Making a Difference in Safety By Shayne Connolly – one of our new Awesome Authors If you are like me you started in safety because you liked talking to people, you felt like you could help people understand but most of all you thought you could make a difference. Seven years now in a variety of … [Read more...] about Making a Difference in Safety
systems
Think Different, Act Differently in Risk
Think Different, Act Differently in Risk The ‘think different’ campaign for Macintosh (Think_different) was a highly successful campaign to differentiate one computer platform against another. The campaign was launched by this successful video. The campaign marked the return of Steve Jobs to Apple … [Read more...] about Think Different, Act Differently in Risk
Understanding Systems and Ecologies in Risk
Understanding Systems and Ecologies in Risk It was Karl Weick (1979) who defined organizing as: ‘consensually validated grammar for reducing equivocality by means of sensible interlocking behaviours’. This is such a comprehensive definition of how humans organize. If we think of organizing as … [Read more...] about Understanding Systems and Ecologies in Risk
Safety Software Calls Out ‘Pseudo-Psychology’
I find it so amusing when Safety triggers off its name calling from its base of ignorance. The latest has been numerous calls of ‘pseudo psychology’ from a base of no study or understanding of psychology. Even more so, no idea of social psychology either in theory or practice. Such name calling … [Read more...] about Safety Software Calls Out ‘Pseudo-Psychology’
I Don’t Serve Systems
I Don’t Serve Systems It’s a strange experience to read a science-managerial text on compliance. It’s strange because of the absence of any reference to human interaction or social psychological influences on behavior and human decision making. This is the case with Singh and Bussen’s book … [Read more...] about I Don’t Serve Systems
Who Decides What is Ugly?
Who Decides What is Ugly? The way I go about my work has changed significantly over the past few years. When I think back to 2010, my work could best be described as mechanistic and routine. I worked in ‘health and safety’ and that mostly meant developing, and then assessing systems and processes … [Read more...] about Who Decides What is Ugly?
Charging into Mediocrity
Charging into Mediocrity “Half a league, half a league. Half a league onwards” are words from the first line of Alfred Lord Tennyson’s poem about “The Charge of the Light Brigade”. The poem tells the story of a brigade of 600 men, who rode on horseback into the “valley of death” for half a league. … [Read more...] about Charging into Mediocrity
Another side to the story
Another side to the story Another awesome article by Paul Nieuwoudt, Author of one of my favourite articles: Zero Harm and a Peasant in 16th Century Europe. Paul puts a positive spin on an age old issue and I think this may create a good deal of healthy debate and thinking. What reaction do … [Read more...] about Another side to the story