• 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 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
    • 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
  • 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 Paradox of Conformity and the Challenge for New Ideas

The Paradox of Conformity and the Challenge for New Ideas

August 26, 2022 by Dr Rob Long Leave a Comment

Originally posted on August 11, 2020 @ 12:26 PM

The Dynamics of Conformity

The pressure to conform is the underlying dynamic of belonging to a group. If you don’t conform you soon become part of an out-group or shift to another in-group. In-groupness and out-groupness is a foundational study in Social Psychology ; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYIh4MkcfJA ). The trade-off for in-groupness is conformity and the by-product is a loss of innovation, creativity, new ideas and discovery learning.

Generally, groups form around a charismatic leader, new ideas or for security. People are attracted to a group because of a common interest and are motivated to belong for what association benefits. The power of belonging creates it’s own invisible norms and rules for membership but these are desired because various controls of the group offer security, consistency and comfort. Similarly, the power of belonging in itself creates forms of blindness to the limitations of the group. This is the foundation of how groups develop their own culture and on occasions can become a cult.

Conformity is about going along with the group, doing what the group wants (https://www.researchgate.net/publication/8902776_Social_Influence_Compliance_and_Conformity). Non-conformity is about challenging group norms, formal rules and social rules. What often happens in schisms is a new group forms around a new idea or another person and so the cycle goes. Furthermore, group identity then tends to become insecure and so strength and safety in security is rewarded by demonizing ‘the other’.

You can see this pattern in the history of institutions and periods of rapid change. Often visions, visionaries for change and new ideas come from Poetics – artists, writers, music, philosophers and aesthetics. In Poetics one is not controlled by measurement indeed, control via measurement is anathema to Poetics. The purpose of measurement is a mechanism for control and the management of deviation in a group. When your ideology is about absolutes, conformity, stasis, controls and duty you can be sure there will be no new ideas.

I am currently writing my ninth book on the nature of vision and risk and as part of the book I have been researching visionaries and the vision. One trend becomes very clear in the research when it comes to vision, seeking creative ideas, radical thinking or visionary leadership these are most found outside of the group. In the new book I have researched over 20 visionaries and how they have influenced change in Australian culture and society. One such visionary was Marion Mahony Griffin.

The following is an extract from the book

The city I live in Canberra, is a designed city, the vision of Marion Mahony and Walter Burley Griffin. The story of that vision is often attributed to Walter but even a casual reading of their relationship will show that the design of Canberra was perhaps more her-story than his-story. Walter in his letters attributes much to Marion’s work as more significant than his own and it seems when investigating her-story much of the humility attributed to her speaks more of the patriarchy of History than the reality of her significance and influence. Unfortunately too, some materialist/behaviourist historians tend to dismiss the work of Marion because of her interests in Spirituality and her views on Transcendence.

Marion Mahony Griffin was one of the first licensed architects in the world. Both she and Walter were idealists, philosophers, writers, dramatists, artists, graphic semioticians, thinkers, architects and devoted to Poetics (https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6061397/making-magic-the-marion-mahony-griffin-story-reveals-the-soul-of-the-capital/#gsc.tab=0 ). The story of Canberra is not just about two architects who won a global competition to design a city. The Griffins had a vision not just for the ‘ideal city’ but also for an ideal way of living in community. Although Marion ‘played’ the role of helper, it is clear that her vision and energy, her spirituality, philosophy and vision were the reason why Walter was both successful but also a failure. It seems most visionaries experience this dialectic between failure-success.

Where ever the Griffins went they encountered the games of petty politics, power brokers, orthodoxies and conservativism. The way both were treated from the day they arrived in Australia in 1914 to guide their vision for Canberra is simply atrocious. It is perhaps another story to tell how Public Service Mandarins sought to consciously side line and isolate Walter from the building of Canberra. There was also the nature of petty inter-party and intra-party politics that virtually guaranteed nothing Walter and Marion envisioned would be achieved. When Walter was finally terminated as the Director of Design and Construction of Canberra in December 1920, he and Marion turned their sights to other visions. Like many visionaries they realised that fighting the non-vision of conservativism, orthodoxy and certainty is a lost cause and one not worth fighting.

Marion was controversial in many ways, Walter was more conservative having been raised in a middle-class family and also with a shy retiring temperament. Marion was 5 years older and 5 inches taller than Walter but also towered over him in her radical ideas and philosophy. It is said that Marion proposed to Walter and was also instrumental in him entering the competition to design Canberra (Korporaal). They were married in 1911.

