• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Safety Risk .net

Humanising Safety and Embracing Real Risk

  • Home
    • About
      • Privacy Policy
      • Contact
  • FREE RESOURCES
    • FREE SAFETY eBOOKS
    • 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
  • PSYCH. OF SAFETY & RISK
    • 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
  • Robert Long
    • 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!
  • Quotes & Slogans
    • Researchers Reveal the Top 10 Most Effective Safety Slogans Of All Time
    • When Slogans Don’t Work
    • CLASSIC, FAMOUS and INFAMOUS SAFETY QUOTES
    • BEST WORKPLACE HEALTH and SAFETY SLOGANS 2022
    • 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 2022
    • 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
  • Safety Culture
    • Safety Culture Silences
You are here: Home / Behaviour Based Safety / Why Do Anything About Injuries When You Can Pretend to Take Action Instead?

Why Do Anything About Injuries When You Can Pretend to Take Action Instead?

December 10, 2018 by Phil LaDuke 8 Comments

Why Do Anything About Injuries When You Can Pretend to Take Action Instead?

by  Phil La Duke. First published on his blog HERE

imageSafety is not a humanitarian effort. We all know the story of the days of yore when the loss of life—from building the pyramids to building the Brooklyn Bridge—was just the cost of doing business. Nobody liked it, but it was like IMPORTANT people died.  After all the workers weren’t considered much more than bright livestock. In fact, when a horse pulling a wagon died in the workplace it was much more of a set back than when a worker died. Irish, Poles, Blacks, and German immigrants were plentiful and a good horse was hard to find, whereas the filthy poor were a dime a dozen.

We’re more sophisticated in our bigotry toward the great unwashed now.  The careless, obstinate, ignorant workers are too stupid to save their own lives, and yet if one of them gets killed MY bonus gets affected.  Or the executive who rolls the dice with human life when asking, “how much will we get fined if we don’t comply and get caught?” Or let’s just get “safe enough”.  I hear these and worse from people who run companies and worse people assigned to the safety department.

I’m tired, people, I’m tired. Maybe I’m all punched out and just staggering around the ring praying for the bell or that knock out punch that takes me out of the match forever. Or maybe I’m just like a terrier with a rat, refusing to drop it long after its dead. Maybe.

I’ve been thinking a lot of how we as a profession got here. How did safety go from protecting the company and its workers to blaming the workers and doing everything we can to ensure that the books are properly cooked? If I’m jaded I come by it honestly.  People keep describing me as angry, but now all I can feel is disgust and guilt by association.

In his seminal work, The Jungle, Upton Sinclair provides a contemporary account of the life of a worker in a meat-packing plant circa 1900. It told the story of a man who wanted nothing more than his share of the American Dream and was thwarted at every turn. At it’s hear was the message that everyone deserves to work, earn a fair wage, and go home unharmed.  Sinclair hoped that the popularity of his book might spark social reforms. Instead, it ushered in regulations for food safety. Sadly, Sinclair summed up his disappointment saying, “I aimed for America’s heart and hit it in the stomach.”

Life for workers was slow to improve, on one hand, you had Unions fighting to organize to secure and preserve workers’ rights, not the least of which was the right to return home uninjured, and on the other hand, you had business leaders with all the compassion of a Nazi Deathcamp guard hiring strikebreakers—Henry Ford hired the University of Michigan football team to bust erstwhile UAW heads, while other companies hired organized crime specialists to brutalize Union workers.

And three decades after Sinclair wrote The Jungle, Herbert Heinrich wrote his rich book of fiction Industrial Accident Industrial Accident Prevention, A Scientific Approach a book that most snake oil salesmen who peddle the Behavior Based Swindle have never read that has become the Holy Bible that has created the cult of Behavior-Based Safety.

