9 Great Reasons Why You Should Stop Doing Hazard Inspections

9 Great Reasons Why You Should Stop Doing Hazards Inspections

Rob Sam’s recent article: How I Feel About Risk was posted on a few LinkedIn Groups. It was initially well received, but, almost as expected, the conversations have degenerated into discussions about the best ways to do hazard inspections and audits.  I am not knocking people who do this for what they believe are the right reasons. Traditional safety demands this approach in the legislation and teaches it to us in the training.  But hazards are only things and objects and they are not harmful unless people interact unsafely with them. When we spot a hazard we are applying our subjective imagination of what could happen if somebody engaged with it or recalling incidents from our personal experience or learning regarding what these hazards may have done to others in the past. We then suggest controls from the hierarchy and think all is safe. However, there are many more “hazards” in the workplace that we cannot possibly see on a traditional hazard hunt.

Here are 9 great articles which you should read before your next hazard inspection. The authors would be happy hear your feedback and answer any queries:

Conducting a Psychology and Culture Safety Walk

Conducting a Psychology and Culture Safety Walk Not to be confused with the Gemba Safety Walk! Safety walks, observations and conversations are foundational to managing safety in organisations. Site walks, office walks or whatever you want to call them are a critical strategy in ‘management by walking around’. You can’t assess or address assumptions, beliefs, values and …… Read the rest of the article

Making Objects Safe or People Safe

Making Objects Safe or People Safe   I often ask people in risk and safety training as my first question, ‘When you walk on site, what are you looking for?’ It was no different this week and I got the usual answer ‘hazards!’ A number of people in the group had many years as inspectors, auditors and …… Read the rest of the article

Risk is About People, not just Objects

Risk is About People, not just Objects Latest article by Robert Sams – See all of his brilliant articles here The focus of so much of our attention today in health and safety is on ‘risk assessment’. Walk into any workplace and talk about health and safety and it is likely that someone will pull out a …… Read the rest of the article

The Art of Humble Enquiry as a Pathway to Safety Improvement

Gab Carlton’s first article republished by demand. Seems to be a topic of interest at the moment. With 43 comments, one of our most popular articles.  The message here is so simple yet contradicts orthodox and contemporary safety education, training and practice: “telling is more risky than asking”, “We see ‘asking’ as a ‘weakness’ or ……Read the rest of the article

Gab & Rob Talking Risk – Humble Inquiry

Gab & Rob Talking Risk – Humble Inquiry Gab & Rob are often asked to share more about how they go about things when supporting people and organisations to deal with risk. People ask for practical tips and ideas for how they can become better communicators in risk and safety. In this series of ‘Gab & Rob …… Read the rest of the article

Safety Engagement with Workspace, Headspace and Groupspace

Safety Engagement with Workspace, Headspace and Groupspace – Toward Total Safety Organisation So much of what we do in safety takes its focus on workspace. We call this the physical or ‘primary’ dimension of safety. This is easy to administer and regulate because what is required is visible and accountable through checklists matched to regulations. Most …… Read the rest of the article

The Stress Observation Safety Dilemma

Have you overrated your Safety Observation Skills?. Article by Dr Robert Long. If you liked this article then you should read the whole series: CLICK HERE. I highly recommend you check out Rob’s new book “RISK MAKES SENSE” The Stress Observation Safety Dilemma I recently conducted a MiProfile survey with 22 middle managers in a construction company …… Read the rest of the article

Ten Cautions About Safety Checklists

A checklist for checking your use of checklists Ten Cautions About Safety Checklists See also: Making Objects Safe or People Safe (Dr Rob Long), Risk is About People, not just Objects (Rob Sams) Whilst value of checklists is well documented by Gawande (The Checklist Manifesto) and others, there is rarely mention by proponents of the downside of …… Read the rest of the article

Hind-sight, Risk Savvy and the Unexpected

Hind-sight, Risk Savvy and the Unexpected People often talk about the “benefit of hind-sight”; but does hind-sight prepare us to manage the unexpected? Hind-sight – it is a good thing right? It helps us make sense of the world right? It sometimes gives us the courage to continue right? These things are …… Read the rest of the article