• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

SafetyRisk.net

Humanising Safety and Embracing Real Risk

  • Home
    • About
      • Privacy Policy
      • Contact
  • FREE
    • Slogans
      • Researchers Reveal the Top 10 Most Effective Safety Slogans Of All Time
      • When Slogans Don’t Work
      • CLASSIC, FAMOUS and INFAMOUS SAFETY QUOTES
      • 500 OF THE BEST AND WORST WORKPLACE HEALTH and SAFETY SLOGANS 2023
      • 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 2023
      • 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
    • FREE SAFETY eBOOKS
    • Free Hotel and Resort Risk Management Checklist
    • 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
  • Social Psychology Of Risk
    • What is Psychological Health and Safety at Work?
    • 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
  • Dr Long Posts
    • 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!
  • THEMES
    • Risk Myths
    • Safety Myths
    • Safety Culture Silences
    • Safety Culture
    • Psychological Health and Safety
    • Zero Harm
    • Due Diligence
  • Free Learning
    • Introduction to SPoR – Free
    • FREE RISK and SAFETY EBOOKS
    • FREE ebook – Guidance for the beginning OHS professional
    • Free EBook – Effective Safety Management Systems
    • Free EBook – Lessons I Have Learnt
  • Psychosocial Safety
    • What is Psychosocial Safety
    • Psychological Safety
      • What is Psychological Health and Safety at Work?
      • Managing psychosocial hazards at work
      • Psychological Safety – has it become the next Maslow’s hammer?
      • What is Psychosocial Safety
      • Psychological Safety Slogans and Quotes
      • What is Psychological Safety?
      • Understanding Psychological Terminology
      • Psycho-Social and Socio-Psychological, What’s the Difference?
      • Build a Psychologically Safe Workplace by Taking Risks and Analysing Failures
      • It’s not weird – it’s a psychological safety initiative!
You are here: Home / Investigation / I Just Don’t Know

I Just Don’t Know

December 20, 2015 by Rob Sams 1 Comment

I Just Don’t Know

Depositphotos_9767607_xsI was talking with a friend recently who works in risk and safety. They shared a story about how a relatively serious incident had occurred at their company and despite a very thorough and detailed examination of the events that lead up to and followed the incident, the reason(s) that it occurred could not be found. It was a complete mystery as to why the things happened the way that they did. My friend said to me “I just don’t know how this came about, it’s got me buggered”.

I remember reading in Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking Fast and Slow his theory about how if people don’t know the answer to a question asked of them, one option they can take is provide an answer to a different question on a topic that they do know about. Politicians, through spin, are obvious examples of this, but Kahneman’s point is that this is something that we are all prone to do at times, particularly when there are social pressures in place that make it awkward not to provide no answer.

In your work in risk and safety, have you ever felt the pressure to provide an answer in a tight timeframe? Have you ever provided an answer that was plausible and ‘could be’ right, but you weren’t quite sure, because you didn’t have the time to think things through, if it was?

Have you ever made stuff up just to complete a report on time? Stuff that might have been right, sounded like it was right, and to others could be right, but to be honest, you couldn’t be sure? These may be challenging questions, but we can learn so much by reflecting on them and it can be useful to further examine the social arrangements and context in which we may make such decisions.

It can be a challenge in risk and safety at times to say “I just don’t know”. There are often social, cultural and organizational factors and expectations that ‘answers will be found’. Systematic and linear approaches to incident reviews are often mute on such factors and expectations, the focus is usually “Just Get to the Bottom of it”. When this is the focus, when our incident reviews are solely systematic reviews, do we limit opportunities for learning from the incident? Could it be that the more mechanistic our response, the less we ‘think’ and reflect humanly about what has happened?

So why is this? Why do we find it terribly difficult at times to say “I just don’t know”.

Let’s examine a case study to see if it can provide some clues. The case I’m thinking about occurred around October 2013. The short introduction to the story is that a truck (lorry) had an incident in Sydney’s Harbour Tunnel when the back part of the truck somehow lifted as it entered the tunnel. The incident caused chaos for the Sydney morning commute (> than one million drivers) and there were a lot of angry people that morning, none more so it seems than Duncan Gay who is the Roads Minister in NSW. Mr Gay’s response to the incident was recorded on the nightly television news. In the news footage he vents his frustration by suggesting (about truck drivers) that “these idiots should put their brain into gear when they put their truck into gear”. I suspect Duncan doesn’t have an extended knowledge of how people make decisions and judgments (that’s a hole other story…)

But the point of this piece is not to analyse Mr Gay’s words or to particularly criticize them, it is to raise the question of the social context in which they were made. This was the news report on the nightly television news on the day the incident occurred. While some ‘facts’ about the case would have been known; for example, footage of the incident would have been available, and the driver would have been spoken with (or to!), there is no way that you could understand the hole picture in this short period of time.

