• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

SafetyRisk.net

Humanising Safety and Embracing Real Risk

  • Home
    • About
      • Privacy Policy
      • Contact
  • FREE
    • Slogans
      • Researchers Reveal the Top 10 Most Effective Safety Slogans Of All Time
      • When Slogans Don’t Work
      • CLASSIC, FAMOUS and INFAMOUS SAFETY QUOTES
      • 500 OF THE BEST AND WORST WORKPLACE HEALTH and SAFETY SLOGANS 2023
      • CATCHY and FUNNY SAFETY SLOGANS FOR THE WORKPLACE
      • COVID-19 (Coronavirus, Omicron) Health and Safety Slogans and Quotes for the Workplace
      • Safety Acronyms
      • You know Where You Can Stick Your Safety Slogans
      • Sayings, Slogans, Aphorisms and the Discourse of Simple
      • Spanish Safety Slogans – Consignas de seguridad
      • Safety Slogans List
      • Road Safety Slogans 2023
      • How to write your own safety slogans
      • Why Are Safety Slogans Important
      • Safety Slogans Don’t Save Lives
      • 40 Free Safety Slogans For the Workplace
      • Safety Slogans for Work
    • FREE SAFETY eBOOKS
    • Free Hotel and Resort Risk Management Checklist
    • FREE DOWNLOADS
    • TOP 50
    • FREE RISK ASSESSMENT FORMS
    • Find a Safety Consultant
    • Free Safety Program Documents
    • Psychology Of Safety
    • Safety Ideas That Work
    • HEALTH and SAFETY MANUALS
    • FREE SAFE WORK METHOD STATEMENT RESOURCES
    • Whats New In Safety
    • FUN SAFETY STUFF
    • Health and Safety Training
    • SAFETY COURSES
    • Safety Training Needs Analysis and Matrix
    • Top 20 Safety Books
    • This Toaster Is Hot
    • Free Covid-19 Toolbox Talks
    • Download Page – Please Be Patient With Larger Files…….
    • SAFETY IMAGES, Photos, Unsafe Pictures and Funny Fails
    • How to Calculate TRIFR, LTIFR and Other Health and Safety Indicators
    • Download Safety Moments from Human Resources Secretariat
  • Social Psychology Of Risk
    • What is Psychological Health and Safety at Work?
    • Safety Psychology Terminology
    • Some Basics on Social Psychology & Risk
    • Understanding The Social Psychology of Risk – Prof Karl E. Weick
    • The Psychology of Leadership in Risk
    • Conducting a Psychology and Culture Safety Walk
    • The Psychology of Conversion – 20 Tips to get Started
    • Understanding The Social Psychology of Risk And Safety
    • Psychology and safety
    • The Psychology of Safety
    • Hot Toaster
    • TALKING RISK VIDEOS
    • WHAT IS SAFETY
    • THE HOT TOASTER
    • THE ZERO HARM DEBATE
    • SEMIOTICS
    • LEADERSHIP
  • Dr Long Posts
    • ALL POSTS
    • Learning Styles Matter
    • There is no Hierarchy of Controls
    • Scaffolding, Readiness and ZPD in Learning
    • What Can Safety Learn From Playschool?
    • Presentation Tips for Safety People
    • Dialogue Do’s and Don’ts
    • It’s Only a Symbol
    • Ten Cautions About Safety Checklists
    • Zero is Unethical
    • First Report on Zero Survey
    • There is No Objectivity, Deal With it!
  • THEMES
    • Psychosocial Safety
    • Resiliencing
    • Risk Myths
    • Safety Myths
    • Safety Culture Silences
    • Safety Culture
    • Psychological Health and Safety
    • Zero Harm
    • Due Diligence
  • Free Learning
    • Introduction to SPoR – Free
    • FREE RISK and SAFETY EBOOKS
    • FREE ebook – Guidance for the beginning OHS professional
    • Free EBook – Effective Safety Management Systems
    • Free EBook – Lessons I Have Learnt
  • Psychosocial Safety
    • What is Psychosocial Safety
    • Psychological Safety
      • What is Psychological Health and Safety at Work?
      • Managing psychosocial hazards at work
      • Psychological Safety – has it become the next Maslow’s hammer?
      • What is Psychosocial Safety
      • Psychological Safety Slogans and Quotes
      • What is Psychological Safety?
      • Understanding Psychological Terminology
      • Psycho-Social and Socio-Psychological, What’s the Difference?
      • Build a Psychologically Safe Workplace by Taking Risks and Analysing Failures
      • It’s not weird – it’s a psychological safety initiative!
You are here: Home / Robert Long / The Conundrum in Discerning Risk

The Conundrum in Discerning Risk

November 12, 2022 by Dr Rob Long 5 Comments

Originally posted on February 9, 2014 @ 6:51 PM

Windup businesswoman

Dr Rob Long, Author of Real Risk – Human Discerning and Risk (download Ch1 Here), explains why we switch to autopilot when under normal work pressures, despite the safety world trying to impose rational thinking processes during inductions, tool box talks or via SWMS.

