Just yesterday I was told, again, that if If don't believe in zero harm then I must want people to get hurt and therefore have no right to be in safety! Our recent article on the problems with “fire and brimstone safety” stirred up some debate about the ineffectiveness of negative safety stories and … [Read more...] about Safety as Faith Healing
Stop the Train I Want to Get Off
Stop the Train I Want to Get Off I accepted a job this week to research amongst other things; suicide, near miss and other events in rail (good luck Dumb Ways to Die). I am working with a provider who has all the National data on the subject. As with any research project one must start with … [Read more...] about Stop the Train I Want to Get Off
Safety Leadership
Safety Leadership is not the Basics – 20 Suggestions of Where to Start A very popular one from the archives When you do a search on the internet for 'safety leadership' the first hit that comes up is a QLD Government handout, a ‘toolkit for safety leadership’ Can you imagine what the zero harm … [Read more...] about Safety Leadership
Safety Investigation – Whodunit?
Safety Investigations - Whodunit? Nothing is better for a successful TV series than a whodunit. The popularity of CSI and a host of shows demonstrates how much we like to be clever in hindsight. In safety investigations it’s a whodunit, whatwasdunit, howtheydunit and, whytheydunit. When I look at … [Read more...] about Safety Investigation – Whodunit?
Acceptable Risk as a Decision Making Process
Acceptable Risk as a Decision Making Process By Dr Rob Long We should all know that the assessment of risk is a subjective process, determined by hundreds of social and psychological factors. The idea that risk assessment is a rational process via assessment of frequency, consequence and severity … [Read more...] about Acceptable Risk as a Decision Making Process
Safety Fundamentalism
Is there such a thing as safety fundamentalism? The concept of fundamentalism was originally coined in reference to a rigid theological movement in the USA in 1905 upholding the literal interpretation of the Bible. More generally, fundamentalism refers to rigid ‘faith like’ exclusivity in thinking … [Read more...] about Safety Fundamentalism
Safety as Avoidance
Safety as Avoidance The language of ‘error’ is unhelpful when it comes to understanding human judgment and decision making. One can assemble pyramids of ‘unsafe acts’ and ‘unsafe conditions’, fault trees of ‘active and latent failures’, maps of ‘violations’, ‘slips’ and ‘missed barriers’, sets of … [Read more...] about Safety as Avoidance
Online Inductions and Safety Effectiveness
I visited an organisation last week which was very excited about their new online induction process as it meant that new employees can “hit the ground running” and has freed up their safety people. It was obvious that induction, to them, was just a necessary evil and a process to tick off rather … [Read more...] about Online Inductions and Safety Effectiveness
An Introduction to Semiotics and Risk
An Introduction to Semiotics and Risk This video gives a brief introduction to semiotics and the unconscious in communication and decision making about risk. The video gives a visual and verbal overview of signs, signifiers, signified and significance, the foundation of semiotics. Through a study … [Read more...] about An Introduction to Semiotics and Risk
Supernatural Safety
Supernatural Safety Talking about the supernatural is not in vogue these days. The membership of the church is in rapid decline, there’s no longer ‘scripture’ in schools and the history of unethical behaviour by the clergy has put religion ‘on the nose’. So there’s not much talk of miracles, … [Read more...] about Supernatural Safety