Jerry won the safety award (but he didn’t do anything!) I was at a family gathering recently and got talking to Jerry who I hadn’t spoken with for a while. We chatted about our work and he asked whether I was still in ‘safety’. I said no, that’s not what I do anymore: (I’m Not that into Safety … [Read more...] about Jerry won the safety award (but he didn’t do anything!)
Safety
Safety is an Art
Safety has much more to do with Art, History and Philosophy than it has to do with Science, Engineering and Law. I recently wrote The Target Drives the Method about the subjectivity of determining ‘significance’ that is a precursor to this discussion. Despite the perception that so many in safety … [Read more...] about Safety is an Art
Safety Under Stress
Stress is a part of living, the pressure of being a fallible being in a complex world is stressful, but is stress bad? In what ways are humans stressed and how does this affect the discerning of risk and safety? There are four kinds of stress and each affects humans socially, psychologically, … [Read more...] about Safety Under Stress
What is a Safety and Risk ‘Thinking Group’?
What is a Safety and Risk ‘Thinking Group’? When we take time out to critically think through, and challenge, the ‘norm’ in risk and safety, we open up our eyes, and importantly our minds, to new thinking and innovation when we use our imagination to better discern risk In my last post Some … [Read more...] about What is a Safety and Risk ‘Thinking Group’?
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
Making Safety Better by Using Our Adaptive Toolbox
The excellent work of Gerd Gigerenzer introduces us to the limitations of rationality and the need to validate our ‘adaptive toolbox’. In several of Gigerenzer’s books he shows how our use of statistical data is mostly ineffective and disconnected from reality. Gigerenzer shows that injury data in … [Read more...] about Making Safety Better by Using Our Adaptive Toolbox
Why good leaders make you feel safe
Why good leaders make you feel safe A safe organisation is definitely not one that relies on rules, punishment, reporting, systems, procedures, checklists, injury measurement, hazard control, authority, error elimination and Zero Harm – how dare anybody call that “Culture”. Feeling safe and being … [Read more...] about Why good leaders make you feel safe
Imagination and Safety
Imagination? We’ll Soon Knock that Nonsense Out of You A safety friend of mind Ted rang the other day, he had just gone through the circus and charade of an OFSC Audit and 4801 Audit. He said, ‘ah, now we are safe’, I said, ‘no your not, you are probably less safe’. (I’ll get back to this point … [Read more...] about Imagination and Safety
Perfectionism in Safety and the Denial of Humanity
Perfectionism in Safety and the Denial of Humanity Article by Dr Rob Long in response to Safety Under Construction What a bizarre claim that someone can guarantee no accidents, no mistakes, no harm and that ‘100% zero harm is the irrefutable future coming towards the construction industry like a … [Read more...] about Perfectionism in Safety and the Denial of Humanity
Dumb Ways to Discourse, a Failed Approach in Safety
Dumb Ways to Discourse, a Failed Approach in Safety The Dumb Ways to Die campaign is a classic example of a failure to think about the trajectory of a goal and trajectory of a discourse. The Dumb Ways to Die campaign and it’s self-assessed success (based on hits on the Internet) demonstrate … [Read more...] about Dumb Ways to Discourse, a Failed Approach in Safety