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

SafetyRisk.net

Humanising Health, Safety and 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
      • BIGGEST COLLECTION of 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 / Looking Forward, Looking Back

Looking Forward, Looking Back

June 27, 2023 by Dr Rob Long 6 Comments

Originally posted on September 9, 2019 @ 9:05 PM

imageThis cute little song by Slim Dusty lays out the ultimate challenge for Risk and Safety. So much of what characterizes Safety is about looking backward. Counting data, LTIs, TRIFR and counting lead indicators (positive activity) all focus on the past as if these are an indicator of the future. Most safety people I know complain about this constant tirade of looking backward in monthly safety reports. They find the meaninglessness of these debilitating and yet have no way of escape. There is certainly no vision by any of the peaks to help in this way either. What have the NSCA and AIHS to offer the sector for a vision to reduce needless paperwork?

Amazing how real time data is now being peddled as some advanced way of looking forward when all it is more metrics, more numerics and more counting. The truth is, the more one is flooded with data the less one is enabled to think forward. Thinking forward is essential to vision and is captured by a very simple question all safety people should ask: Where is this taking us?

The real way to be visionary in risk and safety is to think about trajectories. You don’t have to be a magician to realize that a discourse of zero will lead to brutalism, that a discourse of BBS will lead to dehumanizing others. If one sets a discourse populated by numbers and objects then its trajectory can only do harm to people. When humans are simply understood as objects in a system then don’t be surprised about psychological injury rates or exponential amplification of mental health issues.

When I first entered University in 1970 the book that was shaking the tree was Future Shock by Alvin Toffler (https://www.researchgate.net/publication/229011962_Future_shock_-_Discussing_the_changing_temporal_architecture_of_daily_life). Some of the projections of Toffler have indeed come to fruition. We seem no better at living in community or looking after the world and with each other regardless of all the technological advances that have been made. Our wicked problems seem to have amplified (https://safetyrisk.net/independent-thinking-in-an-uncertain-world-a-mind-of-ones-own/) and, we seem to have simply shifted harm to different places. Despite all the social media we are more lonely than ever with an alarming suicide rate (https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-09-08/quentin-bryce-urging-better-ways-to-talk-about-suicide/11487380).

Predicting the future technically is impossible but predicting the future socially has been around for thousands of years. The eight century prophets of Israel understood how empire, exploitation, greed, individualism, domination and authoritarianism lead to the oppression of others. They knew that absolute power corrupts absolutely and didn’t need a crystal ball to work out where things were going. Vision doesn’t come from reading tea leaves but by understanding how power works in social contexts. Much of this gift of stating the bleeding obvious comes from skills in Critical and Cultural theory. At the source of most dehumanization is the abuse of power.

One of the curious things about many vision statements in organisations is that they rarely say much that is imaginative or consider the foundations of trajectories. Many of these so called ‘vision statements’ contain little vision at all. If a vision statement doesn’t consider ethical trajectories, human impact, social outcomes or the exercise of power then it is likely to contain little vision. Often such statements end up being ‘motherhood’ in nature offering little way forward. Vision requires imagination, courage, forward looking discourse and an understanding of fallibility. One can’t look forward when the assumption of ethics is the make believe of zero. One might as well build a vision on a fairy tale and hope belief in Cinderella will invoke a vision for safety.

One of the most backward looking models in safety is the Bradley Curve. The whole structure of the curve demonizes humans as the problem and makes counting back to zero an art form (https://safetyrisk.net/nonsense-curves-and-pyramids/). Indeed it assumes that all humans are created seeking harm (‘natural instincts’). There is nothing to learn from the Bradley Curve except how to look backwards.

Zero is typified by counting backwards so common in the concept of a countdown. When one’s world is framed by counting backwards there can be no looking forwards. If Safety is to have any vision and look forward it needs to start with a vision to reject all this counting and backward looking tied up in LTIs, TRIFR and numerics.

  • 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)

  • Tolerance - December 5, 2023
  • Lies, Shortcuts and Lessons from Armstrong - December 4, 2023
  • Real Risk, An New Icon for SafetyRisk and Competition - December 4, 2023
  • Understanding Human ‘Being’ The Foundation for Understanding Human Error - December 4, 2023
  • The Behaviourist Human and Human Being - December 2, 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, Zero Harm Tagged With: BBS, lti, paperwork, trifr

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. bernardcorden says

    February 13, 2020 at 7:52 PM

    When first introduced to the cultural maturity model back in the late 1990s I found it quite intriguing but its myopic definition of culture as…..”the way we do things around here” or FIFO makes it very regimental or militaristic and it is deceptively used to promote behaviour based safety or waterboarding.

