Continuing our series on Safety Myths – see them all here Dylan Thomas captures the criticality of facing death, in the throes of life, in his classic poem: ‘Do not go gentle in to that good night’. Sometimes when things cannot be stated by propositional definition they can only be spoken in … [Read more...] about Do Not Go Gently, SPoR and the Civility Myth
Robert Long
SPoR, Ideology and Safety Myth
Continuing our series on Safety Myths – see them all here Ideology is one of those tricky words that can be defined 100 ways. So, it’s always good to define meaning before assuming others know the application of language. In language context, philosophy and culture are critical determinant of … [Read more...] about SPoR, Ideology and Safety Myth
Listening, Learning, Helping and Caring about Risk
Listening, Learning, Helping and Caring about Risk I was with a group of managers yesterday and as I often do asked them to list the words they associate with safety. We brainstorm in teams for a bit and then once each team has 10 words we put them in rank order from most important to least … [Read more...] about Listening, Learning, Helping and Caring about Risk
SPoR and Myth
The Social Psychology of Risk (SPoR) is first and foremost a worldview, a philosophy, disposition, methodology, paradigm and orientation. It is a way of seeing (envisioning) the world through the lens of being, Socialitie and risk. When one has a methodology, it is relatively straight forward to … [Read more...] about SPoR and Myth
Slogan Power
Many people underestimate the power of slogans because they function like metaphors and in many ways are hidden in language. It is impossible for humans to communicate without using either. The rhythmic power of slogans and the mis-directive power of metaphors are a central vehicle for … [Read more...] about Slogan Power
The Complacency Myth
Continuing our series on Safety Myths – see them all here Like all unethical myths, the myth of complacency is perhaps one of the worst. The language of complacency is rife in the safety industry and is premised on the nonsense idea that people desire self-harm. This myth is based on the nonsense … [Read more...] about The Complacency Myth
Effectiveness in Managing Risk and Cultural Change
Effectiveness in Managing Risk and Cultural Change A blast from the past (August 2013) article - The need to change safety culture In recent times it has occurred to coroner's at inquests, auditors and government (eg. Cole Commission) that poor safety culture has a central role in normalising … [Read more...] about Effectiveness in Managing Risk and Cultural Change
The Mythical ‘Safety Moment’
Continuing our series on Safety Myths – see them all here If there was ever a dumb invention to desensitize Safety to safety it was the ‘safety moment’. Whoever thought this was a good idea knew very little about human neuropsychology. This strange mythology supposes that starting every meeting … [Read more...] about The Mythical ‘Safety Moment’
Why Safety is Inescapably Theological
The moment Safety drifts into questions of life, death, suffering, pain, harm and ‘saving lives’ it has no way to go except a trajectory into theology. We observe this in Dekker’s book ‘The End of Heaven, Disaster and Suffering in a Scientific Age’ with dozens of biblical references and … [Read more...] about Why Safety is Inescapably Theological
Myths, Ethics and Enactment in Risk
Baudrillard (1929-2007) articulates well the myths of our consumer society in The Consumer Society, Myths and Structures (1998, Sage, London). In this deconstruction Baudrillard builds on the work The System of Objects and demonstrates how humans make objects ‘sacred’ through symbolism, consumption, … [Read more...] about Myths, Ethics and Enactment in Risk