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

Safety Risk .net

Humanising Safety and Embracing Real Risk

Discover More on this Site

  • Home
    • About
      • Privacy Policy
      • Contact
  • FREE RESOURCES
    • FREE SAFETY eBOOKS
    • 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
  • PSYCHOLOGY OF SAFETY & RISK
    • 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
  • Covid-19
    • COVID-19 (Coronavirus) Health and Safety Slogans and Quotes for the Workplace
    • Covid-19 Returning to Work Inductions, Transitioning, Safety Start Up and Re Entry Plans
    • Covid-19 Work from Home Safety Checklists and Risk Assessments
    • The Hierarchy of Control and Covid-19
    • Why Safety Loves Covid-19
    • Covid-19, Cricket and Lessons in Safety
    • The Covid-19 Lesson
    • Safety has this Covid-19 thing sorted
    • The Heart of Wisdom at Covid Time
    • How’s the Hot Desking Going Covid?
    • The Semiotics of COVID-19 and the Social Amplification of Risk
    • Working From Home Health and Safety Tips – Covid-19
    • Covid-19 and the Hierarchy of Control
  • Dr Rob Long 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!
  • Quotes & Slogans
    • Researchers Reveal the Top 10 Most Effective Safety Slogans Of All Time
    • When Slogans Don’t Work
    • 77 OF THE MOST CLASSIC, FAMOUS and INFAMOUS SAFETY QUOTES
    • 500 BEST WORKPLACE HEALTH and SAFETY SLOGANS 2020
    • 167 CATCHY and FUNNY SAFETY SLOGANS FOR THE WORKPLACE
    • COVID-19 (Coronavirus) 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
    • 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

The Last Thing is, Don’t Start with Safety

June 11, 2017 by Dr Rob Long Leave a Comment

The Last Thing is, Don’t Start with Safety

start with safetyThe study of theory of being is called ‘ontology’. How would you explain your being? What do you live for? What drives your sense of being ethically and morally? What gives you meaning and purpose in living? What is existence? These are big questions and ones that philosophers have been wrestling with for thousands of years. Ontology is a branch of metaphysics (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontology) and concerns not only questions of existence but ‘reality’ and ‘actuality’.

Last week I saw a statement that said ‘everything in life starts with safety’ and I felt sad to think of just how silly such a statement was. When I think of life and living, the last thing I think of is safety. When we read statements like this it demonstrates just how fixated and preoccupied the safety industry is with itself. Here is this myopic little industry consumed with itself so much that it can’t see much outside of its own gaze. Safety is not life and living, safety is not learning, safety is not maturation, safety is not a purpose of being. We don’t exist in the world just to be safe. Safety is not our reason for being. Everything does not start with safety.

Unfortunately, the safety industry doesn’t really engage with philosophy and certainly is not studied in the WHS curriculum. The purpose of philosophy is of course the love of wisdom (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy). Philosophy is not much about getting answers to the big questions in life such as: suffering, evil, fallibility, death, uncertainty, personhood, consciousness and the good. Philosophy is about a discipline in tackling such issues to assist the development of wisdom and learning. When one stands beside a graveside wrestling with the questions of death, there are no answers. Life is a wicked problem, fallible people don’t have all the answers.

Safety of course does have a philosophy and an ideology, it just doesn’t know how to articulate it. The idea of reflective thinking is not of much value to an industry that is consumed with checklists and regulation. The idea of metaphysics is alien to an industry that is consumed by its love of objects (materialism). The notion of discussing transcendence or metaphysics is really not on the radar of an industry consumed with absolutes (determinism). Of what value is metaphysics to an industry fixated on prediction and practical outcomes associated with work (pragmatism)? No wonder such a pragmatist materialist and determinist philosophy has so much difficulty in talking about fallibility, mortality and uncertainty (risk).

Without a sense of philosophy it makes perfect sense to set infallible goals for fallible people in a random world. In a pragmatist determinist philosophy it makes perfect sense to believe that ‘safety is a choice you make’. These are the philosophies that define the ontology of safety. These philosophies are clearly the worldview of an industry that speaks the language of ‘all accidents are preventable’. Safety is indeed a fascinating study in the philosophy of linguistics (semiosis) itself, because in light of the reality of fallibility and mortality, it says some pretty irrational things.

