• 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 AND WORST 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
    • Psychosocial Safety
    • Resiliencing
    • 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
  • Psychosocial Safety
    • What is Psychosocial Safety
    • 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 / Leadership / Safety and the Spin of Disruption

Safety and the Spin of Disruption

September 25, 2016 by Dr Rob Long 5 Comments

“There are no trends in safety at present that give any inkling that disruption is even a possibility. The Regulation, Act, systems and standards are certainly not shrinking nor changing.”

Strategy ObstructionJust Because You Speak it, Doesn’t Make It So

Safety and the Spin of ‘Disruption’.

One of the benefits of living in Canberra is keeping one’s ear to the ‘spin’ and discourse of trends and language in government. The latest spin to do the rounds is that of ‘disruption’. The idea of disruption comes from Clayton M. Christensen introduced in his article Disruptive Technologies, Catching the Wave, which he co-wrote with Joseph Bower. The idea of disruption initially applied just to technology but has since been adopted by trendsetters to imply any sense of innovation, agility and creativity. The source of this discourse comes from the Prime Minister’s language about agility and innovation (http://www.businessinsider.com.au/malcolm-turnbull-disruption-is-our-friend-2015-9). Pretty soon everyone has been spruiking disruption like Coca-Cola yo-yos. (https://www.hostworks.com.au/south-australia-get-ready-disruption/, https://innovation.govspace.gov.au/events/innovation-month-2016-disrupt-develop-display/). Of course jumping on the bandwagon not far behind has been the safety industry (https://sia.org.au/events/calendar/sia-national-safety-convention-2016.html). You do a disruption readiness test (http://resilientfutures.com/services/disruption-readiness-test/) or buy the book (http://disruptedthebook.com/ ). All in echo of Toffler’s Future Shock of 1970, the great disruption is either upon us or is coming.

Christensen describes disruption as something far more than just change, disruption has to be about radical revolution. You can read more about the theory of disruption here: http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2015/01/economist-explains-15, and here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disruptive_innovation

The trouble with the theory of disruption is that all the forces of conservativism that are prevalent in our society, the fundamental structures of organizing and the human quest for safety and security work against any force of disruption in society. It is hard to comprehend that the executives and leaders who rise to positions of power through the dynamics and systems of obedience and conformity would then want to disrupt the very structures and systems that sustain their power. Similarly, a safety industry with so much sunk cost in conservative, conformity-centred thinking would want to welcome the real meaning of disruption.

There are no trends in safety at present that give any inkling that disruption is even a possibility. The Regulation, Act, systems and standards are certainly not shrinking nor changing.

Lepore (2014 – The Annals of Enterprise: The Disruption Machine: What the Gospel of Innovation gets Wrong, The New Yorker) questions whether the theory of disruption has been oversold and misapplied, as if it were able to explain everything in every sphere of life, including not just business but education and public institutions. Similarly Weeks (2015 – Is disruption theory wearing new clothes or just naked? Analyzing recent critiques of disruptive innovation theory, Innovation: Management, Policy & Practice 17:4, 417-428) questions all the smoke and mirrors associated with disruption discourse. Even Christensen comments: “Despite broad dissemination, the theory’s core concepts have been widely misunderstood and its basic tenets frequently misapplied.” (http://fortune.com/2015/11/17/uber-disruption-christensen/). In some ways the theory of disruption innovation has fallen victim to its own rhetoric.

One of the essentials for disruption is risk. There is no innovation, no creativity nor learning, without risk. So why is the safety industry, the lovers of risk aversion spruiking the language of disruption??? There is no great trend away from zero in safety, the lovers of zero are the lovers of data and any risk in change to the data is apparently a sign of un-safety. So, where is the radical change??? There is no trend away from data, counting LTIs, TRIFR rates. If anything, the conservativism and calculative love of compliance and bureaucracy is growing exponentially. Where is the disruption from peak bodies in safety??? There is no discourse about reforming curriculum, no tools nor strategies from the peaks, to help reform the current malaise in safety. Where are the strategic plans that indicate that disruption in safety is on the way? IF there is to be disruption it certainly won’t come from orthodox sources. The very dynamics that are required to establish peak bodies, government instrumentalities and institutionalized forms of stability are hardly going to give way and welcome disruption. I think Weber, Berger, Kuhn and others have demonstrated clearly how the dynamics of institutionalization, bureaucratization, systematization, ideology and organization work. No organization wants disruptors, mavericks are not welcome inside organisations where questioning is limited to manageable boundaries and marketing as disruptive is threatening to all that drives humans for stability and certainty. That’s why humans organize. Christensen confirms this and makes clear that disruption can never come from inside or from orthodoxy. There is plenty of evidence in social history and social politics to show what happens to disruptions.

