The idea of literacy originally refers to the competency to read and write but also infers an ability to understand and comprehend what one is doing in reading and writing. I was at a Reading Centre yesterday where there were 9 staff and they are all flat out in Canberra helping children with learning and literacy delay. There are several centres like this in Canberra and of course many, many more children who can’t read or write in the school system. Similarly, not all parents can afford to send their child to private tutoring/coaching in literacy.
I remember when I started Galilee that all of the young people who enrolled couldn’t read or write well at the age of 13-16. It is amazing just how much kids can bluff and manage low levels of literacy throughout the schooling years. Recent research shows (https://grattan.edu.au/australia-needs-a-reading-revolution/; https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/post/denham-sadler/2024/02/12/literacy-crisis-preventable-tragedy-australian-schools) that a third of all young people in school can’t read well.
Understanding the dynamics of literacy and comprehension are essential for communicating effectively. This is where expertise in Linguistics is required.
But there are many other literacies, what are known as ‘multi-literacies’. You can read about many other kinds of literacies here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiliteracy
In SPoR, we have emphasised for many years the importance in Visual, Verbal, Semiotic and Spacial Literacy. We run several programs in these areas to help people better understand how this influences unconscious decision making. We use several tools (see below) to help people practice skills in Visual, Verbal, Semiotic and Spacial Literacy.
In SPoR, we consider these as foundational to understanding how context, culture and unconscious forces influence risk. We also have other tools to help develop Moral, Semiotic and Power literacy.
So, it was interesting to see that Greg Smith is running a program on “Safety Literacy’ and it got me wondering what that means.
One thing is for sure, there is nothing in the safety curriculum to help develop safety literacy as far as I am concerned. The current safety curriculum is little more than compulsory mis-education (https://safetyrisk.net/safety-entitlement-and-compulsory-safety-mis-education/ ). Teaching people that injury rates are a measure of safety simply promotes safety illiteracy. Teaching the policing of the regulation is not what safety is about. Both these strategies simply guarantee safety illiteracy.
You can hear Greg talk about safety literacy here: https://safetylabs.sliceproducts.com/episode/the-safety-professions-disconnect-between-process-and-purpose
And his book Proving Safety is also a must read (https://www.amazon.com.au/Proving-Safety-problems-management-tyranny-ebook/dp/B0CYNVZ7H7). I love that Greg’s book covers safety as a ‘wicked problem’ (https://safetyrisk.net/safety-wicked-problem/) and the ‘tyranny of metrics’. These are both foundational to developing safety literacy.
The following are essential for safety literacy:
- Understanding that risk and safety are a ‘wicked problem’. They can’t be ‘fixed’, they can only be tackled. Any idea that the challenges of risk, fallibility and complexity can be ‘fixed’ are simply delusional.
- Understanding that the enactment of responses to risk are ethical and moral issues is essential for safety literacy. Too often we see Safety parade its brutalism to reduce injury rates as some kind of ethical ‘good’. Similarly, overriding the autonomy of others in the name of safety is nothing more than safety bullying.
- Knowing how to care, help and ‘meet’ people as persons is essential for safety literacy. The idea that humans are simply a ‘factor’ in a system is a recipe for brutalism.
- Understanding that systems serve humans is essential for safety literacy. The idea that humans serve safety systems for ‘performance’ simply makes for safety illiteracy.
- Falling for entertainment, slogans and war stories have nothing to do with learning, comprehension or understanding what safety is about.
- Knowing that zero is a delusion (https://www.humandymensions.com/product/zero-the-great-safety-delusion/ ) is essential for safety literacy. Any idea that zero is a moral goal (https://safetyrisk.net/zero-is-not-noble-moral-or-sense-able/; https://safetyrisk.net/video-and-podcast-on-zero-as-an-immoral-goal/ ) simply exemplifies ethical and moral illiteracy.
- Knowing that safety law, regulation and standards are NOT absolutes but are interpreted is essential for safety literacy. Greg, Dr Craig Ashhurst and I discuss this in our free audiobook here: https://www.humandymensions.com/product/risky-conversations-audio-book/
- Knowing the purpose and meaning of safety is essential for safety literacy. These are not taught in any safety curriculum.
- Knowing that checklists create safety illiteracy is critical. Using safety templates is simply the enactment of someone else’s safety myth.
- Knowing how to communicate to the unconscious is essential for safety literacy.
In SPoR, we also have a ‘safety literacy diagnostic test’ to help assess what level one has in safety literacy. The diagnostic was designed by Dr Long in 2015 and has been undertaken by hundreds of safety people across the globe. Interestingly, most who undertake the test fail to pass.
If you want to take the test is costs $250 and you can apply by email here: admin@spor.com.au The safety literacy test is not set, marked or reported using AI. The feedback you receive from the diagnostic is valuable as a gap analysis for areas one needs to work on to develop ‘safety literacy’.
Prof. Robert Long
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Matt Thorne says
The sooner Semiotics and Poetics are accepted by the Safety industry, the better off everyone will be.
Rob Long says
We won’t see that in our life time. Safety loves nothing more than more safety. Nothing is more comforting than confirmation bias.