Culture Silences in Safety Symbolism When safety uses the word ‘culture’ it is most often define by behaviourist assumptions. Just look at how safety defines culture and it’s most often ‘what we do around here’. A completely useless definition of culture. When an industry like safety is so weighed … [Read more...] about Culture Silences in Safety Symbolism
Semiotics
Safety is the Wrong Anchor
Safety is the Wrong Anchor We are all shaped by starting points, what Jung called Sensitive Dependence on Initial Conditions (SDICs). SDIC is sometimes known as the 'butterfly effect'. This is the idea central to Chaos Theory that a simple starting point can lead to wickedity. Foundational to SDIC … [Read more...] about Safety is the Wrong Anchor
R Rated Graphics in Safety
You have to hand it to mono-disciplinary Safety. When it wants to know anything, it consults itself to prove its own bias. Head-in-the-sand safety is alive and well and being peddled through safety code (https://safetyrisk.net/deciphering-safety-code/) as something ‘moving forward’, ‘in-depth’ and … [Read more...] about R Rated Graphics in Safety
Cultural Semiotics, Just One of Many Silences in Safety Culture
The research and discipline of Cultural Semiotics has been about for 100 years. Cultural Semiotics was first founded by Lotman and others like Cassier and Uspensky and predates the construction of Behaviourism. The discipline of Cultural Semiotics serves as a Transdisciplinary approach to … [Read more...] about Cultural Semiotics, Just One of Many Silences in Safety Culture
Risk and Safety as a Wicked Problem
Introduction It is nearly ten years since the outstanding research by Wagner and Associates ‘Safety - A Wicked Problem’ was published (http://www.peterwagner.com.au/wp-content/uploads/Safety-A-Wicked-Problem2.pdf). The project examined responses by prominent CEOs to common problems associated in … [Read more...] about Risk and Safety as a Wicked Problem
Kinesthetic Safety
Kinesthetic Safety There are some dangerous mantras in safety none more so than ‘if it feels wrong don’t do it’. Mantras are a form of language like slogans that tend to influence as accepted ‘common’ rules. All language and symbols have a powerful effect and ought not be underestimated. As Jung … [Read more...] about Kinesthetic Safety
A Semiotic Map for Safety
A Semiotic Map for Safety When we understand the world semiotically as Lotman articulates, we don’t see a biosphere but we see a semiosphere . This changes how one ‘sees’ the world. We envision the world ‘differently’ … [Read more...] about A Semiotic Map for Safety
A Picture Tells a Thousand Lies in Safety
‘A picture is worth a thousand words’ ‘Seeing is believing’ These are common aphorisms about photographic media and images. Unfortunately, these aphorisms have never been true. No image is objective or neutral but rather carries a story that must be interpreted. Now, more than ever with … [Read more...] about A Picture Tells a Thousand Lies in Safety
Making Technicians Not Helpers
Making Technicians Not Helpers People have enrolled in the CLLR Certificate online and in face-to-face studies (https://cllr.com.au/register-to-study/) recently, many with graduate and post-graduate qualifications in Safety. Near all, without exception, are looking for the skills and knowledge that … [Read more...] about Making Technicians Not Helpers
Grade One Lessons in Culture
Grade One Lessons in Culture I picked up my granddaughter from school the other day and she showed me her work and it was delightful to see what they have been doing in Grade One in Primary School on culture. What a shame we don’t do such work with people in risk and safety. Instead, safety … [Read more...] about Grade One Lessons in Culture