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You are here: Home / Robert Long / Safety in Design as if Humans Matter

Safety in Design as if Humans Matter

September 2, 2020 by Dr Rob Long 7 Comments

Safety in Design as if Humans Matter

I always find it interesting when the discipline of objects attends to something. It’s how we get ‘human factors’ that is about systems, ‘resilience engineering’ that is not about human resilience and Behavior-Based Safety that is not about behaviours or safety but brutalism. Then we get zero harm that is not about preventing harm but metrics, PR campaigns like ‘dumb ways to die’ and ‘Pickled’ that are all about blaming people for being ‘dumb’ (https://safetyrisk.net/the-medium-is-the-message/) and ‘speak up’ campaigns that drive suppression of conversations and under-reporting.

So, when it comes to safety-in-design is it really about how people think and make decisions around objects, nup. I can’t find any research in the safety in design genre that includes the Social Psychology of Risk or any discussion on what influences and motivates human decision making around objects. The discipline of objects still focused on objects. Guess what, more engineering, more causal attribution and still no discussion of how human decision making is influenced by a host of non-materialist, unconscious and social influences. Still about hazards and controls. Here are some examples:

https://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/safe-design

https://www.engineersaustralia.org.au/sites/default/files/resource-files/2017-01/perspectives_on_sid_presentation.pdf

https://www.constructors.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Safety-in-Design-August-2014.pdf

https://www.webfm.net/2019/05/safety-in-design-guide/

https://www.sydneywater.com.au/web/groups/publicwebcontent/documents/document/zgrf/mtux/~edisp/dd_151250.pdf

https://www.worksafe.vic.gov.au/safe-design-safety-basics

So, if you are interested in what influences affect people in contexts maybe start with understanding social influences see Figure 1. Mapping Social Influence Strategies.

Figure 1. Mapping Social Influence Strategies.

mapping social influences

Here we see in semiotic representation all the ways in which humans are influenced socially regardless of the object that is before them. Indeed, many of the objects that we come in contact with influence the way we socially organize and therefore the way decisions are made about them. None of this is discussed in any safety in design literature.

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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)

  • Have You Had a Drink of SafeTea? - September 27, 2023
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  • Safety as Zero, The Perfect Event - September 25, 2023
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  • The Global ‘Zero Event’, This is Safety - September 24, 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.

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Filed Under: Robert Long, Semiotics, Social Psychology of Risk Tagged With: BBS, human factors, safety in design

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Wynand says

    September 7, 2020 at 7:35 PM

    It is scary how many discussions there are about culture and safety culture, with most of them appearing to my inexperienced layman’s eyes to be anything but culture. Behaviourism, “what we do around here” and even Zero Harm seems to be touted as means to “improve” culture. Why do I say this here, in this topic? Because it is the same oversimplification of a complex issue. How nice would a work culture be where humans actually matter? (I think some of us remember times when that was true…)

    Reply
  2. Rob Long says

    September 3, 2020 at 3:10 PM

    He’s closer to safety heaven than he knows. I think the diet for safety heaven is fruit cake.

    Reply
  3. Rob Long says

    September 3, 2020 at 7:24 AM

    Yep, anyone with half an education knows of the complexities of this world and the wicked problems we face. Maybe they should join Kenneth Copeland and just blow Covid19 away: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsGbk820O_Y&pbjreload=101 easy! and BTW, don’t forget to pass in those dollars.

    Reply
    • Admin says

      September 3, 2020 at 11:36 AM

      oh dear – he is possessed! He should be at the next World Safety Conference

      Reply
  4. Rob Long says

    September 3, 2020 at 7:04 AM

    Yep, that’s Safety. Dumb down, black n white, head in sand simplistic safety. What world do these people live in?

    Reply
    • Admin says

      September 3, 2020 at 7:17 AM

      This one lives in the BBS world (Safety heaven in fact) – we should reward people for not dying.

      Reply
  5. Admin says

    September 3, 2020 at 5:57 AM

    Comment from Linkedin:

    “Lets keep it simple and save lives shall we”

    Reply

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