How to create stories that make people think

“It was on my third ship that I came across the risk of enclosed space for the first time as a cadet. So, what happened, a very short story if I can share that Nippin and it still sort of sticks with me. One of us, the third cadet and he was a senior guy he fell unconscious. He hit his head on the bulkhead behind and the two of us first time on a VLCC. We didn’t know what to do. We ran out of the pump room, and this was on the first level of the pump room. We just ran out. We had no clue what to do. Should we revive him or do we go up and call the chief mate? Do we call the master?”

This is a story from Siddharth Mahajan, a dear friend, a former seafarer and a Loss Prevention manager working with Gard AS. Siddharth speaks with passion about his acquaintances with enclosed space risks.

Siddharth’s story illustrates:

that it is through direct, firsthand experiences that we learn to perceive risk. This is a consistent theme that I hear during my discussion with seafarers. It shows the unquestioned (but gradually eroding) power of experiential learning.
that trauma and distress ‘sticks’ with people even after decades. It is our role as investigators and auditors to listen to cues of trauma in accidents. Learning and healing are not two separate departments – wellbeing and safety. The two can and should be integrated into investigators and auditors competencies.
unlike accident reports, this story does not end with solutions, actions, successes or failures. Instead, it ends with questions and it puts the listener into a moral dilemma.

Thank you, Siddharth, for sharing your experiences.

Stories of lived experiences, panic, distress, confusion and moral dilemmas should become part of toolbox conversations, risk assessments and board room discussions. Not to instil fear or to hold people accountable for their actions but to make people doubtful and shake up their (over)confidence at the start of a high-risk activity.

Nothing kills more people than the hubris of a compliance culture (follow the process and you will be fine) or the reassurance from an expert that he knows it all.

Stories like these should be told more often to bring us to the edge of dissonance and leave us hanging, doubtful, and curious in the face of the unknown. Realising the imperfections of living in an uncertain world is where unlearning begins.