Humanising Safety and Embracing Real Risk
Turning Neuroscience into Behaviourism I had to chuckle when I was sent this piece. One should normally expect leadership and professionalism from a peak body but in this case there is all the evidence of the opposite neuroscience-behind-how-workers-make-conscious-safety-choices. The key to leadership is discernment and wisdom and neither is shown in this regurgitation. The assumptions of this … [Continue reading...] about Turning Neuroscience into Behaviourism
Envisioning Risk in Canada As I landed in Vancouver enjoying the snow-capped Rockies and myriad of islands, I wondered about meeting the ‘safety heretic’. After landing with a smashed bag and seeking a replacement I meet Jeff Lyth and we chatted about falling out with ‘the faith’ and about worldviews. This was my first meeting with Jeff the Safety Heretic and I must say, I haven’t had so much fun … [Continue reading...] about Envisioning Risk in Canada
A Masters Degree in ‘Tick and Flick’ I was brought into an organization recently that has an induction process that defies all logic and research into learning and education. I find it astounding that people with no qualifications or experience in education and learning try to design inductions. Moreso, we often give this task to safety people who also have no expertise in education and learning a … [Continue reading...] about A Masters Degree in ‘Tick and Flick’
The Psychic Effect of Safety and What to Do About It One of the flow on effects of the politics of Safety is unconscious fear. I met a host of officials in safety associations recently and was overcome with the anxiety of some as we shook hands and exchanged pleasantries. I was due to stand up and give a keynote at NAOSH 2018 and the anxiety in demeanour by some was incredible. I might say something co … [Continue reading...] about The Psychic Effect of Safety
International Workshops - Belgium This is to advise of some special opportunities for people in Belgium to experience training and presentations in the Social Psychology of Risk. See details below: Belgium 2 & 3 July 2018 Dr Long will be presenting workshops in Leuven, Belgium on 2,3 July 2018. The focus of the workshop will be on: • Introduction to the Social Psychology of Risk ( … [Continue reading...] about International Workshops – Belgium
How Groupthink Works In light of the binary discourse that is floating about my last blog, Like A Collective Brain Snap, this may serve as a follow up. People often scratch their heads wondering why people do things and in exasperation and dismissal come up with the traditional stupidity/idiot causation scenario. This kind of binary […]
Until Nothing Changes in Safety The industry of safety becomes more and more fixed in its current trajectory through its linguistic practices, semiotic meanings and social reproduction. What does this mean? Humans are the sum of their social relationships and the language that is used to communicate identity. Safety articulates itself through a discourse of […]
Anchoring Safety to Objects Anchoring refers to a human bias that ‘holds’ to a view or position based upon how it was introduced and ‘sunk-cost’ associated with commitment to that position. Anchoring acts as a ‘fast and efficient’ heuristic that short cuts any need for challenge, questioning and debate and so empowers compliance. You can […]
Safety Surveying What You Already Know I received a post this week from someone who had conducted the typical orthodox safety survey. There are many such surveys on the market, all infused with STEM-only assumptions about materialist-rationalist safety. As I looked through the survey results and analysis there was nothing stated or measured that organisations […]
New Video Explains Cognitive Dissonance and Safety Rob has been requested a number of times to explain cognitive dissonance and so has made a brief video for this purpose: https://vimeo.com/202589604 You can also read a blog about cognitive dissonance here: https://safetyrisk.net/risk-and-safety-starts-with-being/ Cognitive Didssonance from Human Dymensions on Vimeo. More Cognitive Dissonance In Risk and Safety […]
Human Dymensions Feb17 Newsletter and Competition Understanding Emergence The idea that organisations ‘drift’ into failure is not the language I would use to explain why things go wrong in organisations. Neither do I use the language or discourse of ‘human error’ or ‘human factors’ in explaining how humans in organizing tackle risk. The coupling of […]
