• 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
    • Psychosocial Safety
    • Resiliencing
    • 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 / Robert Long / Learning Wisdom from the Collective Unconscious

Learning Wisdom from the Collective Unconscious

January 19, 2019 by Dr Rob Long 3 Comments

Learning Wisdom from the Collective Unconscious

It was C.G Jung who named the ideas, language, aesthetics, art, dance, myth, symbols, values, artefacts and song shared between cultures as the ‘collective unconscious’. It is in these that we find the true meaning of culture.

In 2018 I was asked to give a keynote address at a NAOSH risk and safety conference in British Columbia, Canada, the launch of Health and Safety Week.

The conference theme was ‘make safety a habit’ – a clear declaration that NAOSH has little idea of what a habit is, the dynamics of habit nor how the unconscious formation of habits was not something they should be promoting. A habit is something does unconsciously when the reward is gone. Habits are activities that are done without rationally thinking. We all know that when a situation changes we don’t want people to carry on their activity in blind habit, this is dangerous.

The NAOSH event was sponsored by the Canadian Society of Safety Engineering (CSSE). There is a video of the event here: https://vimeo.com/269663607/4c9f223916 I am not surprised that Engineers or safety people would know little of the psychology of habits and addictions, but they should. Amazing all this interest and blaming about complacency without knowing what it is. The addiction of Safety to Scientism and Behaviourism (https://safetyrisk.net/the-curse-of-behaviourism/) simply retards it from understanding much outside of its own discipline. The problem with Scientism is that it dismisses the validity of anything that is not empirically verifiable. The following article demonstrates the dilemma: https://quadrant.org.au/magazine/2012/01-02/smoking-out-evil-spirits/

The conference was opened by the First People’s of the Songhees region, of the Salish People. An elder gave the ‘welcome to country’ and wore traditional garments explaining how each had significance and spiritual importance. See Picture One. Songhee’s Elder. The vest was worn to protect the heart and the head band was to protect from using wrong language. Wow what amazing myth/symbology. I thought we should get millions of those head bands so people in risk and safety could talk less nonsense to people (eg. ‘’safety is a choice you make’, ‘all accidents are preventable’ and ‘zero harm’)

Picture One. Songhee’s Elder.

clip_image002

The headband was made of a woven maple and I thought I could just go to a tourist shop and buy one. Turns out this head band is a very rare thing to get a hold of. So I asked my sponsor Jeff Lyth (https://spor.com.au/podcasts/conversation-about-a-new-approach-to-safety-with-jeff-lyth/) if he could locate one for me. The symbolism of that band was so powerful, what a great artefact to use in narrative and illustration about wisdom.

With the rise of social media and all this instant focus on filling the air with immature infantile noise, here was a wise Songhees elder sharing with us the wisdom of contemplative reflective language. Of all the things presented at this NAOSH conference, this was the most profound and helpful presentation.

In the end I did get a maple Songhees head band. Jeff got especially woven for me and it sits on display in my glass semiotics cabinet in my study. What a wonderful symbol of maturity, wisdom, learning and metaphysics. Words you won’t hear in the Scientist safety sector. See Picture Two. Maple Head Band.

Picture Two. Maple Head Band.

clip_image004

Of all the fixation in on PPE in the safety industry wouldn’t it be nice if maple head bands were compulsory. Maybe this head band could to help Safety stop talking shit to others.

Hey, maybe we could get some made for a few politicians.

  • 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)

  • Embodied Risk - May 31, 2023
  • SPoR – Positive, Constructive, Practical, Rational, Visual, Verbal, Social, Relational, Person-Centric, Respectful, Ethical and Real - May 28, 2023
  • History and Hindsight in Safety - May 26, 2023
  • Anchoring, Framing and Priming Risk - May 26, 2023
  • What’s Your Agenda in Safety? - May 26, 2023
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, Social Psychology of Risk Tagged With: collective mindfulness, unconscious

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Bernard Corden says

    January 23, 2019 at 2:33 PM

    The cancer of safety has permeated every corporate behemoth and has degenerated into a tyranny of bureaucracy with the ganglions of blame, fear and retribution in an otiose attempt to obscure duty of care and due diligence.

