• 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
      • BIGGEST COLLECTION of 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
    • Psychosocial Safety
    • Resiliencing
    • 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
  • Psychosocial Safety
    • What is Psychosocial Safety
    • 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 / Human Error / To Err is Human, You Better Believe It

To Err is Human, You Better Believe It

January 13, 2023 by Dr Rob Long 7 Comments

imageI was sent this classic today (https://www.shponline.co.uk/culture-and-behaviours/dominic-cooper-to-err-is-human-or-is-it/ ). I get so much safety nonsense sent to me it is hard to keep up.

When you have no linguistic sense nor understanding of an ethic of personhood, it’s so easy to write gobbledygook.

Of course, the context for the saying ‘to err is human’ comes from Alexander Pope (An Essay on Criticism, Part II , 1711) and a Transdisciplinary understanding of Poetics is essential to get its meaning. The phrase sits in a lengthy poem, I have written about this before (https://safetyrisk.net/to-err-is-human-to-forgive-divine/). When I use to teach Pope in Year 12 English and University, and we always knew that context is critical for understanding. Not so in safety.

Safety is one of those industries (not a profession) that frames the world through its own narrow lens, grabs whatever language it decides to mash and distort, all justified by its own ends – usually, the projection of some engineering or behaviourist worldview. Without a Transdisciplinary approach that takes theology, ethics, Poetics, Semiotics, Learning and Religion seriously, one is unlikely to understand Pope, nor what he meant by his phrase ‘to err is human’.

Similarly, discussion about the nature of being phenomenologically human (https://www.researchgate.net/publication/326268113_Phenomenology_A_Philosophy_and_Method_of_Inquiry) cannot be separated from an ethic of personhood or cultural anthropology.

When you frame your view of the world through safety, you usually distort that worldview (https://safetyrisk.net/safety-as-a-worldview/ ).

This is why Safety writes so much about the confusion of culture, that it creates for itself.

Safety as an adjective, conditions all that follows. I don’t live for safety; I live to be and live. The meaning and purpose (semiosis) of living is NOT safety.

So, when we come to this piece from Cooper, there is no surprise about the distortion field applied to human meaning. More behaviourism, more engineering, more safety worldview and even a classic sub-heading ‘beyond human’. Transhumanist language is alive and well in safety.

All this sourced in safety classics such as Reason and Rasmussen, there is no element of anything connected to an ethic of personhood.

If an ethic of personhood interests you then perhaps read:

· Arendt, H., (1958) The Human Condition.

· Bauer, J., and Harteis, C., (2012) Human Fallibility, The Ambiguity of Errors for Work and Learning.

· Benner, D., (2016) Human Being and Becoming, Living the Adventure of Life and Love.

· Fuchs,T., (2018) Ecology of the Brain.

· Harding, S., (2015) Paul’s Eschatological Anthropology: The Dynamics of Human Transformation

· Jewett, R., (1971) Paul’s Anthropological Terms, A Study of Their Use in Conflict Settings.

· Kirkwood, C., (2012) The Persons in Relation Perspective, In Counselling, Psychotherapy and Community Adult Learning.

· Lotman, Y., (1990) Universe of the Mind, A Semiotic Theory of Culture.

· Madsbjerg, C., (2017) Sensemaking, What Makes Human Intelligence Essential in the Age of the Algorithm.

· Martin, J., Sugarman, J., and Hickinbottom, S., (2010) Persons: Understanding Psychological Selfhood and Agency

· Schwarz, H., (2013) The Human Being, A Theological Anthropology. Semler, L., Hodge, B., and Kelly, P., (2012) What is the Human? Australian Voices from the Humanities.

· Splitter, L., (2015) Identity and Personhood, Confusions and Clarifications across Disciplines

And there is so much more. If you want to know about fallibility and error then make sure you don’t read Reason (https://safetyrisk.net/no-good-reason-to-follow-reason/) or anything from Safety.

Poor old safety, never talks about ‘fallibility’ (https://www.humandymensions.com/product/fallibility-risk-living-uncertainty/), only loves talk about ‘error’ and even then, never in the context of an ethic of personhood or human meaning. Then mash together a triarchic semiotic with no understanding of semiotics.

One thing is reliable about safety, when it wants to map an idea, it’s most important to leave out the human.

What Safety constantly dishes up in these magazines is a brain-centric worldview, consumed by behaviourism as if this is somehow related to the nature of what it is to be human.

