One of the many things we will explore in our Philosophy and Risk workshops (https://safetyrisk.net/philosophy-for-risk-and-safety-free-workshops/) will be what people believe and why they believe it. We do this, not to cast judgement on belief but to understand belief, faith and worldviews. There … [Read more...] about The Shape of Belief and Safety Values
Robert Long
The Written Word and the e-Motion of the Word in Risk
My eldest brother Bruce is an artist and has been doing mosaics since he was 13 years of age. Many of his works are presented in places across Australia and he has been teaching Art for over 50 years. Bruce lives in Tasmania and one of his recent works was a map of Tasmania using pens. See … [Read more...] about The Written Word and the e-Motion of the Word in Risk
Nudge Nudge, Wink Wink – Improving Safety the SMART Way
Nudge Nudge, Wink Wink - Improving Safety the SMART Way By Dr Robert Long The idea of improvement via a ‘nudge’ is now in popular discourse. The idea is based on the work of Thaler and Sunstein’s book Nudge. Sunstein’s work in particular is a valuable read for any safety person. The idea of … [Read more...] about Nudge Nudge, Wink Wink – Improving Safety the SMART Way
AI Will Not Take Your Safety Job
I find the comparisons between AI and humans laughable. It’s an apples and oranges delusion. It is nonsense to even try to compare the embodied fallible human with a dis-embodied mechanical computer/machine. Even when it comes to language acquisition and Large Language Models (LLMs) most who … [Read more...] about AI Will Not Take Your Safety Job
Safety Philosophy as a Reality Distortion Field
When you read safety texts, so called ‘gurus’, safety curriculum and propaganda, one is confronted by the idea that the purpose of living is safety. Such a worldview/paradigm is a philosophy, a way of seeing the world. The purpose and meaning of living and being in the world is not safety. How … [Read more...] about Safety Philosophy as a Reality Distortion Field
Fallibility Denial as a Safety Psychosis
It is fascinating to read Reason’s book on Human Error where ‘fallibility’ is mentioned eleven times. Yet, when Safety wants to discuss its obsession with blame and cause, and when Reason is quoted, there is no mention of fallibility. Reason never defines fallibility nor has any discussion on … [Read more...] about Fallibility Denial as a Safety Psychosis
How Will Your Safety Propaganda Stand Up In Court?
It’s rare to see anything of much value on Linkedin but this gem from David Borys captured my attention: I have been brushing up on the Victorian (Australia) Occupational Health and Safety Act and Regulations, along with Worksafe Victoria’s Compliance Codes. It struck me that none of these … [Read more...] about How Will Your Safety Propaganda Stand Up In Court?
Incommensurability and Discourse in Risk
Incommensurability and Discourse in Risk One of the most important concepts discussed by Feyerbend, Laktos, MacIntyre and Kuhn is that of incommensurability. Incommensurability refers to incongruence and misunderstanding between linguistic structures. What this means is that disciplines are limited … [Read more...] about Incommensurability and Discourse in Risk
Why Personify Safety?
Why Personify Safety? I spoke at a conference last week and had the unfortunate experience of following a presentation by a regulator. When will safety people get sick and tired of being bombarded with statistics, injury rates, graphs and charts? I have no idea why safety people would want to hear … [Read more...] about Why Personify Safety?
Is Weick Loopy?
In the last of this series on Prof. Karl E. Weick we present his thinking on causal loop thinking. All in preparation for those who are joining us on the free workshop series on Weick and HROing in June: https://safetyrisk.net/free-workshops-june-weick-and-hroing/ You can register for a place … [Read more...] about Is Weick Loopy?