Understanding Harm Minimization As much as Safety might wish it, the real world is not binary black and white. Sometimes the most caring thing to do in a fallible world with fallible people is simply keep harm to a minimum. Harm minimization is the course of action that puts care at the centre of … [Read more...] about Understanding Harm Minimization
Robert Long
Paper Safe is not Due Diligence
Paper Safe is not Due Diligence Next Due Diligence Workshop: Due Diligence Workshop Sydney 20,21 February 2019 I met Bob yesterday, a Construction Manager deeply shaken by an incident that happened on site with the possibility of multiple fatalities. Like many incidents in building and … [Read more...] about Paper Safe is not Due Diligence
Zero Suicide and the Discourse of Denial
Zero Suicide and the Discourse of Denial One of the most unhelpful and ignorant approaches to suicide prevention is evidenced in the Zero Suicide movement (https://zerosuicide.sprc.org/ ). We see in this insane delusion with the zero discourse the: denial of death, denial of fallibility, denial … [Read more...] about Zero Suicide and the Discourse of Denial
The Advisor as Skilled Helper
The Advisor as Skilled Helper The idea of ‘helping’ is essential to the professions (Susskind & Susskind., The Future of The Professions 2015). However, the absence of the language of ‘helping’ in the safety industry is not surprising. When the goal is zero and the activity is counting where is … [Read more...] about The Advisor as Skilled Helper
Zero, A Framework for Psychological Bullying
Zero, A Framework for Psychological Bullying There can never be an Ethic of Risk as long as the safety industry is wedded to the ideology and discourse of zero. How can one be moral to another person when one denies fallibility in goal setting? Of course zero is not a SMART goal anyway! (See … [Read more...] about Zero, A Framework for Psychological Bullying
Human Dymensions Newsletter–June 2019
Special Focus on Personhood and Risk You may remember that in the April newsletter I discussed the body-mind-brain problem. This was in follow up to the feature of the October 2018 Newsletter on an ‘ethic of risk’. At the foundation of an ethic of risk is the nature of personhood. Unless we … [Read more...] about Human Dymensions Newsletter–June 2019
There is Nothing more Imaginative We can Do in Safety
Imagination is the bedrock of any risk assessment yet the risk industry is so silent about it. When it comes to risk assessment it’s not likely that the things we already know are going to hurt anyone. It is always the unseen risks, the things that we can’t imagine that tend to hurt people. Indeed, … [Read more...] about There is Nothing more Imaginative We can Do in Safety
Censorship in Safety
Censorship in Safety One doesn’t have to look hard to find censorship in the safety industry. Simply look at what vocabulary and semiotics are available to the industry and what is suppressed and there is the evidence. Similarly, look at the propaganda, smoke and mirrors, taboos and rituals and, … [Read more...] about Censorship in Safety
The UnKnown Unknowns of Due Diligence
The UnKnown Unknowns of Due Diligence One of the challenges in understanding Due Diligence for safety people is clouded by the Dunning-Kruger Effect . Put simply, Dunning-Kruger explains a cognitive bias that all humans have in not seeing their own blind spots, particularly in relation to … [Read more...] about The UnKnown Unknowns of Due Diligence
Safety only for the Rich and Powerful
Safety only for the Rich and Powerful We see today that safety is only for the strong, wealthy and powerful (https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-01-25/victorian-junkyard-woman-sentenced-to-jail-over-death/10746110?pfmredir=sm). If you run a small business and can’t afford safety or lack competence in … [Read more...] about Safety only for the Rich and Powerful