In the Medium blog (https://medium.com/) they are having a ‘What I Wish I Knew Week’ and I thought what a wonderful idea. What if we applied this to Safety? What do we wish we knew about Safety, if we could go back in time?
Many of us learn the challenging way, by experience. This is a great way of learning because it is ‘felt’ knowledge that evolves over time. It is also a way of learning that brings with it considerable pain, heartache and anguish. What lessons have you learned about Safety that you wish you knew earlier? What is it that you have learned that has made you wiser about Safety? What ‘on the job learning’ has generated Wisdom about how you now tackle risk?
Comment for a Book Gift
What we’d like you to do is write in the comments section of this blog (in no more than 10 lines) about ‘What you wish you knew’ and we will select some we find the most helpful for a book gift. This will be either the book by Nippin Anand Are We Learning from Accidents? or Aneta and Brian Darlington’s book Real Meeting.
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.
I wish I understood there was no silver bullet, the whole industry is full of shysters, gimmicks, a focus on trying not to report RIDDORs; the reality is that most employees just want to come to work to earn money to support their family/live. Once you understand that – then give people the right tools in the right environment they tend to do the right thing (path of least resistance) and focus efforts there. Don’t keep mentioning safety or put it down people throats – do the things that reduce risk – such as keeping the place tidy. A tidy place leads to a safer place.
I wish to knew, that a safety is way more complex system than we perceive, and the application of standard risk tools generally leads to its simplification, which leads to critical errors, which allow accidents happen.
I wish to know that the safety is not a poker game or similar, where we have only few outcomes, safety is complex as our live, due to possibility of multiple outcomes and constant uncertainty.
I wish I knew how dehumanising the safety industry is. If I did I would have never engaged with safety. It took a long time but fortunately I have now found a supportive community in SPOR and it has opened my eyes to a more humanised and caring approach.
I wish knew the the power of listening with discernment, I have always considered myself a good listener but the iCue made a huge difference! Thanks Rob
Just what you can in the real world manage and control. Just because there are measurable data points does not mean they add meaningful insights. Shiny bright slogans hold hollow value and safety in itself is not a “thing”. We fundamentally DO NOT manage safety.
I wish I knew that the safety industry asks me to treat people as objects not subjects and that the time it takes to connect relationally would be frowned upon. I wish I knew that training in social psychology would have made me a more effective safety advisor.
I wish I had realised how powerful close calls could be if only these stories could get to the ‘top’ table.
And then designing a system which would enable this with the courage to introduce and stand by it.
Took me many years, and still hardly anyone else does it in my sphere.
Classing incidents only on severity outcome and injury is so limited, and in low risk organisations pointless.
Recognising the risk potential is what can make a difference.
Some great comments BTW.
The one action that has generated the most wisdom for me in safety was when I once took several months to go on walk about in my work as a safety director. I was frustrated with paperwork and being stuck behind my desk so I threw all that to the side and just walked and talked and listened to the people. Somewhere on a yellow pad of paper I have hundreds of responses – they were so humbling to hear. The question I asked the employees was – What is the one thing you wished the safety director knew about you and the work you do every day? I cried. I laughed. I learned. What they wished I knew about them and their jobs was not what I was working on! I grew a lot in those few months.
I wished I had known what a thankless task H&S is. I still drive it forward, with three personal stories, and slowly but surely, people change their view. Just keep on keeping on.
I wish I knew that what I learnt from growing up in a family business was more valuable than what I was ‘taught’ about safety. That it’s ok to acknowledge our humanness and more can be gained in a conversation than a meeting or a report.
I wish I knew why regulators who purport to keep workers safe found it acceptable for their KPIs to be about the amount of enforcement action taken (notices issued) and constantly reduce the community engagement department than to understand it should have been the other way around…this was many years ago however the prevalence of zero isn’t showing a lot of shift in the thought processes..
I wish I knew how to communicate effectively at the start of my journey in health and safety , encouraging new behaviours was and is still hard without communication.
How to articulate what was wrong with Zero Harm, years ago as a young firefighter the concept of zero harm never sat well with me as it started to gain traction and became more popular and widespread. My job “required” risk but we also were expected to implement zero. How could I tell people that this idea of not hurting anyone ever, was a big load of crazy. Thank goodness I know now.
I wish I knew managers and directors do not care about safety, just production. Focus has shifted away from something as crucial as safety to more data-driven tasks. My Job was majority out in the field guiding leaders in risk management now my employer has me learning about AI, Planner, and always in meeting or completing data so our directors can see a dashboard projecting where and when we need to be onsite.
Great post Rob and delighted that you’re giving some the opportunity to win one of these superb books. Also very grateful to have my own copies of these two books.
