• 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 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 / Rob Sams / Reflections of a ‘Doer’

Reflections of a ‘Doer’

May 22, 2015 by Rob Sams 18 Comments

Reflections of a ‘Doer’

Question Everyting Message Board Don't Trust Rules AuthorityDoes learning more about ourselves help us to better understand and influence others?

I’ve learnt that if we are going to change the way things are done in risk and safety that the focus needs to be more on ‘influencing’ than ‘controlling’. In this piece, I’d like to explore the concept of learning more about ‘self’ in order to better understand and influence others. I’ll do this by sharing stories of my own experiences.

I am naturally a ‘doer’. Some describe me as an ‘Action Jackson’ and a person who likes to get things done. I like to organise and see things through to completion. For anyone familiar with the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), my personality and type is ENFJ. It is the ‘J’ that drives what I describe above. (Of course understanding me is more than just applying a four letter label to me, but that’s a whole other Blog!)

For people who ‘know’ me only through my blog posts, you may be surprised when reading the description above. Based on the feedback that I receive, I know that one theme people may take from what I write is that I’m ‘anti-organising’, as I do ask a lot of questions on this subject.

However, my natural preference is to ‘organise’, to ‘plan’ and to ‘make things happen’. I make ‘to-do lists’, I set agendas for meetings and generally I’m a ‘doer’. Mostly this works well and it is certainly useful in running a business.

However like most things in life I have learned that there are trade-offs and by-products. I have become more aware of the trade-offs over the past few years as I have come to know myself better, and in particular how my actions and preferences impact on others. In particular, I learn a lot when I have great conversations with people that I care about, and who care about me. So let’s explore some examples.

A recent experience with a very good friend caused me to pause and reflect. It had me considering the effect that my preference for organising and action has on that friend.

We had agreed to do a couple of things before a meeting we were about to have. This was on a Thursday and by the Monday my friend hadn’t done what we spoke about. I thought that my friend may have been tied up with other things, or had not considered the actions as important as I did, so because of my need for closure and action, I just went ahead an did the thing that my friend was supposed to do. I wanted to see it ‘done and dusted’, it made me feel more in control.

Some people might be thinking great, you’re a good friend you made things easier for the other person, well done! Sure, but this doesn’t consider the impact of my actions on my friend? How did this make them feel? What did ‘me taking control’ mean for how they felt about things?

The good news is that my friend values good conversation and feedback. They called me to let me know that they had done what we agreed, and were just about to send an e-mail to confirm, however I had beat them to it.

I thought of my friend and how this may have made them feel. Would they think that I thought they weren’t worthy or capable of doing the task? I know that my friend is not slack, nor complacent, so me taking control by being a ‘doer’ could really have impacted on how they felt about themselves, particularly on their motivation. This was clearly not my intention, I would not want to hurt my friend, but I recognise that this is what taking control can do to others.

This reminded me of a quote by Deci in Why We Do What We Do:

“Perhaps there is an innate or intrinsic need to feel a sense of personal autonomy or self-determination – to feel a sense of what deCharms had called personal causation. That would imply that people need to feel that their behaviour is truly chose by them rather than impact by some external source” (1995, p. 30)

This was a relatively minor ‘event’, there were no serious consequences and our friendship remains strong, however things could have been different, particular if this had happened with someone who I don’t have a good relationship with, or someone who doesn’t value feedback.

My reflections didn’t stop there. I thought back through the many times in my career (and in life) where my focus was on ‘just getting the job done’. While the people I was reporting to may have been full of praise and ‘well dones’, my reflections now are on what this meant for others.

In risk and safety (like in life), being a ‘doer’ can be good. However if our preference is to ‘do’, finding the time to stop and consider what this means for others is critical. If we focus on being a ‘doer’ we shouldn’t be surprised when others just sit back and let us ‘do our thing’.

Would stopping and reflecting more often allow us time to consider the impact that our ‘doing’ has on others? Could it be that our personality type is the force behind our preference for ‘control’? Does ‘control’ make us feel good because things get done? What impact does this have on others and their motivation? Could taking the time out to consider this in the context of ourselves in turn help us to understand and better influence others?

If you are a ‘doer’, these are perhaps good questions to help with your own reflection.

When we better understand ourselves, our preferences and the unconscious biases associated with our personalities, we are better able to understand what these may mean for others.

For all the ‘Action Jacksons’ out there in risk and safety, I wonder if the list below might be useful if we want to focus more on influencing than ‘doing’?

  • Think about the ‘cues’ that may mean we are ‘taking action’, ahead of considering others. Perhaps as we look at our ‘to do lists’ and agendas we could take some time to pause, and before heading into action, consider what impact the action may have on others.
  • Consider whether we need to ‘do’, or is ‘influencing’ and ‘supporting’ more appropriate in some situations and contexts?
  • Value conversations in person rather than e-mail so that we can get a feel for how others are feeling about the conversation. E-mails tend to be about doing and actioning, conversations allow us to ‘check in’ with others and consider their perspective.

My reflections are important for me. They allow me the space to slow down and learn more about others, and myself and to consider why I do what I do. In writing this piece, my first working title was ‘confessions of a doer’. However, after sitting back and thinking about this for a while, I decided that it wasn’t about confessing or apologising for whom I am, rather a reflection on what being a ‘doer’ meant for me and others. It is the reflection that I find critical in maturing as a person.

When we are honest with ourselves about who we are, when we understand our own ‘type’ and ‘preference’, we begin to understand how this in turn impacts on our relationships with others.

If this reflection resonates with you and if you too have a bias for action, what does this mean for the people you are aiming to lead or influence? What are some of the things that you can do to mature your relationships with others with the aim of influencing rather than controlling?

