• 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 / Communication and Consultation / Scenario Learning in Risk and Safety

Scenario Learning in Risk and Safety

November 8, 2016 by Dr Rob Long 3 Comments

Scenario Learning in Risk and Safety

Safe Creative Crossword One of the best ways of learning safety is through scenarios. Scenarios are constructed to either replicate real situations to maximize perception of recognizable cues or, to enhance the imagination of possibilities. One of the greatest capabilities a safety person can have is a creative imagination. Most times when serious events occur people are surprised by what happened, they didn’t see it coming. One will never learn to “Manage the Unexpected’ (Weick) without a primary focus on imagination, learning and adaptability (resilience). This is why the most effective safety programs are not about learning legislation, regulation and static content but about learning risk indicators. In Human Dymensions we call these iCues™. The key to being risk intelligent is not in reciting the Act and Regulation but in recognizing cues, indicators and ‘red flags’. Ones IQ in safety is one’s iCue™ in safety.

Scenarios are based on experiential learning principles and can work as hypotheticals or re-enactments. These can take the form of drills, adventure activities, desktop workshops or interactive games. Experiential learning is one of the most powerful modes of learning and priming the unconscious.

Scenario learning in safety is not about prediction. Prediction thinking is the futile mindset of ‘all accidents are preventable’ and zero. Scenario learning is about learning in resilience, adaptability, strategic flexibility, iCue development and managing strategic uncertainty. One of the primary skills we help develop in the post graduate program in Unit 4 High Reliability Organisations (HROs) is causal loop mapping (Weick). Weick uses causal loop mapping as a tool to teach by-product and trade-off thinking, an essential in managing the unexpected. All safety people should be proficient in thinking trajectories and by-products not backward thinking and counting. Whilst it is valuable to consider lessons learned from the past, how can those learning be applied to the future?

Of course excessive experiential drills can lead to desensitisation. A desensitized workforce hears the fire alarm and doesn’t move. Again, being imaginative in developing scenarios requires expertise in learning, instructional design and social psychology.

Ten tips for safety scenario learning?

1. Develop scenarios that are active and make participants think.

2. Develop scenarios that trigger thinking in possibilities, options, by-product and trade-off thinking.

3. Make sure the team developing the scenarios has a combination of experienced workers, instructional designers, educators and social psychological expertise.

4. Make sure that what you want to be learned is ‘experiential’ rather than just ‘cognitive’.

5. Develop a scenario that has elements of unpredictability and paradox.

6. Build choice into the scenario so that participants can change direction and outcomes.

7. Plan and then trial the scenario to iron out bugs.

8. Make sure the scenario runs in phases and ‘rounds’.

9. Ensure that debriefing is structured and supported by key conceptual foundations eg. a social psychological and cultural (not legal) understanding of due diligence would be helpful.

10. Construct scenarios that trigger emotions and feelings associated with frustration, confusion, choice, uncertainty, risk and trust.

Parrot learning and indoctrination that are most commonly associated with inductions and content repetition don’t enhance the development of risk intelligence. Comprehension of the Act and Regulation doesn’t make a safety person risk intelligent whereas, scenario learning enhances risk and safety iCue™.

  • 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)

  • What’s Your Agenda in Safety? - May 26, 2023
  • The Myth of Neuroscience Safety - May 24, 2023
  • When Safety Delights in ‘I Told You So’! - May 24, 2023
  • Beware the Cult of Denial - May 23, 2023
  • Understanding Safety as a Cultural Reproductive Process - May 23, 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: Communication and Consultation, Lead and Lag Indicators, Learning, Robert Long, Safety Training, Social Psychology of Risk Tagged With: drills, imagination, learning, resilience, scenario learning, unconscious

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 7,523 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

  • 500 OF THE BEST AND WORST WORKPLACE HEALTH and SAFETY SLOGANS 2023
  • CATCHY and FUNNY SAFETY SLOGANS FOR THE WORKPLACE
  • Free Safety Moments and Toolbox Talk Examples, Tips and Resources
  • Ratio Delusions and Heinrich’s Hoax
  • What’s Your Agenda in Safety?
  • Road Safety Slogans 2023
  • Safety Acronyms
  • FREE RISK ASSESSMENT FORMS, CHECKISTS, REGISTERS, TEMPLATES and APPS
  • 15 Safety Precautions When Working With Electricity
  • CLASSIC, FAMOUS and INFAMOUS SAFETY QUOTES

Recent Posts

  • What’s Your Agenda in Safety?
  • The Myth of Neuroscience Safety
  • When Safety Delights in ‘I Told You So’!
  • Beware the Cult of Denial
  • 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

VIRAL POST!!! HOW TO QUIT THE SAFETY INDUSTRY

FEATURED POSTS

Is Choice The First Casualty in the Worker’s Compensation War?

Numerology and Psychic Numbing

Social Sensemaking Available Now PLUS Free Share and Giveaway

Push or Pull – It’s Not Your Fault – It’s a Norman Door!

New Video Series on Safety

Dumb Ways to Discourse, a Failed Approach in Safety

Safety Myopia

Risk Culture and Cultural Risk

Suggested Safety Reading for 2018

Non-Binary Decision Making in Risk

New Video Explains Cognitive Dissonance and Safety

Military Metaphors in Safety

The Ethics of Safety

Calculators, Matrices and Mumbo Jumbo Risk Assessment

Conducting a Psychology and Culture Safety Walk

Safetie

Lemmings for Lemmings in Leadership and Risk

An Ethical Psychology of Risk

SEEK Investigations Workshop

The Domino Delusion in Safety

The Primacy of Play in Learning

New Social Psychology of Risk Website

Themes and Concepts in Risk – Requests

Why Safety Isn’t a Choice You Make

Social Sensemaking – Book Launch Dates & Venues Confirmed

Rhetoric and Reality in Safety

Censorship and Taboos in Safety

The Human Race…

Learning Styles Matter

Social Sensemaking–New Book Release

Breaking the Safety Code

What or Who Is Safety?

Symbols Matter

The Safety Spoilsport

Investigations and Heuristics

Free Online Introduction to the Social Psychology of Risk

Resilience and Safety

Just Hangin’ Out…

SPoR Introductory Workshop Series April 2020

I Just Don’t Know

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 7,523 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