Defending Heinrich and his infernal tribute to stupidity, the Heinrich Pyramid, is tough. Unless you can justify:

The Behavior-Based Swindle grew out of dubious “research” of one Herbert William Heinrich a statistician who claimed to have conducted research in the 1920s that would predict the numbers of likely fatalities based on the number of less serious injuries. He further postulated that 80% of all injuries were caused by worker carelessness or recklessness.  Few questioned this work despite some things that we would never pass scientific muster today, including:

  • Heinrich’s research was based on asking supervisors of the injured workers, sometimes a two decades after the incident, what caused the injuries.  I could ask supervisors of factory workers today to tell me the causes of worker injuries that happened yesterday and get a similar response—without the slightest shred of proof or scientific investigation; just like Heinrich.
  • Heinrich’s work was never peer-reviewed, in fact, there is a growing body of evidence that he took no notes at all and never even visited a single workplace in furtherance of his research. Some have gone so far as to suggest that he made up his research, which is fair—there is as much evidence that Big Foot is responsible for crop circles after getting a particularly rough rectal probe from alien visitors as there is that Heinrich did anything more than write his opinions.
  • Heinrich was a strong supporter of Eugenics, the widely discredited idea that some races were superior and more evolved than others. Today there are a lot of people who support the idea that some races are intrinsically superior to all others. To support Heinrich is to support these groups.
  • Heinrich’s statistical relationship of 300 injuries to 1 fatality seems to have no mathematical or statistical validity. For one we have NO IDEA how large the population of the bottom of the triangle is so any statistic inference is impossible. Add to that the fact that machinery and equipment that workers used in the 1900s and teens are far less safe than it is today, and you have all the makings of an urban legend—something people believe with no basis in fact, but that sounds really reasonable. Heinrich’s Pyramid has a lot in common with

So why do people persist in promulgated this Behavior Based Swindle? Because there’s big money in stupidity, and as long as people—particularly business executives—believe this horse manure,  sharp snake oil salesmen will continue to shill it.

Behavior-Based Safety (BBS note that BS is in its name for all that is holy) is not without its charms: it’s easier to blame the worker than it is to take accountability for fixing the system errors that created the environment where workers made poor choices because they were lead to believe something was safe when it wasn’t,

You also have a chorus of imbeciles claiming that they have achieved zero-injuries using sustainable solution. Add to that regulatory and now global corporations who insist on using REPORTED injuries and in some cases a BBS system as a criterion for doing business and…well gosh darn it why WOULDN’T we implement BBS?

Except it doesn’t work except for assigning blame and driving risk underground. And when we continue perpetuating it we kill people.  Years ago, saw a case where a worker was crushed to death—his body popped like an overripe tomato splattering gore over a sign provided as part of one of the leading BBS proponents, and yet the leadership of his facility continued to use BBS.

Last week I posted a link to 80% of Safety Practitioners are Idiots on LinkedIn with the sole text of “read the post before telling me I’m wrong.” 11,067 people viewed that post but  8.069%. Only 893 people were interested enough to click a link to find out what justification I had in calling 80% of our profession idiots; based on the number maybe my estimate was off by a bit.

I have found that oft as not, people don’t really want to think about safety in hard, meaningful terms, it’s so much more reassuring to think about safety in philanthropic terms. “We’re doing what’s right” rather than “we’re doing what’s smart”. Mostly what I learned from the incredibly low percentage of people who read my one sentence post was that people today don’t really want to learn—at least not from me—rather they want to be insulted and stop around in righteous indignation.

Meanwhile, people are working themselves to death.

Did you like this post? If so you will probably like my book which can be ordered here I Know My Shoes Are Untied. Mind Your Own Business or on Barnes & Nobel.com. Did you hate this post? Did it offend you deeply? Maybe you should organize a book burning (minimum of 150 books) but be sure you are only burning my book, I don’t want you to go to a used book store and buy a bunch of cheap books and stack mine on top.

The book is a compilation of blog posts, guest blogs, magazine article (from around the world) and new material. Much of it is hard to find unless you know where to look. A second and third book has already been green-lighted by the publisher (expect fewer reprints and more new material).

In a couple of weeks my second book will be out and I will be nagging you to buy that. So you’re already behind the 8-ball.

