• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Safety Risk .net

Humanising Safety and Embracing Real Risk

  • Home
    • About
      • Privacy Policy
      • Contact
  • FREE RESOURCES
    • FREE SAFETY eBOOKS
    • FREE DOWNLOADS
    • TOP 50
    • FREE RISK ASSESSMENT FORMS
    • Find a Safety Consultant
    • Free Safety Program Documents
    • Psychology Of Safety
    • Safety Ideas That Work
    • HEALTH and SAFETY MANUALS
    • FREE SAFE WORK METHOD STATEMENT RESOURCES
    • Whats New In Safety
    • FUN SAFETY STUFF
    • Health and Safety Training
    • SAFETY COURSES
    • Safety Training Needs Analysis and Matrix
    • Top 20 Safety Books
    • This Toaster Is Hot
    • Free Covid-19 Toolbox Talks
    • Download Page – Please Be Patient With Larger Files…….
    • SAFETY IMAGES, Photos, Unsafe Pictures and Funny Fails
    • How to Calculate TRIFR, LTIFR and Other Health and Safety Indicators
    • Download Safety Moments from Human Resources Secretariat
  • PSYCHOLOGY OF SAFETY & RISK
    • Safety Psychology Terminology
    • Some Basics on Social Psychology & Risk
    • Understanding The Social Psychology of Risk – Prof Karl E. Weick
    • The Psychology of Leadership in Risk
    • Conducting a Psychology and Culture Safety Walk
    • The Psychology of Conversion – 20 Tips to get Started
    • Understanding The Social Psychology of Risk And Safety
    • Psychology and safety
    • The Psychology of Safety
    • Hot Toaster
    • TALKING RISK VIDEOS
    • WHAT IS SAFETY
    • THE HOT TOASTER
    • THE ZERO HARM DEBATE
    • SEMIOTICS
    • LEADERSHIP
  • Covid-19
    • COVID-19 (Coronavirus, Omicron) Health and Safety Slogans and Quotes for the Workplace
    • Covid-19 Returning to Work Inductions, Transitioning, Safety Start Up and Re Entry Plans
    • Covid-19 Work from Home Safety Checklists and Risk Assessments
    • The Hierarchy of Control and Covid-19
    • Why Safety Loves Covid-19
    • Covid-19, Cricket and Lessons in Safety
    • The Covid-19 Lesson
    • Safety has this Covid-19 thing sorted
    • The Heart of Wisdom at Covid Time
    • How’s the Hot Desking Going Covid?
    • The Semiotics of COVID-19 and the Social Amplification of Risk
    • Working From Home Health and Safety Tips – Covid-19
    • Covid-19 and the Hierarchy of Control
  • Dr Rob Long Posts
    • Learning Styles Matter
    • There is no HIERARCHY of Controls
    • Scaffolding, Readiness and ZPD in Learning
    • What Can Safety Learn From Playschool?
    • Presentation Tips for Safety People
    • Dialogue Do’s and Don’ts
    • It’s Only a Symbol
    • Ten Cautions About Safety Checklists
    • Zero is Unethical
    • First Report on Zero Survey
    • There is No Objectivity, Deal With it!
  • Quotes & Slogans
    • Researchers Reveal the Top 10 Most Effective Safety Slogans Of All Time
    • When Slogans Don’t Work
    • 77 OF THE MOST CLASSIC, FAMOUS and INFAMOUS SAFETY QUOTES
    • 500 BEST and WORST WORKPLACE HEALTH and SAFETY SLOGANS 2021
    • 167 CATCHY and FUNNY SAFETY SLOGANS FOR THE WORKPLACE
    • COVID-19 (Coronavirus, Omicron) Health and Safety Slogans and Quotes for the Workplace
    • Safety Acronyms
    • You know Where You Can Stick Your Safety Slogans
    • Sayings, Slogans, Aphorisms and the Discourse of Simple
    • Spanish Safety Slogans – Consignas de seguridad
    • Safety Slogans List
    • Road Safety Slogans
    • How to write your own safety slogans
    • Why Are Safety Slogans Important
    • Safety Slogans Don’t Save Lives
    • 40 Free Safety Slogans For the Workplace
    • Safety Slogans for Work
You are here: Home / Risk Aversion / Choosing a Safety Consultant – A Defensive Decision?

Choosing a Safety Consultant – A Defensive Decision?

November 3, 2016 by Admin 16 Comments

Choosing a Safety Consultant – A Defensive Decision?

A blast from the past – first published on this day in 2015

A new client complained the other day that they had engaged, with some confidence, a large National Safety Consulting Company to complete a traffic management plan. But, the consultant who turned up was a recent graduate who admitted that this was the first time they had done a traffic management plan! My client was assured by the company, when he agreed to the quote, that they were “experts in the field”.

Having once worked for a consulting firm I know how they will do all they can to secure a contract and then worry about how they will service it! – I know you will find that hard to believe???