    Reply
  2. Keith Johnson says

    February 13, 2020 at 7:52 PM

    HI Rob, good article. I note the commentary on the Bradley Curve. What are your thoughts on Hudson’s culture model? Cheers Keith

    Reply
    • Rob Long says

      February 13, 2020 at 7:52 PM

      HI Keith, I always get suspicious of anything Safety flocks to as a panacea of all ills and the Hudson model just like the Kahneman model are examples of this. I don’t mind the Hudson model except for the fact of how poorly he defines culture. have a look here and you will see: https://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/media-centre/moving-culture-ladder-professor-patrick-hudson
      I have a very different understanding of culture and the notion of risk maturity.

      Reply
  3. bernardcorden says

    September 11, 2019 at 11:26 AM

    When first introduced to the cultural maturity model back in the late 1990s I found it quite intriguing but its myopic definition of culture as…..”the way we do things around here” or FIFO makes it very regimental or militaristic and it is deceptively used to promote behaviour based safety or waterboarding.

    Reply
  4. Keith Johnson says

    September 10, 2019 at 7:05 AM

    HI Rob, good article. I note the commentary on the Bradley Curve. What are your thoughts on Hudson’s culture model? Cheers Keith

    Reply
    • Rob Long says

      September 10, 2019 at 8:11 AM

      HI Keith, I always get suspicious of anything Safety flocks to as a panacea of all ills and the Hudson model just like the Kahneman model are examples of this. I don’t mind the Hudson model except for the fact of how poorly he defines culture. have a look here and you will see: https://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/media-centre/moving-culture-ladder-professor-patrick-hudson
      I have a very different understanding of culture and the notion of risk maturity.

      Reply

Do you have any thoughts? Please share them belowCancel 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 7,520 other subscribers.

FREE eBOOK DOWNLOADS

Recent Comments

  • Matthew Thorne on Safety You Can Drink
  • Rob Long on Safety You Can Drink
  • Frank Garrett on Practical and Positive Methods to Tackle Risk – Free Workshop
  • Admin on The Behaviourist Human and Human Being
  • Matt Thorne on Understanding Human ‘Being’ The Foundation for Understanding Human Error
  • Rob Long on Practical and Positive Methods to Tackle Risk – Free Workshop
  • Rob Long on The Behaviourist Human and Human Being
  • Rob Long on The Behaviourist Human and Human Being
  • rosa antonia carrillo on The Behaviourist Human and Human Being
  • rosa antonia carrillo on The Behaviourist Human and Human Being
  • Rob Long on Semiotic Methods to Help Tackle Risk
  • BRENT R CHARLTON on Semiotic Methods to Help Tackle Risk
  • Rob Long on Semiotic Methods to Help Tackle Risk
  • Jason Martell on Semiotic Methods to Help Tackle Risk
  • Rob Long on Critical Sources of Harm Ignored by Safety=Zero
  • simon p cassin on Critical Sources of Harm Ignored by Safety=Zero
  • Matt Thorne on Book Launch – SPoR and Semiotics, Methods to Tackle Risk
  • Rob Long on A Book to Help Get You Started on Cultural Improvement in Risk
  • Matt Thorne on Book Launch – SPoR and Semiotics, Methods to Tackle Risk
  • Peter Saaman on Book Launch – SPoR and Semiotics, Methods to Tackle Risk

RECOMMENDED READING

viral post – iso 45003 and what it cannot do

Introduction to SPOR – FREE!!

Psychosocial Safety and Mental Health Series

Don’t be Obsessed with Safety

A Guide to Psychosocial Safety Skills

Mindfulness is NOT Brain-fullness and other Psychosocial Myths

Have You Had a Drink of SafeTea?

If You Can’t Manage Fallibility, You’ll Never Tackle Psychosocial Health

Embodiment, Myth and Psychosocial Risk

7 Golden Rules that are NOT Golden

Why Zero Vision Can Never Tackle Mental Health

If Psychosocial Health Matters, Stop Hot Desking

Effective Strategies in Mental Health at Work

More Posts from this Category

NEW! Free Download

Please take our 2 minute zero survey

Footer

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

  • Christmas Safety Messages, Toolbox Talks, Safety Moments and Slogans
  • Free Safety Moments and Toolbox Talk Examples, Tips and Resources
  • CATCHY and FUNNY SAFETY SLOGANS FOR THE WORKPLACE
  • Safety You Can Drink
  • FREE RISK ASSESSMENT FORMS, CHECKISTS, REGISTERS, TEMPLATES and APPS
  • BIGGEST COLLECTION of WORKPLACE HEALTH and SAFETY SLOGANS 2023
  • Christmas Safety Messages, Poems, Tips and Articles
  • Christmas Safety Poem
  • Free Risk Assessment Template in Excel Format
  • Practical and Positive Methods to Tackle Risk – Free Workshop

