As we close out another week, today, May 1st, offers a timely moment to reflect. Traditionally recognised as May Day, it has roots in ancient spring festivals celebrating renewal, fertility, and the land. Communities welcomed summer, blessed livestock heading to pasture, and honoured nature’s cycles.
In more modern times, it evolved into International Workers’ Day, born from 19th-century labour struggles for fair hours, safe conditions, and workers’ rights, like the 1886 Haymarket events. For LCS Project Solutions as compliance management consultants, it’s a fitting reminder to consider the environments we help create for our client teams, the standards we advocate, and our shared responsibility to protect them.
This reflection challenges us to ensure safety, respect, and renewal remain at the heart of our work and our clients’ actions.
Let’s dive in.
Monday – Kick-off
The week started with a site compliance tour across the narrow stretch of water between the mainland and the Isle of Wight, known as The Solent. This was followed by a short bike ride along the River Medina path to site. A fulfilling conversation ensued about what it means to be a tier one contractor and the pressures inherent in the role.
Closer to home, planning advanced for the next day’s team day, alongside further development of client safe systems of work for various projects and the continuation of further refinements to a significant accident investigation as more information becomes available requiring further deliberation.
Following the morning’s activities, the senior management team (Leon and Lee) convened the monthly planning meeting. They reviewed this month’s activities to identify gaps between client and our expectations versus what was delivered, all for the purposes of continued improvement.
Tuesday – Team Day
Team day! What does this mean? It began with an early start and a drive to Oxfordshire for an 07:30 site arrival to extract every ounce of efficiency from the day. This drive was different. Lee witnessed a road traffic accident, assisting one person from their vehicle and clearing the road so others could pass safely. Lee noted, “It is astounding the efforts people make to navigate around a significant accident, only to create more hazards and risk in the process.”
On arrival, just a little later than planned, we greeted the team, witnessed a fire drill to test systems, and addressed everyone on health and safety matters. This led into a site tour ahead of the bi-weekly progress meeting. The afternoon focused on assisting the management team to review and update systems before new trades commenced work.
We also conducted a site compliance inspection in Bournemouth, likely the final tour as the site nears completion. This two-year commitment involved a new build followed by demolition of the no-longer-required structure.
There’s more! We developed a training presentation for a longstanding client and reviewed a new client’s current health and safety system ahead of creating their action plan.
Wednesday – Learning from Reality
One team member was back in the classroom, delivering day one of the CITB SMSTS Refresher course for our training partners, MS Associates (Safety) Ltd. Site managers must refresh their knowledge at intervals not exceeding five years. For some, this may be their final course as retirement approaches, good for the individual, perhaps less so for the industry. This merits its own reflection later.
Onwards: three site tours completed, two planned, one reactive for initial fact-finding on an incident from the previous day. The first was to Porton Down for our weekly safety check on the deconstructing of no-longer-required temporary buildings. Good work and control demonstrated by the team and contractors.
Next, the reactive incident visit, fortuitously located between the two planned tours, with no serious outcome. Regardless of circumstances, such incidents must be investigated proportionately. This identifies gaps, informs measured responses, and avoids blame. When things tick along nicely and we pat ourselves on the back, we learn little or nothing. It’s a sad human truth that we generally learn from failure. Another reflection for future planning!
Finally, the third tour of the day and week. This project nears completion, so greater emphasis falls on what truly matters, not what’s perceived as easy. Good work, team.
Thursday – Training Triumphs & Team Sync
Day 2 of the SMSTS course completed. We are delighted to say all delegates passed. Well done to the delegates, Leon, and MSA.
Alongside the training, we held our weekly in-house remote team coordination meetings. These are vital for updating what the team is working on, the challenges they are facing, and the successes achieved. We are a hands-on organisation, not through micromanaging, but by providing support to unlock our team’s potential and help them find their own solutions.
We also continued background research for the two ongoing investigations, further developed client safe systems of work, and advanced a client’s ISO 9001 Quality Management System ahead of their upcoming stage one audit. This included a team catch-up to review recent updates. Exciting times for them and us!
Friday – Stoic Visitor & Wrap-Up
A lovely surprise today! The master of ‘keep-on keeping-on’ phoned Lee this morning and asked, “What are you up to?” The reply: “At my desk, coffee?” Within the hour, the rumbling tones of an in-line 4 motorcycle engine signalled Mr Bishop’s arrival. What followed was a two-hour conversation over coffee. The discussion covered health, safety, wellbeing, and resilience, with a touch of Stoic philosophy: Epictetus, Seneca, Marcus Aurelius, and modern practitioners like Ryan Holiday, Gabor Maté, and Tony Robbins. These aren’t just chats; they spark reflection that turns into action for our clients’ benefit.
Alongside this stimulating visit, we drafted the first issue of the incident report from Tuesday’s fact-finding mission and issued it for comment. We continued providing client-focused CDM guidance across their projects and tackled vital month-end (or month-beginning) administrative functions.
Closing Thought – Stoic Virtues in Action
Mr Bishop’s visit reminded us of Stoicism’s four cardinal virtues—wisdom in our incident investigations, courage when speaking up at sites, justice through fair systems for clients and teams, and temperance in balancing our hands-on support without micromanaging.
Week 17 embodied these, renewal through May Day roots, learning from reality, and turning reflection into safer sites.
What virtue will guide us into Week 18?
