Balancing Tight and Loose Coupled Systems My last two articles on art and helping, generated feedback and questions that are worthy of further explanation. Amongst the feedback was that I ‘systems bash’ when I write about risk and safety. Firstly, while I can understand how people may feel that I … [Read more...] about Balancing Tight and Loose Coupled Systems
weick
What in the (Risk & Safety) World is Imagination?
"On a day like today, when there are very little clouds in the sky, and the grass is long, don't you think it would be a great day for some handstands in that long, long grass? Well, Jimmy did." (Toby CVB, 9 years old) Children don't lose sight of the ability to imagine possibilities. This … [Read more...] about What in the (Risk & Safety) World is Imagination?
Sense-Making and Decision-Making in Risk
Sense-Making and Decision-Making in Risk How we understand decision making and sense-making in time constructs how we explain risk and human enactment. Decision-making is about an enactment in the present looking forward (in faith). Sense-making is about how we understand that enactment looking … [Read more...] about Sense-Making and Decision-Making in Risk
Organisations are Social Institutions
Organisations are Social Institutions I saw a meme the other day from the safety sphere that stated: ‘We, all of us, are just one new executive away from having to start again at the very beginning’. Of course, this is utter nonsense. The idea that ‘we’ (the organized) are shaped by the shifting of … [Read more...] about Organisations are Social Institutions
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
Making Sense of Safety Management Systems
Making Sense of Safety Management Systems Guest Post by George Stavrou - SH&E Manager. This was an assignment submitted as part of his studies at The Centre For Leadership, Learning and Risk My car has started showing signs of ageing, signalling upcoming costly repairs. In other words, it’s … [Read more...] about Making Sense of Safety Management Systems
Let thy factsheet be thy shield
Special Guest post by Mindful Millie Last week I read a statistic (it was on the internet so it must be true) that Google searches about domestic violence had increased by 75 per cent since the first recorded COVID-19 cases in NSW. No sooner had eager thumbs finished scrolling their iphone … [Read more...] about Let thy factsheet be thy shield
Organising to Manage Uncertainty in an Unpredictable World
Organising to Manage Uncertainty in an Unpredictable WorldInaugural post by Rob Edmondstone (I am sure he would appreciate your feedback and encouragement)Most people would agree that life is unpredictable and full of uncertainty. They would also agree that everything in the world is not necessarily … [Read more...] about Organising to Manage Uncertainty in an Unpredictable World
Reflection Makes Sense
Reflection Makes Sense Organisations, despite their apparent preoccupation with facts, numbers, objectivity, concreteness, and accountability, are in fact saturated with subjectivity, abstraction, guesses, making do, invention and arbitrariness… just like the rest of us. (Weick 1969, p. 5) These … [Read more...] about Reflection Makes Sense
‘Care-ology’ in the work place!
‘Care-ology’ in the work place! In the wake of yet more attacks in Paris, Lebanon, Belgium I cannot but feel the fatigue and tension as the world waits. Yet in amongst it all we see (in the news) and hear (in the media) moments of compassion. When everything else is taken away we become humane, … [Read more...] about ‘Care-ology’ in the work place!