Remember the holidays are coming up and this book makes the perfect gift for the person for which you feel obligated to get something for but don’t really like.

In all seriousness, I have been blogging for free for over 11 years and I think I have earned a bit of revenue so buy the damned book.

  • Bio
  • Latest Posts
  • More about Phil
Phil LaDuke

Phil LaDuke

Principle and Partner at ERM
Phil LaDuke

Latest posts by Phil LaDuke (see all)

  • Professional Conferences Are A Sleazy Con - March 29, 2021
  • Hey Idiots, You’re Worried About the Wrong Things - March 7, 2020
  • Misleading Indicators - June 12, 2019
  • Why Do Anything About Injuries When You Can Pretend to Take Action Instead? - December 10, 2018
  • 80% of Safety Practitioners Are Idiots - December 4, 2018
Phil LaDuke
Phil La Duke is a principle and partner in Environmental Resources Management (ERM) a leading global provider of environmental, health, safety, risk, and social consulting services. With over 140 offices in 40 countries and nearly 6,000 top professionals, ERM can help you wherever you find yourself doing business. At ERM we are committed to providing a service that is consistent, professional, and of the highest quality to create value for our clients. Over the past five years we have worked for more than 50% of the Global Fortune 500 delivering innovative solutions for business and selected government clients helping them understand and manage the sustainability challenges that the world is increasingly facing. Phil works primarily in the Performance and Assurance practice at ERM; a speaker, author, consultant, trainer, provocateur…Phil La Duke wears many hats. As an expert in safety, training, organizational development, and culture change, Phil and ERM can help you motivate your workforce, conduct safety performance assessments, help you to build robust training infrastructures, craft interventions to improve how your work place values safety, provide insights to your executive staff, and craft and execute business solutions. If you’re interested in what Phil La Duke and ERM can do for you, or if you would like to inquire about employment opportunites at ERM, contact Phil at phil.laduke@erm.com

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: Behaviour Based Safety, Phil LaDuke Tagged With: BBS, heinrich

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Margret Meade says

    December 11, 2018 at 2:08 AM

    Please NEVER stop sharing your thoughts! They are spot on and should be sending the message to the safety profession that it needs to take a good hard look at the real reasons for fatalities and injuries.

    Reply
  2. Bernard Corden says

    December 10, 2018 at 5:42 PM

    Another great book is The Radium Girls by Kate Moore

    Reply
  3. Peter says

    December 10, 2018 at 3:27 PM

    Thought provoking as always, I have just downloaded The Jungle, first time I have heard of it, but look forward to reading it.

    Reply
    • Dave Collins says

      December 10, 2018 at 3:55 PM

      Yeah likewise…..

      Reply
  4. Dylan Mike White says

    December 10, 2018 at 2:18 PM

    I enjoy all the articles posted here. I’m a safety professional in the US and am well aware of the Simple-Minded Safety Profession. Keep the insightful articles coming; I always get something out of them.

    Reply
    • Dave Collins says

      December 10, 2018 at 2:22 PM

      Awesome feedback and support – thanks Dylan – make sure you get a copy of Phil’s book!

      Reply
  5. Bernard Corden says

    December 10, 2018 at 8:00 AM

    It’s great to read any post with a reference to Upton Sinclair, especially The Jungle, which is one of my favourite books. Most lickspittle corporate safety managers with over mortgaged properties are just skating on thin ice as they navigate the safety space between the Friedman doctrine and securing the health, safety and welfare of people at work. This is usually accomplished via the brutal ideology of zero harm with the black box psychology of behaviour based safety, which is no more statistically significant than phrenology or sorcery.

    This patina of corporate social responsibility is often promoted via sausage sizzles and barbecues (without onions) to celebrate the capitalist agitprop of all accidents are preventable or safety is our number one priority.

    Corporate behemoths will simulate loyalty to fulfil its objectives or betray allies instantly if there is a soupçon of boosting the bottom line and enhancing profit. The major problem is that enough is never enough. Despite the recent soixante-huitard yellow vest revival in Paris it remains to be seen from workers how much is too much…………Sous les paves la plage.