In 1895 Mahony was the first employee hired by Frank Lloyd Wright (https://www.curbed.com/2017/6/8/15755858/marion-mahony-walter-burley-griffin-wright-drawings). Her drawing skills are legendary and she would often use her initials ‘MLM’ in drawings ascribed to Wright in a subtle and squiggle in the corner perhaps, looking more like a knot in tree or spider on the bark of a tree. Such was her style of making her mark. Marion was instrumental in Wright’s success and was critical to the work of The Prairie School of Architectural innovation and Oak Park Studio. She worked for Wright for 15 years before Walter joined the studio.

It was Marion’s drawings, perseverance and insight that won the competition for the plan for Canberra. It was her view of the Celestial City, her cosmology and spirituality that created the vision for a city that would humanise persons and create a unique social community. Marion’s understanding of spirituality started at a tender age, brought up in Hubbard Woods she was always convinced she could see fairies, undines, gnomes and mystical creatures. As a young girl Marion was raised by a feminist mother (her father died young), part of the radical Chicago Woman’s Club. Marion was educated in an environment of female activists, labour reform and women’s rights. Abraham Lincoln was a friend of the family and would drop by on occasions.

Marion understood herself as a being within nature and later when she discovered Anthroposophy was able to integrate many of her spiritual ideas into her architecture, drawings and dramatic enactments. Marion’s part in the dream for Canberra is documented here: https://www.hamessharley.com.au/knowledge/marion-mahony-griffin . Korporal’s excellent study Making Magic, The Marion Mahony Story. (2015) Oranje Media. Sydney. Is an excellent retelling of her-story.

In everything Marion did she demonstrated the Love-Hope-Faith-Justice dialectic and this often brought her in direct conflict with orthodoxy, authority and the forces of Technique. (it is these that define the nature of vision).

When Marion first arrived in Sydney in less than a few months she was arrested for demonstrating against the war. The USA was not committed to the war and as a pacifist she was therefore identified as an enemy of the state. Meanwhile Walter was experiencing the petty politics of public servants and political parties and inter-city (Sydney-Melbourne) rivalry. The Capital of Australia at the Time was Melbourne and this is where the offices for the Design and Construction of Canberra were administered. Situated against this was the influencial and powerful demands of Sydney and its growing competition against Melbourne which had long since lost its power after the decline of the gold boom in 1895. The location of Canberra between both cities was intended to appease the factionous bitterness between the two cities.

Once Walter was terminated from direct supervision of the design and building of Canberra the Griffins moved to Sydney and commenced their vision and social experiment for the development of the ideal town of Castlecrag. It was here too they met with the backwardness and resistance to vision by local councils and various conservative voices. It was here they were able to create some of their vision for a unique community with their cliplock houses and flat roofs and the Haven Scenic Theatre where many plays and festivals were performed bringing the community together in a flair for the arts and imagination. It was at Castlecrag where the Griffins gathered around them an amazing collection of visionaries, artists and free spirited people with unconventional ideas. Marion was sure that ‘dark forces’ were behind those who opposed her.

At every turn the Griffins were met by the power-centric forces of Technique and Propaganda. These two forces demonstrate the ideology of efficiency over all things and the disguising of power through false messaging. Marion simply pressed on with her vision. A friend Miles Franklin, wrote in 1928 about the Griffins persecution as ‘shameful and terrible’ but typical of Australia. Marion herself wrote in a letter back to her home in the US that Australia was ‘a nation of pessimists full of fears, ideals are rarely to be found in this country. All policies are based on fear’. Fear is the enemy of vision, compliance the enemy of creativity.

It is demonstrable that Marion’s drawings and vision for Canberra were the reason for the Griffin’s success. It was the particular drawing of the proposed Canberra Elevation that clinched their success. The drawing is one of pure imagination with four drawings joined together drawn in ink and gold leaf and 6 metres long.

clip_image002

The Griffins believed that cities should be carefully designed to fit into the landscape, following the contours of the topography, with as little damage to the natural surroundings as possible. The site, with its wide river floodplain surrounded by hills, was a natural amphitheatre. As they began to imagine a new capital for Australia, it was not hard to see that Marion thought of the seven hills which surrounded Canberra as the ancient city of Rome.

image

Proudfoot’s work (The Secret Plan of Canberra https://pubhtml5.com/rukq/auqx/basic ) truly captures the mystical and semiotic fascination about Canberra and Marion’s vision. Proudfoot draws out the unique vision of the Griffins and particularly the way Marion and Walter built into the design of Canberra many spiritual and Occult-like symbols.

Canberra Today

Today Canberra is very much like the city of Rome designed by Michelangelo. The mountains and hills of Canberra cannot be built on by regulation and so create the mood of the ‘bush capital’. What this design does, along with the seven lakes is emphasise a city that circles. Occultic shapes of the rhombus, triangles, vestias and octagons make for a city that is hard to navigate, but this is good keeping out through traffic and disrupting communities. What this design does is slow people down, it is a city that makes people think. No straight lines anywhere, if you get lost you can’t just go back around the block.

