• 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 / Robert Long / HAZARDMAN Won’t Save You

HAZARDMAN Won’t Save You

November 10, 2013 by Dr Rob Long 4 Comments

Hazard Man Won’t Save You

hazardmanArticle by Dr Rob Long about a new comic based safety campaign about to be launched in Schools. The reaction from my two teenage boys: “Huh? – that’s just stupid!” and “Geez, Nooo!”

Watch the video below and you will see what I mean!

Quote:

It is amazing that the Regulator can impose this indoctrination campaign on the school system and now we learn that Safe Work Australia is going to roll it out throughout Australia. Fantastic, what a wonderful way to prepare our children and inoculate them against the realities of risk. I wish I had the help of SensmakingWoman.

It seems in the safety world that desperation, shallow and simplistic thinking is becoming increasingly attractive. As long as ‘safety noise’ can be thrust into the atmosphere it can be attributed as effective and successful, this has certainly been the case with the Dumb Ways to Die Campaign (DWTD). Despite the unethical foundation and demonstrable lack of impact (see Dumb Ways top Measure Effectiveness) DWTD continues to be lauded as great safety strategy simply because of volume in exposure. Now we have a new campaign to rival the nonsense of Dumb Ways to Die, proudly supported by the ACT Regulator. One can ignore the ethics (see The Ethics of Safety) of safety, ignore contradictions, ignore research in education and learning, ignore consultation, just as long as ‘safety noise’ is ‘out there’, we deem something to be good. This is the case with the nonsense Hazardman program launched on 31 October 2013 (See Canberra Times Article).

As stated by Impact Comics co-owner Mal Briggs, ‘whether or not the project itself was well-received, it would likely be memorable – which would make it a success either way’, what absolute unethical nonsense.

So if ‘noise’ equates to success then 23 year old Miley Sirus nude on a wrecking ball (with all its associations for building and construction) must be the most successful promotion to date with over 200 million hits on Youtube in 3 months. What an amazing methodology to pre-judge success. So, don’t worry if something is unethical and entrenches gender stereotypes, don’t worry that it only attributes safety success to super human effort, don’t worry that risk is portrayed as intentional evil, or that complacency is entirely skewed, no just make some ‘safety noise’ and send it into schools. This must qualify as one of the worst indoctrination campaigns in schools I have ever seen in the last 40 years.

Now, I need to make clear that this criticism against Hazardman is not based on some bizarre ill-informed opinion. With many years of experience and research in education and schools, founding a school for high risk young people, Manager in Government of Youth Affairs, Chair of the National Youth Affairs Research Scheme, working in Youth Detention, years as a high school teacher and lecturer for years in the philosophy of education and curriculum, this criticism is based on e what works in the education and learning of young people. As every teacher knows, it is the ‘hidden curriculum’ that is most powerful. Countless experts in education and learning all demonstrate that the overt curriculum often masks the real ‘hidden’ lessons learned by young people. There is no evidence in the Hazardman campaign that any thought to the ‘hidden curriculum’ has been considered in its design. Since when did the Regulator and advertising companies become expert in education and learning methodology? Holy NAPLAN, why don’t we bring in more standardized testing and fall further behind the rest of the world.

Like Dumb Ways to Die, no matter what well meaning intention, unless the safety community gets a bit more savvy about how framing and priming of messages really ‘sinks in’, or how the ‘hidden curriculum’ really influences children, we will continue to confuse data as learning. It is naïve in the extreme to think that ‘safety noise’ educates. Unless the safety world develops some insight into the trajectory of naïve ideas, it will continue to exert little influence on the real development of risk intelligence in the lives of young people and the workforce.

Let’s look at some of the fundamental messages of the Hazardman campaign.

  1. The foundation of the Hazardman campaign misunderstands the psychology of complacency and the function of automaticity and heuristics. The reality is that people create heuristics, mental short-cuts and micro-rules to make living easier, not because they are ‘evil’. Humans create heuristics so they can do many things in ‘automatic’. Most often it is not intentional that people make mistakes or commit errors, most often it is because of social psychological context and heuristics. Perhaps the Regulator could spend more time cutting back the excessive demands for needless bureaucracy (that drives the need for heuristics) and this would be of far greater value than some overt lecture to children about the nature of adult work.
  2. The main lesson we learn from Hazardman is that safety is not something everyone does, safety is really only possible when some superhero is about. Interestingly, Hazardman’s alter-ego is the ineffective Regulator. As a narrator he looks like a dork.

The hidden message of Hazardman is that the average person lacks insight and perception about safety, only Hazardman or superhuman effort can save the day. Oh well, that leaves most of us out, except those who believe in hindsight that ‘all accidents are preventable’. BTW, hindsight bias is a heuristic.

