to serious injuries and fatalities. In this episode of the Fatality Free Future podcast safety leader ...
Leadership Routines | Fatality Free Future S2 #1
Welcome back to the Fatality Free Future podcast for season 2. Our mission with this podcast is to increase the conversation around serious injuries and fatalities in the workplace. In this episode we’re looking at leadership routines and how w...
Beyond Blame, Using Behavioural Science to Engage Meaningfully | Fatality Free Future #12
In the final episode of Fatality Free Future, John Barclay and Holly Ferguson unpack the role of behavioural science in preventing workplace fatalities. They explore the environmental and systemic factors influencing behaviour, clarify...
The Power of Storytelling in Safety: Fatality Free Future #11
John Barclay and Holly Ferguson are joined by safety innovation consultant Dorit Ozchakir to explore how storytelling can drive a fatality-free future. Drawing on her background in business psychology, Dorit shares insights from research and ex...
Leadership That Builds Trust | Fatality Free Future #10
In this episode, John Barclay and Holly Ferguson explore the critical role of leadership in shaping a Fatality Free Future®. They unpack how leaders can model and communicate core values, especially around safety and planning, and why two-way c...
The Role of Culture in SIF Prevention | Fatality Free Future #9
Let’s unpack the critical role culture plays in preventing fatalities. In this episode John explores the difference between fixed and growth mindsets and defines culture as “the way we do things around here when no one’s looking.” John challeng...
The Key to Effective Governance and Measurement | Fatality Free Future #8
In this episode of the Fatality Free Future® podcast, John Barclay and Holly Ferguson chat with Lean Management expert John Sibbon about the role of governance and measurement in safety.John explains why frontline...
Identifying Serious Injury and Fatality Signals | Fatality Free Future #7
In this episode of the Fatality Free Future® John Barclay and Holly Ferguson discuss precursors and amplifiers. Precursors are events that precede an incident, often involving high-risk activities and ineffective controls. Amplifiers are change...
Establishing Critical Controls as a Standard Work Practice | Fatality Free Future #6
On episode 6 of the FFF podcast John Barclay and Holly Ferguson bring back Alan Stevenson to discuss critical controls. Alan explains the distinction between controls and critical controls using the ICMM's guidelines. He highlights the importan...
