What You Profess in Safety There is no separation between claiming the word ‘professional’ and what you profess. What one professes determines if one is profess-ional regardless of whether one likes to claim the word as a brand or not (https://safetyrisk.net/not-a-professions-bootlace/ ). … [Read more...] about What You Profess in Safety
paperwork
Paperwork and Usability in Tackling Risk
Most workers don’t ‘use’ paperwork, they just sign it just as many workers don’t read paperwork they just give it the ‘tick and flick’. The idea of excessive paperwork in safety is much more a middle management problem than a worker problem. The real decisions on the job where the greatest risk is … [Read more...] about Paperwork and Usability in Tackling Risk
Looking Forward, Looking Back
This cute little song by Slim Dusty lays out the ultimate challenge for Risk and Safety. So much of what characterizes Safety is about looking backward. Counting data, LTIs, TRIFR and counting lead indicators (positive activity) all focus on the past as if these are an indicator of the future. Most … [Read more...] about Looking Forward, Looking Back
Proof of Safety is not Through Paperwork
The excesses of paperwork in the risk and safety industry is evidence of the mythology that paperwork demonstrates safety. Similarly the idea that numerics and metrics demonstrate safety is based on the same delusion. All data whether quantitative or qualitative is interpreted, there is no such … [Read more...] about Proof of Safety is not Through Paperwork
Safety Cosmetics
Safety Cosmetics One of the grand activities of keeping up with safety systems is keeping up appearances. The idea that paperwork obesity is a healthy thing is a strange cultural myth in the safety industry (https://vimeo.com/162034157 ). If in doubt, add more in. It is a strange belief in the … [Read more...] about Safety Cosmetics
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
Flooding is Dangerous, and I don’t Mean the Water….
Flooding is Dangerous, and I don’t Mean the Water…. Parts of the east coast of Australia have experienced heavy rain over recent weeks and it has become common to read headlines of flash flooding causing road closures, cars washed away and sadly a man in Sydney was killed when he was swept into a … [Read more...] about Flooding is Dangerous, and I don’t Mean the Water….
Paper Safe
Paper Safe By Greg Smith. I am happy to announce my new book, Paper Safe: the triumph of bureaucracy in safety management is available. It seems to me that at some point health and safety management has lost its way. Rather than being concerned about protecting workers and others from the … [Read more...] about Paper Safe
Window Dressing, Theatre and More of The Same
Window Dressing, Theatre and More of The Same We read the sad news of yet another fatality in mining in the Zero Harm in Leadership state. Of course, zero ideology is anti-leadership and anti-learning and it seems there’s not much learning going on in mining Queensland. We learned in 2020 that … [Read more...] about Window Dressing, Theatre and More of The Same
The Myth of the SWMS Manifesto
The Myth of the SWMS Manifesto I’d like a dollar for every mail I get telling stories about what is considered necessary in a Safe Work Method Statement (SWMS). It seems that Safety is far more attentive to safety mythology (something that is made symbolically true, that isn’t) than what is … [Read more...] about The Myth of the SWMS Manifesto