Back in the real world where we tackle questions of suffering, fallibility and the unconscious, the reason for being doesn’t start with safety, its starts with questions of meaning, purpose, living and learning.

Craig and I just completed the iThink Masterclass with the Centre for Leadership and Learning in Risk and Craig and it was a pleasure to introduce people to the basics in philosophy, ethics and critical thinking (http://cllr.com.au/product/ithink-critical-thinking-dialectic-and-risk-unit-12/). The group comprised many people from the risk and safety industry and most had never heard of or, take time to think about, the getting of wisdom or, critical thinking. Unless the safety industry begins to tackle its own pragmatist materialist and determinist philosophy it will keep on wondering why it can’t get rid of its obsession with checklists and its ignorance of personhood.

The next program on offer with the Centre for Leadership and Learning in Risk is the SEEK Investigations Program on 5,6,7 July (http://cllr.com.au/product/seek-the-social-psyvhology-of-event-investigations-unit-2/).

  • 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)

  • The ‘Feeling’ and ‘Being’ of Safety - April 13, 2021
  • Please Don’t Use the ‘F’ Word in Safety - April 13, 2021
  • The Voodoo of The Hoodoo - April 9, 2021
  • The Heinrich Hoodoo - April 8, 2021
  • Deconstruction and Reconstruction for Safety - April 4, 2021
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 this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)

Related

Filed Under: CLLR, Robert Long, Safety Leadership, Social Psychology of Risk Tagged With: determinism, ithink, ontology, reality, Safety

Reader Interactions

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

Primary Sidebar

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

Visit Count – Started Jan 2015

  • 22,011,132 Visitors

Never miss a post - Subscribe via Email

Enter your email address and join over 30,000 other discerning safety people who receive notifications of new posts by email

Please take our 2 minute zero survey

Recent Comments

  • Rob Long on The Heinrich Hoodoo
  • Admin on The Heinrich Hoodoo
  • Nicholas Sanders on The Heinrich Hoodoo
  • Admin on The Heinrich Hoodoo
  • Admin on The Gemba Safety Walk
  • Sean Walker on The Gemba Safety Walk
  • Wynand on The Heinrich Hoodoo
  • Admin on The Heinrich Hoodoo
  • Wynand on The Heinrich Hoodoo
  • Bernard Corden on The Voodoo of The Hoodoo

FREE eBOOK DOWNLOADS

Featured Downloads

  • Understanding-the-Social-psychology-of-Risk-and-Safety-3.docx (3242 downloads)
  • Training-and-Development-Needs-of-OHS-Personnel-23.docx (2725 downloads)
  • Effective-Safety-Management-Systems.docx (5149 downloads)
  • Electrical Equipment Risk Assessment (564 downloads)
  • Safety-Backronym-Poster.pdf (431 downloads)
  • Guidance-FOR-the-beginning-OHS-professiona1.docx (890 downloads)
  • 2016AmericasSafestCompanies.pdf (1339 downloads)
  • Preventing Heat Exhaustion (15182 downloads)
  • Coronavirus - Covid 19 Toolbox Talk (4001 downloads)
  • CLLR-SPoR-Unit1.pdf (454 downloads)
  • Risk Intelligent Tract March 2017 (275 downloads)
  • Manual Handling Risk Assessment Template (467 downloads)
  • Hazard-Reporting-sheet.xlsx (5066 downloads)
  • Walking is Still Our Best Medicine (7826 downloads)
  • ABCs Of Heavy Lifting (4820 downloads)

Recent Posts

  • The ‘Feeling’ and ‘Being’ of Safety
  • Please Don’t Use the ‘F’ Word in Safety
  • The Voodoo of The Hoodoo
  • The Heinrich Hoodoo
  • CLLR Newsletter–April 2021
  • Deconstruction and Reconstruction for Safety
  • The Politics of Safety Legitimization
  • An Ethic in Error for Safety
  • Blinded by the Light
  • A Typical Safety eBulletin