    Reply
  6. Rob Long says

    December 10, 2018 at 5:36 AM

    In the profoundly miseducated domain of safety, there is nothing more lucrative than safety theatre and performance. Spruik zero, fudge the stats and take the bonus. It’s in the best interests of such a sector to remain dumb. There is no transdiciplinart approach, just all STEM and continue to drink the kool-aid.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

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 7,433 other subscribers

How we pay for the high cost of running of this site – try it for free on your site

NEW! Free Download

Please take our 2 minute zero survey

Recent Comments

  • Rob Long on Culture Silences in Safety – Socialitie
  • Joe Zinobile on Culture Silences in Safety – Socialitie
  • HASSAN MOHAMMED on Free Online Safety Training Courses
  • Rob Long on Safety Climate / Safety Leadership Survey
  • Ann on Safety Climate / Safety Leadership Survey
  • Rob on Near Miss or Near Hit
  • Robert Long on The Convenience of Complacency
  • patricia on Free Hotel and Resort Risk Management Checklist
  • William McGinty on The Convenience of Complacency
  • Patrick on Free Health and Safety Manual Template

FREE eBOOK DOWNLOADS

Recent Posts

  • Ritual Performance and Risk
  • Asking Better Questions in Risk
  • The Toxic Language of ‘Performance’ and Risk
  • OHS Compliance Puts Lives in Danger
  • Talking About Teams
  • The Art of Active Listening in Risk
  • Understanding The Social Psychology of Risk And Safety
  • You Market What You Believe in Safety
  • The Noise of Safety Leadership
  • That’s Not a Knife, That’s a Knife

What is Psychological Safety at Work?

Footer

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 7,433 other subscribers

AUTHORS

  • Alan Quilley
    • Heinrich–Industrial Accident Prevention
    • The Problem With ZERO Goals and Results
  • Bernard Corden
    • After the goldrush
    • The Internationale
  • Bill Sims
    • Employee Engagement: Chocolate, Vanilla, or Strawberry?
    • Injury Hiding-How do you stop it?
  • Craig Clancy
    • Task Based vs Activity Based Safe Work Method Statements
    • Safety And Tender Submissions
  • Daniel Kirk
    • It’s easy being wise after the event.
    • A Positive Safety Story
  • Dave Whitefield
    • Safety is about…
    • Safety and Compliance
  • Dennis Millard
    • Are You Risk Intelligent?
    • Honey they get me! They get me at work!
  • Drewie
    • Downturn Doin’ Your Head In? Let’s Chat….
    • How was your break?
  • Gabrielle Carlton
    • All Care and No Care!
    • You Are Not Alone!
  • George Robotham
    • How to Give an Unforgettable Safety Presentation
    • How To Write a Safety Report
  • Goran Prvulovic
    • Safety Manager – an Ultimate Scapegoat
    • HSE Performance – Back to Basics
  • James Ellis
    • Psychological Core Stability for Wellbeing in Workers Comp
    • In search of plan B in workers’ recovery
  • James Parkinson
    • To laugh or not to laugh
    • People and Safety
  • John Toomey
    • In it for The Long Haul – Making the most of the FIFO Lifestyle
    • Who is Responsible for This?
  • Karl Cameron
    • Abby Normal Safety
    • The Right Thing
  • Ken Roberts
    • Safety Legislation Is Our Biggest Accident?
    • HSE Trip Down Memory Lane
  • Mark Perrett
    • Psychology of Persuasion: Top 5 influencing skills for getting what you want
  • Mark Taylor
    • Build a Psychologically Safe Workplace by Taking Risks and Analysing Failures
    • Enculturing Safety
  • Max Geyer
    • WHS Legislation is NOT about Safety it’s about Culture
    • Due Diligence Is Not Just Ticking Boxes!
  • Matt Thorne
    • Safety Culture–Hudson’s Model
    • Culture – Edgar Schein
  • Peter Ribbe
    • Is there “Common Sense” in safety?
    • Who wants to be a safety professional?
  • Phil LaDuke
    • Professional Conferences Are A Sleazy Con
    • Hey Idiots, You’re Worried About the Wrong Things
  • Admin
    • OHS Compliance Puts Lives in Danger
    • Talking About Teams
  • Dr Rob Long
    • Ritual Performance and Risk
    • Asking Better Questions in Risk
  • Rob Sams
    • The Learning (and unlearning) that Revealed my Vocation
    • I’m just not that into safety anymore
  • Barry Spud
    • Things To Consider When Developing And Designing Your Company SWMS
    • Bad Safety Photos
  • Sheri Suckling
    • How Can I Get the Boss to Listen?
  • Simon Cassin
    • Safety values, ideas, behaviours and clothes
  • Safety Nerd
    • The Block isn’t portraying safety as it should be
    • Toolbox Talk Show–PPE
  • Wynand Serfontein
    • Why The Problem With Learning Is Unlearning
    • I DON’T KNOW
  • Zoe Koskinas
    • Why is fallibility so challenging in the workplace?