None of this is helpful, constructive, positive or realistic. An alternative practical, positive and meaningful method is offered by SPoR and its free (https://safetyrisk.net/whats-the-alternative-to-traditional-safety-spor/). SPoR is not just about deconstruction but rather a reconstruction of a new approach that works (https://www.humandymensions.com/product/it-works-a-new-approach-to-risk-and-safety/) as if humans matter.

Unless an ethic of personhood and an understanding of fallibility is foundational for incident investigations, you are likely to already know the outcome and it certainly won’t involve learning. It’s very rare that Safety ‘learns’ from accidents.

If you want to learn about Learning then this may help (https://safetyrisk.net/a-definition-of-learning-a-video/).

If you want to know how to do a good incident investigation then you can study SEEK (https://cllr.com.au/product/seek-the-social-psychology-of-event-investigations-unit-2-elearning/).

There is much that SPoR offers for free as in the current module on culture (already running and oversubscribed).

It’s not too late to sign up for the free module on Ethics.

  • 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)

  • Safety as Zero, The Perfect Event - September 25, 2023
  • Validating, Endorsing and Supporting Zero - September 25, 2023
  • The Global ‘Zero Event’, This is Safety - September 24, 2023
  • If You Can’t Manage Fallibility, You’ll Never Tackle Psychosocial Health - September 23, 2023
  • Embodiment, Myth and Psychosocial Risk - September 23, 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: Human Error, Robert Long Tagged With: to err is human

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Anonymous says

    July 7, 2023 at 7:57 AM

    What tripe! A polemic that is a rant but fails on so many levels. James Reasons work is classic. It has stood the test of time, is practical and useful. The criteria for assessing anything in safety is its impact on injury reduction. Judge Rob’s work on the same basis. It will open your eyes as to how much this SPoR stuff is off the mark!

    Reply
    • Admin says

      July 7, 2023 at 8:48 AM

      You forgot to add your name so you could be accountable for your comment, I hope that was just an error. I think Rob can rest his case now……..

      Reply
      • Rob Long says

        July 8, 2023 at 10:17 AM

        Reason like Heinrich has done more damage to safety than any other introduced mythology. There is no evidence to show any of Reason’s work has made one scrap of difference to safety indeed, his linear causality has created more harm than good.

        Reply
  2. Wynand says

    January 13, 2023 at 4:22 PM

    The concept of “error” and “human error” remains a bit of a mystery to me, especially in the “Safety” context. If error was so bad, why do safety appoint people who did not achieve 100% in all their exams? How can forgetting something really be an “error” in a context where perfection is the ideal? Is forgetting and “taking shortcuts” then the same? Why can an experienced person not take “shortcuts” derived from years of doing the task? Why is a novice and an experienced person required to take all the same steps in doing a task? Why is it unacceptable for someone to forget something while focusing on something else? Why is the way the human brain functions (for example prioritising decisions subconsciously to allow focus on the perceived main decision at hand) unacceptable for “Safety”? I can go on, and I always come back to the point where I realise I just don’t understand enough to answer all these questions. However, when an incident is investigated, there is an answer for each of the questions, usually with blame to follow. Not being perfect is the biggest sin in safety, yet it seems “Safety” itself cannot acknowledge how far it is from perfection.

    Reply
    • Rob long says

      January 14, 2023 at 6:55 AM

      Wynand, this industry is so poorly educated that it rejects any challenge of approach to learning. It simply has no capability to face the questions you pose.
      It demonises critical thinking and any sensemaking that includes the humanising of persons. Indeed, it rarely talks about persons of humans in what it does. And under the delusions of zero etc delights in the brutalism that results.
      It has no idea what to do with falllibility hence this kind of goop Cooper puts out and the industry adores it.
      It reinforces its worldview.
      It’s what Safety wants.
      Fortunately there are some who don’t want this, and it is for those that SPoR offers hope.

      Reply
  3. simon cassin says

    January 13, 2023 at 9:56 AM

    Hi Rob,

    A few years ago I spent a year or so, studying the philosophical understanding and interpretation of practical and theoretical reason. During those studies I was introduced to a concept I had never previously heard about. What I now know as the ‘The great rationality debate’ highlighted fundamental flaws in how the concept of human error is comprehended and discussed. I’ll be honest it was as though a whole new perspective suddenly appeared. I don’t want to sound too dramatic about it but it totally blew me away and instantly undermined the taken for granted perspectives of human error used in the H&S world.

