A conversation about how events ‘emerge’ and the nature of fallibility is essential for understanding risk. The discussion is based upon the SPoR Emergence tool and the free book Fallibility and Risk. Unfortunately, you don’t hear the language of fallibility anywhere in safety because such language denies the mythology of zero.
Similarly, when one understands that fallibility is permanent, eternal and essential to human being, one knows that there is no ‘drift’ into failure.
Unless safety deals with the reality of fallibility it will not understand the nature of learning and resilience.
The video is here: https://vimeo.com/774159293
Emergence and Fallibility.mp4 from CLLR on Vimeo.
George Stavrou says
Matt/Rob, thanks for sharing your thoughts.
Safety tends to see human error as a cost, a failure or a forbidden act of deviation from rules or standards. Safety struggles to recognise or acknowledge the invaluable benefits of learning, resilience and maturity which are also essential in creating a sustainable organisation. But I wonder why? Is that because these concepts are intangible and cannot be measured or controlled? Or the language of Safety is limited?
Rob Long says
Hi George, I think it is both. Safety is addicted to measurement and control like a religion and doesn’t even have a language to understand personhood. All safety curriculum fosters this crazy obsession with measurement and control of objects, and yet nothing in any curriculum anywhere in understanding human being and living. It’s such a strange situation and yet every safety person i meet in the field desperately wants skills in engagement, culture and conversation.
Brian Edwin Darlington says
Hi Rob, once again so much to continuously learn in Social Psychology of Risk, great session to start the day , thanks for sharing. Once again just highlights the importance of getting rid of Zero from our language. Kind Regards, Brian
Matt Thorne says
Thanks Rob, I enjoyed this one in particular. The reflection on ontology continues.