Despite the early opposition to the Griffins many critical aspects of their city design and the Griffin’s vision for a humanising city where money and power give way for people, parks and nature are a pleasure to see and live in. Motorised vehicles are not allowed on the lakes and the roads are in the valleys, it’s hard when travelling about to even see the houses or suburbia. On weekends it is a delight to experience the Griffin’s plan in the many parks, cycle paths, walking around lakes and the open spaces.

Canberra is a marvellous semiotic haven. Those who visit to learn about the Social Psychology of Risk can be treated to days after days of unique excursions into the connection between life signs and symbols and how they create a collective unconscious in a city. Because it is the capital of Australia it is a concentration of other unique architecture, symbols, places and monuments to the rich history and spirituality of our country.

What an amazing experience to live in a city that is part of Marion’s vision.

Conclusion for the Risk and Safety Industry

If you are seeking vision and new ideas in risk and safety you probably won’t find them from within the industry. It is most likely that vision and new ideas will be found from outside the group. This means that any discovery of new ideas will probably come from NOT reading risk and safety stuff and by associations with people OUTSIDE of the group. If you do find a good idea or something visionary that threatens the risk and safety group most likely this will be your slippery slope to becoming an outsider, pushed out the back door. But don’t worry, the world doesn’t end when you leave a group, you simply find a new group that seeks a new vision that is not fearful of new ideas.

Readings

Griffin, D., (ed.) (2008) The Writings of Walter. Cambridge University Press. Melbourne.

Korporaal, G., (2015) Making Magic, The Marion Mahony Story. Oranje Media. Sydney.

McGregor, A. (2009). Grand Obsessions: The Life add Work of Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin. Melbourne: Lantern.New York Times.

Proudfoot, P., (1994) The Secret Plan of Canberra. University of NSW Press. Kensington.

Roe, J., (2020) Searching for the Spirit, Theosophy in Australia 1879-1939. Wakefield Press, Kensington.

  • 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 KISS of Death in Safety - January 31, 2023
  • SPoR, Metanoia and a Podcast on Change with Nippin Anand - January 31, 2023
  • Behavioural Safety is NOT a Foundation for Tackling Psychosocial and Mental Health - January 31, 2023
  • The Worst Approach to Psychosocial Problems is an Attitude of ‘Fixing’ - January 31, 2023
  • SPoR Comes to Vienna June 2023 - January 31, 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 Tagged With: Canberra, conformity, paradox

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 7,498 other subscribers

Introduction to SPOR – FREE!!

SAFETY MYTHS SERIES

The Mythic Symbology of Safety

Posture Myths and Holistic Ergonomics

Safety Mythbusters

Don’t Be Emotional! Another Safety Myth

Tackling the Challenge of Heuristics in Safety

The Myth of Normal

NEW! Free Download

Please take our 2 minute zero survey

Recent Comments

  • Brian on The Language of ‘Hazards’ and Psychosocial, Mental Health
  • Jaise on The Language of ‘Hazards’ and Psychosocial, Mental Health
  • Rob Long on Posture Myths and Holistic Ergonomics
  • Linda McKendry on Posture Myths and Holistic Ergonomics
  • Rob long on Welcome to the Nightmare, Safety Creates its Own Minefield (as usual)
  • Matt Thorne on Welcome to the Nightmare, Safety Creates its Own Minefield (as usual)
  • Anonymous on Welcome to the Nightmare, Safety Creates its Own Minefield (as usual)
  • Jason on How Bias Inhibits Learning in Safety
  • Rob Long on How Bias Inhibits Learning in Safety
  • Admin on How Bias Inhibits Learning in Safety
  • Rob Long on 400,000 Free Downloads
  • Gustavo Saralegui on 400,000 Free Downloads
  • Rob long on To Err is Human, You Better Believe It
  • Wynand on To Err is Human, You Better Believe It
  • Rob Long on To Err is Human, You Better Believe It
  • simon cassin on To Err is Human, You Better Believe It
  • Rob Long on Records of safety activities: evidence of safety or non-compliance?
  • Matt Thorne on Free Online Workshops
  • Rob long on No Good Reason to Follow Reason
  • Brian Edwin Darlington on No Good Reason to Follow Reason