    Unfortunately the dominant and consistently agreed interpretation of human error is a tough nut to crack. I have attempted to discuss the questionable categorisation of human error with many in the safety profession but unfortunately none have ever entered into a conversation about how the notion of error is categorised or quantified. (N.B. A caveat to this statement is that Dom has told me he has responded to my questions but as of yet his responses haven’t been updated on the SHP post).

    Anyway thanks for your thoughts.

    Regards

    Simon

    Reply
    • Rob Long says

      January 13, 2023 at 11:13 AM

      Thanks Simon. Yes I find most of what Safety conceptualises simplistic and immature. A very poorly educated mono-disciplinary industry.
      One can’t carry on like Safety does about error in a vacuum as if other disciplines have nothing to say. Indeed, Safety thinks their view is the only valid worldview.
      Talking about fallibility is taboo in this industry in love with zero and dehumanising persons. As for Cooper, no surprises. I have no interest in the narrow Safety worldview.

      Reply

Do you have any thoughts? Please share them belowCancel 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 7,509 other subscribers.

FREE eBOOK DOWNLOADS

Recent Comments

  • Rob Long on Validating, Endorsing and Supporting Zero
  • Rob Long on The Global ‘Zero Event’, This is Safety
  • Rob Long on The Global ‘Zero Event’, This is Safety
  • Matthew Thorne on Validating, Endorsing and Supporting Zero
  • rosa a carrillo on The Global ‘Zero Event’, This is Safety
  • Matthew Thorne on The Global ‘Zero Event’, This is Safety
  • Rob Long on Hopkins-Dekker on Reason and Other Laughs
  • Matt Thorne on Myth Making and Why it Matters to Safety
  • Rob Long on What’s Funny About Safety?
  • Rob Long on Perfection is Safety Child’s Play
  • Rosa Carrillo on Hopkins-Dekker on Reason and Other Laughs
  • Brent Charlton on Perfection is Safety Child’s Play
  • Anonymous on What’s Funny About Safety?
  • Rob Long on Zero Hour part 6 Knowing Yourself
  • Rob Long on Safety Cops and Safety’s Adoration of Power
  • Rob Long on Book Launch – “Zero, The Great Safety Delusion” – Free Download
  • Rob long on Don’t Be Dumb Like Me, the Typical Safety Keynote
  • Anonymous on Don’t Be Dumb Like Me, the Typical Safety Keynote
  • Joseph D Zinobile on Book Launch – “Zero, The Great Safety Delusion” – Free Download
  • Jason Martell on Safety Cops and Safety’s Adoration of Power

RECOMMENDED READING

viral post – iso 45003 and what it cannot do

Introduction to SPOR – FREE!!

Psychosocial Safety and Mental Health Series

If You Can’t Manage Fallibility, You’ll Never Tackle Psychosocial Health

Embodiment, Myth and Psychosocial Risk

7 Golden Rules that are NOT Golden

Why Zero Vision Can Never Tackle Mental Health

If Psychosocial Health Matters, Stop Hot Desking

Effective Strategies in Mental Health at Work

CLLR Newsletter July 2023

Playing With Mental Health in Safety is Dangerous

STOP ‘BREAKING’ PEOPLE! The notion of Psychological Safety

Learning to Learn Socially

More Posts from this Category

NEW! Free Download

Please take our 2 minute zero survey

Footer

Top Posts & Pages. Sad that most are so dumb but this is what safety luves

  • CATCHY and FUNNY SAFETY SLOGANS FOR THE WORKPLACE
  • Free Safety Moments and Toolbox Talk Examples, Tips and Resources
  • BIGGEST COLLECTION of WORKPLACE HEALTH and SAFETY SLOGANS 2023
  • Validating, Endorsing and Supporting Zero
  • The Global ‘Zero Event’, This is Safety
  • Safety as Zero, The Perfect Event
  • How to Calculate TRIFR, LTIFR and Other Health and Safety Indicators
  • FREE RISK ASSESSMENT FORMS, CHECKISTS, REGISTERS, TEMPLATES and APPS
  • Free Risk Assessment Template in Excel Format
  • CLASSIC, FAMOUS and INFAMOUS SAFETY QUOTES

