I found him on the internet, interested in learning more about safety.
After attending some of his online courses, he invited me to study with him individually, in Canberra, for free. Two years later, more precisely last month, I flew to Canberra, bringing with me my friend and business partner – Manu (Emanoil Draganescu).
He holds a PhD in Philosophy with a PhD in Education and Learning and holds 5 other degrees in the field of education. He is known as the father of SPoR – Social Psychology of Risk. Author of 17 books and hundreds of videopostcasts on SPoR, he writes posts more often than I have time to read them.
The 72-year-old, father of 4 children, happily married Helen. He plays the guitar and reads an average of 3 books a week. Don’t play billiards with him, he’s better than you think.
“I’m your servant for 7 days,” he wrote before we left for Australia. And so it was, all for free: daily car transfers, food, drinks, learning, books and lots of SPoR materials, semiotic tours of Canberra and the surrounding area. He was our private guide to a cork plantation and private cemetery, to the National Museum, the National Art Gallery, the NASA/CSIRO Space Center, the ANU Space Observatory in Aboretum and a country shop.
We studied at his house, in an old garage that he turned into an office. He introduced us to his family and his best friends, and we spent half a day together with another good old friend of his – Dr. Craig Ashhurst, a global expert in Wicked Problems and Transcoherence. We also had the opportunity to spend some time with George and Toby, SPoR consultants in Sydney. Thank you George for the ride to Bondi beach.
He invited us to film our conversations about culture and the different concepts and methods he developed as part of Social Risk Psychology. A lot of fun and meaningful discussions, especially about what can and cannot be measured and about the psychosocial risks.
Our experience with him convinced us that he was right: “You will learn in a week what you will not be able to learn online no matter how much you study“. There were experential lessons on how to discover and feel the culture and on the most effective ways to understand and practice SPoR.
We have planned our learning program according to our interest. With the ease with which someone offers you a glass of water, Rob offered us a hard drive containing the 20 years of work on the Social Psychology of Risk – 1.8 TB terabytes. No costs, no obligations. As a bonus, I have some rock music for my daughter.
This is Rob, Professor Robert Long, my friend from another planet. A man of unparalleled generosity.
Some pictures here:
Some of our video recordings:
Humanising risk in the workplace
https://safetyrisk.net/humanising-risk-in-the-workplace-a-video-conversation/#comment-52120
Perceptions of australian culture
An Icue conversation on Psychosocial Risk factors
https://safetyrisk.net/psychosocial-risk-an-icue-conversation/
Conversations about following – leading in Risk
https://safetyrisk.net/conversations-about-following-leading-in-risk/
Some of my personal lessons learned:
- Always ask for permission.
- ‘’LinkedIn was created to block people who are wasting your time: ’block, block, block’’
- What a pleasure to observe wild kangoroos in their natural habitat.
- Eucalyptus is my favorite tree in the Australian wilderness.
- The culture of aboriginal people in Australia’s first nations is amazing.
- There are cities that benefit from safety by design – Canberra.
- You need to spend time and have conversations in a culture to have a minimum understanding of it.
- In a functioning society, people trust professionals and pay for their expertise.
- Being people oriented makes all the difference.
- If you really want to understand what people are doing, put your agenda aside, log in and start the conversation.
- When you are interested in something, do it seriously and work hard: study (2 doctorates and 5 diplomas) and practice daily.
- How Rob works, reads and produces SPoR instruments at 72 years old is a unique inspiration to me.
- Generosity is the way to live a fulfilling life.
- SPoR can help people and organizations be better than we understood before this learning journey.
- I’m so lucky to have a business associate like Manu and a teacher like Rob.
Thank you, Rob. It’s a privilege to be friends.
Your romanian ‘’blokes’’ te salutant!
Latest posts by Decebal Marin (see all)
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