Think Different, Act Differently in Risk

The ‘think different’ campaign for Macintosh (Think_different) was a highly successful campaign to differentiate one computer platform against another. The campaign was launched by this successful video. The campaign marked the return of Steve Jobs to Apple after the debacle of sending him to the wilderness to start NeXT and Pixar. The story of Job’s return is the story of the second birth of Apple to its present dominance in world computing. Whether one likes Jobs or not, one could not dispute that he was ‘different’ and changed the world.

If we want to do safety differently, we must think differently. If we have a passion to change the world of risk and safety, we need to ‘think different’. If we look at risk and safety and see nothing changing, how will this improve with more of the same? We can even call something ‘different’ but if it boils down to more systems or humans as factors in systems then all that has changed is the label. If the paradigms of engineering and regulation are regurgitated and re-spun as ‘the next step’ what is really different? All the talk of neuropsychology, ‘behavioural which’, ‘lean that’ and ‘relationship this’ isn’t different if the output is regulation and systems. We can winge about the problems of risk and safety but if we are not prepared to suspend old ways of thinking for ‘different’ ways of thinking then how can things change? It’s time to reframe the debate and move away from the tired old stuff.

The Psychology of Risk Conference to be held at ACU 25,26 March is a risk and safety conference with a difference. Just look at the Program and see – no opening keynotes by regulators, lawyers or associations just practitioners talking about how they have applied the psychology of risk to their workplace.