Safety distorts living and being by being short-sighted. Much of the real harm done to people is longitudinal and unseen, unconscious and non-measurable. The best way to understand life, living and being is NOT through the narrow lens of Safety.
The fixation on short-term measurable injury (and goals) is the most significant distraction in an industry that measures harm by lost-time, medical treatment, frequency rates or some form of physical loss. All of this is fuelled by the mantra of zero, the ideology that makes injury the definition of safety.
The only way to understand harm differently is to step away from the traditional safety curriculum, safety indoctrination and the fixation on engineering/behaviourism. Similarly, to understand culture, the same movement away from zero needs to happen so that safety can improve (https://safetyrisk.net/moving-away-from-zero-so-that-safety-improves/).
When we focus on non-measurable longitudinal harm, we begin to see the subtle, unconscious and invisible ways Safety does harm in the name of ‘safety’. Perhaps the worst form of longitudinal harm comes from bullying and brutalism in the name of zero and behaviourism. It is from these sources that we encounter long term moral harm (https://safetyrisk.net/the-moral-harm-of-the-zero-cult/ ).
Those who leave the industry (https://safetyrisk.net/how-to-leave-the-safety-industry/) in its current state testify about the harm of what safety does to people. I look forward to a colleague publishing her work on this in 2023.
As long as zero is the foundation for safety, the culture of safety (https://safetyrisk.net/on-culture-and-safety/) will be characterised by brutalism. Similarly, the delusional focus on heroes. The best way to invoke brutalism is to deny fallibility.
The real task of working in safety ought to be the simple everyday practical helping process in tackling risk.
Forget the ‘bells and whistles’, miracle software and silver bullets and get skilled for the everyday conversational task of helping people tackle risk.
This is best done by listening not telling and, the iCue method helps do this (https://safetyrisk.net/understanding-icue-a-visual-verbal-semiotic-method-for-tackling-risk/). The message of SPoR is practical, constructive, positive and doable and the tools to help are given for free. Courses and books are also free.
If one moves away from the engineering and behaviourist paradigms of traditional safety one begins to see longitudinal and cultural realities that empower ownership in tackling risk. The key to maturing in tackling risk is to move away from Zero and everything (in safety) that anchors to it.
Zero is the archetype and symbol for an industry that desperately seeks professionalism but doesn’t know how to move to it. It holds on to compulsory mis-education as if Heinrich was god and ethics is simply a concept. There has been no curriculum reform in the past 30 years and so the best Safety can do is more of the same.
If you want to change your lenses and understand a different way in tackling risk perhaps you can download a free book (https://www.humandymensions.com/shop/), watch a free video (https://vimeo.com/cllr) or do a free course. There are 2 free courses approaching in 2023, with more to come.
Free Courses in 2023 – Registration of Interest
Dr Long is proposing some free courses for the first half of 2023. If you are interested, you can register by email to robertlong2@mac.com
Please DO NOT register for a course just because it is free.
If you do not attend the first session of the course you will be instantly eliminated from the list. Only register for the course because you want to learn. Registrations are limited to 50 participants.
Registrations for the first course will close on 3 January.
Dr Long will create a common list from registrations and will communicate with the group about watching videos and pre-reading.
The first module on Offer is Module 15 on Culture: https://cllr.com.au/product/culture-leadership-program-unit-15/
The module will run Zoom sessions every Tuesday at 9am (Canberra time) starting on 21 February and with sessions at 9 am and each following Tuesday at 9 am for 5 weeks. This means that the last session will be on 21 March.
Those interested can start by reading Dr Long’s blogs on culture and culture silences:
· https://safetyrisk.net/category/safety-culture-3/
· https://safetyrisk.net/category/safety-culture-silences/
Similarly, it will be helpful to have read some of Lotman:
· The Unpredictable Workings of Culture (file:///Users/rl/Downloads/ATT%20No%201%20Lotman_Unpredictable%20Workings%20of%20Culture-1.pdf)
· Universe of the Mind, A Semiotic Theory of Culture (https://monoskop.org/images/5/5e/Lotman_Yuri_M_Universe_of_the_Mind_A_Semiotic_Theory_of_Culture_1990.pdf)
Second Free Module – An Ethic of Risk
The second free module on offer is module 17 (https://cllr.com.au/product/an-ethic-of-risk-unit-17/) on Ethics and Risk.
The module will run Zoom sessions every Tuesday at 9am (Canberra time) starting on 28 March and with sessions at 9 am and each following Tuesday at 9 am for 5 weeks. This means that the last session will be on 25 April.
Registrations for this Module close on 3 February.
Dr Long will create a common list from registrations and will communicate with the group about watching videos and pre-reading.
Please DO NOT register for a course just because it is free.
If you do not attend the first session of the course you will be instantly eliminated from the list. Only register for the course because you want to learn. Registrations are limited to 50 participants.
Dr Rob Long
Latest posts by Dr Rob Long (see all)
- An Advanced Understanding of Culture – A Video - January 31, 2023
- The KISS of Death in Safety - January 31, 2023
- SPoR, Metanoia and a Podcast on Change with Nippin Anand - January 31, 2023
- Behavioural Safety is NOT a Foundation for Tackling Psychosocial and Mental Health - January 31, 2023
- The Worst Approach to Psychosocial Problems is an Attitude of ‘Fixing’ - January 31, 2023
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