• 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
  • PSYCH. 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
  • Robert Long
    • ALL 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
    • CLASSIC, FAMOUS and INFAMOUS SAFETY QUOTES
    • BEST WORKPLACE HEALTH and SAFETY SLOGANS 2022
    • 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 2022
    • 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
  • Safety Culture
    • Safety Culture Silences
You are here: Home / Communication and Consultation / Efficiency, Control and Their Affect on Others

Efficiency, Control and Their Affect on Others

November 8, 2015 by Rob Sams 7 Comments

Efficiency, Control and Their Affect on Others

imageFor some people, being organised, efficient and in control over others can be like an addiction. It can seem like they just can’t get enough of control efficiency. This is typical in risk and safety and is often enacted in the name of ‘your safety is our priority’. Safety suggests that it is about caring for, and looking after people, yet paradoxically this care, in the form of control, is quite possibly having the opposite effect.

When our life is dominated by efficiency, by a desire to control (both overtly and covertly) and where our focus is on ‘doing’, this can, and will, impact on our relationships with others, even if we are well intended in our actions.

I can resonate with this. I’ve previously shared that I’m naturally a ‘doer’ and I can understand this addiction.

A good thing about being efficient and feeling in control may be that things get done and that progress (or at least an illusion of progress) may be made. By contrast, being out of control and inefficient may make us feel uncomfortable, uneasy or at worst frightening. These are some of the feelings that I have experienced at times.

What I can now recognise is that efficiency strives for ‘excellence’ and ‘perfection’. Efficiency has no time for ‘ordinary’, no time for mediocrity and a minimal tolerance for waste. When our focus is on being more efficient and on creating ‘more with less’, how can there be time for understanding people and our fallibilities? That would seem like unnecessary waste.

If our focus is all about getting things done perfectly, control reins supreme. When we go about controlling others, whether intentionally or not, it must impact on our relationships, on our interactions, and how we treat others. We can’t have as a focus ‘getting more with less’ and perfection while at the same time accepting human fallibility. The two just don’t mix.

When we are ‘efficient’ and in ‘control’ and when ‘action’ is our priority, we may not take time to pause before acting, to consider others’ perspectives and to reflect on how we occur to others. Jacques Ellul in The Technological Society refers to this focus on ‘efficiency’ as ‘technique’;

By technique, for example, he means far more than the machine technology. Technique refers to any complex of standardised means for attaining a predetermined result. Thus, it converts spontaneous and unreflective behaviour into behaviour that is deliberate and rationalized. The Technical Man is fascinated by results, by immediate consequences of setting standardised devices into motion. (1964, p. vi)

When we become ‘fascinated by results’, control becomes our number one priority (either consciously or non-consciously). When control is the aim, how can our life be about others and understanding their perspective? Could we do things that we consider ‘efficient’, yet others may perceive as ‘control’? When we don’t allow others to have control, we know this impacts negatively on motivation.

In my previous article about ‘doing’, I shared the story of where my desire for closure and action impacted on a relationship with a good friend. In that example, I recalled how I went about doing a task that my friend had previously agreed to do, because I thought my friend had been tied up, or for forgotten about it. What I didn’t realise was that my friend had plans in place to do it that day. In that case my desire to be efficient took precedence over my feelings for my friend. Was I aiming to control them without even being aware that this was my agenda?

It seems like life long habits can be hard to disrupt.

On a recent occasion when I was in ‘control’ mode, I quickly ‘jumped out of the blocks’ when a person asked me to share some information I had so that they could consider it for themselves. So how did I jump to ‘control’?

It’s like I couldn’t help myself. I quickly passed on the information while at the same time adding my thoughts and views on the topic. Specifically, I suggested that they “carefully review the information as it was challenging yet at the same time fulfilling”. So what’s the problem with that you ask? The person asked for information, surely they’d also value my opinion, right?

As I reflected later in discussion with a close friend, I began to realise that by adding my ‘two bobs worth’ (Aussie term for ‘my opinion’), I may have unintentionally aimed to control what the other person thought about the topic. The priming effect of suggesting that they, “carefully review the information”, was significant.

Why could I not just pass on the information and allow the person to be free to form their own views, or, if they wanted, ask for my thoughts, ideas and experiences.

So how may we demonstrate ‘efficiency’ and ‘technique’ in risk and safety?

Here are just a couple of examples:

  • Risk Assessment – how many times have you been involved in a process where the aim is to understand and asses risk, yet you have lead the conversation down the path of what you know and comes to mind, what you feel comfortable with, and what you thought were the key issues?

It can be challenging when we are expected to be a ‘subject matter expert’, to let go of control and allow others to be free to choose, to make mistakes and to learn. When you go about doing ‘risk assessment’ is your agenda to understand, support and lead others to discern risk or is it, even if non-consciously, to control their thoughts and actions, all in the name of safety?

  • Safe Work Procedures (or other similar names) – what is the purpose of these documents if they are not to control others? Of course I recognise that we can’t always let people just wonder around the workplace working things out for themselves, but when our process becomes so tight that people aren’t afforded the option to think, discover or explore for themselves, what might this mean for ‘others’ and their understanding, learning and motivation?

Like all addictions, control is not easy to overcome. The first step to tackling addictions is to accept that one is addicted and want to change. I know that control mode is something that I can easily slip into. I know that control is easier and more efficient than understanding, exploring and accepting. However if we are to truly care for others, if our focus is on supporting others to learn and discern things for themselves, surely we need to let go of control?