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 WORKPLACE HEALTH and SAFETY SLOGANS 2023
  • Free Safety Moments and Toolbox Talk Examples, Tips and Resources
  • Road Safety Slogans 2023
  • CATCHY and FUNNY SAFETY SLOGANS FOR THE WORKPLACE
  • Download Safety Moments from Human Resources Secretariat
  • 15 Safety Precautions When Working With Electricity
  • FREE RISK ASSESSMENT FORMS, CHECKISTS, REGISTERS, TEMPLATES and APPS
  • How to Calculate TRIFR, LTIFR and Other Health and Safety Indicators
  • COVID-19 (Coronavirus, Omicron) Health and Safety Slogans and Quotes for the Workplace
  • The Language of ‘Hazards’ and Psychosocial, Mental Health

Recent Posts

  • The KISS of Death in Safety
  • SPoR, Metanoia and a Podcast on Change with Nippin Anand
  • Behavioural Safety is NOT a Foundation for Tackling Psychosocial and Mental Health
  • The Worst Approach to Psychosocial Problems is an Attitude of ‘Fixing’
  • SPoR Comes to Vienna June 2023
  • The Language of ‘Hazards’ and Psychosocial, Mental Health
  • Welcome to the Nightmare, Safety Creates its Own Minefield (as usual)
  • The Visionary Imagination – Louisa Lawson
  • Heaven ‘n Hell and the Safety Religion
  • Confirmity in Conformity
  • Numerology and Psychic Numbing
  • Thinking of Mortality
  • Safety is the Wrong Anchor
  • Foresight Blindness, Hindsight Bias and Risk
  • Getting the Balance Right in Tackling Risk
  • What is SPoR?
  • How Bias Inhibits Learning in Safety
  • Afraid to Let Go of What Doesn’t Work in Safety
  • When You Don’t Know What to do in Safety, Have Another Blitz!!!
  • Gloves and Glasses Compliance
  • A Case of Desensitisation – What Would You Do?
  • How to Leave the Safety Industry
  • The Mythic Symbology of Safety
  • Dark Waters, The True Story of DuPont and Zero
  • 400,000 Free Downloads
  • Am I stupid? I didn’t think of that…
  • Don’t Look Now Safety, Your Metaphor is Showing
  • Ratio Delusions and Heinrich’s Hoax
  • To Err is Human, You Better Believe It
  • Culture as a Wicked Problem, for Safety
  • Safety Leadership Training
  • Cultural Orientation in Risk
  • The Stanford Experiment and The Social Psychology of Risk
  • Objectivity, Audits and Attribution When Calculating Risk
  • Records of safety activities: evidence of safety or non-compliance?
  • Zero, The Seeking of Infinity
  • Safety Leadership Essentials
  • What Can Indiana Jones Tell Us About Culture
  • Safety as a Worldview
  • The Loathing of Limits
  • Culture Cannot be Framed Through Safety
  • Free Online Workshops
  • Safety Culture–Hudson’s Model
  • Book Launch – For the Love of Zero – in Portuguese
  • Advancing Backwards in Safety
  • The ‘Noise’ of Safety, Silence and Practicing of Mindfulness
  • All Things Must Pass in Risk
  • I’m just not that into safety anymore
  • Sticks and Stones and the Nonsense of Zero Harm
  • Courting Infallibility in Safety

VIRAL POST!!! HOW TO QUIT THE SAFETY INDUSTRY

FEATURED POSTS

What Does Misinformation Do in Safety?

Out of your (Unconscious) Mind

Seven Essential Safety Reminders

Social Psychology of Risk Doability

A Small Change and ‘Y’ it Matters?

A Semiotic Map for Safety

Are You on The Safety Teat?

The Mechanistic Worldview and the Dehumanisation of Risk

Conforming and Questioning in Safety

Safety Superstitions

Sticks and Stones and the Nonsense of Zero Harm

It’s a Great Goal, it Just Doesn’t Work

Adversarialism and the Politicisation of Safety

Risk Psychometrics, Spin and Snake Oil

So, You Want Culture Change

The Seduction of Measurement in Risk and Safety

The Will To Be and Do

Tattoos, Taboos and The Risk of Permanence

Work-Life and Risk, Feminine Perspectives

The Safety Worldview and the Worldview of Safety, Testing Due Diligence

No Help for Mental Health in Zero

The Unconscious and the Soap Dispenser

Safety as a Knowledge Culture

Why Resilience Cannot be Engineered

Social Sensemaking–New Book Release

Safety Utopia as Abuse

The Bias of Method Design in Risk

What is a Safety and Risk ‘Thinking Group’?

The 5 Ways We Identify Hazards

When Art Speaks to Harm

By What Measure? Safety?

Suggested Safety Reading for 2018

The Social Psychology of Distance-Safety

How Groupthink Works

Second Student Group Social Psychology of Risk

The Religion of Safety

A Conference with a Difference

Tackling Risk, A Field Guide to Risk and Learning

Myth and Symbols in Safety

By What Method?

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 7,498 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?