The Paradox of Positivism for Safety Most people in safety would be unaware that the common philosophy driving the safety worldview is known as Positivism. You can get some background on positivism here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positivism. Positivism privileges information interpreted through … [Read more...] about The Paradox of Positivism for Safety
Search Results for: paradox
Coping With Paradox and Ambiguity in Safety
One of the temptations of working in safety is to portray a ‘wicked problem’ as black and white, simple and easy (https://safetyrisk.net/risk-and-safety-as-a-wicked-problem/ ). A wicked problem is any problem that cannot be ‘fixed’ or ‘solved’ and the more one attempts to do so, the more ‘wicked’ … [Read more...] about Coping With Paradox and Ambiguity in Safety
The Paradox of Safety
The paradox of safety refers to the idea that sometimes, our efforts to increase safety can actually make us less safe. This can happen in a number of ways: Overconfidence: If we have too much faith in a safety measure, we may become complacent and fail to take other necessary precautions. … [Read more...] about The Paradox of Safety
The Paradox of Conformity and the Challenge for New Ideas
The Dynamics of Conformity The pressure to conform is the underlying dynamic of belonging to a group. If you don’t conform you soon become part of an out-group or shift to another in-group. In-groupness and out-groupness is a foundational study in Social Psychology ; … [Read more...] about The Paradox of Conformity and the Challenge for New Ideas
The Zero Safety Paradox
Found this interesting article posted recently by Jason Kunz and just wallowing in the Linkedin mud (HERE): The Zero Safety Paradox This is instalment four in a twelve-part series on the future of the Safety and Health (S&H) profession, and the Safety and Health professional. Insights are based … [Read more...] about The Zero Safety Paradox
The Paradox of “Lifesaving Rules”
The Paradox of “Lifesaving Rules” Guest Post by Danny Fay As part of my assignment in Unit 5 of the Diploma in Social Psychology of Risk, I am evaluating the paradox of “Lifesaving Rules” against the five principles of collective mindfulness as developed by Professor Karl Weick. Collective … [Read more...] about The Paradox of “Lifesaving Rules”
Happy New Year and the ‘Good Life’ Paradox
Happy New Year and the ‘Good Life’ Paradox “Happy New Year! I hope that for you and your family, it is a year of much happiness, health and success!” This salutation, and many versions of it, flood our social media feeds on this, the first day of 2019. It is a customary greeting (at least in our … [Read more...] about Happy New Year and the ‘Good Life’ Paradox
Safety, mental health and the safety paradox
It's great to see such a focus on mental health at the moment and the activities being conducted for RU OK day etc. However, I do wonder if perhaps we are over doing it and if such an overt, theatrical or contrived approach may have unintended, harmful by-products for people with mental health … [Read more...] about Safety, mental health and the safety paradox
The Mystery and Paradox of Being an Individual in a Social World
The Mystery and Paradox of Being an Individual in a Social World I had the privilege today to meet up with a friend, one who I've known for a while, yet up until today we’d not had the opportunity to meet in person, so we both made the time and effort to catch up. We shared in a wholesome … [Read more...] about The Mystery and Paradox of Being an Individual in a Social World
Policies, procedures, stress and the safety paradox
Policies, procedures, stress and the safety paradox Great article by Greg Smith. First published here: https://mysafetythoughts.com/2018/02/11/policies-procedures-stress-and-the-safety-paradox/ Something I have often observed over the years I have been commenting on health and safety management, … [Read more...] about Policies, procedures, stress and the safety paradox