Should we aim to better understand the oppressive nature of our actions and recognise that even if we feel we are caring (controlling) for what we feel are the right reasons, that this might not be ‘right’ for others?

Are there times when you may control others through a focus on efficiency and process? Perhaps you may not even be conscious that you are aiming to control others? What things can we do to learn, grow and mature in order to let go of control and allow others the freedom to make their own decisions? Are there signs or cues that you might be able to use to recognise when control and efficiency are taking the lead in how you go about things?

We’d love to hear your thoughts, experiences and comments.

Author: Robert Sams

Phone: 0424 037 112

Email: robert@dolphyn.com.au

Web: www.dolphyn.com.au

Facebook: Follow Dolphyn on Facebook

  • Bio
  • Latest Posts
  • More about Rob
Rob Sams

Rob Sams

Owner at Dolphyn
Rob Sams

Latest posts by Rob Sams (see all)

  • The Learning (and unlearning) that Revealed my Vocation - August 22, 2021
  • I’m just not that into safety anymore - June 1, 2020
  • Social ‘Resiliencing’ - January 7, 2020
  • Resiliencing….. (and other such ‘ings’…) - January 3, 2020
  • Our Social Being – and why it matters in Mental Health and Suicide - December 8, 2019
Rob Sams
Rob is an experienced safety and people professional, having worked in a broad range of industries and work environments, including manufacturing, professional services (building and facilities maintenance), healthcare, transport, automotive, sales and marketing. He is a passionate leader who enjoys supporting people and organizations through periods of change. Rob specializes in making the challenges of risk and safety more understandable in the workplace. He uses his substantial skills and formal training in leadership, social psychology of risk and coaching to help organizations understand how to better manage people, risk and performance. Rob builds relationships and "scaffolds" people development and change so that organizations can achieve the meaningful goals they set for themselves. While Rob has specialist knowledge in systems, his passion is in making systems useable for people and organizations. In many ways, Rob is a translator; he interprets the complex language of processes, regulations and legislation into meaningful and practical tasks. Rob uses his knowledge of social psychology to help people and organizations filter the many pressures they are made anxious about by regulators and various media. He is able to bring the many complexities of systems demands down to earth to a relevant and practical level.

Please share our posts

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

Related

Filed Under: Communication and Consultation, Rob Sams, Safety Professional Tagged With: control, efficiency, risk assessement, safe work procedures

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

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 7,433 other subscribers

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

NEW! Free Download

Please take our 2 minute zero survey

Recent Comments

  • Rob Long on Culture Silences in Safety – Socialitie
  • Joe Zinobile on Culture Silences in Safety – Socialitie
  • HASSAN MOHAMMED on Free Online Safety Training Courses
  • Rob Long on Safety Climate / Safety Leadership Survey
  • Ann on Safety Climate / Safety Leadership Survey
  • Rob on Near Miss or Near Hit
  • Robert Long on The Convenience of Complacency
  • patricia on Free Hotel and Resort Risk Management Checklist
  • William McGinty on The Convenience of Complacency
  • Patrick on Free Health and Safety Manual Template

FREE eBOOK DOWNLOADS

Recent Posts

  • Ritual Performance and Risk
  • Asking Better Questions in Risk
  • The Toxic Language of ‘Performance’ and Risk
  • OHS Compliance Puts Lives in Danger
  • Talking About Teams
  • The Art of Active Listening in Risk
  • Understanding The Social Psychology of Risk And Safety
  • You Market What You Believe in Safety
  • The Noise of Safety Leadership
  • That’s Not a Knife, That’s a Knife

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 7,433 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
    • OHS Compliance Puts Lives in Danger
    • Talking About Teams
  • Dr Rob Long
    • Ritual Performance and Risk
    • Asking Better Questions in Risk
  • 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?

Top Posts & Pages

  • BEST WORKPLACE HEALTH and SAFETY SLOGANS 2022
  • Road Safety Slogans 2022
  • Free Safety Moments Examples, Tips and Resources
  • COVID-19 (Coronavirus, Omicron) Health and Safety Slogans and Quotes for the Workplace
  • 15 Safety Precautions When Working With Electricity
  • CATCHY and FUNNY SAFETY SLOGANS FOR THE WORKPLACE
  • Download Safety Moments from Human Resources Secretariat
  • Free Risk Assessment Template in Excel Format
  • CLASSIC, FAMOUS and INFAMOUS SAFETY QUOTES
  • Free Workplace Health and Safety Downloads

Most commented on

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?

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

Why Safety Controls Don’t Always Work

Safety Should NOT Be About Safety

Why Personify Safety?

FEATURED POSTS

What Does SPoR Do?

Safety and The Sunk Cost Fallacy

Test Your Reaction Times

Certificate, Diploma and Masters Studies in SPoR

A Professional Ethic of Risk

The Quantitative and Qualitative Divide in Safety

There’s a Hole in Your Investigation.

Intuition and Safety

Intuitional Ways of Knowing in Safety

The Art of the Open Question

Safety Leadership Training

Zero Discourse as Gobbledygook

A Small Change and ‘Y’ it Matters?

Social Psychology Applied to the Discernment of Risk

Incrementalism, Catastrophism and All That’s In-between

Workshop – Introduction to the Social Psychology of Risk

We need to make sure this can never happen again

The Triarchic Mind, Risk and Safety

Just Tell Your Mind to Stop It

Right and Wrong in Safety

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 7,433 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