One of the scariest results in the Zero Survey is that 89% of respondents believe that zero creates dishonesty in safety (https://safetyrisk.net/zero-survey-update/ ).
We live in an undiscerning age where so many are seduced by mis-information. This is evidence of an education system that doesn’t assist critical thinking and a society where money and power buys truth and followers. What is even more bizarre is the rejection of evidence and science in cultic following so that any sense of well-being or mutual responsibility is branded as fake news or ‘woke’. BTW, science should not be confused with Scientism.
This is why I wrote the book Real Risk, Human Discerning and Risk 10 years ago. Now for free download (https://www.humandymensions.com/product/real-risk/).
Yet, here we have an industry that commands people to believe the impossible (https://safetyrisk.net/believe-the-impossible-and-speak-nonsense-to-people/) in the face of the evidence.
Here we have an industry that articulates no ethic that happily fosters dishonesty in the name of safety. And then parades the rhetoric of being ‘professional’.
Zero is anti-professional, anti-learning and immoral. It promotes perfection for fallible people thereby promoting any method (https://safetyrisk.net/by-what-method-do-you-tackle-risk/ ) to get its outcome. This is what one gets from a Utilitarian and Deontological ethic (https://safetyrisk.net/what-does-safety-know-about-ethics/).
How can people be expected to give integrity to safety when its methods cultivate dishonesty?
We see this in the claims made in the most recent promotion for the Safety Congress in 2023 (https://safetyrisk.net/zero-survey-update/). It seems one can tell any lie just as long as its justified by zero.
I was on a Tier 1 job yesterday where the Safety Manager had asked me to come in to help with safety culture. As part of the meeting I offered him a free copy of the book It Works, A New Approach to Risk and Safety and he pushed it away telling me, ‘sorry I don’t read’.
Wow, just wow! How on earth can one be discerning in risk without reading? How can one educate and learn without reading? Moreso, how can one be discerning unless one knows what to read, how to read and how to filter what one reads. These are the essentials in Historiography (https://safetyrisk.net/history-and-safety/) and Hermeneutics (the study of interpretation). Of course, never mentioned in any safety curriculum.
If you want to get up to speed on what Misinformation and disinformation does you might like to read these:
· Katutani, The Death of Truth.
· Hedges, Empire of Illusion.
· Nichols, The Death of Expertise.
· Madsbjerg, Sensemaking.
Fostering disinformation and misinformation through zero erodes credibility. Asking people to believe the impossible (DuPont pushes safety into the realms of religion. Making apocalyptic videos on the spirit of zero (https://safetyrisk.net/the-spirit-of-zero/) makes safety a cult, that ‘saves lives’ (https://safetyrisk.net/safety-people-dont-save-lives/). Deception is fundamentally immoral. Propaganda is anti-educational and, most of what circulates about in the zero-sphere is simply propaganda. It’s quite easy to blow over many of these claims that zero ‘works’ is to ask a simple request for evidence. Even when data is thrown about on injury rates, we all know that zero drives games with data.
The old meme about state often and repeat and eventually it will be believed as true, applies in safety. Most of the time if you read the safety code (https://safetyrisk.net/deciphering-safety-code/ ), you will know that it means its opposite.
However, when it comes to SPoR we make Ethics the foundation for practice (https://cllr.com.au/product/an-ethic-of-risk-unit-17/). This ensures what follows has integrity, is constructive, positive and practical and humanises persons in practice.
You can start your journey in SPoR with the free online Introduction Course on SPoR here: https://safetyrisk.net/introduction-to-spor-free/
Or download many of the books that are free: https://www.humandymensions.com/shop/
Or download videos free: https://vimeo.com/cllr; https://vimeo.com/humandymensions
Dr Rob Long
Latest posts by Dr Rob Long (see all)
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- Risk iCue Video - March 20, 2023
- Rethinking Leadership in Risk - March 20, 2023
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