I’m off now, I’ve still got 7 things on my ‘to do list’ to do! Till next time.

As usual, I’d love to hear your thoughts, experiences and comments.

Author: Robert Sams

Phone: +61 424 037 112

Email: robert@dolphyn.com.au

Web: www.dolphyn.com.au

Facebook: Follow Dolphyn on Facebook

  • Bio
  • Latest Posts
  • More about Rob
Rob Sams

Rob Sams

Owner at Dolphyn
Rob Sams

Latest posts by Rob Sams (see all)

  • Am I stupid? I didn’t think of that… - January 13, 2023
  • I’m just not that into safety anymore - December 30, 2022
  • Focus on ‘Meeting’ people, not legislation – a path to risk maturity - December 24, 2022
  • Just Toolbox it! - December 3, 2022
  • Do we Need a Different Way of Being in Safety? - December 1, 2022
Rob Sams
Rob is an experienced safety and people professional, having worked in a broad range of industries and work environments, including manufacturing, professional services (building and facilities maintenance), healthcare, transport, automotive, sales and marketing. He is a passionate leader who enjoys supporting people and organizations through periods of change. Rob specializes in making the challenges of risk and safety more understandable in the workplace. He uses his substantial skills and formal training in leadership, social psychology of risk and coaching to help organizations understand how to better manage people, risk and performance. Rob builds relationships and "scaffolds" people development and change so that organizations can achieve the meaningful goals they set for themselves. While Rob has specialist knowledge in systems, his passion is in making systems useable for people and organizations. In many ways, Rob is a translator; he interprets the complex language of processes, regulations and legislation into meaningful and practical tasks. Rob uses his knowledge of social psychology to help people and organizations filter the many pressures they are made anxious about by regulators and various media. He is able to bring the many complexities of systems demands down to earth to a relevant and practical level.

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: Rob Sams, Social Psychology of Risk Tagged With: doer, organise, reflection, to do list

Reader Interactions

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 7,495 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 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
  • Rob long on No Good Reason to Follow Reason
  • Brian Edwin Darlington on No Good Reason to Follow Reason
  • Risk Diversity on Book Launch – For the Love of Zero – in Portuguese
  • Rob Long on No Good Reason to Follow Reason

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

  • Free Safety Moments and Toolbox Talk Examples, Tips and Resources
  • 500 OF THE BEST WORKPLACE HEALTH and SAFETY SLOGANS 2023
  • Road Safety Slogans 2023
  • CATCHY and FUNNY SAFETY SLOGANS FOR THE WORKPLACE
  • Download Safety Moments from Human Resources Secretariat
  • Safety Acronyms
  • Welcome to the Nightmare, Safety Creates its Own Minefield (as usual)
  • FREE RISK ASSESSMENT FORMS, CHECKISTS, REGISTERS, TEMPLATES and APPS
  • How to Calculate TRIFR, LTIFR and Other Health and Safety Indicators
  • SAFETY IMAGES, Photos, Unsafe Pictures and Funny Fails

Recent Posts

  • Welcome to the Nightmare, Safety Creates its Own Minefield (as usual)
  • 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
  • Courting Infallibility in Safety
  • Indicators of Risk
  • What Can Safety Learn From Playschool?
  • No Good Reason to Follow Reason
  • Just as Well Culture Doesn’t Listen to Safety
  • What Are the Benefits Of Social Psychology of Risk?
  • Short-Sighted Lenses by Safety
  • Is Safety the Empire of Non-Sense?
  • No Wonder Safety is Confused About Culture
  • Building High Performance Safety Cultures
  • Understanding iCue, a Visual, Verbal, Semiotic Method for Tackling Risk
  • On Culture and Safety
  • Focus on ‘Meeting’ people, not legislation – a path to risk maturity

VIRAL POST!!! HOW TO QUIT THE SAFETY INDUSTRY

FEATURED POSTS

The Binary Barnacle

Conducting a Psychology and Culture Safety Walk

New Video Available – Semiotics Walk Workshop

The Safety Charade as Tokenism in Safety

What Are the Benefits Of Social Psychology of Risk?

Prepositions for Risk and Safety Leadership

How Effective Are Your Conversations About Risk?

There is no way I would do that!

Organising to Manage Uncertainty in an Unpredictable World

The Certainty of Uncertainty

Risk vs Hazard vs Safety

People are not Rats–Moving Beyond Behaviour Based Safety

The Tyranny of Absolutes

Right and Wrong in Safety

No Help for Mental Health in Zero

Turning Neuroscience into Behaviourism

Human Dymensions Feb17 Newsletter and Competition

Flooding is Dangerous, and I don’t Mean the Water….

Binary Opposites and Safety Goal Strategy

We need to make sure this can never happen again

EGO is not a dirty word

Human Factors is Never About Humans

Acknowledge Trade-offs to Make Better Inquiries

Toilet Roll Safety

You Can’t Will Attentiveness

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

Due Diligence Workshop Sydney 20,21 February 2019

Workshop – Introduction to the Social Psychology of Risk

Bridging the Disciplines for Better Outcomes

It’s Always About Paperwork

SOCD – Safety Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

When Art Speaks to Harm

Disrupting the Methodology in Safety?

Consciously Safe, Unconsciously Unsafe or Head in the Sand Safety

WHS Legislation is NOT about Safety it’s about Culture

How Workers Really Make Decisions

Is Complacency Evil?

Compliance, Obedience and The Attraction of Risk

Risk and Safety Matrices and the Psychology of Colour

Safety Aphorisms and Platitudes

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 7,495 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?