    This is promoted via our peak association body with asinine shibboleths such as zero harm and reinforced by cohorts of neurotic Tonton Macoutes masquerading as certified safety professionals.

    Whenever I see grandiose job titles such as vice president of safety, it merely indicates the moron is a socially autistic malapert and about as articulate as our incumbent federal education minister.

    Reply
  2. Rob Long says

    January 23, 2019 at 7:57 AM

    Hey Frank. Certainly would expose the insincerity of scientism and positivism in the safety industry. They certainly don’t believe in empirical verifiability.

    Reply
  3. Frank Garrett says

    January 23, 2019 at 5:32 AM

    There are not enough maple tree’s on the planet, Rob!

    Reply

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 7,524 other subscribers

Recent Comments

  • Rob Long on It is NOT My Responsibility to Keep You Safe
  • Chris. on It is NOT My Responsibility to Keep You Safe
  • Pierre Joubert on Zero Doesn’t Work, Road Fatalities Increase
  • James on We are all equal
  • Rob Long on We are all equal
  • James Parkinson on We are all equal
  • Brent Charlton on What Does Safety Achieve?
  • Admin on We are all equal
  • James Parkinson on We are all equal
  • Rob Long on What Does Safety Achieve?
  • Brent Charlton on We are all equal
  • Brent Charlton on We are all equal
  • Brent Charlton on We are all equal
  • Brent Charlton on What Does Safety Achieve?
  • Simon Cassin on You Can Fool Someone Some of the Time but, You Can Fool Safety All of the Time
  • Simon Cassin on You Can Fool Someone Some of the Time but, You Can Fool Safety All of the Time
  • Rob Long on You Can Fool Someone Some of the Time but, You Can Fool Safety All of the Time
  • Rob Long on You Can Fool Someone Some of the Time but, You Can Fool Safety All of the Time
  • Rob Long on You Can Fool Someone Some of the Time but, You Can Fool Safety All of the Time
  • Rob Long on You Can Fool Someone Some of the Time but, You Can Fool Safety All of the Time

RECOMMENDED READING

viral post – iso 45003 and what it cannot do

Introduction to SPOR – FREE!!

Psychosocial Safety and Mental Health Series

It is NOT My Responsibility to Keep You Safe

The KISS of Death in Safety

Is Your Safety World Too Small?

You Can Fool Someone Some of the Time but, You Can Fool Safety All of the Time

When Safety (Zero) is Abusive

Hands Up the Best Safety Fraud!

Communicating Professionally in Risk

How NOT to be Professional in Safety

How NOT to do Anything About Culture in Building and Construction

Celebrating 60 Years of Lifeline

More Posts from this Category

NEW! Free Download

Please take our 2 minute zero survey

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

  • Free Safety Moments and Toolbox Talk Examples, Tips and Resources
  • 500 OF THE BEST AND WORST WORKPLACE HEALTH and SAFETY SLOGANS 2023
  • CATCHY and FUNNY SAFETY SLOGANS FOR THE WORKPLACE
  • Road Safety Slogans 2023
  • Download Safety Moments from Human Resources Secretariat
  • FREE RISK ASSESSMENT FORMS, CHECKISTS, REGISTERS, TEMPLATES and APPS
  • 15 Safety Precautions When Working With Electricity
  • How to Calculate TRIFR, LTIFR and Other Health and Safety Indicators
  • Safety Acronyms
  • What Is Safety?

