One of the crazy trends in safety is the identification as Safety.
If you read nonsense like the Zero Index, full of behaviourist gobbledygook, you will see it has an index (of course more measurement). Somehow this goop is ‘thought leadership’ and visionary, it is neither. Indeed, it is the opposite. This is what Safety does so well, declares things by what they are not!
The reality is, the moment anyone anchors to Zero, all critical thinking, innovation, creativity, vision and thinking stops. Zero is stasis, when all living stops or its infinity, the impossible
This is what DuPont chases (https://www.consultdss.com/content-hub/belief-in-the-impossible/). Yes, that’s right the same company that knowing killed thousands (https://safetyrisk.net/dark-waters-the-true-story-of-dupont-and-zero/) then tried to cover it up.
So, just like the religious Bradley Curve, the Index takes you to an identity as Safety. BTW, the book mentions nothing that matters, nothing on ethics, moral responsibility, care, helping, critical thinking, learning or personhood. What could you expect from behaviourism and The Love of Zero. Indeed, by declaring that the index is ‘values driven’ it then ignores anything of value. This is because the only value is striving for no injury in zero.
When you frame your world through zero, all that matters in life and being disappears. See Figure 1. Zero Index Performance p.3.
Figure 1. Zero Index Performance p.3.
At no place in the book is there any discussion of zero as nothing and infinity. Safety is defined by what it is not and all that matters is the reporting of injury rates which of course, is NOT a definition of safety. There is no pathway to sustainability in zero because Zero is not sustainable and there is no excellence because risk is demonised as anti-safety.
Life should not be ‘framed’ through the lens of safety/zero, all this does is foster a psychosis of identification as Safety. NO wonder people get upset when I criticise Safety, because they think they are safety.
You are NOT safety (https://safetyrisk.net/you-are-not-the-sum-of-safety/). And if you believe you are, you desperately need counselling. This is the ultimate in crusading (https://safetyrisk.net/are-you-a-safety-crusader-or-a-safety-leader/), heroics and nonsense.
My 12th book will be out soon as a free ebook (see Figure 2. Zero Book) and it documents the evolution of zero over the past 30 years, from goal to psychosis. Keep your eye out for the launch in about 2 weeks. Just in time for the global Zero Conference in Sydney in November.
Figure 2. Zero Book
The book explores how zero started as a simple goal and has morphed into a mental illness and psychosis. It is a semiotic exploration of all that Zero has been made in its short history, full of crazy concoctions and none more insane than the idea that ‘I am Zero Harm’ (See Figure 3. I Am Zero Harm)
Figure 3. I Am Zero Harm
There are 100 illustrations in the book recording just how zero has become an all-pervasive monster in organisations, the natural outcome of making Zero an Archetype. Unfortunately, if you can’t think semiotically, you probably won’t get it. I get this all the time: I don’t know anything about semiotics, poetics, ethics, culture or religion but I know you are wrong. This is what Zero-Safety cultivates.
If you want to see what happens when Zero becomes an all-pervasive Archetype then have a look at this Zero Campaign from Japan.
Zero Accident Campaign – Japan
https://www.jisha.or.jp/international/jicosh/english/zero-sai/eng/index.html
Here is what happens when you identify as Zero or as Safety. You need guidance on how to incriminate and blame. Here are the instructions at Figure 4. How to Point.
Figure 4. How to Point in Zero.
This is serious stuff.
And this one at Figure 5. Safety Pointing:
Figure 5. Safety Pointing
This is mental illness stuff, all fostered by Zero. See Figure 6. How to Point in Zero.
Figure 6. How to Point in Zero.
You get this an more as you undertake the Zero-Accident Campaign in Japan ( https://www.jisha.or.jp/international/jicosh/english/zero-sai/eng/index.html).
If you read the Zero Index book you realise that all of what Zero offers you is the power of self and controlling others. It is a book of irrelevance because it offers nothing on relationships, psychosocial health (sorry ‘hazards’) or learning. THis is what it affirms:
‘Only I understand safety, only I have the power, only I have controls because I am Safety!’
This is how Safety as Zero fosters arrogance! This is the perfect guide to alienation, isolation, detachment from people, dis-connectedness, separation and non-relationship. This is how to show non-care, non-helping, non-thinking and indifference to persons.
Mental illness is manifest by social dysfunction, by an inability to be with others in social purpose with meaning and balance. There is nothing more extremist than this Safety Obsession with itself and Zero. This is how mental illness is being fostered in Safety and by Zero (https://www.tollgroup.com/about/we-are-safety-obsessed).
In SPoR, we don’t frame the world through the lens of safety. We frame our understanding of the world of being and living through risk. We know that zero is a mental illness and so reject it for all it does to humans. When this happens we then people realise that when you jettison zero, safety improves (https://safetyrisk.net/moving-away-from-zero-so-that-safety-improves/).
Dr Rob Long
Latest posts by Dr Rob Long (see all)
- Zero is Founded on Deceit and Lies - September 29, 2023
- Have You Had a Drink of SafeTea? - September 27, 2023
- The Blessings of Fallibility - September 27, 2023
- Safety as Zero, The Perfect Event - September 25, 2023
- Validating, Endorsing and Supporting Zero - September 25, 2023
Matt Thorne says
When all the data points to the fact no-one believes in Zero, how on earth can organisations continue to push this lie? What effect does this have on psychosocial treatment in the work place where you are asked to believe a lie?
If Zero, being perfectionism, which is a disease, how can we actively promote it in the workplace?
If accounting put out they were going to make $6,000,000,000.00 dollars profit, and it was a lie, there would be criminal charges laid. Safety gets zero accountability!
Rob Long says
Matt, the level of delusion is pretty astounding. The mythology, religion and belief is breathtaking. So much sheer stupidity, gobbekdgook and dumb, it truly is the most poorly educated sector on the planet.