Footer

AUTHORS

  • Alan Quilley
    • Heinrich–Industrial Accident Prevention
    • The Problem With ZERO Goals and Results
  • Bernard Corden
    • Blinded by the Light
    • Covid 1984 – The Shake Hands Maskerade and Vial Diplomacy
  • Bill Sims
    • Employee Engagement: Chocolate, Vanilla, or Strawberry?
    • Injury Hiding-How do you stop it?
  • Craig Clancy
    • Task Based vs Activity Based Safe Work Method Statements
    • Safety And Tender Submissions
  • Daniel Kirk
    • It’s easy being wise after the event.
    • A Positive Safety Story
  • Dave Whitefield
    • Safety is about…
    • Safety and Compliance
  • Dennis Millard
    • Are You Risk Intelligent?
    • Honey they get me! They get me at work!
  • Drewie
    • Downturn Doin’ Your Head In? Let’s Chat….
    • How was your break?
  • Gabrielle Carlton
    • All Care and No Care!
    • You Are Not Alone!
  • George Robotham
    • How to Give an Unforgettable Safety Presentation
    • How To Write a Safety Report
  • Goran Prvulovic
    • Safety Manager – an Ultimate Scapegoat
    • HSE Performance – Back to Basics
  • James Ellis
    • In search of plan B in workers’ recovery
    • What and how should we measure to support recovery from injury?
  • James Parkinson
    • To laugh or not to laugh
    • People and Safety
  • John Toomey
    • Who is Responsible for This?
    • Who Are Your People?
  • Karl Cameron
    • Abby Normal Safety
    • The Right Thing
  • Ken Roberts
    • Safety Legislation Is Our Biggest Accident?
    • HSE Trip Down Memory Lane
  • Mark Perrett
    • Psychology of Persuasion: Top 5 influencing skills for getting what you want
  • Mark Taylor
    • Build a Psychologically Safe Workplace by Taking Risks and Analysing Failures
    • Enculturing Safety
  • Max Geyer
    • WHS Legislation is NOT about Safety it’s about Culture
    • Due Diligence Is Not Just Ticking Boxes!
  • Matt Thorne
    • It was the SIA until someone wanted to swing from the Chandelier
    • Common Sense is Remarkably Uncommon
  • Peter Ribbe
    • Is there “Common Sense” in safety?
    • Who wants to be a safety professional?
  • Phil LaDuke
    • Professional Conferences Are A Sleazy Con
    • Hey Idiots, You’re Worried About the Wrong Things
  • Admin
    • CLLR Newsletter–April 2021
    • Zero is not a Target or Vision, it’s a Language/Discourse
  • Dr Rob Long
    • The ‘Feeling’ and ‘Being’ of Safety
    • Please Don’t Use the ‘F’ Word in Safety
  • Rob Sams
    • I’m just not that into safety anymore
    • Social ‘Resiliencing’
  • Barry Spud
    • Barry Spud’s Hazard Control Tips
    • Researchers Reveal the Top 10 Most Effective Safety Slogans Of All Time
  • Sheri Suckling
    • How Can I Get the Boss to Listen?
  • Safety Nerd
    • The Block isn’t portraying safety as it should be
    • Toolbox Talk Show–PPE
  • Wynand Serfontein
    • Why The Problem With Learning Is Unlearning
    • I DON’T KNOW
  • Zoe Koskinas
    • Why is fallibility so challenging in the workplace?

FEATURED POSTS

Symbols Have Power

Learning Styles Matter

It Works! A New Approach to Risk and Safety

Risk Culture and Cultural Risk

I’m 100% Certain About That….

Framing Folly and Fantasy in Safety

When the Target Drives the Method

Impacts of Cognitive Dissonance in the Workplace

Sayings, Slogans, Aphorisms and the Discourse of Simple

Like a Collective Brain Snap

I Wasn’t Thinking Mr Spock

Understanding The Social Psychology of Risk – Prof Karl E. Weick

Europe – International Workshop Social Psychology of Risk Introduction

Report on SPoR Convention 2018

What Does SPoR Do?

Is Safety the Empire of Non-Sense?

Zero Vision but Purchase Insurance

Listening, Learning, Helping and Caring about Risk

Evidence, Proof and Paperwork in Safety

Understanding Just Culture

More Posts from this Category

Paperwork

https://vimeo.com/162034157?loop=0

Due Diligence

https://vimeo.com/162493843?loop=0

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.