On Mission to Strengthen Leadership in Process Safety!

Everyday life is filled with signals. A faint smell of smoke in the kitchen, a strange noise in the car engine, or a colleague’s hesitation in a meeting. These small warnings often go unnoticed until they become bigger problems. Trish Kerin has built her life’s work around helping people recognise and act on such signals before they lead to tragedy.

Based in Melbourne, Australia, Trish is the Director of Lead Like Kerin Pty Ltd. She guides organisations in high hazard industries where rare but catastrophic events, like explosions or fires, can change lives in an instant. For her, leadership in these spaces is not about paperwork or procedures alone. It is about cultivating awareness, responsibility, and the courage to address weak signals early.

Her approach is rooted in a belief that process safety is not just a technical discipline but a human one. Leaders who understand their systems deeply are better equipped to protect both livelihoods and lives. Trish teaches them to look past the obvious and pay attention to subtle patterns that might otherwise be missed. These lessons extend far beyond factories or plants. Weak signals show up in every aspect of life, and learning to notice them can strengthen decision-making everywhere.

Trish’s journey in high-risk environments has given her unique insight into how leadership can prevent harm. Her work supports a global drive to protect people from the devastating impacts of process safety failures. Through her guidance, organisations learn that safety is not just about rules, but about leadership that listens, observes, and acts with care.

The Power of Storytelling Through Diving

Trish’s journey as a Recreational SCUBA Instructor formed one of the most defining aspects of her work. During her training, she learned the importance of using storytelling to share meaningful messages. In every dive briefing, instructors were encouraged to take students on the dive verbally before they entered the water.

This practice of setting clear expectations heightened the diving experience by creating strong engagement. That engagement opened the door to deeper awareness of the surroundings and sharpened observation skills, which naturally sparked curiosity.

Through these experiences, Trish discovered the impact of storytelling as a tool to inspire awareness and exploration, an approach that continues to influence her core message to audiences today.

The Dive That Defined Determination

Trish was taught early in life that relentless competence combined with determination can overcome almost any obstacle. This belief shaped both her professional journey and her passion for diving. It was this same drive that led her into the world of cave diving, where she eventually qualified as a cave diver. Among her most remarkable and demanding experiences was a trip to the remote outback of Western Australia, home to some of the finest cave diving sites in the world.

One of the most challenging dives of that expedition took her to a place called “The Rock Pile” inside Cocklebiddy Cave. The dive tested her limits both mentally and physically. After committing more than five hours underwater, she surfaced briefly in an air pocket, running close to her turnaround time. In that moment of exhaustion and doubt, she considered giving up. She shared her thoughts with her dive buddy, deciding to wait in the silence of the cave while they continued toward the goal.

What she did not expect was the revelation that awaited her. When her buddy returned, they told her the finish was only a 10-meter swim away. Trish had already completed 99.5 percent of the journey. With her training, perseverance, and courage pushing her forward, she decided to continue. That day, she reached “The Rock Pile.”

The experience left a lasting impression on her. It proved that determination and skill can carry a person through even the most demanding challenges. To this day, Trish keeps a photograph of herself in Cocklebiddy Cave on her desk as a daily reminder that she can achieve whatever she sets her mind to.

Finding Purpose in Safety Leadership

One of the greatest challenges in safety leadership, Trish explains, is that incidents which never occur cannot be counted, making it very difficult to measure true success.

She often describes working in safety as similar to striking one’s head against a brick wall each day. Most days it only causes pain, but on rare occasions the wall begins to crack. For Trish, those moments represent the positive impact she has made in improving safety outcomes.

What keeps her connected to her purpose is the human side of her work. When someone reaches out through an email or a conversation to share that her words shifted their perspective and offered them guidance, she finds it deeply rewarding. Such feedback affirms the value of her efforts and strengthens her commitment to creating safer environments.

Storytelling Through Curiosity

Trish uses storytelling through a lens of curiosity. From a young age, she created, honed, and refined stories to share important messages. Coupled with her curiosity as an engineer, with a constant desire to understand why and how, she shaped messages in ways that people hear and remember.

