Potato Heads Make Great Safety Advisors www.safetypotato.com A potato head is able to switch body parts and take on a different persona. Each character a potato head takes on is both genuine and different; to some degree all people are potato heads. One of the lessons we learn from social … [Read more...] about Potato Heads Make Great Safety Advisors
Robert Long
Potato Head Risk and Safety
Potato Head Risk and Safety The purpose of this article is to introduce you to ‘potato heads’ and ‘spud heads’ in risk and safety. Before we get too deep into this risk and safety potato heads it might be useful to introduce some potato head background. Mr Potato Head (first called ‘funny face … [Read more...] about Potato Head Risk and Safety
Spud Head Safety Diagnostics
Spud Head Safety Diagnostics What is a Spud Head? FIND OUT HERE I was at a conference last week where people were presented with supposed diagnostics that could determine in someone was a risk taker. The general idea was to run people through the diagnostic tool, and weed out the risk takers. Or, … [Read more...] about Spud Head Safety Diagnostics
Knowledge and Curriculum for Risk and Safety People
Knowledge and Curriculum for Risk and Safety People Every time I am engaged by an organisation I conduct a survey (gap analysis and MiProfile), asking executives, safety people and managers to nominate the knowledge and skills they would like to develop. I have conducted this survey with more than … [Read more...] about Knowledge and Curriculum for Risk and Safety People
Understanding The Social Psychology of Risk – Prof Karl E. Weick
Understanding The Social Psychology of Risk – Prof Karl E. Weick The contribution of Prof. Karl E. Weick to the genre of social psychology is enormous. (His 5 key texts are listed below). I first read Weick in 1985 as part of my Master’s Thesis at Sydney University and would count my contact with … [Read more...] about Understanding The Social Psychology of Risk – Prof Karl E. Weick
Who Said We Don’t Need Systems?
What a strange sense of logic to fixate on the absence of something (injury) as a demonstration of the presence of something else (safety). Such a proposition misunderstands the dynamic of risk and being human. Who Said We Don’t Need Systems? I find it interesting that when some people read what … [Read more...] about Who Said We Don’t Need Systems?
Making Safety Better by Using Our Adaptive Toolbox
Making Safety Better by Using Our Adaptive Toolbox by Dr Rob Long The excellent work of Gerd Gigerenzer introduces us to the limitations of rationality and the need to validate our ‘adaptive toolbox’. In several of Gigerenzer’s books he shows how our use of statistical data is mostly ineffective … [Read more...] about Making Safety Better by Using Our Adaptive Toolbox
Understanding Violence at Work
Understanding Violence at Work I read with interest today a guide on work-related violence from the South Australian regulator. Unfortunately, the guide doesn’t really get to the guts of what violence is about Safework Australia . This is the problem when regulators view the world of safety only … [Read more...] about Understanding Violence at Work
The Quest for Accreditation of Safety in Australia
Rightly or wrongly, “Safety” has become one of the most despised words in industry. The debate over accreditation of the Profession has been simmering for too long and now it is time to bring it to the boil! The Quest for Accreditation of Safety in Australia by Dr Rob Long I have been inundated … [Read more...] about The Quest for Accreditation of Safety in Australia
Be Alert, Safety Needs More Lerts
I recently read a claim by a Safety Consultant that they could eliminate injuries and improve safety culture by stopping humans from making errors - WT? Reminds me of the saying “The floggings will continue until morale improves”. Ask any elite athlete what happens when they ignore their “muscle … [Read more...] about Be Alert, Safety Needs More Lerts