Stop Talking About Safety Rob Long wrote an article last year (The Sound of Safety), where he said: I think sometimes the word ‘safety’ get’s so abused and overstated that it becomes the ‘killjoy’ word. Unless of course you are a ‘zero harm advisor’ and you have totally killed off the word, … [Read more...] about Stop Talking About Safety
Safety
Safety as Avoidance
Safety as Avoidance The language of ‘error’ is unhelpful when it comes to understanding human judgment and decision making. One can assemble pyramids of ‘unsafe acts’ and ‘unsafe conditions’, fault trees of ‘active and latent failures’, maps of ‘violations’, ‘slips’ and ‘missed barriers’, sets of … [Read more...] about Safety as Avoidance
Online Inductions and Safety Effectiveness
I visited an organisation last week which was very excited about their new online induction process as it meant that new employees can “hit the ground running” and has freed up their safety people. It was obvious that induction, to them, was just a necessary evil and a process to tick off rather … [Read more...] about Online Inductions and Safety Effectiveness
Supernatural Safety
Supernatural Safety Talking about the supernatural is not in vogue these days. The membership of the church is in rapid decline, there’s no longer ‘scripture’ in schools and the history of unethical behaviour by the clergy has put religion ‘on the nose’. So there’s not much talk of miracles, … [Read more...] about Supernatural Safety
Safety for True Believers
Safety for True Believers Is the safety industry a religion? You work it out. Religion Safety God ordains salvation Individuals ordain salvation - ‘safety is a choice’ - ‘unsafety is a choice’ https://safetyrisk.net/is-safety-a-choice-you-make/ Aspiration to perfection God is … [Read more...] about Safety for True Believers
What It Takes To Be An Excellent OHS Professional
What It Takes To Be An Excellent OHS Professional Classic post by the late George Robotham Geoff McDonald Australian safety researcher Geoff McDonald has been my advisor/coach/mentor /guide in my safety career. Geoff McDonald has a system of classifying personal damage occurrences (“Accidents … [Read more...] about What It Takes To Be An Excellent OHS Professional
Great Quote To Think About In The Context Of Safety At Work
Great Quote To Think About In The Context Of Safety At Work This is a famous quote by Sir Thomas More from his book “Utopia”, written in 1516. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utopia_(book). It was also quoted in the film “Ever After – A Cinderella Story” The quote struck a chord with me in … [Read more...] about Great Quote To Think About In The Context Of Safety At Work
The Essentialist Pleasure Of Safety
For some reason, every time we publish an article with the word “pleasure” in the title it gets many more hits than articles with “safety” in the title, so I wonder what happens when I use both words together? You might enjoy these ones from a while back: It’s a Fine Line Beyond Pleasure and … [Read more...] about The Essentialist Pleasure Of Safety
Why Have Some Freedom in Safety When a Dose of Fear and Guilt Will Do?
Why Have Some Freedom in Safety When a Dose of Fear and Guilt Will Do? I was sent a rather sickening poster this today, another one of those pithy senseless aphorisms that now populate Linkedin. The poster read: ‘The person who choses safety is a person of conviction, character and caring’. This … [Read more...] about Why Have Some Freedom in Safety When a Dose of Fear and Guilt Will Do?
Safety Doesn’t Need Military Language
Safety Doesn’t Need Military Language One of my favourite books on learning is by Donald N. Michael ‘Learning to Plan and Planning to Learn’. Michaels is one of the great education philosophers up there with the likes of Parker J. Palmer, Buber, Ellul, Claxton, Robinson, Maclaren, Illich and … [Read more...] about Safety Doesn’t Need Military Language