Culture is NOT What We DO Around Here! Yet Safety Believes It Is.

One of the many grand delusions of Safety is that culture is about behaviours. It is not. Human behaviour is such a small aspect of what culture is about. So much precedes behaviour in any understanding of culture. Let’s have a look at belief.

Belief precedes behaviour just as does ethic, methodology, ideas, faith and worldview. Yet, here is Safety, convinced that doing is what culture is.

If you want to better understand culture you could start with the book just released by Dr Nippin Anand and Dr Robert Long: 51 Stories in Culture, To Live and To Be. (https://www.humandymensions.com/product/51-stories-in-culture/).

How strange this industry that debates about whether it has a culture and even suggest not to talk about it (Busch) yet, never consults any source with expertise in culture. How strange to think that one could understand what culture is by consulting a chemical engineer! The best place to start in understanding what culture is, is to NOT consult any source in safety.

When we think about belief we don’t just think about religious belief. When we speak of faith we don’t just think about religious faith. Faith and belief are alive and foundational in risk and safety. For example, all the linear models that are believe in in safety whether it be Heinrich’s Dominoes, Reason’s swiss-cheese or Dekker’s tunnel, have no evidence. Linear models of causation and action are believed by faith NOT by evidence. There is no evidence that confirms these semiotic models. Indeed, all the evidence shows that events unfold in a messy chaotic way and are certainly NOT linear. Yet Safety believes them anyway because it suits their worldview, what they want to believe. All of this precedes behaviour.

And, if one believes in linear causation then one goes looking for it. Then, when exposed to an event, creates a framework to apply that belief to the interpretation of an event. In this way, order and certainty are places over randomness to confirm a belief. It is like we see in the following graphic. On the left we have a random squiggle and the right a framework has been place over it to create a sense of order over it. See Figure 1. Creating a Framework Over a Squiggle.

This is what Heinrich, Reason and Dekker do by creating linear semiotic models to try and control the unexpected and events in hindsight.

You can believe whatever you want. For example, that the earth is flat or that Trump is the messiah. Such belief just confirms that people believe what they want to believe. The same applies for definitions of safety culture. The common belief that culture is ‘what we do around here’ has no evidence to support it yet, this is considered a fundamental belief of Safety. Indeed, there is extensive evidence to dis-prove this slogan. BTW, slogans are not principles (HOP) neither are beliefs principles. Belief precedes principles.

At the heart of understanding culture is belief. All cultures are developed based on sets of belief systems, we call these meaning making systems ‘semiosis’. When an archaeologist digs in the ground and finds an artefact, this object is understood as evidence of a belief. This is why the cover of the book 51 Stories in Culture, To Live and To Be captures the chasm full of artefacts.  See Figure 2. Cover of Book

Figure 2. Cover of Book

Every artefact tells a story of belief and the rites, rituals, myths, affordances and poetics anchored to that belief. None of these artefacts are behaviours but rather are a semiotic representation of a belief that triggered a set of behaviours. So, culture is NOT ‘what we do around here’. All this silly slogan does is bog safety down into the behaviourist myth that safety culture is about what is done. Culture is much much more than this.

In our book, we address the many critical aspects of culture never discussed in any text of safety culture. When you approach an understanding of culture from a foundation in Anthropology, Religious Studies, Archaeology and Social Psychology you don’t fear discussion of myth, ritual, faith, semiotics, poetics, linguistics or ethics.

Here are a few texts to help you get a better hold on the nature of belief:

• Forgas and Baumeister (2019) The Social Psychology of Gullibility, Fake News, Conspiracy Theories, and Irrational Beliefs
• O’Conner and Whetherall (2019) The Misinformation Age, How False Beliefs Spread
• Mattheson and Vits (eds.,) (2014) The Ethics of Belief, Individual and Social
• Nillson, N., (2014) Understanding Beliefs
• Singer, D., (2024) Right Belief and True Belief
• K., (2012) Reality Beyond Belief, Understanding Why You Believe What You Believe

Once you get your head around the nature of belief and why Safety believes in ‘what we do around here’ then one can make a start on a new journey and with a better understanding of culture know how to better influence it.

This latest book on culture from SPoR will help you on this journey.

You can purchase it here: 51 Stories in Culture, To Live and To Be. (https://www.humandymensions.com/product/51-stories-in-culture/).

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Dr Rob Long

Expert in Social Psychology, Principal & Trainer at Human Dymensions

Latest posts by Dr Rob Long (see all)

• When Semiotics Show Your Real Agenda in Safety - May 10, 2025
• Heinrich Was Wrong, A NZ Case Study - May 7, 2025
• iCue Methodology – A Video - May 6, 2025
• The Delusions of DMAIC Investigation Method - May 5, 2025
• Safe Work Australia Continues to Perpetuate Safety Mythology - May 4, 2025

PhD., MEd., MOH., BEd., BTh., Dip T., Dip Min., Cert IV TAA, MRMIA Rob is the founder of Human Dymensions and has extensive experience, qualifications and expertise across a range of sectors including government, education, corporate, industry and community sectors over 30 years. Rob has worked at all levels of the education and training sector including serving on various post graduate executive, post graduate supervision, post graduate course design and implementation programs.