Training and culture - lessons from aviation

In the building sector, competence has never been under greater scrutiny. High-profile incidents and tightening regulations have made it clear that safety isn’t just about compliance, it’s about ensuring your people have the skills and knowledge to do the job properly. And if you believe, like I do, that safety is a positive by-product of doing a job well and of a well-managed system, you will already be investing in training.

Training should not be seen as a luxury or a tick-box exercise, rather it should be seen as an essential investment in creating safer buildings.

My own background is in aviation, an industry where safety is non-negotiable. In aviation, I saw firsthand how training can transform an organisation’s approach to the understanding and management of risk. I don't mean simply how we taught procedures but how we built confidence and competence. Aviation taught me that safety is dynamic, requiring constant learning, adaptation and improvement. The building sector, with its critical responsibility for people’s homes and lives can benefit from these lessons.

Training also plays a vital role in shaping the culture of an organisation. Too often, we see "training" listed as a barrier in risk assessments but in reality, every active barrier relies on trained people to make it work. The question isn’t whether training is needed but what training people need to enact those barriers effectively. When people are well-trained, they don’t just follow the plan, they understand it, execute it with care and contribute to improving it.

At Cascade Risk, we have taken these principles to heart. Our training courses draw on the lessons learned from aviation, tailored specifically for the built environment and are proven to have a positive influence on the culture. Whether it’s writing building safety cases, managing live safety systems or embedding effective risk management, our courses are designed to empower your team to meet today’s challenges with confidence.

Its easy to talk of culture and culture change within the sector but what does it really mean?  Culture is ultimately about the habitual behaviours that form into recognised and repeated patterns throughout an organisation, meaning we have to change our behaviours if we want to influence the overall culture.

At Cascade Risk, we are attempting to shift the dial on culture by supporting organisations to inculcate the right behaviours and that often starts with training.

Learn more about how we can help here.