Conference Speaking
Inviting Fresh Perspectives to Safety Conversations
“Your work health and safety program has been successful, and you’re proud of your team. However, there are occasional lapses and your messages are becoming stale. It may be time to regroup and reframe the discussion on work health and safety.”
If this is happening with you, consider inviting someone new who can adapt their message to fit your organisation’s culture and capture your peoples’ ‘hearts and minds’. And make your safety meetings fun.
Simon Sinek says start with your WHY.
My WHY is that I believe everyone should be able to finish their day’s work in a healthy and safe condition – whatever the work and wherever the work is being done.
My HOW is that I put PEOPLE at the centre of work health and safety conversations.
Work is something we do – not just a place we go. Work safety is not just about laws and policies and procedures – it’s about people. The ‘old tried and true’ approaches don’t work anymore (if they ever did!).
My WHAT is that I see work safety as a journey. I help people navigate that journey, to understand and hopefully accept the ‘why’.
How David became a presenter and trainer
David McIvor started his training career as a professional SCUBA instructor. After forming his own SCUBA instruction company, he was appointed National Examiner of Australia’s Underwater Instructor Federation and as such, one of only three CMAS (World Underwater Federation) 4 Star Instructors in Australia.
He has been instructing, training, mentoring and consulting ever since.
David McIvor’s Experience and Approach to Work Safety
International Reach
David McIvor delivers engaging safety and risk management programs across diverse industries and organisations. David has presented his health and safety messages across Australia and internationally, including New Zealand, the UK, USA, Canada, Malaysia, the Asia Pacific – and even in Brazil.
Unique Perspectives
David McIvor uses novel concepts that simplify workplace health and safety and make safety concepts practical and memorable. Some of his most recognised frameworks are the ‘Two-Sided Triangle’, the ‘OHS/WHS Bicycle’ and ‘OHS & IR – The Hidden Agenda’.
Philosophy and Training Style
David uses interactive, people-focused presentations to engage participants in workplace safety, emphasizing human behaviour, risk perception, and underlying causes of unsafe acts. He sees unsafe actions as results of issues like workplace pressure and unclear procedures, not as root problems themselves. David encourages moving beyond simple compliance, promoting positive attitudes and ownership among employees to make OHS/WHS more relevant.
His keynote addresses and workshops are designed to “put people back into work safety”, making the concept of OHS / WHS more relevant and less of a regulatory burden.
The Two-Sided Triangle explains that while initiatives to boost productivity and quality usually require employees to work harder for organisational or customer benefit, health and safety programs focus on them doing something for themselves. Balancing productivity and quality programs with health and safety is essential for effective performance.
The OHS/WHS Bicycle is a dynamic metaphor, illustrating how health and safety issues of concern to people form the rear wheel, whilst people-issues and leadership represent the front wheel. As with a bicycle, the rear wheel drives the bicycle forward – but it is the front wheel that determines the direction of the bicycle. Both ‘wheels’ must work together to move safety forward.
In “OHS & I.R. – The Hidden Agenda”, David McIvor defines the W/OHS component of a workplace issue as that which can be resolved by using the OHS/WHS Management Process to agree on the facts – by identifying hazards, assessing risks and determining controls (as per the hierarchy of controls). Aspects of an issue that can’t be resolved by this process, may constitute the elements of an industrial or workplace issue – and eventually a dispute. The best time to resolve an OHS/WHS issue is in the early stages, when the Health and Safety Management Process can be used most effectively.
David McIvor’s ‘laws’ of Health and Safety in the workplace are:
- You can never resolve an industrial issue, by pretending it’s OHS/WHS.
- An OHS issue that goes on long enough unresolved, WILL become an industrial issue. (It’s just a matter of time!)
Here is what some people say about their experiences of working with David McIvor – the Work Safety Speaker
They say the true value of a program or service isn’t what the creators say about it — it’s what the people using it have to say. Feedback from our clients highlights the memorable and thought-provoking nature of David’s training sessions, which are credited with fostering genuine behavioural change that extends well beyond regulatory compliance. His distinctive training style emphasises people, behaviour, perception, and workplace culture rather than simple rule-following.
“David captivates audiences with a confident presence that commands attention and respect.”
