Injury Response I’ve had several conversations with safety people about response to events and incidents on site. One mate on a tier 1 site explains the Safety Advisor role as simply ‘demoralising’. So I thought I would try to mimic the typical safety spud head response to an … [Read more...] about Injury Response
LTIFR
Forecasting Safety
Here’s the challenge for anyone who holds to the mantra ‘all accidents are preventable’. Ask them to predict how long it will be in their organisation or any organisation for that matter, that they will be harm free. Hopefully they will go to their injury data and based on the history of injury at … [Read more...] about Forecasting Safety
The Seduction of Measurement in Risk and Safety
The Seduction of Measurement in Risk and Safety Rather than measure what we value, we tend to value what we can measure Many safety mottos and mantras for organisations are sent to me and I recently saw one for a mantra and motto of ‘safety beyond measure’. The strange thing about the … [Read more...] about The Seduction of Measurement in Risk and Safety
Safety Professionals–The Piggy in The Middle?
Anyone for a game of Piggy in the Middle….? Republished by request - Check out the new book by Rob Sams Piggy in the Middle, do you remember playing that game when you were a kid? You know, the one where you stand in the middle of a group of friends who continually throw a ball to one another over … [Read more...] about Safety Professionals–The Piggy in The Middle?
The Last Stick Wasn’t Big Enough
We hear a great deal in the safety industry about compliance and coercion but so little about creative solutions with a sense of imagination. Every time there is another event someone comes out with the bright idea that either we don’t have enough regulation or the last stick wasn’t big enough. This … [Read more...] about The Last Stick Wasn’t Big Enough
Measurement and Psychosocial Safety
If you ask the wrong questions, you collect the wrong data Rather than measure what we value, we seem to value what we can measure - Unknown Generalisations are always problematic, because there are always exceptions. However, it is sometimes handy to use generalisations like a story, to … [Read more...] about Measurement and Psychosocial Safety
The Tyranny of Metrics
The Tyranny of Metrics This is the title of a very easy to read book on the obsession of metrics by Jerry Z. Muller. It should be mandatory reading for anyone in the safety industry. 'The challenges of ‘tick and flick’ in the culture of safety is endemic. We know from the research by Herbert Simon … [Read more...] about The Tyranny of Metrics
Why Be Rational When the Good Old LTI Superstition Will Do?
Why Be Rational When the Good Old LTI Superstition Will Do? By Dr Robert Long from www.humandymensions.com. One of the greatest irrational superstitions in the safety and risk industry is the mythical link between Lost Time Injuries (LTIs) and culture. The attribution of causal links between LTIs … [Read more...] about Why Be Rational When the Good Old LTI Superstition Will Do?
The Safety Data Delusion
The Safety Data Delusion I read with amusement the Safety Institute of Australia (SIA) piece on 20 February that endorses the nonsense of safety metrics. Framed as ‘news’, this non-news is anti-safety and anti-cultural intelligence. There is no data that can measure safety just as there is … [Read more...] about The Safety Data Delusion
Do You Believe in Good and Bad Luck?
Do You Believe in Good and Bad Luck? First published in Sept 2012 Soon it will be the football final and Melbourne Cup season again and millions of Australians will prove to each other that they believe in good and bad luck. There will be arguments about odds and probabilities, bank … [Read more...] about Do You Believe in Good and Bad Luck?