As a speaker, storyteller, and natural communicator, she has also worked on defining how she tells stories. Through this journey, she has focused on helping others learn key techniques that can enhance their own skills in communication and storytelling.

A Lasting Impact Through Leadership

Trish attends many networking events, and while they often feel similar, there was one that left a lasting impression. During this occasion, an accomplished engineer approached her to share a personal story. They recalled hearing her speak four years earlier in another country. 

The words she delivered at that time had influenced the way they approached safety leadership. Since then, the individual had moved to a new country and advanced in their career, a journey they credited to the shift in perspective inspired by Trish’s message.

Embracing Safety as a Continuous Journey

For Trish, safety is never the destination. It is always a journey. With this belief, she remains curious about new paths that may offer meaningful stories to build a keynote upon. Her openness to experiences encourages her to seek diverse opportunities, helping her challenge traditional speaking methods and design her own tools to strengthen audience engagement.

Trish also values the importance of listening to other keynote speakers. By observing how they shape and transform the speaking landscape, she continues to learn, adapt, and enrich her approach to creating impactful connections with her audience.

Speaking with Awareness and Connection

Trish delivers keynotes to audiences across the world, which requires a deep awareness of diversity. She adapts her style, speech, and at times even her language, to create a meaningful connection while respecting cultural sensitivities. 

For her, it is equally important to lock eyes with people in the audience, address them directly, and acknowledge their response with sincerity.

Guided by Mentors and Shaped by Collaboration

Trish has been privileged to work alongside some remarkable safety leaders, including Dame Judith Hackitt. From Dame Judith, she learned the importance of speaking directly to resolve an issue with clarity and purpose.

She considers Keren Rambow an extraordinary mentor who helped her recognise her own value and encouraged her to step forward and explore new opportunities. Over the span of two decades, Margaret Donnan AM has been both a trusted friend and a guiding influence, recognising Trish’s strengths and supporting her growth.

Her journey has also been enriched by her involvement in the Science and Technology Australia Superstars of STEM program. Through this platform, she found a strong network of peers who provided encouragement and support.

In addition, she co-hosts the award-winning podcast Process Safety with Trish and Traci with Traci Purdum. This collaboration has allowed her to share her message with a wide and diverse audience, while also discovering new ways to communicate with impact.

Inspiring Safer Choices Through Reflection

On the Process Safety with Trish and Traci podcast, Traci Purdum often concludes the recordings by asking the audience to reflect with the question, “What would Trish do?”

Trish hopes to continue inspiring people to think more deeply about their own influence on safety outcomes. She encourages individuals to reflect on their choices, especially in challenging situations, by considering how she might respond. Through this approach, she aims to create a stronger impact on safer decisions and better behaviors.

Power of Vulnerability in Storytelling

Trish develops stories that are deeply rooted in real-life experiences, making them relatable and meaningful. She believes that impactful storytelling requires a balance of authenticity and vulnerability, allowing her audience to leave with the belief that they have the ability to change how they work and interact with others.

For Trish, vulnerability is a strength rather than a weakness. When stories are viewed through a lens of vulnerability, they encourage curiosity and lead to stronger outcomes that focus on prevention. This approach creates an environment where more people return home safely each day.

Every story she creates carries a clear call to action, guiding her audience on how they can take steps to bring about real change. Through this process, her storytelling becomes more than words, it becomes a catalyst for transformation.

 The Platypus Philosophy: A Framework for Managing Weak Signals

Trish developed a framework for identifying and managing weak signals called The Platypus Philosophy®. This approach helps people distinguish between the signals that require attention and the noise that can be set aside, using the platypus as both a metaphor and an action plan.

Her vision is that individuals across the world embrace The Platypus Philosophy®, apply the idea of “Find your platypus” each day, and use it to prevent incidents.

Quotes:

“Trish believes that impactful storytelling requires a balance of authenticity and vulnerability, allowing her audience to leave with the belief that they have the ability to change how they work and interact with others.”

“Trish values the importance of listening to other keynote speakers. By observing how they shape and transform the speaking landscape, she continues to learn, adapt, and enrich her approach to creating impactful connections with her audience.”