All You Love is Need This is the title of the Tony Walter’s book on the challenges of materialism, which of course has an interesting reverse play on words from the Beatles classic hit ‘All You Need is Love’. Walter’s book highlights the nature of necessity, needs and wants, the key determinants of … [Read more...] about All You Love is Need
How to Make Safety Culture Myths True
We know that knowledge of mythology is an essential aspect of understanding culture, except in the safety industry. At the foundation of all myth sits an element of truth that is symbolised and made true by a group, regardless of the evidence. This is certainly the case in the many myths that … [Read more...] about How to Make Safety Culture Myths True
Building Belief and Networks of Belief in Safety
You can pretty much believe anything you want these days. No evidence is needed to believe in the divinity of Donald Trump when you are in the MAGA cult . The MAGA cult is no different than any other cult. And, the outcomes will be much the same (Understanding Cults and Religions). Beliefs and … [Read more...] about Building Belief and Networks of Belief in Safety
The Harm You Cannot See
One of the most profound deficiencies of the zero-harm cult is its focus on the physical. The zero-vision quest is a quest to count visible injury rates with no expertise to understand the nature of social-psychological and cultural harm. An example of the kind of harm I am talking about was … [Read more...] about The Harm You Cannot See
It’s Business as Usual in Safety
It’s Business as Usual in Safety Recently the SIA released a report ‘The Business Case for Safe, Healthy and Productive Work’ (Nov 2014). Commissioned by Safe Work Australia and the SIA the work is authored by the International Governance and Performance Research Centre at Macquarie University. The … [Read more...] about It’s Business as Usual in Safety
Investigations and Trauma
One of the profound gaps in the training of people in safety is a lack of awareness of human ‘being’. With so much focus on hazards and so little focus on persons, Safety counts injury rates, hazards and regulations as if persons are not connected. The fact that Safety names Psychosocial Health as a … [Read more...] about Investigations and Trauma
Methods and Tools are not Skills in Tackling Risk
One of the important things we focus on in SPoR is skill development. This involves considerable unlearning and re-learning. We find most who come to our courses and programs have been indoctrinated with safety ideology that places a focus on objects not subjects. It doesn’t take any skill to count … [Read more...] about Methods and Tools are not Skills in Tackling Risk
Fixated on the Positives in Safety
The fixation of the non-safety differently group on the positive, creates a new language of avoidance. The words one mustn’t speak in this new language are words like: ‘blame’, ‘fault’, ‘fallible’, ‘mortality’, ‘deficiency’ or ‘defective’. The idea that one shifts focus from only learning from … [Read more...] about Fixated on the Positives in Safety
The Complacency Concoction
Someone posted this on our Discord group yesterday and I had thought that Safety had grown up beyond this nonsense. Why is it that safety continues in this useless meaningless myth when it has no idea what complacency is. Complacency is one of those silly safety terms used to project blame on … [Read more...] about The Complacency Concoction
You Get What You Expect in Safety or, How the Burden of James Reason’s Ideology Bogs Down Safety
In safety, your ideology/methodology drives expectations, procedures, systems and behaviours. This week we saw the release of the report into the HMNZS Manawanui accident. HMNZS Manawanui ran aground off the coast of Samoa shortly before 7pm on October 5 2024 and caught fire. The ship sank on … [Read more...] about You Get What You Expect in Safety or, How the Burden of James Reason’s Ideology Bogs Down Safety