I remember having a discussion with a safety person who’s semiotic for their identity was a punching fist on a brick wall. Of course, the person was defensive when I deconstructed the semiotic and pointed out that it was inconsistent with the intended message. Even though the person had no expertise … [Read more...] about When Semiotics Show Your Real Agenda in Safety
HOP
Who Is Responsible When the Cause is NOT a Person?
The first recoded death by driverless car was of Elaine Herzberg in 2018. When this happens who is responsible? There are other examples. Of course, the pundits were telling us 10 years ago that driverless cars would be all over the roads by now. They are not. The propaganda about technology … [Read more...] about Who Is Responsible When the Cause is NOT a Person?
Causation Myths, Stop Looking for Linear and Root Cause
One of the most dangerous things about the safety curriculum is its indoctrination about causation. Many of the semiotics of causation such as the swiss-cheese (Reason) and dominos (Heinrich), are simply not true. Both models are completely made up and don’t exist in reality. The reality of life … [Read more...] about Causation Myths, Stop Looking for Linear and Root Cause
Why Deliver Outcomes When Propaganda Will Do?
I recently watched Goebbels and the Fuhrer and read Trump and Hitler, A Comparative Study of Lying and it resonated with so much with what circulates in the safety industry, that is simply propaganda. Why deliver outcomes or practical methods when slogans will do? … [Read more...] about Why Deliver Outcomes When Propaganda Will Do?
Blame Fixes Many Things and The Slogan Trap
The trouble is, that when you call slogans ‘principles’ without any articulated ethic, you create new problems and dangerous by-products. The slogan ‘blame fixes nothing’ is a dangerous and false slogan. The reality is, when something goes seriously wrong, the courts and regulators seek blame … [Read more...] about Blame Fixes Many Things and The Slogan Trap
KamiKaze Safety and The Breath of God
I was chatting with a young person the other day and they brought a drink with them. I normally don’t read the text on cans of drink but was struck by what I read on this can. You can see the can in Figure 1. Breath of God Figure 1. Breath of God Wow, so I drink this energy drink that is … [Read more...] about KamiKaze Safety and The Breath of God
HOP is Traditional Safety
The best way to understand HOP is to see how HOP describes itself. Examine the language of the following: https://blog.intelex.com/2021/07/27/the-5-basic-principles-of-hop-human-and-organizational-performance/ The premise of HOP is the idea that human error is inevitable so perhaps … [Read more...] about HOP is Traditional Safety
Defining Safety by the Absence of Accidents, Injury and Harm
When you run a traditional safety movement off the back of 5 slogans with no articulated methodology or ethic, you’re bound to run into problems. For example: the slogan ‘when nothing happens, a lot is happening’, defines safety by the absence of accidents, injury, harm and error. This is just … [Read more...] about Defining Safety by the Absence of Accidents, Injury and Harm
Making Nothing Happen in Safety
One of the slogans of HOP is: ‘when nothing happens, a lot is happening’. Of course, the language of this discourse doesn’t make sense unless one is initiated in the discourse of HOP. But when nothing happens, nothing happens, that’s the sense of the language. This kind of language is just HOP code … [Read more...] about Making Nothing Happen in Safety
Understanding the Nature of Performance and HOP
The best way to understand the nature of performance is NOT through safety or business studies. The modern interpretation of performance through the lens of safety and business studies is mechanistic, behaviourist and a total distraction from a real understanding of performance. If we go back to … [Read more...] about Understanding the Nature of Performance and HOP