So we see, the very dynamics of the institutionalization of safety and the discourse of zero (and associated absolutes) must drive the safety industry to deeper conservativism and compliance, fully obedient to the Archetype of innocence and yearning for paradise (infallibility). Yet again, we have another spin word and fad that will do the circles and fade just as quick as it came in. We all know that the Prime Minister speaks the words of disruption but must bow to the conservative voices of his own party (http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-05-12/turnbull-defends-george-christensen-comments/7407788 ). The conservative wagons are circling in a winding frenzy (http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-07-04/matthewson-turnbull-is-a-leader-besieged-on-all-sides/7566960). The capitulations are real (http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/2016/09/14/malcolm-turnbulls-super-backdown-is-an-incredible-capitulation/) whilst the talk is ‘disruption’.

Just because someone speaks it, doesn’t make it so.

  • Bio
  • Latest Posts
  • More about Rob
Dr Rob Long

Dr Rob Long

Expert in Social Psychology, Principal & Trainer at Human Dymensions
Dr Rob Long

Latest posts by Dr Rob Long (see all)

  • When Safety Delights in ‘I Told You So’! - May 24, 2023
  • Understanding Safety as a Cultural Reproductive Process - May 23, 2023
  • Thinking Outside the Safety Bubble - May 21, 2023
  • Understanding Language Influencing, A Video - May 21, 2023
  • Safetie - May 21, 2023
Dr Rob Long
PhD., MEd., MOH., BEd., BTh., Dip T., Dip Min., Cert IV TAA, MRMIA Rob is the founder of Human Dymensions and has extensive experience, qualifications and expertise across a range of sectors including government, education, corporate, industry and community sectors over 30 years. Rob has worked at all levels of the education and training sector including serving on various post graduate executive, post graduate supervision, post graduate course design and implementation programs.

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: Leadership, Robert Long, Social Psychology of Risk, Zero Harm Tagged With: Disruption, spin

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 7,521 other subscribers

Recent Comments

  • Rob Long on It is NOT My Responsibility to Keep You Safe
  • Chris. on It is NOT My Responsibility to Keep You Safe
  • Pierre Joubert on Zero Doesn’t Work, Road Fatalities Increase
  • James on We are all equal
  • Rob Long on We are all equal
  • James Parkinson on We are all equal
  • Brent Charlton on What Does Safety Achieve?
  • Admin on We are all equal
  • James Parkinson on We are all equal
  • Rob Long on What Does Safety Achieve?
  • Brent Charlton on We are all equal
  • Brent Charlton on We are all equal
  • Brent Charlton on We are all equal
  • Brent Charlton on What Does Safety Achieve?
  • Simon Cassin on You Can Fool Someone Some of the Time but, You Can Fool Safety All of the Time
  • Simon Cassin on You Can Fool Someone Some of the Time but, You Can Fool Safety All of the Time
  • Rob Long on You Can Fool Someone Some of the Time but, You Can Fool Safety All of the Time
  • Rob Long on You Can Fool Someone Some of the Time but, You Can Fool Safety All of the Time
  • Rob Long on You Can Fool Someone Some of the Time but, You Can Fool Safety All of the Time
  • Rob Long on You Can Fool Someone Some of the Time but, You Can Fool Safety All of the Time

RECOMMENDED READING

viral post – iso 45003 and what it cannot do

Introduction to SPOR – FREE!!

Psychosocial Safety and Mental Health Series

It is NOT My Responsibility to Keep You Safe

The KISS of Death in Safety

Is Your Safety World Too Small?

You Can Fool Someone Some of the Time but, You Can Fool Safety All of the Time

When Safety (Zero) is Abusive

Hands Up the Best Safety Fraud!

