CANSO Global Safety Conference 2025 – putting the just in Just Culture
The CANSO Global Safety Conference 2025 will be hosted by Airways New Zealand. As we approach the event, we had a conversation with Kim Nichols, General Manager Safety & Assurance of Airways New Zealand on what it means to be a host this year and the principles of Just Culture.
Kim specialises in safety, governance, change and safety culture. Since joining Airways in 2010, she has integrated Airways’ governance functions for safety (health and safety and operational safety), audit and risk management, security management and analysis, advisory and regulatory assurance. Kim has led the creation of the integrated Airways Safety Management System, encompassing the CANSO standard of excellence, CAA Rule Part 100 and the Health and Safety Act 2015. Becoming a Just Culture Champion in 2015, Kim’s focus is on embedding a safety culture that enables positive reporting, accountability and learning. Kim is also the Crisis Manager for Airways. She is also part of the Global Safety Network for CANSO, a participant in the NZ Business Leaders forum and a member of a number of risk and audit forums.
During the CANSO Global Safety Conference you will be participating in a discussion on Just Culture – a key pillar of effective safety management. Could you tell us what prompted Airways NZ to refresh its Just Culture Framework, and what were some of the biggest insights from this review?
Just Culture is a fundamental building block of Safety Culture, you could argue the most important pillar. Three factors that triggered this review:
- Our approach to continuous learning – as part of our periodic review mindset, it was time to review it again and sense check our thinking.
- Safety Culture review – we embarked on a three-and-a-half-year Safety Culture review. While safety culture scored well, the safety culture review did identify some areas for improvement which included ensuring a consistent understanding of what Just Culture is and how it is applied at Airways.
- Change in CEO – when a leader changes, it is important to ensure the leadership culture of the new CEO is reflected, including the demonstration of Just Culture by updating the CEO commitment, otherwise the framework does not remain relevant.
Some of the biggest insights were that our safety culture has matured to include more emphasis on the positive actions, behaviours and decisions and to ensure Just Culture is utilised as a framework across the continuum. It reconfirmed the criticality of our industry partners of NZALPA and AMEA, and that we are better together and finally, it has totally reinforced that Just Culture for us is a way of working, woven into the fabric of our everyday culture.
The title of the session is ‘Just Culture Refresh: A Global View of Safety Management Systems’ (SMS) Maturity Assessments,” which suggests that the review of Airways NZ’s Just Culture Framework is tied to assessing and improving the maturity of Safety Management Systems (SMS). Since Just Culture is a critical component of SMS, it seems relevant to ask how organisations evolve their safety frameworks over time. From your perspective, what common challenges do ANSPs face when evolving their SMS maturity, and how can they overcome them?
Evolving SMS maturity can be challenging, with a number of competing priorities, one key barrier is not having a growth mindset, which is essential for fostering a proactive learning culture. We shouldn’t have to demonstrate the benefits through a serious accident or incident, instead a safety-led mindset should drive continuous improvement, aligning with the evolution of systems, technology and our people.
Another major challenge is resource prioritisation – whether it is people , finances or systems. While it’s normal for ANSPs to want to focus resources on maintaining efficient operations, it is equally important to ensure that safety remains central to that growth. Ensuring that safety continues to be a core element within operational priorities supports long-term success and resilience.
The third challenge is regarding exposure to evolving both the systems and practises. Some companies do not want to communicate the maturity of their SMS for fear of loss of confidence in their people or company. Additionally, some safety professionals don’t have exposure to people who can help. This is where networks, such as the CANSO Safety network is so critical to create awareness, education and networks to evolve SMS across the globe, with the absolute focus of safety.
How does involving industry partners and external experts, (like Dr. Hillary Bennett), help shape a stronger and more effective safety framework?
It is fundamental to involve industry partners and external experts as the sum of the parts creates the whole, not one induvial component. The diversity of thinking, experiences and looking ‘up and out’ enables us to be the best we can be, capitalising on a wealth of knowledge and ways of operating. Whether it is NZALPA, AMEA, CANSO, NZ Business Leaders H&S Forum, Dr Chris Henry, Dr Hilary Bennett to name a few. Without these industry partners and external experts our perspective would only be internal and one dimensional. We value our industry partners and external experts who help guide, shape and ultimately contribute to a safer aviation system.
As Airways NZ takes on the role of host for this year’s CANSO Global Safety conference, what does this event mean for your organisation and the wider aviation community in New Zealand?
It’s a very exciting time for Airways and the broader aviation community of New Zealand – not to mention the host city of Christchurch, which has had its fair share of crises. We are beyond thrilled to be hosting and sharing our kiwi culture with the very important delegation of safety professionals from across the globe. It means everything to us that CANSO would entrust us with this honour. New Zealand is a small country, with a very large contingent of aviation operators from large aircraft operations to smaller tourist operations. Whilst our native bird, the kiwi doesn’t like to fly, a lot of New Zealanders do!
What are you most looking forward to during the conference, and what do you hope attendees will take away from the discussions ?
I am most looking forward to delegates being involved in conversations across a breadth of topics to share their experiences, learn and help enable maturity of safety within the aviation system – after all, we all fly and we all want to get their safely, whilst supporting those people who make this happen.
My hope is that attendees get value for them out of the conference to take back to their organisations and realise that we are in it together.
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