This is a quandary faced by many and a colleague once drew the analogy of getting your car serviced – do you take it to the dealer with the big flash show room and expensive prices and probably have most of the work done by an Apprentice or, do you take it the old guy who has been a mechanic for 40+ years and works on his own, out of his shed and charges 1970’s prices or, do you go to individual specialists for each component ie suspension, gearbox, tyres, engine etc.

Most would choose the dealer (especially if they can afford it or someone else is paying!) – Gigerenzer, in “Risk Savvy” calls this “Defensive Decision Making” – choosing the safer option rather than the best one. For this very reason, the Medical profession may over prescribe, over treat and over refer from fear of being sued. Next time your Doctor recommends a treatment, ask him/her what they would advise a relative (ie someone who wont sue him). No risks, no errors, no creativity, no imagination, no innovation, no!

Gigerenzer links this with risk aversion and the anxiety of making errors. he says:

“If you work in middle management of a company then your life probably revolves around the fear of doing something wrong and being blamed for it…………..A system that makes no errors is not intelligent”

Traditional safety does not allow us to make errors but tells us the safest and least risky way that things must be done – this is not how we learn or progress –

I’d love some feedback from other about how they choose a safety consultant or even where defensive decision making hampers what you would like to do. Do you go with the risk savvy, experienced, sole trader or the multi national consulting firm where safety consultants are like a box of chocolates and the rates are double or more?

Leave you comments below and please provide name and contact details for anyone you would recommend.

Please share our posts

  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)

Related

Filed Under: Risk Aversion, Safety Leadership, Workplace Safety Tagged With: safety consultant, safety consultants

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Search and Discover More on this Site

Visit Count – Started Jan 2015

  • 23,941,079 Visitors

Never miss a post - Subscribe via Email

Enter your email address and join other discerning risk and safety people who receive notifications of new posts by email

Join 7,405 other subscribers

NEW! Free Download

How we pay for the high cost of running of this site – try it for free on your site

Please take our 2 minute zero survey

Recent Comments

  • rlong@internode.on.net on What is the Human Body for in Safety?
  • Brian Edwin Darlington on What is the Human Body for in Safety?
  • Chiara Acciano on What is the Human Body for in Safety?
  • Admin on 500 BEST and WORST WORKPLACE HEALTH and SAFETY SLOGANS 2021
  • Rob Long on Holistic Responses to Mental Health
  • Steve Nevin on Holistic Responses to Mental Health
  • Raven on 500 BEST and WORST WORKPLACE HEALTH and SAFETY SLOGANS 2021
  • Rob Long on Understanding Real Risk
  • Musa SULEIMAN on Understanding Real Risk
  • Brian Darlington on Social Psychology Of Risk Workshops

FREE eBOOK DOWNLOADS

Featured Downloads

  • Safe Work Method Statement ACT (5562 downloads)
  • Awareness-EBook-Rev-01.pdf (2078 downloads)
  • How To Make Your Own Cloth Face Mask (188151 downloads)
  • Hazard-Reporting-sheet.xlsx (6769 downloads)
  • CLLR-SPoR-Unit1.pdf (1474 downloads)
  • Achieve A Safe Workplace (5178 downloads)
  • Contractor Risk Assessment Form (3864 downloads)
  • Risk Intelligent Tract March 2017 (842 downloads)
  • High Performance via Psychological Safety (6091 downloads)
  • Real-Risk-Free-Copy.pdf (6441 downloads)
  • WHS-Legislation-A-to-Z-2012.doc (58412 downloads)
  • Professional-Challenges-for-the-Safety-Industry (19550 downloads)
  • Presenting-Dos-and-Donts.pdf (1104 downloads)
  • Convention-Flyer-November-2018.pdf (819 downloads)
  • Falls-Risk-Assessment-Tool.pdf (3592 downloads)

Recent Posts

  • What is the Human Body for in Safety?
  • You Don’t Fess Up Without Trust
  • Sense-Making and Decision-Making in Risk
  • Holistic Responses to Mental Health
  • Linguistics, Language and Meaning in Risk
  • Social Psychology Of Risk Workshops
  • Is Safety A Virtue Signal?
  • Being Emotional and Being Safe
  • CLLR–Quarterly Newsletter–April 2022
  • Understanding Real Risk

What is Psychological Safety at Work?

Footer

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address and join other discerning risk and safety people who receive notifications of new posts by email

