In SPoR, we teach the opposite. The foundation to tackling risk is through listening and empowering others to own the risk they face. The purpose of good engagement is not to control safety but to engage and listen to how others understand risk. The job of the safety person is like a mid-wife that ‘helps’ the other through presence, care and support. Afterall, after any encounter, the safety person leaves that moment and has no responsibility for what follows. If people are only safe when Safety is around, then the workplace is doomed.
This is why so many safety people no longer like their job and are not liked by people on site. This is why so many in safety are thinking of leaving the industry (https://safetyrisk.net/ohs-voices-from-the-resistance-rosa-carrillo/).
It doesn’t have to be this way.
However, the alternative is to jettison safety models of engagement and take on the approach of the skilled listener and helper (https://safetyrisk.net/the-advisor-as-skilled-helper/). Helpers don’t need to control others but know how to influence others through listening, reflection and handing over power to the other. Taking on control and power doesn’t work.
To implement listening and helping skills requires extensive practice and a complete shift in orientation, away from seeking power and control. When this orientation has been learned, the world changes, even in how you parent, partner or act in friendship. And these skills can be practiced anywhere and at any time.
In this video Brian tells the story of such an engagement in a restaurant, where he and I simply have a young student the time to tell her story (https://vimeo.com/1055473273).
The result was so profound that when Brian returned to the same restaurant 4 years later, he was recognised and greeted like a long-lost friend. This is the power of genuine engagement that doesn’t seek to tell but listen. Learning not to control others is the key to SPoR methodology and methods (https://www.humandymensions.com/product/spor-and-semiotics/). And this is what has transformed safety in the Brian’s company. SPoR works!
SPoR methodology and methods don’t get rid of safety systems but complement the way they are implemented. SPoR methods enhance safety culture and empower people in safety, in their responsibility to help others tackle risk. SPoR methods help through visual and verbal learning not paperwork or slogans and, have demonstrated extraordinary results.
If you live in the USA you can learn about SPoR and its methods in May at the SPoR Conference in Huston Texas (https://safetyrisk.net/social-psychology-of-risk-comes-to-the-usa/).
You can register here: https://linktr.ee/SPoR.USA.may2025
For more information and Group Discounts and Early Bird Discount please mail Matt Thorne; matthew@riskdiversity.com.au
Dr Rob Long
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Steve says
I remember the sharing of the story of that original meeting, what a fabulous full circle
Rob Long says
Yes Steve, the power of listening far outweighs the delusions of telling.