• 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 / Humble Inquiry / Top 10 Things About Safety and Risk That Only a Handful of People Know

Top 10 Things About Safety and Risk That Only a Handful of People Know

June 1, 2022 by Admin 48 Comments

Top 10 Things About Safety and Risk That Only a Handful of People Know

Republished by request 

top 10 safety

Here are 10 and a bit things about safety that I plucked from some recent blog posts, that singularly or collectively only a handful of people may know. Or, if they knew them, perhaps did not know them well? Of course the Barry Spuds of the world already know yet deny all this stuff! As always, in the words of the late George Robotham, “It would be a boring world if everybody agreed with me” so I hope this sparks as much debate as our “Safety 10 Commandments” and “What is Safety” articles:

  1. Safety is a Wicked Problem – The binary worldview denies complexity and moreso the reality of ‘wicked problems’. This enables safety crusaders to not identify with others but rather marginalize others because the rules are simple and the presumption is that unsafe people, risk takers are both stupid and ignorant moreso, they lack ‘common sense’. The trap of binary thinking in risk and safety is that it promotes rapid judgment, comfortable decision making and dehumanizing others. See How Do You Know If You Are Leading in Risk and Safety?
  2. Every Seemingly Simple Solution has a Trade-Off or By-Product – People’s ability to adapt and compensate to change and achieve their normal level of risk comfort is amazing (Risk Homeostasis) – many don’t realize that simply choosing a quick control from the hierarchy can actually increase risk, elimination is not always the best option – see Could understanding Grey, be the ‘silver bullet’? and Stand Behind The Yellow Line – Do Engineering Controls Affect Risk? and Why Don’t Safety Controls Always Work?
  3. Safety is not a Value but it is something we value – There is a big difference between what we value (outcome and object) and what is a value (principle/ethic) when we consider strategy and thinking in risk and safety – see We can Value Safety but Safety is not a Value
  4. The absence of something (no injuries) doesn’t indicate the presence of something else (safety). see the dozens of articles here: ZERO HARM
  5. Safety is about people – not objects – See Risk is about people, not just objects  and Making objects safe or people safe
  6. The more you poke safety with a stick, the more it starts to smell (one of my favourites) – bean counters and safety crusaders get very despondent when a big focus or spend on safety only leads to incident statistics getting worse – there are many good reasons for this. See Semiotics and Safety
  7. 100% compliance will only solve 20% of your safety problems – See Non-Compliance and the Ten Fundamentals of Motivation
  8. Safety requires good leaders and good followers – not crusaders and sheep – see Are you a safety leader or safety crusader and How Do You Know If You Are Leading in Risk and Safety?
  9. Zero Harm approaches do not work and actually cause more harm than good – see the dozens of articles here: ZERO HARM
  10. Safety culture is extremely complex and not well understood – most incidents are culturally determined not behaviourally determined. We must understand how language shapes culture and behaviour and work hard to eliminate wrongful discourse in the workplace culture and influence the organisation to use rightful priming in talking about risk and safety. see Safety and Risk Culture Cloud
  11. Most of what is said in OHS is just ‘noise’. You need to stop listening – It is a distraction and delusional and creates the idea that you are actually an expert in risk and safety. see The Sound of Safety
  12. Telling is not learning and is much more risky than asking – see The Art of Humble Enquiry and Scenario Learning in Risk and Safety
  13. Safety is NOT the No1 Priority! Never has been, never will be and never should be. See Safety is not the number one priority and Safety Should NOT be About Safety
  14. FEAR – The F word seems to be responsible for so much of our conscious or unconscious behaviour regardless of how smart or tough or adventurous we think we are. see ‘Can’t Means Won’t Try’ – The Challenge of Being Challenged

IF YOU ARE FEELING LUCKY AND HAVE SOME TIME TO SPARE THEN TAKE THE CHALLENGE AND TRY SEARCHING THESE TOPICS USING OUR SEARCH BOX  – THERE IS MOUNTAIN OF GREAT STUFF IN HERE AWAITING YOUR DISCOVERY!

10 Very simple things you can do now to dramatically improve safety

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: Humble Inquiry, Risk Homeostasis, Semiotics, Workplace Safety Tagged With: 1% safer, one percent safer, Safety, Zero Harm

Reader Interactions

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 The Blessings of Fallibility
  • Simon Cassin on The Blessings of Fallibility
  • 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

RECOMMENDED READING

viral post – iso 45003 and what it cannot do

Introduction to SPOR – FREE!!

Psychosocial Safety and Mental Health Series

Have You Had a Drink of SafeTea?

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

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
  • When You Don’t Know, Just Make S4*t Up
  • The Nonsense of ‘Safety Awareness’
  • Free Safety Moments and Toolbox Talk Examples, Tips and Resources
  • FREE RISK ASSESSMENT FORMS, CHECKISTS, REGISTERS, TEMPLATES and APPS
  • Road Safety Slogans 2023
  • BIGGEST COLLECTION of WORKPLACE HEALTH and SAFETY SLOGANS 2023
  • Workplace Safety Poems
  • The Critical Outcome is to Improve Safety
  • Free Risk Assessment Template in Excel Format

Recent Posts

  • The Nonsense of ‘Safety Awareness’
  • When You Don’t Know, Just Make S4*t Up
  • The Critical Outcome is to Improve Safety
  • Zero is Founded on Deceit and Lies
  • Have You Had a Drink of SafeTea?
  • The Blessings of Fallibility
  • 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

VIRAL POST!!! HOW TO QUIT THE SAFETY INDUSTRY

FEATURED POSTS

OnLine Learning Modules with CLLR

Why Myths in Safety Work

Subjecting and Objecting About Risk

When Slogans Don’t Work

Why Personify Safety?

Day 9 SPoR in Europe

Words Can Change Your Brain

My thoughts during a walk in the Forests in Vienna

A Question of Ethics

Online Inductions and Safety Effectiveness

Subliminal and Subconscious Influence

What Does Misinformation Do in Safety?

Just Hangin’ Out…

Safety – Learning by Doing and Learning by Theory

Why we make mistakes

Why is fallibility so challenging in the workplace?

Safety-as-Persona

Confirmity in Conformity

Is Choice The First Casualty in the Worker’s Compensation War?

Push or Pull – It’s Not Your Fault – It’s a Norman Door!

Liking and Not Liking in Safety, A Tale of In-Group and Out-Groupness

A Scaffolder’s Journey in SPoR – A Podcast

Psychology of Risk Post Graduate Program Suspended ‘til 2017

Happy New Year and the ‘Good Life’ Paradox

Affirming Chance

Selective Safety and Well Being

Safety for True Believers

Cultivating Resilience

What is a Safety and Risk ‘Thinking Group’?

Safety Career Highlight

The Domino Myth in Safety

Safety Doesn’t Need Military Language

Real Risk for Real Life

Ten Risk and Safety Program Essentials

The Stanford Experiment and The Social Psychology of Risk

Second Student Group Social Psychology of Risk

Speaking a New Language in Safety

The Social Psychology of Distance-Safety

Why are we Afraid?

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

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