  1. The nature of stereotyping in Hazardman is absolutely disastrous. Plous and colleagues (Understanding Prejudice and Discrimination 2003) show that stereotyping is the foundation for non-thinking. As one reads through the characterisations of Hazardman children will be lead to believe that risk and safety is black and white, simple and masculine. I can’t wait till the Australian Education Union ACT branch (AEU ACT) gets a look at Hazardman or some feminists in education have a look at it, this stuff is stereotype fodder.
  • The whole Hazardman focus is on hazards as if objects are the focus of safety. The reality is children need to learn that safety is not about objects but about how people make decisions about objects, and why judgments in risk are made. Hazardman just perpetuates the delusion of safety engineering that safety is about ‘things’ not people. In a counterintuitive way, children will learn through this campaign that this is not about them or their world. This leaves them well inoculated against safety when they finally hit the workforce.

  • The idea that hazards are ‘evil’ and intentionally created by an intelligent psychopath, totally distorts the real nature of risk and the ordinary things ordinary people can do to work safely. It is only through the intervention of the ‘hero’ that poor weak Betty can be rescued, the feminists will especially like that episode.

  • There is nothing in the Hazardman campaign that seeks to help children understand their own judgments about risk, no attempt to help children think about the nature of risk taking. The Regulator would be much better focusing on children playing with fire, the attraction of fire, motivation to enjoy the power of fire, the risk trade offs playing with petrol or similar issues and we might have less bushfires. What children will learn in this campaign is that slips, trips and lifting are more important. I would have thought that fire-lighting coming into summer might be a higher priority in safety than slipping on some water. Holy Hazardman, close all the pools this summer, kids might run around and have some fun. No, wrap up all those power-cords Hazardman, much more dangerous than a box of matches.

  • In many ways this campaign works directly against the very thing teachers try to do in their classes, in helping children learn and apply thinking in risk decision making. This campaign will simply help perpetuate the nonsense idea that risk doesn’t make sense. All we need next is a UK flying squad, to arbitrate on everyday risks like playing football and blowing candles on cakes.

    I have had many discussions with safety people since the launch of Hazardman and most are dumbfounded and cringe, particularly the implications of what this campaign says about safety people and their work.

    The idea that the methodology and genre of comics, as educationally effective in health and safety, has been tried before. The Streetwize comic campaign existed from 1984-2007 (See Powerhouse Collection) without any demonstrable difference in change to youth culture and risk taking. The Regulator would be much better doing some study on the nature of adolescent development before putting out such disconnected stuff as Hazardman. There is no anchor point in this campaign to the real risks children and youth face in their lives and so, no connection between the agenda of Hazardman and the way young people think about risk. The idea that children and young people would read factsheets about adult work shows that the Regulator’s mindset remains fixed on information as education.

    It is amazing that the Regulator can impose this indoctrination campaign on the school system and now we learn that Safe Work Australia is going to roll it out throughout Australia. Fantastic, what a wonderful way to prepare our children and inoculate them against the realities of risk. I wish I had the help of SensmakingWoman.

    • Bio
    • Latest Posts
    • More about Rob
    Dr Rob Long

    Dr Rob Long

    Expert in Social Psychology, Principal & Trainer at Human Dymensions
    Dr Rob Long

    Latest posts by Dr Rob Long (see all)

    • Ritual Performance and Risk - June 24, 2022
    • Asking Better Questions in Risk - June 21, 2022
    • The Toxic Language of ‘Performance’ and Risk - June 17, 2022
    • The Art of Active Listening in Risk - June 12, 2022
    • Understanding The Social Psychology of Risk And Safety - June 10, 2022
    Dr Rob Long
    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.

    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: Robert Long, Safety Training Tagged With: education, hazardman, heuristics, risk, School Safety

    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
    • Ritual Performance and Risk
    • CLASSIC, FAMOUS and INFAMOUS SAFETY QUOTES
    • Safety Acronyms
    • Free Safety Moments Examples, Tips and Resources
    • Asking Better Questions in Risk
    • Download Safety Moments from Human Resources Secretariat
    • FREE RISK and SAFETY EBOOKS
    • Free Workplace Health and Safety Downloads
    • Free Risk Assessment Template in Excel Format

    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?

    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

    How Do We Know?

    FEATURED POSTS

    20 Cognitive Biases That Affect Risk Decision Making

    Toward Zero, A Failed Goal

    Risky Conversations Book Launch in Perth

    When Art Speaks to Harm

    Rhetoric and Reality in Safety

    Out of your (Unconscious) Mind

    Right Then Children, Sit Up Straight and Take Some Safety

    Spin, Nonsense Language and Propaganda in Safety

    There is no ‘Satellite Insightfulness’

    Flooding is Dangerous, and I don’t Mean the Water….

    Scenario Learning in Risk and Safety

    Free Safety and Risk Lunch n Learn

    SPoR Introductory Workshop Series April 2020

    The Shock of Homeostasis

    Impacts of Cognitive Dissonance in the Workplace

    The Safety Cacophony Cupboard

    Why Safety Doesn’t See Things

    Paperwork and Usability in Tackling Risk

    Risk Intelligence, Thinking and Decision Making

    Safety as Policing

    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