Even in reducing catastrophic risks, he pointed out that it was the collaborative effort of all stakeholders that significantly reduced the number of fatalities in the mining sector from 81 in 2018 to 51 in 2019.
“There has also been a great uptake in digital technologies to reduce risk and boost production in the mining sector in the past five years,” he said.
“In a fast-paced and technology-enabled industry, the key question for leaders is: ‘Are we bringing the organisations along?’ This needs to be a top down process,” Pagnini said.
“In a mature organisational structure, engagement enables risk reduction. They are characterised by people making choices to work in a certain way rather than working to a set of rules. “Digitalisation brings solutions to the table that is contributing to risk management,” he said.
“If we look at mining, the mindset and beliefs are typical of a lower mature culture, where compliance still falls within the tick-the-box mentality.
“We are seeing a congruence gap between technological advantages and mindset,” Pagnini said.
In answering the question: What do leaders really do? Pagnini quoted John P Kotter, who said: “They don’t make plans; they don’t solve problems; they don’t even organise people. What leaders really do is prepare organisations for change and help them struggle through it.”
