HOP Robert Long

The Branded ‘x’ Walk in Safety

ByProf. Robert Long

I found it interesting yesterday where I saw someone refer to them doing a ‘HOP walk’.

I asked what is a HOP walk? (I thought maybe it was the game hop, skip and jump)

I find it interesting that we have to brand the way we engage others by doing the basics of respect, listening, care and helping as if we need a brand for some particular way of walking. What does this say about the way safety normally engages people in tackling risk? What does this say about the cult we are in?

Of course, we see things promoted like ‘Gemba walks’ so that some particular way of engaging people is somehow special. How strange.  We also see this anchored to the S2 myth of work-as-imagined and work-as-done (https://safetyrisk.net/the-work-as-imagined-and-work-as-done-scam/). How strange this idea that imagination is some kind of product possessed by one group held against the other (https://safetyrisk.net/imagination-in-work-and-work-in-imagination-in-risk/).

Just more typical traditional binary stuff to create a market and sell a product.

This made me wonder. Do you we have to turn on some special technique or brand in the way we engage people? Why?

If the key to engaging others is: orientation, respect, care, helping, trust and listening, why does it need a brand?

More so, by branding some peculiar way of engaging others with such a brand, all you are doing is marketing that brand for the sales cult you are worshipping. And all it tells us is, that you are already in a cult.

Engaging others is not about Technique (Ellul) or some special guidance obtained by some guru who represents the opposite of what they present. Top-down thinking and guru-worship is the worst approach to engaging others. Especially, when they put out books on questioning that have nothing to do with effective questioning. Indeed, calling an interrogation or telling a ‘conversation’ is deceptive and unethical. If you have a top-down mind set or an agenda of safety, don’t go out.

If you have the skills and orientation of respect, care, helping, trust and listening then you don’t need brands or bits or paper, checklists or forms to control your engagement. If you are marketing a product in your walk or promoting a brand, it won’t be a genuine walk anyway. The only way to really engage in a walk with others is to have no agenda. Otherwise, don’t go for a walk.

If you have the skills and right orientation, drop the silly name and branding and just take a walk and be genuine and intuitive about how you engage others.

Prof. Robert Long

Prof. Robert Long

Expert in Social Psychology, Principal & Trainer at Human Dymensions
Prof. Robert Long

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Prof. Robert Long
PhD., MEd., MOH., BEd., BTh., Dip T., Dip Min., Cert IV TAA, MRMIA Rob is the founder of Human Dymensions and has extensive experience, qualifications and expertise across a range of sectors including government, education, corporate, industry and community sectors over 30 years. Rob has worked at all levels of the education and training sector including serving on various post graduate executive, post graduate supervision, post graduate course design and implementation programs.

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