Recent Posts

  • Safety as Zero, The Perfect Event
  • Validating, Endorsing and Supporting Zero
  • The Global ‘Zero Event’, This is Safety
  • If You Can’t Manage Fallibility, You’ll Never Tackle Psychosocial Health
  • Embodiment, Myth and Psychosocial Risk
  • Embodied Enactivity in Safety
  • The Meaning of Myth in Risk
  • Myth Making and Why it Matters to Safety
  • Icebreakers and Games that Safety Trainers Play
  • The Power of Safety Myths
  • What Do You Mean By Performance?
  • Hopkins-Dekker on Reason and Other Laughs
  • Perfection is Safety Child’s Play
  • Podcast – Dr Rob Long With John Morlan and The Risk Matrix
  • What’s Funny About Safety?
  • Zero Hour part 6 Knowing Yourself
  • Free Videos, Podcasts and Books on Zero
  • Don’t Be Dumb Like Me, the Typical Safety Keynote
  • If You’re Happy in Safety, Clap Your Hands
  • Safety Cops and Safety’s Adoration of Power
  • Zero Hour Part 5 – Surfacing the Unconscious
  • Zero Hour Part 4 – Zero and the Unconscious
  • Auditing the 7 Golden Rules of Zero, A Miserable Fail
  • 7 Golden Rules that are NOT Golden
  • The Non-Golden Rules for Leadership in Zero
  • Seven ‘Golden’ Rules for Zero and Yet No Ethic
  • Why Zero Vision Can Never Tackle Mental Health
  • Is this Your Safety?
  • SPoR Workshops Canberra 18-21 September
  • The Dominance of Zero as the ‘Common Denominator’ of Safety
  • Zero Hour Episode 3
  • Goal Setting and Zero
  • Zero as a Worldview
  • If Psychosocial Health Matters, Stop Hot Desking
  • Book Launch – “Zero, The Great Safety Delusion” – Free Download
  • Breach of Faith and Psycho-Social Risk
  • Zero Harm is Never Zero Harm
  • Why Would You Want to be a Safety “Geek’ or Hero?
  • The Mental Illness of Identifying as Safety
  • Zero Hour – Zero as a place holder
  • Zero Hour – Zero as a Philosophy
  • CARING ABOUT PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY
  • Care is NOT a Factor and Yes, Your Model Matters
  • Care Ethics and the Ethics of Care, in Risk
  • FEAR AND CONTROL – Dialogue in a technological society
  • Of Course, Method Matters in Safety
  • Day 12 SPoR in Europe
  • Free Study Module Following-Leading in Risk August-September
  • Effective Strategies in Mental Health at Work
  • CLLR Newsletter July 2023

VIRAL POST!!! HOW TO QUIT THE SAFETY INDUSTRY

FEATURED POSTS

Beware of Hazardous ‘OINTMENT’

Embodied Enactivity in Safety

Second Student Group Social Psychology of Risk

SPoR – Positive, Constructive, Practical, Rational, Visual, Verbal, Social, Relational, Person-Centric, Respectful, Ethical and Real

No Evidence for the Religion of Zero

Compliance, Obedience and The Attraction of Risk

Impacts of Cognitive Dissonance in the Workplace

The Safety Worldview

Toward Zero, A Failed Goal

Not Much Like Safety…

Auditing the 7 Golden Rules of Zero, A Miserable Fail

Test Your Reaction Times

Unthinkable

Risk Culture and Cultural Risk

Learning from people who we don’t agree with

What Can ‘Safety’ Learn From a Rock?

Safety Justifies Anything and Everything

A Question of Ethics

20 Cognitive Biases That Affect Risk Decision Making

The Ethics of Safety

Speaking a New Language in Safety

Europe – International Workshop Social Psychology of Risk Introduction

Face to Face SPoR Workshops 2022

Desensitization, Statistics and the Psychic Numbing of Numerics

SPoR Body of Knowledge – A Video

Myth and Symbols in Safety

Fear of Being-in-the-World

A Letter To The Editor

Actions in ‘Bad Faith’

Why Myths in Safety Work

Real Risk for Real Life

The Link Between Think and Blink

Utopian Language and the Quest for Perfection in Safety

Bad Moon Rising

SAFETY IS A MYTH, LONG LIVE SAFETY

Post Graduate Diploma in Psychology of Risk Commences

The Challenges for Organisations in Dealing with Mental Health

Perth and London SPoR Workshops

Do we Need a Different Way of Being in Safety?

The Social Psychology of Risk Event Exploration (Investigation) Knowledge

More Posts from this Category

VIRAL POST – The Risk Matrix Myth

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 7,509 other subscribers.

WHAT IS PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY?

What is Psychological Safety at Work?


WHAT IS PSYCHOSOCIAL SAFETY