• 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
  • 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 / Greg Smith / Proving Safety

Proving Safety

October 12, 2018 by Admin 7 Comments

One of the best safety articles I’ve read on Linkedin in a long, long time. By Greg Smith and first published here: https://www.waylandlegal.com.au/blog/proving-safety

Proving Safety

imageHere is an interesting question. What would safety management look like in your organisation if you did not have to “prove” it?

  • Would you still make your workers do Take 5s? And if your workers had to do a Take 5, would you collect and file them?
  • Would you document a pre-start, safety review of a job in a JHA? Would you make your workers sign it? Would you collect, and file completed JHAs, and then keep them for years?
  • Would you think a safe work method statement added any value to the management of hazards?
  • Would you make workers sign a Permit to Work, and then collect, file and keep those?
  • Would you keep your hazard reports on file, even though the hazard has been closed out?
  • Would you make your workers document and sign pre-start and other workplace inspections? If you did, would you collect, file and keep them?
  • Would you make managers document their “safety” conversations with workers?
  • Would you make workers sign a document to say they have attended a pre-start meeting?
  • Would you make workers sign a document to say they have read and understood all of your safety procedures?
  • What would safety look like in your organisation if, instead of focusing on the collection and collation of pieces of paper we focused on training, competence and supervision?

What if we said to workers:

  • We have given you the skills and knowledge to understand the hazards associated with your work and how to manage them, and we trust you to apply those skills and that competence diligently

What if we said to our supervisors:

  • We do not expect you to do any administration.
  • Your job is to be in the field with your teams helping them to identify, understand and manage hazards. Our expectation of you, as a supervisor, is if we come and talk to you about a job, you will be able to tell us what the job is, what the hazards are, how the job is being done, and how the hazards are being managed. And we expect all of the members of your team will have that same level of understanding.

What if we said to managers and leaders in our organisation:

  • Your job, whenever you are in the field and having conversations with supervisors and workers, is to confirm they understand the hazards associated with their work and how they are meant to be controlled.

What if, instead of focusing on whether 100% of the paperwork has been completed, we focused on building confidence that everyone in our organisation understood the hazards and how they were meant to be controlled?

What if we accepted we cannot “prove” safety with completed documentation – we can only prove safety through the understanding demonstrated by our people? We can only prove safety when our people, through their conversations and actions, demonstrate an understanding of the hazards associated with their work and how those hazards are controlled? Because this is what happens in practice. After an accident, you need to be able to demonstrate your people understood the hazards in their business, how they were meant to be controlled and the hazards were consistently managed in accordance with the controls. It is not your documentation and processes which prove this – it is what your people did and what your people say.

If we accept that all this, what would safety management look like in your organisation?

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: Greg Smith, Safety Leadership Tagged With: proof, swms

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Gavin says

    February 28, 2021 at 6:53 PM

    Induction overload
    Non English speaking foreign workers
    Failure to report incidents/near misses
    Faked/fraudulently acquired HRW Licenses
    Casualisation of work force

    These are all significant contributors to safety awareness failures along with excessive hour expectations on the part of employers.
    Govt departments tasked with over seeing and investigating incidents are nothing more than box tickers lacking experience on the tools.
    There are nowhere near enough safety compliance checks visited upon work sites.
    Routinely with cranes rigging and scaffold my experience suggests daily overloads and near misses repeated day after day with many workers/operators completely unaware as to what 100% SWL actually means.

    If you have children steer them well away from any HRW situations is all I can recommend

    Reply
  2. Adam says

    June 14, 2019 at 2:43 PM

    A great read, and nothing to argue with, but my approach is that of the young Mexican girl in the advertisement for Tacos; ‘Why Not Both”.
    Ultimately we must ensure our people understand the hazards associated with the job they are doing, and that they are managing the risk. However, there has to be evidence of this, and as such, that lay in the training and competency, skills and knowledge of those people, but even that has to be tracked, demonstrated, measured and reported to the big man paying the bills? Can we simply allow ourselves to rely purely on the training provided? Id love to believe so! Isn’t it the One Per-centers we allow for? or do we accept one percent as the nature of doing business? Most of these targets, reports, inspections etc are driven heavily by client expectation and contracted into terms. And so, to not do them would put many Tier 1 businesses into the ground. Often we talk about the culture of a business, to truly bring about change in the over reporting structure of large construction businesses, it would require a culture change to Industry…

    Reply
    • Rob Long says

      June 15, 2019 at 8:52 AM

      Adam, the idea that one can ‘track, measure and report’ comprehension is part of the measurement myth. No amount of numerics or metrics can ‘prove’ safety. Ultimately it will be a court that demonstrates safety and all of their ‘measures’ are qualitative.

      Reply
  3. Bernard Corden says

    October 13, 2018 at 11:22 AM

    This tyranny of bureaucracy including SWMSs, JSAs, JSEAs, THAs and Take 5s is an otiose attempt to prove due diligence and merely supplements the concrete blocks, which were used as kentledge or ballast during the Westgate bridge disaster:

    https://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/papers/govpub/VPARL1971-72No2.pdf

    Almost 50 years on and it appears little has changed:

    https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/new-crane-was-on-its-first-job-company-at-centre-of-box-hill-tragedy-denies-safety-concerns-20180907-p502d1.html

    The carousel of culpability has created a foreboding culture of compliance and enforcement underpinned by fear with increasing psychosocial risks. This is exacerbated by standard operating procedures for mundane activities such as tying safety boot laces, climbing stairwells or even documenting safe work method statements, which merely protect the writer.

