I had a call from a mate this week, the board of his company have been mesmerised by a presentation of the latest advances in safety. So I asked to see a copy of this presentation expecting some astounding research and scintillating stuff taking safety into the future. So what did I see? Bradley … [Read more...] about Advancing Backwards in Safety
transdisciplinarity
On Culture and Safety
The assumption made in safety is that culture can be explained conceptually and propositionally, when it can’t. No wonder those who describe culture as a ‘fog’ or ‘cloudy’ don’t understand culture. It’s a bit like taking a knife to a gun fight, or asking the wrong questions expecting the right … [Read more...] about On Culture and Safety
If You Want to Know About Culture, Don’t Ask Safety
The last 4 books I have read from Safety branded as being about culture, were not about culture and not much about safety and risk. Such is safety code (https://safetyrisk.net/deciphering-safety-code/). The four books were: Busch (2021) The First Rule of Safety Culture. Gilbert, Journe, … [Read more...] about If You Want to Know About Culture, Don’t Ask Safety
Safety and Non-Neuroscience
One thing you can be sure of, if Safety jumps out of its field of expertise in objects into anything to do with humans, it stuffs it up. This is no more pronounced in some of the material floating about in safety at the moment on Neuroscience. It’s amazing how Safety makes one qualified in … [Read more...] about Safety and Non-Neuroscience
Identity and Safety
The term identity politics has its source in the 1970s and defines the political identity of groups under various forms of oppression. Often this expression ‘identity politics’ is used pejoratively (https://www.vox.com/identities/2016/12/2/13718770/identity-politics ) and coupled with other silly … [Read more...] about Identity and Safety
Talking About Teams
Talking About Teams Next in the video series on Safety Silences (https://vimeo.com/user/57711103/folder/10215280 ) is a discussion about teams. Whilst there is much discussion in safety about teams, groups and organizing, much is often poorly defined. Indeed, so often meaning is assumed in … [Read more...] about Talking About Teams
Understanding Humans and How They Tackle Risk
Understanding Humans and How They Tackle Risk Without a proper understanding of humans, fallibility and an holistic understanding culture, Safety will never develop a humanising approach to risk. These can never be developed from an engineering-behaviourist worldview. One of the major errors of a … [Read more...] about Understanding Humans and How They Tackle Risk
Demonising Error and Mistakes, What Can the Book of Job Tell Safety
Demonising Error and Mistakes, What Can the Book of Job Tell Safety The story of Job is a classic challenge for philosophers, philosophical psychologists, theologians and Safety. Some of the best artists, poets and philosophers have tried to tackle the challenges of Job, the question of suffering … [Read more...] about Demonising Error and Mistakes, What Can the Book of Job Tell Safety
Adversarial Collaboration for Learning in Safety
Adversarial Collaboration for Learning in Safety This is the title of a recent video published by Daniel Kahneman. It’s not surprising that Daniel Kahneman has found lots of fans in the safety industry. How neat and binary to fall for this fast and slow brain thing. It’s just unfortunate that it … [Read more...] about Adversarial Collaboration for Learning in Safety
Echo Chambers and Thinking About Risk
Echo Chambers and Thinking About Risk One of the greatest challenges for the any industry is introspection, gazing into its own belly button hoping to find something new. We could call this ‘fortress mentality’, the building of boundaries too difficult to break down. It seems that anytime the … [Read more...] about Echo Chambers and Thinking About Risk