All that counts in life, work and being cannot be counted.
It is pure mythology that ‘what cannot be measured cannot be managed’. What utter nonsense. Even the person who thought up this silly meme, recanted on it sometime later.
Unfortunately, Safety has been conned by the promises of measurement but whatever you can measure doesn’t count for much.
All of the things critical to Psychological safety cannot be measured. Most of the critical things needed for Psychological safety at work are invisible, para-linguistic (all that is ‘above’ spoken and written language) and unconscious. Even silence can be used to abuse others. Similarly, gesture, tone, facial expressions, body positioning, posture and movement can be used and abused in causing psychosocial and socialpsychological harm to others.
Understanding paralinguistics is one of the essentials in understanding culture. Safety never speaks of these things because they can’t be measured. Such is the burden of engineering and behaviourism on the industry. This is why most in safety state that culture is ‘confusing’ and ‘cloudy’ (https://safetyrisk.net/culture-is-cloudy-in-safety-and-thats-a-good-thing/). Whatever is written about culture in the safety industry is always propositional, conceptual and quantifiable. None of this is helpful in creating Psychosocial Safety.
Indeed, the more safety focuses on measurables the less it is likely to have any competence in tackling Higher Order Goals (https://safetyrisk.net/goals-and-vision-in-safety/). Safety is the industry of Lower Order Goals and hence reading any of these codes or standards on Psychosocial Safety won’t go very far.
The psychosis in safety with measurement is a delusion. (https://safetyrisk.net/the-measurement-mindset-in-safety/).
Indeed, Safety is so busy counting all that doesn’t count, it has no time to focus on what counts.
Lower Order Goals are things like wearing PPE, injury rates and measuring indicators (and it doesn’t matter whether they are lag or leading).
Higher Order Goals are about: trust, care, helping, listening, community, understanding, tolerance, resilience, forgiveness, empathy etc.
However, once goals have been put in place one then needs a method to enact a strategy to move towards that goal. Safety has no methods that enable a strategy of movement towards Higher order Goals. This is why in SPoR we have a host of methods and tools that enable the creating of a positive, humanising and constructive approach to risk. One such method is iCue Engagement, explained well by Nippin Anand here (https://safetyrisk.net/understanding-icue-a-visual-verbal-semiotic-method-for-tackling-risk/).
One of the most insidious and harmful forms of injury is moral injury (https://ethics.org.au/ethics-explainer-moral-injury/). Most people who speak to me about their job as a safety advisor always contains this form of harm. Particularly, when others have expectations of Safety to be ‘the head kicker on site’.
Of course, Safety never speaks of moral harm because its deontological ethic (AIJS BoK Chapter) is set up to encourage moral harm. This is why the Chapter has no discussion of personhood, power, care or helping.
How convenient to have a non-ethic (called ethics) that endorses harm in the name of good. Zero harm indeed! But it doesn’t have to be this way.
If you wish to learn how SPoR methods turn this on its head, it only takes a little effort to learn. (The next free module is on Ethics and places close soon – https://safetyrisk.net/free-online-workshops/). If you wish to be in the group on Ethics just email: robertlong2@mac.com
In SPoR, we don’t just critique what doesn’t work in safety we provide a constructive and positive alternative that works (https://www.humandymensions.com/product/it-works-a-new-approach-to-risk-and-safety/).
And, all the methods of SPoR assist in creating Psychological Safety because they get the balance right between Lower, Middle and Higher Order Goals. Using the iCue tools, organisations are then able to get the balance right between Workspace, Headspace and Groupspace (https://safetyrisk.net/safety-engagement/; https://safetyrisk.net/getting-the-balance-right-in-tackling-risk/).
SPoR is never about ‘throwing out the baby with the bathwater’ but rather about striking a balance in goals and orientation. SPoR is about unlearning the excesses and indoctrination of traditional safety, engaging in a new worldview (https://safetyrisk.net/a-leadership-worldview-for-psychosocial-safety/) and most importantly enacting methods that achieve culture change.
Dr Rob Long
Latest posts by Dr Rob Long (see all)
- Gesture and Symbol in Safety, the Force of Culture - March 20, 2023
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- Entertainment, Suckers and Making Money From Safety - March 19, 2023
- Breaking the Safety Code - March 18, 2023
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