• 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 ‘Noise’ of Safety, Silence and Practicing of Mindfulness

July 27, 2015 by Dr Rob Long 4 Comments

With 10 tips at the end of the article on how to actively listen. See also:

The Sound of Safety

Snap, Crackle, Pop. That’s the Sound we Love to Hear

Silences in Safety

The ‘Noise’ of Safety, Silence and Practicing of Mindfulness

Woman with helmet and loudspeaker on whiteWhen I was in Year 12 I completed my 5th year studying German. Year 12 German was a challenge in Adelaide at the time especially as most of the kids in the class were of German descent and spoke German freely at home. Adelaide was the centre for German immigration in 1838 and were the largest immigrant population in Australia until 1914. I’m certainly glad that the first ship of German immigrants (Lutheran dissenters) were wine growers. (A visit to Handorf is a must). In year 12 German was the only choice I had, as all other subject lines would have stuck me in Maths, Chemistry or Physics. I dropped those three in year 8 and this made for a smooth and successful pathway in High School. Everything in Year 12 German was in German, including anything we answered in class and everything we read. Just like in English we studied a novel and a drama in this case Andorra (Max Fritsch) and Doktor Murkes Gesammeltes Schweigen (Translated: Dr Merkes Collected Silences) (Heinrich Boll). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murke%27s_Collected_Silences

The bizarre story of Dr Murkes is about a broadcaster who collects discarded tapes of silences and each night splices the silences together. Through these silences and editing work Dr Murkes (Heinrich Boll) learns about the idiosyncrasies of the main character and also the nature of Nazi propaganda.

Silence is often the forgotten component in communication. It is in silence that authentic communication becomes ‘present’ for example, gestures, facial expressions, body language, signs, ritual, visual literacy, special literacy and non-rational forms of exchange. When in love, when there are no words, it is often in non-text forms of communication that we experience unspeakable things eg. joy, anxiety, suffering and trust. As Polanyi (The Tacit Dimension) states, ‘we know more than we can tell’. As I sat playing some games with my grandchildren the other day this was certainly the case. In the lyrics of Extreme’s wonderful song: ‘More than words is all you have to do to make it real’. Sometimes we fall into the trap of thinking ‘noise’ and ‘telling’ is communication, when on many occasions ‘silence is golden’.

Silence gives opportunity for listening, reflection and active communication. Similarly in safety, we are often bombarded with answers to questions we never asked. Someone else seems to know what I need and justifies their roughshod quest to make me safe over my right to exercise choice. If we are to empower others to ownership then silence becomes a precious quality. One thing is for sure, a data dump is not communication and content is not learning.

Practicing silence is a persona one ‘turns on’ as an essential to active listening. In order to listen one needs to do a few things:

1. Suspend agenda, this means not carrying one’s own messages over the needs of the other

2. Practice ‘attending’, this means understanding the art of Unconditional Positive Regard.

3. Suspend the disposition of ‘fixing’, this means letting others have the opportunity to determine their own needs.

4. Learn to facilitate, this means becoming a good questioner, not with loaded questions but open questions.

5. Don’t fear silence, you don’t have to fill the air with anything. It is only awkward because you haven’t practiced it.

6. Walk and observe without policing, help others to stop and reflect on what they are doing without holding bullets loaded in an invisible gun.

7. Do something that is imaginative and creative on your own where silence can be practiced.

8. Learn to ask questions that enable others to own their own challenges.

9. Reframe your understanding of safety as a helping profession.

10. Repeat item one.

It might be worth listening to the work of John Kabit Zinn. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nwwKbM_vJc

  • 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 ‘Roots’ of Behaviour - February 26, 2021
  • What’s in a Safety Mantra? - February 26, 2021
  • Spin, Nonsense Language and Propaganda in Safety - February 24, 2021
  • The Visionary Imagination – Margaret Atwood - February 22, 2021
  • The Visionary Imagination and Marion Mahoney Griffin - February 21, 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: Communication and Consultation, Robert Long, Social Psychology of Risk Tagged With: mindfulness, Noise, Safety, silence in 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