There would have been so many factors at play in the unconscious that only come about on reflection, but this is not the context in which Mr Gay was talking. Instead the context was a political one, where action and strong words are expected. Could you imagine the public outcry had Mr Gay’s response when questioned by a reporter been “I just don’t know”? Our social arrangements, context, cultural expectations and norms all play a part in our decisions and how we communicate. Sadly and disappointingly, such factors are not often the topic of conversation in risk and safety, an industry that seems fixated and wedded to a systems only approach to understanding events.

So if this resonates with you and instead of focusing solely on systems you are looking for a different approach, how can you go about things so you can get to better ‘know’ what happened? I wonder if these tips might be at all useful?

  1. Buy time – as my great mate James Ellis is well known for saying when talking about difficult or complex decisions ‘buy time’ (colloquially known as an ‘Ellis-ism’). Can you negotiate for the report to be provided at a later date? Why is it you need to report now, is this about you being perceived as more ‘expert’ because you found solutions sooner? I know I’ve felt like this at times. In what ways can you ‘buy time’?
  2. Create space for thinking – I’ve often wondered why we create deadlines for ourselves when developing procedures and policies for reporting incidents. Sure, there are often legislative timeframes for reporting incidents, but they are usually only about ‘notification’ rather than ‘close out’. How do you create an environment for more thinking time?
  3. Get messy and go crazy – no I don’t mean start running around the office and shouting at everyone, I mean consider ditching the linear charts and forms. Start your investigation with a large blank piece of paper and concept map your ideas, feelings, findings. Focus not just on events and objects, but people and relationships. By messy, I mean don’t worry if things look ‘all over the place’ and you back track over your ideas, that’s probably a sign that you’re on the right track, after all that’s how life is, isn’t it?

Sidney Dekker in his book Drift into Failure when referring to Columbian Accident Board investigation into NASA after the Challenger space craft accident notes that it was “not going down and in – it went up and out” (p.62). How can we go more ‘up and out’ in our investigations?

How would you feel going to your leader and admitting, “I just don’t know”. What would the response be? How would others feel? What are the social arrangements and contexts associated with this? Why do they matter?

How do you deal with the social pressure to just get to the bottom of things and find time to provide answers when they are known, not when they are expected?

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)

  • Am I stupid? I didn’t think of that… - January 13, 2023
  • I’m just not that into safety anymore - December 30, 2022
  • Focus on ‘Meeting’ people, not legislation – a path to risk maturity - December 24, 2022
  • Just Toolbox it! - December 3, 2022
  • Do we Need a Different Way of Being in Safety? - December 1, 2022
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: Investigation, Rob Sams, Social Psychology of Risk Tagged With: dont know, kahneman

Reader Interactions

Do you have any thoughts? Please share them below Cancel reply

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 7,498 other subscribers

Introduction to SPOR – FREE!!

Psychosocial Safety and Mental Health Series

ISO 45003 and What it Cannot Do

The KISS of Death in Safety

Behavioural Safety is NOT a Foundation for Tackling Psychosocial and Mental Health

The Worst Approach to Psychosocial Problems is an Attitude of ‘Fixing’

The Language of ‘Hazards’ and Psychosocial, Mental Health

Welcome to the Nightmare, Safety Creates its Own Minefield (as usual)

No Good Reason to Follow Reason

The Moral Harm of the Zero Cult

Toxic Positivity in Safety Doesn’t Help Anyone

Safety, Ethics, SPoR and How to Foster the Abuse of Power

More Posts from this Category

NEW! Free Download

Please take our 2 minute zero survey

Recent Comments

  • Brent Charlton on The KISS of Death in Safety
  • Rob Long on The KISS of Death in Safety
  • Brian Edwin Darlington on The KISS of Death in Safety
  • Brian on The Language of ‘Hazards’ and Psychosocial, Mental Health
  • Jaise on The Language of ‘Hazards’ and Psychosocial, Mental Health
  • Rob Long on Posture Myths and Holistic Ergonomics
  • Linda McKendry on Posture Myths and Holistic Ergonomics
  • Rob long on Welcome to the Nightmare, Safety Creates its Own Minefield (as usual)
  • Matt Thorne on Welcome to the Nightmare, Safety Creates its Own Minefield (as usual)
  • Anonymous on Welcome to the Nightmare, Safety Creates its Own Minefield (as usual)
  • Jason on How Bias Inhibits Learning in Safety
  • Rob Long on How Bias Inhibits Learning in Safety
  • Admin on How Bias Inhibits Learning in Safety
  • Rob Long on 400,000 Free Downloads
  • Gustavo Saralegui on 400,000 Free Downloads
  • Rob long on To Err is Human, You Better Believe It
  • Wynand on To Err is Human, You Better Believe It
  • Rob Long on To Err is Human, You Better Believe It
  • simon cassin on To Err is Human, You Better Believe It
  • Rob Long on Records of safety activities: evidence of safety or non-compliance?

