The Perceptions of Safety
Alan Quilley recently posted an interesting point on LinkedIn (perhaps wasted on that forum) – he posed the question (accompanied by the image above):
“So do you think human behaviour is both predictable and observable? If so how do we use that knowledge to help people in our lives manage risk?”
We commonly see Safety focus on objects and hazards and then apply some imagination, perception, a coloured matrix, a hierarchy or some legislation to decide on what should be done about that object or how to control the people who interact with it. Unfortunately, without much critical thought about by-products or understanding about how humans make decisions (based on risk, social influences etc) the outcome is not always favourable. I used to be a fan of “Safety Observations” but now believe the methodology (BBS) is flawed and they are contrived and quite useless except as a way to create fear, to confirm our biases or punish people for poor choices.
Do you have any thoughts? Please share them below