Military Metaphors in Safety Check out Rob’s new book: Following-Leading in Risk Weick (1979) tells us that organizing is ‘a consensually validated grammar for reducing equivocality by means of sensible interlocking behaviours’. Wow, what a definition and so much jammed into that definition. What … [Read more...] about Military Metaphors in Safety
metaphors
Only 50 Days to Perfection
One of the wonderful delusions of the 1% safer con is the methodology of measurement. At the foundation of this con is the fundamental use of measurement metaphor and with it the delusion that safety can be measured. This mathematical methodology is of course nonsense, safety cannot be measured, … [Read more...] about Only 50 Days to Perfection
Understanding The Myths and Metaphors of Safety
In risk and safety, we cannot separate the language we use and its bias, from the way we participate subjectively in our thinking and speaking in risk. The metaphors we use come from our unconscious use of language and condition the way communication is received. See further Metaphors We Live By … [Read more...] about Understanding The Myths and Metaphors of Safety
Who is the Enemy and What War is Safety Fighting?
Who is the Enemy and What War is Safety Fighting? It is interesting after the last piece on the military as a model for safety leadership the responses that assumed that somehow the military was under attack. The idea that the military is a ‘lean, green safety machine’ was used on another blog to … [Read more...] about Who is the Enemy and What War is Safety Fighting?
Culture Silences in Safety – Metaphor
Culture Silences in Safety - Metaphor Continuing the theme of Culture Silences in Safety (https://safetyrisk.net/category/safety-culture-silences/ ) our next cab off the rank is metaphor. Although a sub-set of linguistics and Poetics, metaphor deserves special mention when it comes to tackling the … [Read more...] about Culture Silences in Safety – Metaphor
Why Metaphors Matter in Risk
We all use metaphors in how we speak and communicate to each other. Metaphor is poetic language that requires imagination to understand how a bridge is created for understanding. A metaphor is a mechanism that uses an image to convey meaning about something else … [Read more...] about Why Metaphors Matter in Risk
Zero Harm, Santa Claus and Other Such Myths
Zero Harm, Santa Claus and Other Such Myths It’s beginning to look at lot like….. well you know the song. It’s that time of the year where you can’t take a trip to the shopping centre (mall) without the sounds of carols and other Christmas songs dominating the airwaves. It’s also that time of the … [Read more...] about Zero Harm, Santa Claus and Other Such Myths
Don’t Look Now Safety, Your Metaphor is Showing
Don’t Look Now Safety, Your Metaphor is Showing As much as STEM thinking knows anything about language, what it doesn’t know is that language is mostly NOT descriptive. Most of the time when humans seek to communicate they use language that is NOT descriptive but figurative. We most often seek to … [Read more...] about Don’t Look Now Safety, Your Metaphor is Showing
Slogan Power
Many people underestimate the power of slogans because they function like metaphors and in many ways are hidden in language. It is impossible for humans to communicate without using either. The rhythmic power of slogans and the mis-directive power of metaphors are a central vehicle for … [Read more...] about Slogan Power
Visual Perception and the Camera Metaphor
We live by myths and metaphors and some of the myths and metaphors we use in risk are unhelpful. We construct guiding principles that we live by (myths-symbols) and express those myth-symbols in metaphors we use to explain what we believe. These metaphors (Lakhoff and Johnson) then become the way we … [Read more...] about Visual Perception and the Camera Metaphor