The Imagination and Curiosity in Risk

The Imagination and Curiosity in Risk

There is nothing in the risk and safety literature that tackles the power of the imagination, dreaming, curiosity or the unconscious. Combined, these faculties, capabilities and intuitive heuristics take us into alternate states of knowing, being and decision making. Being interested in imagination, creativity, curiosity and the unconscious is essential to risk and envisioning (Envisioning Risk, Seeing, Vision and Meaning in Risk). The opposite to envisioning is zero vision, the darling of Safety.

If one is trying to understand human judgment and decision making in risk, one would think that investigating human imagination, curiosity, dreaming and unconscious being would be foundational to knowing. However, this is not the case. There is no investigation or thinking about these vital human capabilities in the AIHS BoK or WHS curriculum.

Indeed, it would seem that these unconscious and heuristical capabilities are deemed anathema to: compliance, controls, order and safety. The last thing Safety wants is free, flowing, creative and imaginative thinking in the workplace. Bricolage is deemed the enemy of procedure, certainly the enemy of zero. Zero, is the symbol and ideology for stasis, risk is declared the enemy.

Of course, when anyone undertakes a risk assessment the faculties of imagination, creativity and curiosity are invoked, it’s just that safety doesn’t want to talk about them. The best risk assessment is equal to the best imagination for what could go wrong yet, there is no research or critical thinking on the human imagination in risk and safety genre. Hold fast to engineering and science and all will go well, even though curiosity forms the foundation for both disciplines.

BTW, if you want to read about the rise of science and engineering you can’t go past Ball, P., (2012) Curiosity, How Science Became Interested in Everything. University of Chicago Press, Chicago. This fascinating text tells the story of the liberation of curiosity in history from the mythologies of ‘the fall’ where curiosity is demonized for the cause of fallibility through Eve (https://www.humandymensions.com/product/fallibility-risk-living-uncertainty/ ). Of course, there was no ‘fall’ and fallibility is central to human personhood despite the constructs of Augustine.

So Zero says, ‘Let’s not let those pesky human minds wander, there is only trouble therein’. This is why Safety is most often identified with policing imagination and curiosity, because free-thinking is deemed the enemy of procedures and blamed most often for non-compliance. This is often stated as ‘I don’t know what came over me’ or ‘I don’t know why I did it’ or similar statements.

One of the most alarming outcomes of the zero cult is the demonization of risk and envisioning. What zero ideology does is take the focus off envisioning and risk, and puts all the emphasis on a number. Anything that contributes to the lack of zero (deemed anti-safety) must be the enemy of safety, this includes: creativity, adaptability, imagination, dreaming and the human unconscious – all those poetic things that cannot be measured and controlled are deemed evil by zero.

This is why all that is spoken about leading up to the zero cult convention to be held in May in Spain (https://safetyrisk.net/believe-the-impossible-and-speak-nonsense-to-people/) orients towards numerics and ‘belief’ in the impossible. Just listen to the ‘statement of faith’ and beliefs required (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUfCfSQhdfw) by Helmut Ehnes, ISSA Mining Secretary General.

The cult of zero has now made curiosity the enemy just as in the 16^th century when the church named curiosity as a sin. Beware, envisioning will only lead to harm.

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Dr Rob Long

Expert in Social Psychology, Principal & Trainer at Human Dymensions

Latest posts by Dr Rob Long (see all)

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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.