  • 21,611,226 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 ‘Roots’ of Behaviour
  • Bernard Corden on The ‘Roots’ of Behaviour
  • Rob Long on The ‘Roots’ of Behaviour
  • Bernard Corden on The ‘Roots’ of Behaviour
  • Rob Long on Why Safety Loves Covid-19
  • Rob Long on The ‘Roots’ of Behaviour
  • Rob Long on The ‘Roots’ of Behaviour
  • Rob Long on The ‘Roots’ of Behaviour
  • Bernard Corden on Covid 1984 – The Shake Hands Maskerade and Vial Diplomacy
  • Andrew Floyd on Covid 1984 – The Shake Hands Maskerade and Vial Diplomacy

FREE eBOOK DOWNLOADS

Featured Downloads

  • Risk-Homeostasis-Target-Risk-3.pdf (1908 downloads)
  • covid–19: Identifying the symptoms (6193 downloads)
  • Zero-to-HRO-15-March-2017 (1548 downloads)
  • WHO-recommended Handrub Formulations (1058 downloads)
  • What_it_means_to_be_an_OHS_professional (7647 downloads)
  • SAFETY-SLOGANS-LIST.doc (6679 downloads)
  • Pre-Purchase-Risk-Assessment-Checklist.pdf (846 downloads)
  • Seven-Essential-Safety-Reminders.pdf (776 downloads)
  • Manual-Handling-Checklist.doc (4959 downloads)
  • GENERIC-MANUAL-V4.doc (25467 downloads)
  • Accident-Incident-Investigation-eBook-Rev1.pdf (7465 downloads)
  • Learning-How-to-Facilitate-Learning.docx (1747 downloads)
  • Risk-Unplugged-Peter-Ribbe.pdf (1143 downloads)
  • SAFETYconnect-Flyer.pdf (264 downloads)
  • My_Defining Moments in Safety .pdf (2115 downloads)

Recent Posts

  • The ‘Roots’ of Behaviour
  • What’s in a Safety Mantra?
  • Covid 1984 – The Shake Hands Maskerade and Vial Diplomacy
  • Spin, Nonsense Language and Propaganda in Safety
  • The Visionary Imagination – Margaret Atwood
  • The Visionary Imagination and Marion Mahoney Griffin
  • The Visionary Imagination – Louisa Lawson
  • How Effective Are Your Conversations About Risk?
  • Traditional Safety
  • The Measurement Mindset in Safety???

Footer

AUTHORS

  • Alan Quilley
    • Heinrich–Industrial Accident Prevention
    • The Problem With ZERO Goals and Results
  • Bernard Corden
    • Covid 1984 – The Shake Hands Maskerade and Vial Diplomacy
    • AHH$ Covid$afe Chri$tma$ New$letter
  • 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
    • Hey Idiots, You’re Worried About the Wrong Things
    • Misleading Indicators
  • Admin
    • Making Sense of Safety Management Systems
    • Happy New Year for 2021 and Theme
  • Dr Rob Long
    • The ‘Roots’ of Behaviour
    • What’s in a Safety Mantra?
  • 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

Zero ‘Arm

Take Safety Seriously

Safety Surveying What You Already Know

Inspirational Safety Ideas

Is Complacency Evil?

What Can ‘Safety’ Learn From a Rock?

The Colour of Safety

safety first

What If I Valued People And Not Safety?

Six Tips to Improve Your Safety Conversations

Anxiety and Fear Professionals

Safety Gives Me the Right over Other Rights

Amping it Up in Safety

The Certainty of Uncertainty

Just Tell Your Mind to Stop It

Four Indicators of Toxic Safety Culture

Starting Points, Worldviews and Risk

Making Technicians Not Helpers

Thinking About Harm

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

Conducting a Psychology and Culture Safety Walk

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.