Communicating Professionally in Risk

How NOT to be Professional in Safety

How NOT to do Anything About Culture in Building and Construction

Celebrating 60 Years of Lifeline

More Posts from this Category

NEW! Free Download

Please take our 2 minute zero survey

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 AND WORST WORKPLACE HEALTH and SAFETY SLOGANS 2023
  • CATCHY and FUNNY SAFETY SLOGANS FOR THE WORKPLACE
  • When Safety Delights in ‘I Told You So’!
  • Road Safety Slogans 2023
  • 15 Safety Precautions When Working With Electricity
  • How to Calculate TRIFR, LTIFR and Other Health and Safety Indicators
  • Ratio Delusions and Heinrich’s Hoax
  • FREE RISK ASSESSMENT FORMS, CHECKISTS, REGISTERS, TEMPLATES and APPS
  • Safety Acronyms

Recent Posts

  • When Safety Delights in ‘I Told You So’!
  • My Story is Better than Yours
  • Understanding Safety as a Cultural Reproductive Process
  • The Unconscious and the Soap Dispenser
  • Thinking Outside the Safety Bubble
  • Understanding Language Influencing, A Video
  • Safetie
  • You are NOT the Sum of Safety
  • Update on SPoR in India, Brazil and Europe
  • It is NOT My Responsibility to Keep You Safe
  • Safety at the Margins
  • Research Basics for Safety
  • We Need Communities and They Need Us
  • Researching Within The Safety Echo Chamber
  • Confirmation Bias, Risk and Being Offensive
  • Lemmings for Lemmings in Leadership and Risk
  • Expertise by Regurgitation and Re-Badging
  • Zero Doesn’t Work, Road Fatalities Increase
  • Can There Be Other Valid Worldviews Than Safety?
  • Evaluating Value by the Value of What You Don’t Know
  • Reality vs Theory, The Binary Divide
  • No Paradigm Shift with BBS
  • The KISS of Death in Safety
  • Is Your Safety World Too Small?
  • What Does Safety Achieve?
  • In Praise of Balance in Risk and the Threat of Extremism
  • We are all equal
  • You Can Fool Someone Some of the Time but, You Can Fool Safety All of the Time
  • What in the (Risk & Safety) World is Imagination?
  • iCue Engagement Process
  • SPoR, Metanoia and a Podcast on Change with Nippin Anand
  • For the Monarchists of Safety
  • The Sully Effect
  • All Things Must Pass in Risk
  • Scapegoating and Safety
  • Understanding Habit, Habituation and Change
  • Don’t Mention the War
  • Safety in Design for Who by Who?
  • Beyond ‘What We Do Around Here’
  • Asking the Wrong Questions
  • When Safety (Zero) is Abusive
  • Mandala as a Method for Tackling an Ethic of Risk (a Video)
  • Safety Cosmetics
  • Visualising the EHS Role
  • Towards Dumb
  • Workshops with Dr Long – Vienna, Austria 26-30 June 2023
  • Visual, Verbal and Relational Mapping in Risk Assessment
  • Abduction in Risk and Safety
  • Creating Myths and Rituals in Safety
  • The Safe Christmas Psychosis

VIRAL POST!!! HOW TO QUIT THE SAFETY INDUSTRY

FEATURED POSTS

Defining Safety

Practical Case Studies in SPoR Presented at Vienna Workshops

Safety and The Sunk Cost Fallacy

I’m Not Playing Any More

The Seduction to Simplify Safety

Bad Moon Rising

Scenario Learning in Risk and Safety

Free Two Chapter Download and Book Competition

Envisioning and Creativity in Safety

Expecting the Unexpected

Risk and Safety Rituals

Target Trade-Offs and Numeric Goals

What Safety and Risk Could Learn From Patch Adams

Perth Workshops

Learning Wisdom from the Collective Unconscious

Right and Wrong in Safety

Safety, Ethics, SPoR and How to Foster the Abuse of Power

The Difference Between Psycho-Social Health and Social-Psychology of Risk

Toilet Roll Safety

SPoR and Myth

We need to make sure this can never happen again

The Safety Charade as Tokenism in Safety

Social Media and Safety

You are NOT the Sum of Safety

Breaking the Safety Code

Censorship and Taboos in Safety

Post Graduate Diploma in Psychology of Risk Commences

Subliminal and Subconscious Influence

By What Method?

Safety Superstitions

Making Sense of Safety Management Systems

Investigations and Heuristics

Gesture in Risk Matters

Diagnosing Safety

I’m just not that into safety anymore

Evidence, Proof and Paperwork in Safety

Free Books – 66 Downloads for Tackling Risk

Beware the Cult of Denial

Personhood and Risk

The Fear of Freedom in Safety

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 7,521 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?


WHAT IS PSYCHOSOCIAL SAFETY

x
x