Join 7,405 other subscribers

AUTHORS

  • Alan Quilley
    • Heinrich–Industrial Accident Prevention
    • The Problem With ZERO Goals and Results
  • Bernard Corden
    • After the goldrush
    • The Internationale
  • Bill Sims
    • Employee Engagement: Chocolate, Vanilla, or Strawberry?
    • Injury Hiding-How do you stop it?
  • Craig Clancy
    • Task Based vs Activity Based Safe Work Method Statements
    • Safety And Tender Submissions
  • Daniel Kirk
    • It’s easy being wise after the event.
    • A Positive Safety Story
  • Dave Whitefield
    • Safety is about…
    • Safety and Compliance
  • Dennis Millard
    • Are You Risk Intelligent?
    • Honey they get me! They get me at work!
  • Drewie
    • Downturn Doin’ Your Head In? Let’s Chat….
    • How was your break?
  • Gabrielle Carlton
    • All Care and No Care!
    • You Are Not Alone!
  • George Robotham
    • How to Give an Unforgettable Safety Presentation
    • How To Write a Safety Report
  • Goran Prvulovic
    • Safety Manager – an Ultimate Scapegoat
    • HSE Performance – Back to Basics
  • James Ellis
    • Psychological Core Stability for Wellbeing in Workers Comp
    • In search of plan B in workers’ recovery
  • James Parkinson
    • To laugh or not to laugh
    • People and Safety
  • John Toomey
    • In it for The Long Haul – Making the most of the FIFO Lifestyle
    • Who is Responsible for This?
  • Karl Cameron
    • Abby Normal Safety
    • The Right Thing
  • Ken Roberts
    • Safety Legislation Is Our Biggest Accident?
    • HSE Trip Down Memory Lane
  • Mark Perrett
    • Psychology of Persuasion: Top 5 influencing skills for getting what you want
  • Mark Taylor
    • Build a Psychologically Safe Workplace by Taking Risks and Analysing Failures
    • Enculturing Safety
  • Max Geyer
    • WHS Legislation is NOT about Safety it’s about Culture
    • Due Diligence Is Not Just Ticking Boxes!
  • Matt Thorne
    • Safety Culture–Hudson’s Model
    • Culture – Edgar Schein
  • Peter Ribbe
    • Is there “Common Sense” in safety?
    • Who wants to be a safety professional?
  • Phil LaDuke
    • Professional Conferences Are A Sleazy Con
    • Hey Idiots, You’re Worried About the Wrong Things
  • Admin
    • Social Psychology Of Risk Workshops
    • CLLR–Quarterly Newsletter–April 2022
  • Dr Rob Long
    • What is the Human Body for in Safety?
    • You Don’t Fess Up Without Trust
  • Rob Sams
    • The Learning (and unlearning) that Revealed my Vocation
    • I’m just not that into safety anymore
  • Barry Spud
    • Things To Consider When Developing And Designing Your Company SWMS
    • Bad Safety Photos
  • Sheri Suckling
    • How Can I Get the Boss to Listen?
  • Simon Cassin
    • Safety values, ideas, behaviours and clothes
  • Safety Nerd
    • The Block isn’t portraying safety as it should be
    • Toolbox Talk Show–PPE
  • Wynand Serfontein
    • Why The Problem With Learning Is Unlearning
    • I DON’T KNOW
  • Zoe Koskinas
    • Why is fallibility so challenging in the workplace?

Most commented on

The Unconscious and the Soap Dispenser

Forecasting Safety

The Banned Objects Index – A New Development in Safety Culture

Dumbs for Safety

The Real Barriers to Safety

Safety as Faith Healing

Who Said We Don’t Need Systems?

Why Safety Controls Don’t Always Work

How to use signs, symbols and text effectively in communicating about risk

Safety Should NOT Be About Safety

FEATURED POSTS

Look With Your Heart and Not With Your Eyes

The Human Safety Newsletter is Out

Risk Culture and Cultural Risk

Social Media and Safety

A Philosophy of Safety

Essential Preparation for a Safety Job

Zero as Morally Wicked

Social Psychology Applied to the Discernment of Risk

Knowing When to Break the Rules

Seven Essential Safety Reminders

Goals and Vision in Safety

Anxiety and Fear Professionals

Scenario Learning in Risk and Safety

ADVENTURES IN RISK AND SAFETY–KING ZERO

Leadership, Risk and the Zone of Reciprocal Relationship

Safety for True Believers

How is the unconscious in communication critical for understanding and managing risk?

The Less You See, the More Likely to Die

Freedom in Necessity

What Can Safety Learn From Playschool?

More Posts from this Category

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address and join other discerning risk and safety people who receive notifications of new posts by email

Join 7,405 other subscribers

How we pay for the high cost of running of this site – try it for free on your site

 

How To Make Your Own Hand Sanitizer

 

 

How to Make your own Covid-19 Face Mask

 

Covid-19 Returning To Work Safety, Transitioning, Start Up And Re Entry Plans

 

How’s the Hot Desking Going Covid?

imageOne of the benefits of the Covid-19 epidemic is a total rethink about how we live and work (https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-03-28/coronavirus-could-reshape-how-australians-work-forever/12097124 ).

Expertise by Regurgitation and Re-Badging

One of the fascinating things about the Coronavirus pandemic is watching Safety morph into epidemiology expertise. I would like a dollar for every flyer, presentation, podcast, powerpoint, checklist template, toolbox talk and poster set that had jumped into my inbox… Read the rest

The Stress of Stasis

One of the challenging things about the Coronavirus crisis is stasis. For those without work and confined to home, for those in self-isolation, it’s like life is frozen in time. ‘Stay at home’ is the mantra. The trouble is, in… Read the rest

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.