Recent Posts

  • Tolerance
  • Safety You Can Drink
  • Lies, Shortcuts and Lessons from Armstrong
  • Practical and Positive Methods to Tackle Risk – Free Workshop
  • Real Risk, An New Icon for SafetyRisk and Competition
  • Understanding Human ‘Being’ The Foundation for Understanding Human Error
  • The Behaviourist Human and Human Being
  • There is no Fast and Slow Thinking, Nor Quick Learning
  • Fragility, Resilience and AntiFragility in Risk
  • The Sponsors of Zero Are
  • Why Zero Cannot Understand the Basics of Safety – ALARP and Due Diligence
  • No Room for Ethics in a Zero ‘Mindset’
  • Zero Harm and the Fear of Failure
  • Semiotic Methods to Help Tackle Risk
  • Top 10 Simple Things You Can Do To Dramatically Improve Safety
  • SPoR and Semiotics, A Conversation – Free Download
  • The Traffic in Zero Only Goes One Way
  • Critical Sources of Harm Ignored by Safety=Zero
  • Zero and a Culture of Denial
  • Shaping Change to Zero
  • A Book to Help Get You Started on Cultural Improvement in Risk
  • Risk Intelligence and What to Do About It – A Video
  • Feel Good Safety and Un-Ethical Ego-Centrism
  • Book Launch – SPoR and Semiotics, Methods to Tackle Risk
  • When Zero Doesn’t Work, Don’t Change Anything
  • Having Meetings Without ‘Meeting’
  • Leaders in Safety are NOT Gurus
  • Method and Message Congruence in Risk
  • Guilt and Shame, The By-Products of Safety-Zero
  • Update on Zero Survey, Just believe!
  • Zero is NOT the Only Acceptable Number
  • Don’t be Obsessed with Safety
  • Zero Ideology as Maximum Offense, Zero Benefit
  • Embracing Risk–Video
  • Hey CEO? Does Zero Apply to You?
  • OHS Voices from the Resistance – Rosa Carrillo
  • A Guide to Psychosocial Safety Skills
  • A Guide to Tokenism in Ethics in Safety
  • The Questions You Ask in Safety are Showing?
  • Introduction to SPoR, SEEK and Culture
  • What is Safety? Video
  • Understanding Motivation is Essential to Understanding Risk
  • Semiotic and Poetic Literacy for Safety
  • Speak Up, but Don’t Tackle the Cause
  • KISS Safety in a VUCA World
  • OHS Voices From the Resistance – Book review
  • Wo-Men in Safety
  • SPoR Podcasts Back Up and Running
  • What is Semiotics? – Video
  • Finding Balance in SPoR

VIRAL POST!!! HOW TO QUIT THE SAFETY INDUSTRY

FEATURED POSTS

Sense-Making and Decision-Making in Risk

The New Enemy of Safety – The Unconscious

Safety as Avoidance

The 10 Behaviours of the Safety Sociopath

I’m Not Playing Any More

The Brain as Computer Myth

I’m just not that into safety anymore

It’s the –ism That Matters

Visualising the EHS Role

The Different Levels of Wrongness!

The Certainty of Uncertainty

The Immediacy of Zero

Mapping Social Influence Strategies

Report on SPoR Convention 2018

10 Reasons Why Safety Can Never Make You Happy

CLLR Christmas 2016 Newsletter and Competition

What in the (Risk & Safety) World is Imagination?

Three Cheers for the Safety Literalists

I DON’T KNOW

A Scaffolder’s Journey in SPoR – A Podcast

Humanising Workplace Health and Safety Management

Social Sensemaking – Free eBook

What Does Misinformation Do in Safety?

Freedom in Necessity

The Rational, aRational and Irrational in Safety

Like a Collective Brain Snap

‘False Consciousness’ and Perception in Risk and Safety

The Challenge of Social Sensemaking in Risk

7 Incredible Ways To Diagnose Risk More Effectively

Just Hangin’ Out…

Why Safety Controls Don’t Always Work

Understanding Risk

SEEK is not a Method

Day 5 SPoR in Europe

What Are the Benefits Of Social Psychology of Risk?

Safety and Risk Leadership Master Class

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

What Can Safety Learn from Barbie

We Are Such Experts….

The Myth of Fast and Slow Thinking

More Posts from this Category

VIRAL POST – The Risk Matrix Myth

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 7,520 other subscribers.

WHAT IS PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY?

What is Psychological Safety at Work?


WHAT IS PSYCHOSOCIAL SAFETY