The Conundrum in Discerning Risk

When it comes to discerning risk humans are in somewhat of a conundrum. A conundrum is like an unsolvable riddle or what some would say a ‘wicked problem’. The idea that the human condition (fallibility) can be ‘fixed’ is nonsense. And, why would you want to ‘fix’ fallibility, as if fallibility is a problem? The very things that make us human, what is uncertain, our vulnerability and finiteness also deliver excitement, interest and enjoyment. The things in life that animate living, the learning that comes from hope and faith and, the limit of not knowing the future are the very things that enliven us. The idea that automatons and robot-like control and certainty are life giving runs counter to the very experience of life.

I have a friend Garry, who has decided to kayak from Sydney to Mallacoota. No big announcement, no funding drive, no fanfare, he just wants to do it for himself. Whilst I don’t understand the drive behind such a quest, I do understand the idea of exhilaration in conquered something, of having achieved something against the odds, of taking a risk and coming out the other side. The idea of getting in a kayak and paddling for 500 kms is not quite what I would do to experience a trade off against risk. I’m afraid I’m a bit more pedestrian these days. When I was younger I did canoe a similar distance and was upturned in rapids and lost an expensive camera but that’s as far as the empathy goes. Asking Garry not to take this journey and risk would be like asking a motorcycling enthusiast to not hop on a motorbike. These passions and drives make life worth living. And so in the middle of the journey, when things get tough and doubts creep in and the will diminishes and the mind wanders into giving up, Garry will know that he is fully alive.

The conundrum of risk is cyclic, the very way we ‘work’ as humans creates risk and uncertainty. We live in a complex world and simply cannot hold all the information available to us in our brain, we cannot tap into all the knowledge available to us at any one time. We step out in faith most moments in the day, not really knowing what will happen, without prediction of the unexpected but with a sense of resilience that we may be able to survive what happens if indeed something was to hiccup. We develop heuristics (mental short cuts) to help us make multiple decisions quickly under pressure. These heuristics are learned biases accumulated through experience, learning and nurtured over time. Heuristics (of which there are hundreds) allow humans to make reflex decisions in situations we assume are predictable, when circumstances conform with past experiences and seem predictable. This state of mind is known as automaticity or ‘autopilot’. Humans function on autopilot when they become ‘habitual’ about something, when things become routine humans can do things quicker ‘without thinking’. This is the purpose of developing heuristics, to do things faster and more automatically. The flip side of doing things by habit and automatic is that repetition becomes a drudgery and boring and, we become desensitized to the very thing we learnt to do on automatic.

I remember how exciting it was to learn how to drive but now after 40 years of driving I find the process tedious and an embuggerance, I would rather someone else drive. We have hundreds of similar habits and activities we become desensitized to over time as we develop heuristics and become able to do them on autopilot. The unconscious in particular helps us to do things in autopilot ‘without thinking’. We are thinking, just not using our rational conscious mind. We can drive through traffic in a daze and not remember one thing about our trip because our unconscious was on the job, driving on automatic. However, as we undertake complex activities in autopilot, we can only manage risk while things remain predictable, we get caught out by the unexpected. Then when we need our rational mind to kick into ‘thinking’ mode, we are sometime caught out by the speed of events, we have an accident. In such circumstances, others who are critical and self-righteous, brand us as idiots for undertaking a task ‘without thinking’, they would not do things in autopilot, they wouldn’t be human.

This is the conundrum of discerning risk. The very heuristics and automaticity process that enables us to live the way we do, also makes us vulnerable to change and unpredictable events. The very fallibility of needing to cope with complexity, drives the creation of heuristics so we can manage that complexity with greater speed and confidence. By the time we learn to undertake a task in autopilot we are already on the pathway to desensitization and overconfidence.