Kierkegaard said life must be understood backwards, but lived forwards. I didn’t realise how deeply this applies to safety investigations. The doing happens blind: we act without ever knowing the full picture, yet we’re tasked with making sense of it after the fact.
Tony says
I wish I understood there was no silver bullet, the whole industry is full of shysters, gimmicks, a focus on trying not to report RIDDORs; the reality is that most employees just want to come to work to earn money to support their family/live. Once you understand that – then give people the right tools in the right environment they tend to do the right thing (path of least resistance) and focus efforts there. Don’t keep mentioning safety or put it down people throats – do the things that reduce risk – such as keeping the place tidy. A tidy place leads to a safer place.
Rob Long says
Great comment Tony. Please email me your address and what book you want.
Evgeny says
I wish to knew, that a safety is way more complex system than we perceive, and the application of standard risk tools generally leads to its simplification, which leads to critical errors, which allow accidents happen.
I wish to know that the safety is not a poker game or similar, where we have only few outcomes, safety is complex as our live, due to possibility of multiple outcomes and constant uncertainty.
Paddy says
I wish I knew how dehumanising the safety industry is. If I did I would have never engaged with safety. It took a long time but fortunately I have now found a supportive community in SPOR and it has opened my eyes to a more humanised and caring approach.
Frank Garrett says
I wish knew the the power of listening with discernment, I have always considered myself a good listener but the iCue made a huge difference! Thanks Rob
David Filshie says
Just what you can in the real world manage and control. Just because there are measurable data points does not mean they add meaningful insights. Shiny bright slogans hold hollow value and safety in itself is not a “thing”. We fundamentally DO NOT manage safety.
Linda Hamilton says
I wish I knew that the safety industry asks me to treat people as objects not subjects and that the time it takes to connect relationally would be frowned upon. I wish I knew that training in social psychology would have made me a more effective safety advisor.
A Silver says
I wish I had realised how powerful close calls could be if only these stories could get to the ‘top’ table.
And then designing a system which would enable this with the courage to introduce and stand by it.
Took me many years, and still hardly anyone else does it in my sphere.
Classing incidents only on severity outcome and injury is so limited, and in low risk organisations pointless.
Recognising the risk potential is what can make a difference.
Some great comments BTW.
Billy Snead says
The one action that has generated the most wisdom for me in safety was when I once took several months to go on walk about in my work as a safety director. I was frustrated with paperwork and being stuck behind my desk so I threw all that to the side and just walked and talked and listened to the people. Somewhere on a yellow pad of paper I have hundreds of responses – they were so humbling to hear. The question I asked the employees was – What is the one thing you wished the safety director knew about you and the work you do every day? I cried. I laughed. I learned. What they wished I knew about them and their jobs was not what I was working on! I grew a lot in those few months.
Rob Long says
Billy, great comment. Please email me with your address and which book you want.
Decebal Leonard Marin says
I will use a metaphor from the movie Twin Peaks: “The owls are not what they seem”
Mitch Paris says
I wished I had known what a thankless task H&S is. I still drive it forward, with three personal stories, and slowly but surely, people change their view. Just keep on keeping on.
Shane says
I wish I knew that what I learnt from growing up in a family business was more valuable than what I was ‘taught’ about safety. That it’s ok to acknowledge our humanness and more can be gained in a conversation than a meeting or a report.
Leigh says
I wish I knew why regulators who purport to keep workers safe found it acceptable for their KPIs to be about the amount of enforcement action taken (notices issued) and constantly reduce the community engagement department than to understand it should have been the other way around…this was many years ago however the prevalence of zero isn’t showing a lot of shift in the thought processes..
Ian says
I wish I knew how to communicate effectively at the start of my journey in health and safety , encouraging new behaviours was and is still hard without communication.
Jason Martell says
How to articulate what was wrong with Zero Harm, years ago as a young firefighter the concept of zero harm never sat well with me as it started to gain traction and became more popular and widespread. My job “required” risk but we also were expected to implement zero. How could I tell people that this idea of not hurting anyone ever, was a big load of crazy. Thank goodness I know now.
Rob Long says
Jason, great comment. email me your address and what book you want.
Andrew says
I wish I knew managers and directors do not care about safety, just production. Focus has shifted away from something as crucial as safety to more data-driven tasks. My Job was majority out in the field guiding leaders in risk management now my employer has me learning about AI, Planner, and always in meeting or completing data so our directors can see a dashboard projecting where and when we need to be onsite.
allansherralynne says
Great post Rob and delighted that you’re giving some the opportunity to win one of these superb books. Also very grateful to have my own copies of these two books.
Andy says
Kierkegaard said life must be understood backwards, but lived forwards. I didn’t realise how deeply this applies to safety investigations. The doing happens blind: we act without ever knowing the full picture, yet we’re tasked with making sense of it after the fact.