• 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 / Accidents and Incidents / I’ve got a feeling this isn’t right, but…..

I’ve got a feeling this isn’t right, but…..

August 1, 2015 by Rob Sams 7 Comments

I’ve got a feeling this isn’t right, but…..

Hit your head against brick wall.By Rob Sams

“That’s not an LTI. I’m really concerned about this, and we need to change the report straight away! It’s not good that John had to spend a night in hospital and I know that he is fair dinkum. That’s why we did the right thing and got him to do admin work while he was in there. We want John to stay productive and feel part of the team. That’s good for John, and that’s good for us, everyone wins when we look after our people. So, what I need you to do now is change that report as it is clear that John’s injury is not an LTI.”

A colleague involved in the safety and risk industry shared this story with me last week. This is how the Operations Director in his organisation explained John’s incident to him. Sadly, it is an all too common story, where people involved in safety and risk spend so much of their time debating definitions of injuries rather than focusing on supporting people to learn.

Many people that I talk to in the industry are fed up with the debate about definitions. We see through the spin, and the real message behind these conversations. Yet, most remain in the industry and in their roles, seemingly playing along with the game. I sometimes wonder, why we do this, why stay and do something that clearly frustrates us? It’s a good question that I have been thinking about a lot recently.

This article is not about what’s wrong with the way we measure safety (if you’re interested in this, I recommend you read https://safetyrisk.net/the-tyranny-of-absolutes/). Instead this is a story about how we can deal with things that we don’t feel comfortable with them.

Those in the safety and risk industry facing this situation are experiencing what I refer to as ‘mental gymnastics’. It’s that feeling that so many of us have when debating whether an injury is an LTI, MTI, FAI or whatever other term we use. The frustration may come from the fact that we can often spend more time and energy debating definitions than we do on focusing on injury prevention activities. Have you ever felt like this?

If you have, you probably thought about three courses of action. Firstly, you may have decided that this is just part of the way that your organisation and the industry works, and that while you don’t believe that changing definitions is at all useful, if you don’t focus too much attention on the numbers, and instead turn your focus to people, you can probably learn to live with the short term frustration when these conversations occur.

Alternatively, and most dangerously in my mind, you may stay unhealthily frustrated and even bitter. This is a dangerous position to be in. This is where stress and anxiety can impact on your wellbeing. If you find yourself in this situation, it may be time to ask yourselves some serious questions about how long you can maintain that feeling for. It might also be a good idea to seek counsel from a person you trust to help you through these feelings. You don’t want to be in this situation for too long.

Finally, we may decide that we no longer want to continue with the ‘mental gymnastics’, and make the decision to change. Of course, there will be various stages between these three simplified options, but I’m guessing that most people will understand that one of the key points I am trying to make is that recognising the situation you are in is probably the most important thing.

Of course, this feeling of ‘mental gymnastics’ is not something unique to people in the safety and risk industry. It is something that that I expect people who struggle with addictions such as excessive drinking, smoking or a gambling addiction deal with regularly. It is common occurrence for people with addictions to regularly feel uncomfortable about them, as they know that it is not good for either their health, their family or their bank balance. They may read reports and talk to experts who tell them about the dangers, yet for reasons that those observing find hard to understand, people can find any number of reasons to ‘make sense’ of their addictions and continue it.

I wonder whether this is similar to how people in safety and risk respond when we are uncomfortable with how safety is being managed in our organisation and we stay in roles ‘playing the game’? I’m not suggesting that we have an addiction equivalent of being an alcoholic, but the mental gymnastics that I hear people tell me about, may be similar.

For example, I was talking with a group of colleagues a few weeks ago and we were exploring why we do this. We’d all experienced that feeling of ‘this doesn’t feel right’, and we all, on reflection, realised and understood how we rationalised the feelings, made sense of them, and continued to do what we had always had done. Just like a person with an addiction often says something like “I know smoking is bad for my health, but it’s how I relax”. Could the equivalent in safety and risk be saying “I know that counting LTI’s creates a culture of under reporting, but it’s ok, because at least we have managements attention”.

In the discussion with my colleagues, we also recognised that it is not only definitions of injuries that create this feeling of uncomfortableness. We’d also become frustrated at times with the use of audit reports to measure of safety performance and with the endless use of policies and procedures to control peoples behaviour and support a ‘dumbing down’ of people. I previously wrote about in https://safetyrisk.net/toaster-is-hot/.

So what can we do when we experience ‘mental gymnastics’?