Recent Posts

  • Embodied Risk
  • SPoR – Positive, Constructive, Practical, Rational, Visual, Verbal, Social, Relational, Person-Centric, Respectful, Ethical and Real
  • History and Hindsight in Safety
  • Process driven or People driven? What’s your Focus?
  • Anchoring, Framing and Priming Risk
  • What’s Your Agenda in Safety?
  • What is a Safety Reset?
  • The Myth of Neuroscience Safety
  • When Safety Delights in ‘I Told You So’!
  • Beware the Cult of Denial
  • My Story is Better than Yours
  • Understanding Safety as a Cultural Reproductive Process
  • The Unconscious and the Soap Dispenser
  • Thinking Outside the Safety Bubble
  • Understanding Language Influencing, A Video
  • Safetie
  • You are NOT the Sum of Safety
  • Update on SPoR in India, Brazil and Europe
  • It is NOT My Responsibility to Keep You Safe
  • Safety at the Margins
  • Research Basics for Safety
  • We Need Communities and They Need Us
  • Researching Within The Safety Echo Chamber
  • Confirmation Bias, Risk and Being Offensive
  • Lemmings for Lemmings in Leadership and Risk
  • Expertise by Regurgitation and Re-Badging
  • Zero Doesn’t Work, Road Fatalities Increase
  • Can There Be Other Valid Worldviews Than Safety?
  • Evaluating Value by the Value of What You Don’t Know
  • Reality vs Theory, The Binary Divide
  • No Paradigm Shift with BBS
  • The KISS of Death in Safety
  • Is Your Safety World Too Small?
  • What Does Safety Achieve?
  • In Praise of Balance in Risk and the Threat of Extremism
  • We are all equal
  • You Can Fool Someone Some of the Time but, You Can Fool Safety All of the Time
  • What in the (Risk & Safety) World is Imagination?
  • iCue Engagement Process
  • SPoR, Metanoia and a Podcast on Change with Nippin Anand
  • For the Monarchists of Safety
  • The Sully Effect
  • All Things Must Pass in Risk
  • Scapegoating and Safety
  • Understanding Habit, Habituation and Change
  • Don’t Mention the War
  • Safety in Design for Who by Who?
  • Beyond ‘What We Do Around Here’
  • Asking the Wrong Questions
  • When Safety (Zero) is Abusive

VIRAL POST!!! HOW TO QUIT THE SAFETY INDUSTRY

FEATURED POSTS

‘False Consciousness’ and Perception in Risk and Safety

Paralysis by Precaution

Sexual Stereotyping Can Be Deadly

The Disembodied Human and Persons in Safety

Just distract you!

No Ethic of Hope in Zero

Talking Risk Video–Anti-Fragility

Third Group Commences the Graduate Program in The Psychology of Risk

Suggested Safety Reading for 2018

Complacency and The Wayward Mind

Anxiety and Fear Professionals

The Sully Effect

Just Tell Your Mind to Stop It

Tentative at Tooleybuc

Human Dymensions Newsletter–Feb 14

Risk and Safety Starts with Being?

Free Books – 66 Downloads for Tackling Risk

ACTOR + ACTION + TIME = EVENT

Hoarding as a Psychosis Against Uncertainty

When Art Speaks to Harm

You are NOT the Sum of Safety

Traditional Safety

Bridging the Disciplines for Better Outcomes

Accidents Happen Because You Don’t Put Safety First

Rhythms, Musicophilia and Safety

Checklist Seduction and The Delusion of Data

The Unconscious and the Soap Dispenser

The Conundrum in Discerning Risk

Work-Life and Risk, Feminine Perspectives

Does Safety Have A Soul?

Incrementalism, Catastrophism and All That’s In-between

How does collective mindfulness apply to workers compensation?

The Rational, aRational and Irrational in Safety

Heretical, Unorthodox and Sacrilegious Safety

All You Love is Need

Safety – Learning by Doing and Learning by Theory

First in Best Dressed for Indoctrination

Safety Gives Me the Right over Other Rights

Safety Engagement with Workspace, Headspace and Groupspace

SPoR and Myth

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 7,524 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

x
x