Meanwhile in the safety world, everything seems to focus on humans as if risk is controlled by a rational ‘lock step’ processes. The safety world seems to think that decision making is a rational ‘thinking’ process when in fact most decision making in daily life is taken in autopilot. It is more the exception than the rule that we slow down and ‘think’ rationally about the complexity of choices that face us. We might do this in a group undertaking a SWMS or a toolbox talk but when we are out on the job and things need to be done quickly, we are pretty soon back into autopilot. Then when something happens and the authorities are called in, we seek out rational causes, find blame for people ‘not thinking’ and seek rational solutions (usually more systems and regulation complexity) thereby driving the need for more heuristics and autopilot to manage the new complexities introduced to make the complex task more controllable. Once all the noise has died down and the new complexities have kicked in and the regulator leaves content with having ‘fixed’ the problem, the workers slide into the heuristic of ‘tick and flick’ and drop into autopilot until the next unexpected moment and the cycle is repeated.

So, when Garry is pumping hard on the high seas after 3 days and begins to slide into an autopilot daze, it’s the unexpected and the variation of something that will jolt his autopilot and bring him back into consciousness. This is what makes the trade off in risk so enlivening, to and from our conscious to unconscious experience. I just hope that Garry’s autopilot keeps him safe when the paddling and ocean are routine and that when things change he has time to enact his rational mind and make a good decision. One thing I do know, is that after this experience he will have a whole new learned set of heuristics though his engagement with risk. And if something unfortunate were to happen, he is certainly no ‘idiot’ and the wisdom in discernment learned through his trade offs with risk he will count as being worth it.

  • Bio
  • Latest Posts
  • More about Rob
Dr Rob Long

Dr Rob Long

Expert in Social Psychology, Principal & Trainer at Human Dymensions
Dr Rob Long

Latest posts by Dr Rob Long (see all)

  • What’s Your Agenda in Safety? - May 26, 2023
  • The Myth of Neuroscience Safety - May 24, 2023
  • When Safety Delights in ‘I Told You So’! - May 24, 2023
  • Beware the Cult of Denial - May 23, 2023
  • Understanding Safety as a Cultural Reproductive Process - May 23, 2023
Dr Rob 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.

Please share our posts

  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)

Related

Filed Under: Robert Long, Social Psychology of Risk, Wicked Problems Tagged With: autopilot, discerning risk, heuristics, risk taking

Reader Interactions

Do you have any thoughts? Please share them below Cancel reply

Primary Sidebar

Search and Discover More on this Site

Never miss a post - Subscribe via Email

Enter your email address and join other discerning risk and safety people who receive notifications of new posts by email

Join 7,523 other subscribers

Recent Comments

  • Rob Long on It is NOT My Responsibility to Keep You Safe
  • Chris. on It is NOT My Responsibility to Keep You Safe
  • Pierre Joubert on Zero Doesn’t Work, Road Fatalities Increase
  • James on We are all equal
  • Rob Long on We are all equal
  • James Parkinson on We are all equal
  • Brent Charlton on What Does Safety Achieve?
  • Admin on We are all equal
  • James Parkinson on We are all equal
  • Rob Long on What Does Safety Achieve?
  • Brent Charlton on We are all equal
  • Brent Charlton on We are all equal
  • Brent Charlton on We are all equal
  • Brent Charlton on What Does Safety Achieve?
  • Simon Cassin on You Can Fool Someone Some of the Time but, You Can Fool Safety All of the Time
  • Simon Cassin on You Can Fool Someone Some of the Time but, You Can Fool Safety All of the Time
  • Rob Long on You Can Fool Someone Some of the Time but, You Can Fool Safety All of the Time
  • Rob Long on You Can Fool Someone Some of the Time but, You Can Fool Safety All of the Time
  • Rob Long on You Can Fool Someone Some of the Time but, You Can Fool Safety All of the Time
  • Rob Long on You Can Fool Someone Some of the Time but, You Can Fool Safety All of the Time

RECOMMENDED READING

viral post – iso 45003 and what it cannot do

Introduction to SPOR – FREE!!

Psychosocial Safety and Mental Health Series

It is NOT My Responsibility to Keep You Safe

The KISS of Death in Safety

Is Your Safety World Too Small?

You Can Fool Someone Some of the Time but, You Can Fool Safety All of the Time

When Safety (Zero) is Abusive

Hands Up the Best Safety Fraud!