Perhaps the most important thing is to be conscious that you are experiencing these feelings. It’s something we need to struggle with in order to make sense of things in our lives. By understanding and recognising this uncomfortable feeling, we can also be more supportive and compassionate toward people who are going through this themselves. We can look out and listen for signs of people experiencing ‘mental gymnastics’ and help them through it by lending an ear and listening. Instead of focusing on numbers, compliance and process, we can spend more time on understanding people and ‘scaffold’ them as they learn.

Questioning how we feel and what we do is a natural part of our learning and thinking. There is no right or wrong way to respond when we feel this way, we will all make sense of things in our own way and based on our own experiences, beliefs and values. What is important however is to understand that it exists in both our own thinking and for others, and provide a supportive environment where we can deal with the ‘gymnastics’ and make a call about how we feel best to deal with a situation.

For my colleague who heard the story of John from his Operations Director, I suspect he is nearing the stage where he is ready to make a change, to move away from the world of redefining safety statistics, and move instead to a new way of working. I wish him good luck.

Have you experienced ‘mental gymnastics’ recently? How did you handle it?

If you’d like to learn more about how we make decisions and judgements, I recommend a book by Scott Plous, The Psychology of Judgement and Decision Making. It’s a great read – see http://www.amazon.com/Psychology-Judgment-Decision-Making-McGraw-Hill/dp/0070504776

  • 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: Accidents and Incidents, Rob Sams, Social Psychology of Risk Tagged With: lti, LTIFR, mental gymnastics, statistics

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 7,499 other subscribers

RECOMMENDED READING

viral post – iso 45003 and what it cannot do

Introduction to SPOR – FREE!!

Psychosocial Safety and Mental Health Series

Psychosocial Safety, Is it possible to make it culturally normal?

How to Be Oriented Towards Psychosocial and Mental Health in Safety

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

More Posts from this Category

NEW! Free Download

Please take our 2 minute zero survey

Recent Comments

  • Hurak Learning on How to Be Oriented Towards Psychosocial and Mental Health in Safety
  • Rob Long on An Advanced Understanding of Culture – A Video
  • Paul Gentles on An Advanced Understanding of Culture – A Video
  • 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

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
  • Proving Safety
  • Free Safety Moments and Toolbox Talk Examples, Tips and Resources
  • Road Safety Slogans 2023
  • ISO 45003 and What it Cannot Do
  • CATCHY and FUNNY SAFETY SLOGANS FOR THE WORKPLACE
  • Download Safety Moments from Human Resources Secretariat
  • NATIONAL SAFETY DAY/WEEK IN INDIA 2023
  • How to Calculate TRIFR, LTIFR and Other Health and Safety Indicators
  • 15 Safety Precautions When Working With Electricity

Recent Posts

  • Psychosocial Safety, Is it possible to make it culturally normal?
  • How to Be Oriented Towards Psychosocial and Mental Health in Safety
  • Free Download – Real Risk – New Book by Dr Robert Long
  • Proving Safety
  • ISO 45003 and What it Cannot Do
  • Harming People in the Name of Good
  • 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

VIRAL POST!!! HOW TO QUIT THE SAFETY INDUSTRY

FEATURED POSTS

What Can Safety Learn From Desire Paths?

Safety and Risk Leadership Master Class

Something’s gotta give..

Courage to Challenge the Great TRIFR and LTIFR Delusion

The Power in Silence

What’s Faith Got To Do With Safety

Managing the Unexpected

Foundations of Perception and Imagination in Risk

New Video Series on Safety

Heretical, Unorthodox and Sacrilegious Safety

Its All In The Sign

An Social Ecology of Resilience

The Sickness of Safetyism

What Are Observation-Conversation Skills?

Is Complacency Evil?

Zero as Morally Wicked

Who Gives a Toss?

Why is fallibility so challenging in the workplace?

Social Psychology of Risk Workshop-Sydney

The Rational, aRational and Irrational in Safety

Making Technicians Not Helpers

Shock and Fear in Safety

Don’t Make Safety a Habit

Does Safety Have A Soul?

Selling Out Safety

Zero Accident Vision Non-Sense

The Religion of Safety

A Conference with a Difference

You Have No Idea What Goes on in the ‘Real World of Safety’

Ways in Which the Workplace Harms Us

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

Certificate, Diploma and Masters Studies in SPoR

Gesture in Risk Matters

Free Poster–Risk

Understanding How People Make Decisions and Judgments

No Soft Skills in Safety

Face to Face SPoR Workshops 2022

Innocence and Justice in Safety

I Just Don’t Know

The Curse of Cognitivism

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 7,499 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