Prophets to Safety Not, Profits from Safety Myths

When we look at the flood of ‘noise’ that bombards safety, the many gimmicks, slogans, symbols and myths, it’s challenging to cut through to the basics.

When so much money is to be made in ‘easy pickings’ off an industry seeking ‘silver bullets’ (https://safetyrisk.net/the-silver-bullet/), it’s so easy to promise the impossible (zero). And the undiscerning throngs will follow.

When we explore the nonsense language of safety ‘thought leaders’ we simply observe ‘more of the same’ constructed as something ‘new’ and ‘different’.

Just have a look at this list of safety ‘thought leaders’and what is on offer? More engineering, more behaviourism and more systems. Such is the continuation of safety code.

If there is no methodology and method in contrast to safety orthodoxy then it ain’t ‘thought leading’. It’s usually a gimmick, slogan and myth. Even when substance is promised, it’s more of the same.

Whenever you see the nonsense language of ‘thought leader’ anchored to ‘zero’ (https://www.dekra.com/en/thought-leadership/ ), you know that the opposite is the case. Any idea that some sense of futuristic innovating thinking can be anchored to a metric/numeric is absolute nonsense. Safety anchored to the discourse of metrics and numerics is just more traditional safety.

If what is being proposed is simply greater rigour in systems (eg. Hopkins, Busch) then there is nothing ‘different’ or innovative on offer. Indeed, any safety noise anchored to data and numerics is simply more of the same (https://safetyrisk.net/1-one-percent-safer/).

If all that is being offered is a few slogans followed by more safety systems then there is no innovation. And often the real motive for profits is hidden and masked behind the discourse of ‘thought leading’. There is never anything politically, methodologically or ethically new, it’s just more of the same.

When an industry is focused on profits, there’s never an acceptance of prophets.

Just explore any review (usually conducted by an engineer) over the last 10 years in risk and safety after a major event, and the results are usually a doubling of paperwork and systems, more of the same.

The concept of a prophet is not about foretelling or forecasting, it never was. A prophet is not a Nostradamus guessing at the future. A prophet is one who calls out the bleeding obvious and trajectories. The prophet forthtells not foretells.

The tradition of the prophet is about one who calls out against the tide and declares the trajectory of things. Examples are the likes of Ghandi and Martin Luther King Jnr.

The prophet doesn’t talk about the future but the moment and, where that moment is taking everyone.

Whenever I read the nonsense of ‘thought leaders in safety’ I see nothing that contests the popular symbols/myths of safety. To do so puts in jeopardy the profits of safety.

The best way to ensure profits from safety myths is to:

• Promise zero or a reduction in numbers.
• Use binary fundamentalist language promising the impossible.
• Use all the traditional myths like bow-tie, swiss-cheese, pyramids and coloured matricies.
• Continue to use behaviourist and engineering language, a sure attraction but always packaged in a slogan code.
• Resonate with the appetite for numerics, metrics, behaviourism and engineering.
• Promise zero or if that doesn’t work, try ‘toward zero’ or ‘1% safer’. The discourse is the same.
• The myth is never the reality and when the noise fades, workers are usually left with more paperwork (despite the code of ‘lean’), another yo-yo fad (https://safetyrisk.net/the-yo-yo-delusion-and-conversations-about-risk/) and more systems.
• Safety doesn’t want to hear the message that zero has only one trajectory – brutalism.
• Safety doesn’t want the language of ‘fallibility’ being spoken.
• Safety doesn’t want the language of ‘helping’, ‘care’ or ‘persons’ being spoken. Such language challenges the myths of behaviourism and numerics.

What profits does Safety want to hear?

The language of ‘duty’, ‘common sense’, ‘do the right thing’ and ‘check your gut’. Such defines the nature of the safety profit.

• Bio
• Latest Posts
• More about Rob

Dr Rob Long

Expert in Social Psychology, Principal & Trainer at Human Dymensions

Latest posts by Dr Rob Long (see all)

• Podcast – What Jung Can Contribute to Safety – Part One - September 12, 2024
• Relationships as Therapy for Mental Health, A Note for Safety - September 10, 2024
• Cultivating Resilience - September 8, 2024
• No Place for Military Metaphors in Safety - September 6, 2024
• The Influence of C.G. Jung in SPoR - September 5, 2024

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.