FREE eBOOK DOWNLOADS

Footer

VIRAL POST – The Risk Matrix Myth

Top Posts & Pages. Sad that most are so dumb but this is what safety luves

  • 500 OF THE BEST AND WORST WORKPLACE HEALTH and SAFETY SLOGANS 2023
  • Free Safety Moments and Toolbox Talk Examples, Tips and Resources
  • Road Safety Slogans 2023
  • CATCHY and FUNNY SAFETY SLOGANS FOR THE WORKPLACE
  • Download Safety Moments from Human Resources Secretariat
  • The KISS of Death in Safety
  • 15 Safety Precautions When Working With Electricity
  • NATIONAL SAFETY DAY/WEEK IN INDIA 2023
  • FREE RISK ASSESSMENT FORMS, CHECKISTS, REGISTERS, TEMPLATES and APPS
  • The Language of ‘Hazards’ and Psychosocial, Mental Health

Recent Posts

  • ISO 45003 and What it Cannot Do
  • An Advanced Understanding of Culture – A Video
  • Risk and Safety Maturity
  • The KISS of Death in Safety
  • SPoR, Metanoia and a Podcast on Change with Nippin Anand
  • Behavioural Safety is NOT a Foundation for Tackling Psychosocial and Mental Health
  • The Worst Approach to Psychosocial Problems is an Attitude of ‘Fixing’
  • SPoR Comes to Vienna June 2023
  • The Language of ‘Hazards’ and Psychosocial, Mental Health
  • Welcome to the Nightmare, Safety Creates its Own Minefield (as usual)
  • The Visionary Imagination – Louisa Lawson
  • Heaven ‘n Hell and the Safety Religion
  • Confirmity in Conformity
  • Numerology and Psychic Numbing
  • Thinking of Mortality
  • Safety is the Wrong Anchor
  • Foresight Blindness, Hindsight Bias and Risk
  • Getting the Balance Right in Tackling Risk
  • What is SPoR?
  • How Bias Inhibits Learning in Safety
  • Afraid to Let Go of What Doesn’t Work in Safety
  • When You Don’t Know What to do in Safety, Have Another Blitz!!!
  • Gloves and Glasses Compliance
  • A Case of Desensitisation – What Would You Do?
  • How to Leave the Safety Industry
  • The Mythic Symbology of Safety
  • Dark Waters, The True Story of DuPont and Zero
  • 400,000 Free Downloads
  • Am I stupid? I didn’t think of that…
  • Don’t Look Now Safety, Your Metaphor is Showing
  • Ratio Delusions and Heinrich’s Hoax
  • To Err is Human, You Better Believe It
  • Culture as a Wicked Problem, for Safety
  • Safety Leadership Training
  • Cultural Orientation in Risk
  • The Stanford Experiment and The Social Psychology of Risk
  • Objectivity, Audits and Attribution When Calculating Risk
  • Records of safety activities: evidence of safety or non-compliance?
  • Zero, The Seeking of Infinity
  • Safety Leadership Essentials
  • What Can Indiana Jones Tell Us About Culture
  • Safety as a Worldview
  • The Loathing of Limits
  • Culture Cannot be Framed Through Safety
  • Free Online Workshops
  • Safety Culture–Hudson’s Model
  • Book Launch – For the Love of Zero – in Portuguese
  • Advancing Backwards in Safety
  • The ‘Noise’ of Safety, Silence and Practicing of Mindfulness
  • All Things Must Pass in Risk

VIRAL POST!!! HOW TO QUIT THE SAFETY INDUSTRY

FEATURED POSTS

The Safety Charade as Tokenism in Safety

The Reason Safety Has Gone So Crazy

Foundations of Perception and Imagination in Risk

Post Graduate Safety Potato Heads

A Conference with a Difference

Suggested Safety Reading for 2018

Safety Superstitions

We can Value Safety but Safety is not a Value

Humanising Workers Compensation (Sydney Workshop)

Hoarding as a Psychosis Against Uncertainty

Post Graduate Diploma in Psychology of Risk Commences

Perfectionism in Safety and the Denial of Humanity

Mental Health, Risk and Safety

The Learning (and unlearning) that Revealed my Vocation

Talking Risk Video–Anti-Fragility

A Semiotic Map for Safety

Is Safety a Choice You Make?

What Can ‘Safety’ Learn From a Rock?

Selective Harm for Rio Tinto

Psycho-Social and Socio-Psychological, What’s the Difference?

Stop the Train I Want to Get Off

Humanising Leadership in Risk, Shifting the Focus from Objects to Persons

The Primacy of Play in Learning

Out of your (Unconscious) Mind

Risk Psychometrics, Spin and Snake Oil

Acknowledge Trade-offs to Make Better Inquiries

Making Technicians Not Helpers

Conducting a Psychology and Culture Safety Walk

Tackling Risk, A Field Guide to Risk and Learning

Incident Investigations and the Einstellung Effect

The Seduction to Simplify Safety

The Foundations of Safety

Holistic Responses to Mental Health

The Worm at the Core

Acceptable Risk as a Decision Making Process

Don’t Make Safety a Habit

How was your break?

How Do Workers Make Decisions?

Defining Safety

The Link Between Think and Blink

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 7,498 other subscribers

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

WHAT IS PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY?

What is Psychological Safety at Work?


WHAT IS PSYCHOSOCIAL SAFETY