    Projects are festooned with mindless warning signs supplemented by indoctrinating inductions and certificates or verification of competency nostrums from an accredited witchfinder general with ominous warnings about hell and handcarts….Hasta cuando?

    Reply
  4. Andrew Floyd says

    October 12, 2018 at 5:42 PM

    Most of this nonsense is driven by the PQ and insurance industries. Companies are falling over themselves to comply and people like the last correspondent think they are doing a good job. I despair.

    Reply
  5. Rob Long says

    October 12, 2018 at 8:37 AM

    Spot on Greg. These are the right questions that no one else is asking and that people are afraid to answer.

    Reply
    • Dave Collins says

      October 12, 2018 at 10:59 AM

      Greg has certainly challenged some worldviews with this one. Most responses on linkedin have been positive and supportive but others have been like this one:

      “I’d have to say that I would still continue to do all the things listed. Not because it’s habitual or I want/need historical evidence or data but because I want everyone (employees, volunteers, visitors, contractors, sub-contractors, everyone) to be safe. Not so far as reasonably practicable but just bloody safe.”

      Greg’s response:

      “Regardless of the impact on your workers? And what evidence is there that the processes make workplace safer – could they undermine safety I practice I.e. the Safety Paradox?”

      And the comeback:

      Greg, don’t try to degrade my work or that of my organisation and the enormous and important work we all do.”

      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 7,498 other subscribers

Introduction to SPOR – FREE!!

SAFETY MYTHS SERIES

The Mythic Symbology of Safety

Posture Myths and Holistic Ergonomics

Safety Mythbusters

Don’t Be Emotional! Another Safety Myth

Tackling the Challenge of Heuristics in Safety

The Myth of Normal

NEW! Free Download

Please take our 2 minute zero survey

Recent Comments

  • 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
  • Rob Long on To Err is Human, You Better Believe It
  • simon cassin on To Err is Human, You Better Believe It
  • Rob Long on Records of safety activities: evidence of safety or non-compliance?
  • Matt Thorne on Free Online Workshops

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
  • Free Safety Moments and Toolbox Talk Examples, Tips and Resources
  • Road Safety Slogans 2023
  • CATCHY and FUNNY SAFETY SLOGANS FOR THE WORKPLACE
  • Download Safety Moments from Human Resources Secretariat
  • FREE RISK ASSESSMENT FORMS, CHECKISTS, REGISTERS, TEMPLATES and APPS
  • 15 Safety Precautions When Working With Electricity
  • NATIONAL SAFETY DAY/WEEK IN INDIA 2023
  • How to Calculate TRIFR, LTIFR and Other Health and Safety Indicators
  • The Language of ‘Hazards’ and Psychosocial, Mental Health

Recent Posts

  • An Advanced Understanding of Culture – A Video
  • 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
  • Safety Culture–Hudson’s Model
  • Book Launch – For the Love of Zero – in Portuguese
  • Advancing Backwards in Safety
  • The ‘Noise’ of Safety, Silence and Practicing of Mindfulness
  • All Things Must Pass in Risk
  • I’m just not that into safety anymore
  • Sticks and Stones and the Nonsense of Zero Harm

VIRAL POST!!! HOW TO QUIT THE SAFETY INDUSTRY

FEATURED POSTS

Themes and Concepts in Risk – Requests

Keep Discovering

The Village Effect

A Great Comparison of Risk and Safety Schools of Thought

‘Can’t Means Won’t Try’ – The Challenge of Being Challenged

Is Choice The First Casualty in the Worker’s Compensation War?

A Scaffolder’s Journey in SPoR – A Podcast

How I Feel About Risk

Living In Glass Houses

Don’t Make Safety a Habit

Human Dymensions Newsletter–Feb 14

The Illusion Of Hazard Identification

Until Nothing Changes in Safety

The New Leadership – Risk and Safety

Just Hangin’ Out…

Keep Your Head In the Game

Safety – Just a Few Bad Apples

Post Graduate Studies in the Social Psychology of Risk

Target Trade-Offs and Numeric Goals

The Lexicon of Safety Gibberish

Consciously Safe, Unconsciously Unsafe or Head in the Sand Safety

Second Student Group Social Psychology of Risk

Safetie

Social Sensemaking – Free eBook

Due Diligence and Holistic Ergonomics Workshops

Human Dymensions Newsletter September 2016

Traditional Safety

And the Innovation is? More Controls…..

I’m Concerned That We Can’t See The Safety Forest For The Safety Trees

King of the World – Why is Sociopathy and Psychopathy so prevalent ‘at the top’?

Holistic Responses to Mental Health

Daydreaming and Safety

It Takes Two to Tango–Reflections on Safe Behaviour

The Trajectory of Zero Vision

The Allure of Submission

Sexual Stereotyping Can Be Deadly

Talking Risk Video–The Unconscious In Communication

Speaking Truth to Power and Safety

Incrementalism, Catastrophism and All That’s In-between

Free Two Chapter Download and Book Competition

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 7,498 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?