Top Posts & Pages

  • BEST WORKPLACE HEALTH and SAFETY SLOGANS 2022
  • Road Safety Slogans 2022
  • Free Safety Moments Examples, Tips and Resources
  • COVID-19 (Coronavirus, Omicron) Health and Safety Slogans and Quotes for the Workplace
  • 15 Safety Precautions When Working With Electricity
  • CATCHY and FUNNY SAFETY SLOGANS FOR THE WORKPLACE
  • Download Safety Moments from Human Resources Secretariat
  • CLASSIC, FAMOUS and INFAMOUS SAFETY QUOTES
  • Free Risk Assessment Template in Excel Format
  • WHAT IS SAFETY, REALLY?

Most commented on

Forecasting Safety

The Banned Objects Index – A New Development in Safety Culture

Dumbs for Safety

The Real Barriers to Safety

Safety as Faith Healing

Who Said We Don’t Need Systems?

How to use signs, symbols and text effectively in communicating about risk

Why Safety Controls Don’t Always Work

Safety Should NOT Be About Safety

Why Personify Safety?

FEATURED POSTS

Just Tell Your Mind to Stop It

Safety’s Garden of Eden Complex

Social Psychology of Risk – Body of Knowledge

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

Subliminal and Subconscious Influence

Something’s gotta give..

The Village Effect

It’s not weird – it’s a psychological safety initiative!

Innocence and Justice in Safety

What Can Marx Say to Safety?

Social Sensemaking – Free eBook

The Psychic Effect of Safety

Are You on The Safety Teat?

What Does Your Risk and Safety Icon Say?

Safety Cries Wolf!

SPoR Quarterly Newsletter September 2021

The Colour of Safety

Perth Workshops

Why Safety is Inescapably Theological

The Tension of Opposites and Binaries in Risk

More Posts from this Category

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 7,433 other subscribers

How we pay for the high cost of running of this site – try it for free on your site

 

How To Make Your Own Hand Sanitizer

 

 

How to Make your own Covid-19 Face Mask

 

Covid-19 Returning To Work Safety, Transitioning, Start Up And Re Entry Plans

 

How’s the Hot Desking Going Covid?

imageOne of the benefits of the Covid-19 epidemic is a total rethink about how we live and work (https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-03-28/coronavirus-could-reshape-how-australians-work-forever/12097124 ).

Expertise by Regurgitation and Re-Badging

One of the fascinating things about the Coronavirus pandemic is watching Safety morph into epidemiology expertise. I would like a dollar for every flyer, presentation, podcast, powerpoint, checklist template, toolbox talk and poster set that had jumped into my inbox… Read the rest

The Stress of Stasis

One of the challenging things about the Coronavirus crisis is stasis. For those without work and confined to home, for those in self-isolation, it’s like life is frozen in time. ‘Stay at home’ is the mantra. The trouble is, in… Read the rest