The reason for this sales cycle is that people quickly discover, after investing their time, energy and money in a semantic i-con, that it doesn’t work. Then the concoction dies, and a new concoction is developed, creating a new adaptation, new brand, Safety follows and so the cycle continues.
Much of this demonstrates the power of slogans, energised in propaganda, to con poorly educated followers keen for a taste of the new salvation. And, there’s nothing like the promise of salvation to make Safety ‘good’. The evangelical fundamentalists have demonstrated this for the last one hundred years. The more certain the ritual, the more certain the salvation.
Have you ever asked why there are so many brands of investigations products on the market? Especially, when all of them are so deficient in effectiveness (https://www.humandymensions.com/product/seek-investigations-a-semiotic-method/). In our latest book we analysed twenty-two of the most popular investigations methods (but there are many more) and demonstrate their many ethical, practical and systemic flaws. Yet, all are defended vigorously by their followers. Such is the power of sunk cost and cognitive dissonance.
The cycle of safety semantics and related sales is a lucrative market after all, who doesn’t want more safety?
Some of the products in the safety market use the language of ‘investigation’ and yet have nothing to do with investigation eg. pre-accident investigation. These are just marketing tools to sell another product/slogan (called principles) to the believing throngs keen to spend their money on yet another promise. But none of this is founded on a methodology, method or an ethic. Indeed, these are hidden in the noise of slogans, marketing and narratives of new approaches to salvation. Safety saves! And Safety needs saviours.
So, just explore the parade of semantic brands over the last few years and analyse the discourse: S2 (that according to its author ‘regrettably nourished confusion’) Safety Differently, HOP, Resilience Engineering (declared dead by its author), New View and now ‘Incremental Safety’. Then follow the range of semiotic models that accompany the cycle (eg FRAM), and discover a lucrative market for myth making. Myths are narratives made true semiotically and the market for myths in safety is hot.
Then follow the conference circuit, congress, marketing, special events, innovation jaunts, marketing, sponsored events, product launches, marketing, re-branding, re-framing, podcast pundits and thought leading luminaries, all looking for a cut of the action. Finally, when the noise dies down, the light show is over and the entertainment ends, what changes? What do the safety throngs return to on Monday, a new method? No. A new vision? No. You can’t operationalise slogans or anything in the safety semantic cycle. One just has to wait to the next round in the cycle to see what is concocted next, but nothing changes.
Any level of Critical Discourse Analysis applied to the semantic safety cycle demonstrates an industry keen for silver bullets, snake oil and salvic solutions. However, at a very basic level where risk hits the road and practical methods are required for tackling risk, crickets. Back to the same checklists, systems, performance and metrics.
If you are interested in something that actually works that is not anchored to an economic outcome, then you can download our free book It Works, A New Approach to Safety . The book documents by case study, the change in a global organisation that dumped the slogan of zero and adopted a new methodology, new methods and practices in tackling risk that work.
Prof. Robert Long
Latest posts by Prof. Robert Long (see all)
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