Communicating Professionally in Risk

How NOT to be Professional in Safety

How NOT to do Anything About Culture in Building and Construction

Celebrating 60 Years of Lifeline

More Posts from this Category

NEW! Free Download

Please take our 2 minute zero survey

FREE eBOOK DOWNLOADS

Footer

VIRAL POST – The Risk Matrix Myth

Top Posts & Pages. Sad that most are so dumb but this is what safety luves

  • 500 OF THE BEST AND WORST WORKPLACE HEALTH and SAFETY SLOGANS 2023
  • CATCHY and FUNNY SAFETY SLOGANS FOR THE WORKPLACE
  • Free Safety Moments and Toolbox Talk Examples, Tips and Resources
  • What’s Your Agenda in Safety?
  • Ratio Delusions and Heinrich’s Hoax
  • Road Safety Slogans 2023
  • Safety Acronyms
  • FREE RISK ASSESSMENT FORMS, CHECKISTS, REGISTERS, TEMPLATES and APPS
  • 15 Safety Precautions When Working With Electricity
  • Download Safety Moments from Human Resources Secretariat

Recent Posts

  • What’s Your Agenda in Safety?
  • The Myth of Neuroscience Safety
  • When Safety Delights in ‘I Told You So’!
  • Beware the Cult of Denial
  • My Story is Better than Yours
  • Understanding Safety as a Cultural Reproductive Process
  • The Unconscious and the Soap Dispenser
  • Thinking Outside the Safety Bubble
  • Understanding Language Influencing, A Video
  • Safetie
  • You are NOT the Sum of Safety
  • Update on SPoR in India, Brazil and Europe
  • It is NOT My Responsibility to Keep You Safe
  • Safety at the Margins
  • Research Basics for Safety
  • We Need Communities and They Need Us
  • Researching Within The Safety Echo Chamber
  • Confirmation Bias, Risk and Being Offensive
  • Lemmings for Lemmings in Leadership and Risk
  • Expertise by Regurgitation and Re-Badging
  • Zero Doesn’t Work, Road Fatalities Increase
  • Can There Be Other Valid Worldviews Than Safety?
  • Evaluating Value by the Value of What You Don’t Know
  • Reality vs Theory, The Binary Divide
  • No Paradigm Shift with BBS
  • The KISS of Death in Safety
  • Is Your Safety World Too Small?
  • What Does Safety Achieve?
  • In Praise of Balance in Risk and the Threat of Extremism
  • We are all equal
  • You Can Fool Someone Some of the Time but, You Can Fool Safety All of the Time
  • What in the (Risk & Safety) World is Imagination?
  • iCue Engagement Process
  • SPoR, Metanoia and a Podcast on Change with Nippin Anand
  • For the Monarchists of Safety
  • The Sully Effect
  • All Things Must Pass in Risk
  • Scapegoating and Safety
  • Understanding Habit, Habituation and Change
  • Don’t Mention the War
  • Safety in Design for Who by Who?
  • Beyond ‘What We Do Around Here’
  • Asking the Wrong Questions
  • When Safety (Zero) is Abusive
  • Mandala as a Method for Tackling an Ethic of Risk (a Video)
  • Safety Cosmetics
  • Visualising the EHS Role
  • Towards Dumb
  • Workshops with Dr Long – Vienna, Austria 26-30 June 2023
  • Visual, Verbal and Relational Mapping in Risk Assessment

VIRAL POST!!! HOW TO QUIT THE SAFETY INDUSTRY

FEATURED POSTS

A Scaffolder’s Journey in SPoR – A Podcast

Safety in Design as if Humans Matter

Safety is the Wrong Anchor

Humanising Safety Free Virtual Conference

The Lexicon of Safety Gibberish

By What Method Do You Tackle Risk?

Expecting the Unexpected

The Sound of Safety

Why is Myth so Scary to Safety?

The Stanford Experiment and The Social Psychology of Risk

The Safety Spoilsport

A Better Language for Risk and Safety

Introduction to SPoR – Free

SPoR Workshops Vienna 26-30 June

Rituals in Risk Management – Podcast

Paperwork and Usability in Tackling Risk

Like a Collective Brain Snap

The Social Politics of Safety

Process driven or People driven? What’s your Focus?

An Engineering Dreamworld

By What Method?

Is there “Common Sense” in safety?

Freedom in Necessity

European Tour Dr Long 1-5 June 2020

Just distract you!

The Allure of Submission

Transdisciplinary Safety

Impacts of Cognitive Dissonance in the Workplace

Something’s gotta give..

History and Safety

Safety For the Common Good

The Village Effect

Inspirational Safety Ideas

Envisioning Risk in Canada

How Risky is Your Safety Spin?

Data Cannot Drive Vision

Am I stupid? I didn’t think of that…

Foundations of Perception and Imagination in Risk

Safety Cries Wolf!

Who is Responsible?

More Posts from this Category

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address and join other discerning risk and safety people who receive notifications of new posts by email

Join 7,523 other subscribers

How we pay for the high cost of running of this site – try it for free on your site

WHAT IS PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY?

What is Psychological Safety at Work?


WHAT IS PSYCHOSOCIAL SAFETY

x
x